On December 7, 1972, NASA astronaut and Apollo 17 crew member Harrison Schmitt took a stunning photo of the entirety of the Earth, an image later dubbed “The Blue Marble.”
The iconic shot was made possible by the mission’s unusual trajectory, which brought much of our world’s south pole into view. The astonishing perspective changed the “way we look at our home planet,” as the space agency notes on its website.
And while Apollo 17 was the last time we set foot on the Moon’s surface, we finally have a non-satellite-image-based update to the photo over half a century later.
After their Orion spacecraft fired its thrusters to take the crew of NASA’s ongoing Artemis 2 mission away from Earth on April 2, NASA astronaut and commander Reid Wiseman took a moment to snap a breathtaking photo of our world .
The image, titled “Hello, World,” even shows the boundary of Earth’s atmosphere in remarkable detail — including not just one but two auroras visible in the top right and bottom left, they appear as faint green hues.
It’s a stark reminder of the frail layer of gases that allows life to exist on Earth, a feature that may — or may not — make us unique in the universe.
The glow on the bottom right of the image is “zodiacal light,” a faint glow also referred to as “false dawn,” that appears due to rays of light being scattered by interplanetary dust as the Earth eclipses the Sun.
The photo, alongside another stunning image showing the Earth peeking through one of the Orion spacecraft’s windows after completing the translunar injection burn, were the two first images the Artemis 2 astronauts sent back to Earth.
Since then, the team has sent back a treasure chest of astonishing views from their lunar flyby, including dramatic scenes of the lunar surface and the Earth setting and rising behind it.
Considering the amazing photos we’ve already seen, there’s no doubt the memory cards they’ll be bringing back to Earth on Friday evening will contain an even greater collection of out-of-this-world views.
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