The night sky on Mars, free from light pollution, is dark and crystal clear. The stars shine brightly without twinkling, and the Milky Way appears vivid. Mars' moons, Phobos and Deimos, are visible—Phobos moves quickly across the sky. At times, Earth appears like a bright blue star near the Moon. The thin atmosphere gives the sky a reddish hue near the horizon during twilight.
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The photograph in question was created by virtual reality filmmaker Hugh Hou, and shared on Facebook on Feb. 23, five days after Perseverance landed. Yet with more than 1.6 million shares, the “virtual tour” was widely circulated on social media, with many users assuming that the photograph accurately depicted the Milky Way as seen from Mars.
But a quick look at the original post revealed that Hou had edited the photograph, stitching together a highly color-saturated photograph of the Milky Way with actual photos of Percy as taken from the rover’s navigation cameras, or “Navcams. The Milky Way galaxy, which became the internet focus of the panorama, was not captured by the rover, and was instead edited to create a “full 360 experience.”
The sky does not represent the real sky from Mars, according to the image’s creator."