Humanity experienced historic moments yesterday as for the first time the European Space Agency (ESA) broadcast the first live images directly from Mars.

Because of the distance from Earth to Mars, the image took 13-22 minutes to reach Earth, and the Red Planet appeared gradually.

The live broadcast lasted about an hour.

“Usually we see images from Mars and know they were taken a few days ago. I’m excited to see Mars as it is now as close as we can get to ‘now’ with Mars data,” said ESA Germany Control Center Manager James Godfrey.