Mastodawn

Impossible Umbrella

Daniel Pomarède

Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman took this picture of Earth from the Orion spacecraft after completing the translunar injection burn. There are two auroras (top right & bottom left) and zodiacal light (bottom right) is visible as the Earth eclipses the Sun.

https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/hello-world/

#Earth #Artemis #Artemis2 #Orion #Integrity #OrionIntegrity #spacecraft #NASA #Moon #space #aurora

Ted's Tech Tips 22h ago

@pomarede Wow, just absolutely stunning.

Reminds me of a bit from the late, great Carl Sagan:

"There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

Guillotine Jones, Flâneur 22h ago

@pomarede
Nice backlighting!

Zem 🇪🇹 🇪🇺22h ago

@pomarede beautiful

Whoa, that's gotta be the prettiest "blue marble" picture to date!!

@rl_dane @pomarede The first human-taken picture of Earth beyond low Earth orbit in 54 years. Amazing.

Holy crap, I just realized this is the first time we're going to the moon in my lifetime.

I guess I had always thought that the last Apollo mission was a wee bit later in the 70s.

@rl_dane @pomarede Yup! Same here. I've been waiting for this my whole life, and am incredibly excited by this.

kasperd 21h ago

I am a bit puzzled as to how the Earth can appear so bright in a photo that must have been taken at night.

draNgNon 21h ago

@kasperd @pomarede
almost full moon

@pomarede absolutely marvelous.
What are we thinking... North Africa and south coast of Spain on the left?

Eddie Hunsinger 21h ago

@paul @pomarede If it's Spain, which it seems like it is, I'm curious why Spain appears so large to me, though I guess that's just perspective on a sphere.

@edyhsgr @pomarede hmm, dunno, looks about right I think to me.
I was more shocked by the, seemingly, "small" distance between the African and south American coasts! Feels like it should be further 😄

Greg Kemp 19h ago

@paul @pomarede I believe the large land mass in the center of the globe is north Africa. Antarctica is "top". Spain is lower left, and South America is obscured by clouds on the right.

This is an absolutely incredible photograph.

@gkemp @pomarede yeah, equatorial africa is very distinctive.
Amazing photograph

As one of my friends said today: "I'm glad they took actual proper photography equipment rather than iPhones"

allsortshut44 21h ago

@pomarede
The Sun is behind the Earth in this picture? In which case where does the light illuminating this ‘dark side’ of the Earth come from?

Eric A. Meyer 21h ago

@allsortshut44 @pomarede Sunlight reflecting off the Moon (and probably also a long exposure or low f-stop or both).

PSoul•US 🏳️‍🌈20h ago

@Meyerweb don’t know if the large amount of noise is them cranking up the ISO or if it’s higher radiation levels.
Probably the ISO!

Eric A. Meyer 17h ago

@psoul Good point!

Russ Garrett 13h ago

@psoul @Meyerweb it's ISO 51,200 on a Nikon D5!

Drums_in_the_night_🌐🇪🇺🇩🇪20h ago

@allsortshut44 @pomarede

iFillFlash

Space Catitude 🚀20h ago

@allsortshut44 @pomarede

Since it is very near the full Moon, I assume it must be moonlight. That also explains why I can see so many stars here.

Wow. That is nuts. Cameras are SO much better in 2026. I don't think you could have captured such a shot with the equipment they had in the 1960s.

GhostOnTheHalfShell 21h ago

Nice lighting!

@pomarede awesome photo

Anghamelkhalil 16h ago

@pomarede How beautiful is God's creation

@pomarede @SimonCHulse Beautiful!