Australia can be seen from Mars in a new image released by NASA of Earth and its moon, taken from the red planet about 205 million kilometres away.

The new view shows continent-size detail, including Australia — described by NASA as "the reddish feature near the middle of the face of Earth".

Vegetation appears red in the image, which was taken in three wavelength bands — infrared, red and blue-green, which appear respectively as red, green and blue.

The US space agency said South-East Asia also appeared as a reddish area, at the top of Earth, while Antarctica was the "bright blob" at the lower-left.

It said other bright areas in the image were clouds.

Taken on November 20, 2016 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the image combined two separate exposures.

"For presentation, the exposures were processed separately to optimise detail visible on both Earth and the moon," NASA said in a statement.

"The moon is much darker than Earth and would barely be visible if shown at the same brightness scale as Earth."

HiRISE previously took an image of Earth and the moon from Mars in 2007. ( Supplied: NASA )

But NASA said the position and size of the Earth and moon relative to each other were maintained in the combined image.

HiRISE previously took an image of Earth and the moon from Mars in 2007, in which NASA said the west coast outline of South America could be seen at the lower right, but clouds were the dominant features.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been observing the planet, using HiRISE and five other instruments, since 2006.