ESO

We spotted some of that #Moon joy!

In the early morning of 9 April, ESO's New Technology Telescope turned its gaze to the sky above La Silla in #Chile and caught something special.

Not a distant galaxy, nor a star cluster, but a streak of light with a very special story: NASA's Artemis II Orion spacecraft with a crew of four, returning from an epic journey around the Moon.

📷 ESO/I. Saviane

#astrodon #astronomy #space #science

Apr 14 at 2:55pmWeb
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Sending Orion around the Moon and bringing it back home was the task of ESA's European Service Module, which provided power, propulsion and life support for the crew.

Welcome back to Earth, Reid, Victor, Christina & Jeremy! 🧑‍🚀

📷
NTT image credit: ESO/I. Saviane
Orbit simulation: Kel Elkins (Science and Technology Corporation), Ernie Wright (USRA)

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And here is the location of the image on the sky, between the constellations of Ophiuchus and Scorpius:

https://worldwidetelescope.org/webclient/?wtml=http%3A%2F%2Fwwtcoreapp-data-app.azurewebsites.net%3A80%2Fwwtweb%2FShowImage.aspx%3Freverseparity%3DTrue%26scale%3D0.241019%26name%3DEFOSC.2026-04-09T04-Artemis-NTT-1.png%26imageurl%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fnova.astrometry.net%2Fwwt_image%2F37371937%26credits%3DAstrometry.net%2BUser%2B(All%2BRights%2BReserved)%26creditsUrl%3D%26ra%3D254.219235%26dec%3D-29.604926%26x%3D324.8%26y%3D418.4%26rotation%3D180.39%26thumb%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fnova.astrometry.net%2Fwwt_image%2F37371939%26wtml%3Dtrue#/place=Open_Collections.EFOSC.2026-04-09T04-Artemis-NTT-1.png.0&ra=16.94795&dec=-29.60493&fov=0.04669

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Show threadPᵉtɘr Wᵉil8acherApr 14
@esoastronomy Are there any details on how this was taken? I.e., what the parts are where the light was "absorbed"?
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@PWei888 This is a stack of three 10 minute exposures, hence the two large gaps along the trail (the last exposure at the bottom only captured a small part of the trail before the spacecraft left the FOV). As for the smaller dips within each individual exposure, they might be due to scintillation.