Mastodawn

Xenotar 21h ago

By now, you have seen the Earth image by the #Artemis crew at least a hundred times. In this annotated version, several #optics effects are highlighted. It also shows how fragile planet #Earth is, with a super thin #atmosphere protecting us from the harsh vacuum of space.
Let's protect it.

Human 3500 1d ago

@pfsmet and we're doing all we can to further thin that protective layer as fast as possible

#Artemis #optics #Earth #atmosphere

hot tran*sexual menace 21h ago

@human3500 @pfsmet we're not thinning it we're adding an IR absorber to it - one that doesn't naturally decay on reasonable time spans for human civilization or the homo sapiens species.

That IR absorber significantly increases the capacity of the atmosphere to hold warmth on the surface. I'm 40 something years old and the majority of CO2 in the atmosphere has been added during my life-time.

Changes like that have happened in the history of our ecosphere but they would usually take millions of years. Not 40.

Human 3500 21h ago

@missqarnstein
That's probably more accurate. My point is that we don't give a shit about it.
@pfsmet

Hywel Mallett 1d ago

@pfsmet so the sun, reflecting off the moon, is bright enough to illuminate Earth like that? I wouldn’t have expected that.

@hmallett @pfsmet if your camera/lens is good enough, yes. This photo was taken with a Nikon 5D at very high ISO, so it's brighter than it would appear normally. There's another picture that was taken with exposure settings that represent better what this view would look like to the naked eye.

@hmallett @pfsmet here it is, found it! https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/art002e000193/art002e000193~large.jpg?w=1200&h=800&fit=crop&crop=faces%2Cfocalpoint

Hywel Mallett 23h ago

@das_robin @pfsmet that’s quite cool, to get that, “I never thought about what that would look like” feeling and have it instantly resolved.

ARGVMI~1.PIF 22h ago

Whoa. I had no idea moonlight was this bright.

@hmallett @pfsmet

@argv_minus_one @hmallett @pfsmet Yeah, the moon is pretty reflective! And it was close to full moon as well, so perfect conditions. Think about how much you can see on a clear night under a full moon without artificial light

Gemma ⭐️🔰🇺🇸 🇵🇭 🎐1d ago

@pfsmet Why did the author of this image feel the need to rotate the orientation? There's no "up" in space except for "out of the local gravity well".

@gcvsa @pfsmet Aligning things with how most people are used to seeing them makes it easier to focus on the things that are more interesting about the photo than its orientation.

polet🌀23h ago

@gcvsa same question here. @pfsmet any chance we can get an annotated version with the original image as seen by astronauts?

Eliza MB 23h ago

@polarjet @gcvsa @pfsmet
pic posted upside down. why?

Pablo Rodríguez 23h ago

@pfsmet Poor Portugal. Everybody forgets about Portugal 😜

ZenHeathen 🇨🇦23h ago

@pfsmet Not moonlint. It's the cabin lights reflected in the window.

El Duvelle 22h ago

@ZenHeathen @pfsmet I thought this as well...

Vluciamonteirop 23h ago

The Sahara is huge!

ARGVMI~1.PIF 22h ago

If this is the night side of Earth, lit only by moonlight and presumably photographed in long exposure, shouldn't the city lights be much brighter than this?

Or are city lights a lot less visible from orbit than I've been led to believe? 😵‍💫

Jean-Sébastien Guay 20h ago

@argv_minus_one @pfsmet

This other picture posted elsewhere in the thread shows what it looks like at an exposure closer to human vision. If you zoom in you will see city lights too. But I think the areas that are visible (Spain and Portugal near Africa, and Brazil on the other side) are not the most illuminated cities on Earth...

https://defcon.social/@das_robin/116348566588039704

Robin (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image @[email protected] @[email protected] here it is, found it! https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/art002e000193/art002e000193~large.jpg?w=1200&h=800&fit=crop&crop=faces%2Cfocalpoint

DEF CON Social

Behrang 22h ago

@pfsmet to be honest, I have not seen it even once. It's just like all other photos of the Earth. The exciting part is the up close photos from the Moon.

eifelkiwi 10h ago

@behrangsa @pfsmet except it is a photograph taken by a human not by a telescope etc.

Russ Garrett 22h ago

@pfsmet Nice! I think the brighter reflection in the middle of the image is a reflection from inside the spacecraft, but there is another reflection next to it which is the moon reflecting off the sea

Ben Stokman 21h ago

@pfsmet it is kind of amazing how thin Earth's atmosphere is.

McWabbit 🇺🇦🍋🌻🍉21h ago

@pfsmet Every time a picture of the Earth from the Artemis is shown on my timeline, my thoughts are that we should get rid of billionaires, the power of fossil fuel industries and dictators. Our world should not be ruled and ruined by these madmen.

MilitaryG 19h ago

@McWabbit @pfsmet well trump is winning a war against billionaires.

Loukas "Luca" Tzekos 19h ago

@pfsmet It's so beautiful

John Burns 18h ago

And... all but 4 humans in all of time, exist(ed) in this picture.

DerPumu (he/him)8h ago

@JohnJBurnsIII @pfsmet if you include people long dead, because they've lived there a long time ago, then you also include the 4 astronauts, because they lived there a few days ago

John Burns 8h ago

@DerPumu @pfsmet

At the moment of time of the picture - they were not there.

Dead people are included - because any parts of them that once were alive are in that picture.

DerPumu (he/him)7h ago

@JohnJBurnsIII @pfsmet if you think "parts" on an atomic level, then yes. Except for atoms worked into the rocket, cabin, fuel, or anything shot into space ever, including stuff blasted out of the atmosphere by cosmic radiation.

And of course except the 10 other astronauts currently in space (7 on ISS, 3 on Tiangong).

John Burns 3h ago

@DerPumu @pfsmet

That picture includes the area where the ISS, and Tiangong (China space station).

This isn't hard...

4 astros are behind the lens and all other humans living or dead are in front of the lens.

JackMex 17h ago

We are all one single species.
Still involved in stupid wars, and even more stupid wars.
Why aren’t we solving our real issues? Providing food, shelter, healthcare, and education for everyone. That’s step 1, and we haven’t even accomplished that. Why haven’t we designed an efficient distribution of food. Why healthcare is a privilege and not a right? Why our decisions are not based on science and ethics?
Oh, right, superpowers, megacorps, billionaires, and their privileges and greed.

don Elías (como los buses) 🥨16h ago

@pfsmet some people really really need the north to be up

Skeptiker 15h ago

@pfsmet please note that you rotated the original image.

Senvido 15h ago

@pfsmet Brighter spot could be UFO too.

Frans Super 🇺🇦🇵🇸🍋 FKNZS🔻12h ago

S T U N N I N G !!

@pfsmet thank you for the annotations! Even if the image looks spectacular, this view itself is misleading in my eyes, as Earth isn’t so bright at night. The only light sources are at this point stars, the Moon, and light from the sun (in various ways), airglow and artificial light from the ground - I do like this image with a more natural view more: https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/amf-art002e000193/

Artemis II Captures Dark Side of the Earth - NASA

art002e000193 (April 3, 2026) - A view of a backlit Earth taken by NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman from one of the Orion spacecraft's window after completing the translunar injection burn on April 2, 2026.

NASA

eifelkiwi 10h ago

@pfsmet and except for 4 out of more than 8 billion individuals, the whole of humanity is in this picture.
As is every animal, every plant and every drop of water.

Charles A-M 8h ago

@pfsmet fwiw I hadn't seen this yet. Thank you for sharing it!

Richard de Waard 8h ago

@pfsmet Look at how thin and fragile earth’s atmosphere is. ⚠️