Why can you see stars in the sky from the surface of Mars, but not the earth’s moon?

Question

Pics and videos from the Mars rover shows a lot of stars in the sky. All the pics from moon landings have no stars in the sky.

Jim · Accepted Answer

We usually have pics from the moon on the 'sunny' side.
However, the moon is REALLY bright, so the exposure on the camera is turned down, hence the stars don't show up!

? · Answer

NASA has learned from their past mistakes.  Now, they add in stars before publishing footage from their sound stage!

daniel g · Answer

The atmosphere is very thin on Mars, about like 70,000 feet up here on Earth. You get that high, yes, you can see the brighter stars during daylight.
As for moon images, the subject is so bright the F stop is too tiny to see stars. Some of the photos not showing Lunar surface had lots of stars. That part is all about photography.

? · Answer

It all depends upon the design and capabilities of the cameras. The cameras on the Apollo moon landers were optimized for the scenery on the moon. The cameras back in the early seventies were based on vidicon toobs so they had a very limited dynamic range. It was either scenery or stars back then.
The cameras sent nto space these days are based on a solid state sensor and have a far greater dynamic range. They can be set to show either scenery, stars or both.

Ronald 7 · Answer

That is because they always landed on the Day side of the Moon
Sunshine was reflected off the Lunar Surface
That is why we can see it
 In Contrast the Dark side has no Sun Shining on it
 Like we can only see Stars at night and not the Daytime, I hope that answers your Question

Herve · Answer

Because the astronauts were on the side of the moon facing the sun.

quantumclaustrophobe · Answer

Actually - you can...

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomy_on_Mars#:~:text=Earth%20and%20Moon,-See%20also%3A%20Extraterrestrial&text=Curiosity's%20first%20view%20of,(January%2031%2C%202014).

nineteenthly · Answer

Different cameras, the Sun is slightly dimmer, the contrast is higher.

Morningfox · Answer

Are you thinking of THIS photo, which pretends to show stars in the Martian sky?

billrussell42 · Answer

Earth's moon is too small to see from Mars. The earth is visible only as a dot.

or is your question actually: "Why can you see stars in the sky from the surface of Mars, but not FROM the surface of the earth’s moon?"

but you can, stars are very visible from the moon. Photos of the moon landings are in bright sunlight.

Why can you see stars in the sky from the surface of Mars, but not the earth’s moon?

16 Answers