Mike Augustyniak

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You Are Here.

As the title might imply, most meteorologists are interested in way more than the weather. Like meteors; all things space, really.  That's why this new picture from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity caught my attention today.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/TAMU

Above the Martian landscape you see -- wait, is that a speck of dust on my computer screen?  No... that's us.  Our home.  Earth.  All of the wars, poverty, Tweets, Superbowl victories, amazing restaurants, friends and enemies that fill our day.  Just a speck, 99 million miles away.

These types of views, of course, are not new since the space age began; you've probably seen the famous 'Earthrise' picture taken by Apollo 8 astronauts.  Even this particular view of earth -- seen from the lens of the other Mars rover named Spirit -- was captured, albeit blurrily, back in 2004.

Still, though, in my deadline-rich, over-scheduled day this image actually got me to stop.  And contemplate.  And appreciate.  And that's an amazing gift that I wanted to share with you.

If we look at them from a different way, our problems aren't as big as they seem.


Read the full story on how this image was captured on NASA's website.