For the first time in the history of mankind, the inhabitants of the Earth have the opportunity to see the planet Mars in (almost) live broadcast.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is streaming images directly from the Red Planet to YouTube, marking the 20th anniversary of the launch of Mars Express. The purpose of this mission was to obtain three-dimensional images of the surface of Mars.

“Under normal conditions, we see images of Mars and know that they were taken a few days ago,” explained James Godfrey, director of spacecraft operations, from the ESA control center in Darmstadt, Germany. “I am happy to see Mars as it is now – as close to the Martian “now” as possible! he added, since in the Cosmos communication by means of electromagnetic signals occurs at the speed of light, and since the distances are huge, information is transmitted with a time delay.

Depending on the relative position of the two planets, Mars observations reach the Earth in 3 to 22 minutes. It currently takes light about 17 minutes to travel from Mars to Earth.

In addition to the 17 minutes of interplanetary data transfer, the ESA estimates that the information takes another minute as it travels along the cables of servers on Earth. Thus, what is shown happened just 18 minutes ago on the surface of Mars.

“We have never tried anything like this before, so the exact timing of the signals on the ground remains a little unclear,” the space agency admitted ahead of the event. In the transmitted images, there are no stars against a pitch black background, because Mars is bright enough, explained Colin Wilson, a scientist from ESA.