That’s no moon – it’s the Moon 🌗
The first colour images from ESA JUICE’s close lunar encounter last night are out.
Taken by the monitoring cameras, both show sunlit craters & shadows on the surface with parts of the spacecraft in the foreground.
At the top of the second image, you can just make out Earth as a small dark circle, surrounded by the ring of its backlit atmosphere.
We arrive (t)here tonight 🛰️🌏
Kudos to @stim3on for the magical processing 🙇♂️
For more detail & to download the images, here are the ESA releases this morning:
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/08/Juice_snaps_Moon_en_route_to_Earth
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/08/Earth_ahead
If you’re having trouble spotting Earth in that second picture, here’s a handy guide I just made.
It’s small, because it’s 400,000km away still at this point, but once you see it, it’s obvious.
And we’ll be muuuuuch closer tonight 😱
FWIW, the two JUICE monitoring cameras, made by Micro-Cameras & Space Exploration in Switzerland under contract to Airbus for ESA, use an unconventional RYGB Bayer filter over their 1024 x 1024 pixel detectors, optimised for planetary imagery.
Compared to a standard DSLR RGGB Bayer filter, that made for a huge amount of custom calibration & clever processing by @stim3on last night at ESOC.
So huge credit to him for his efforts.
Armed with that experience, we’re ready for tonight’s flyby at Earth, where the colour processing will be much more important than at the Moon 🙂
But due to the geometry of the flyby & the fact that JUICE will be out of radio contact for several hours during it, we’ll only get the images much later, close to 5am.
So bear with us ✌️
All images will be freely available later too 👍
@markmccaughrean @stim3on
I really love the (recent?) addition of monitoring cameras to interplanetary missions - gives such an impressive sense of being there with the intrepid robot explorers!
And in full colour too? Brilliant stuff.
Seems the dark circle (earth) is lit from the sun on the opposite side than the direction the moon is.
But really the huge distraction is that big blue gassy looking blob beneath it.
@Chancerubbage It was full Moon last night, meaning that the Sun, Earth, & then the Moon were pretty much in a straight line (although perfectly, else there would have been an eclipse).
So from the perspective of JUICE at the sunlit Moon, Earth & the Sun were both in the same direction ahead. Thus the camera saw the backlit Earth with the atmospheric ring, while the Sun was hidden behind the spacecraft.
@Impertinenzija Well, they’re in the Fediverse now 🙂
I’m afraid I don’t get to decide about ESA posting to The Other Place, but I definitely share your opinion 👍
pemandangan yang luar biasa. khususnya penampakan bumi dari bulan. si biru pucat..
@stim3on Outstanding work. If we can get some blues, greens, & clouds, plus those redder & purple shades on the spacecraft, it’ll be special.
Reminds me that it’s pretty much ten years since I made this image for the CIVA team using data from their camera on Philae on the side of Rosetta.
Black & white only though & I could probably do better today 🤷♂️
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2014/10/Rosetta_mission_selfie_at_16_km
Mark McCaughrean
Coprolite9000
saarmuller
Chancerubbage
Impertinenzija
BigD
notforsale ground station
Simeon Schmauß