UNIVERSE - NASA has shared the first high-resolution images of Earth taken by the Artemis II crew as they passed the halfway point between Earth and the Moon.
The mission’s commander, Reid Wiseman, took the “spectacular” images, NASA says, after the crew completed a final engine burn that set them on a trajectory toward our closest celestial neighbour.
At about 07:00 BST, NASA’s online dashboard showed the Orion spacecraft was 142,000 miles (228,500 kilometres) from Earth and 132,000 miles from the Moon. Astronaut Christina Koch said the crew had a collective “expression of joy” upon being told of the milestone, which was reached around two days, five hours, and 24 minutes after blast-off. The first image, called Hello, World, shows the vast expanse of blue that is the Atlantic Ocean, framed by a glow from the atmosphere as Earth eclipses the Sun, with green auroras visible at either pole. Earth appears upside down, with the western Sahara and Iberian Peninsula visible to the left and the eastern portion of South America to the right. NASA identified the bright planet at the bottom right as Venus. (BBC)
