Mastodawn

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:

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 😱

@markmccaughrean Ah, yes, I see (now). Thank you!