This image of home just came down from the Artemis II crew.
This image of home just came down from the Artemis II crew.
Taken after their translunar injection burn, there are aurorae at top right and lower left, and zodiacal light at lower right.
Credit: NASA/Reid Wiseman
// That's home. That's us.
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Alternative references of better image quality mentioned in comments by @[email protected]:
- https://images.nasa.gov/details/art002e000192;
- https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/art002e000192/art002e000192~orig.jpg [5568 x 3712]
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Comments155
The proper source and in its 5568 x 3712 glory.
I didn't even know it could go that high. 🤣
Sony A1 MKii can hit 102,400 for stills.
AFAIK anything past 32,000 is digitally expanded (which could be done with RAW post-processing).
EDIT:
See: https://www.photonstophotos.net/Charts/RN_ADU.htm#Nikon%20D5_14,Sony%20ILCE-1M2_14
The old Nikon D5, impressively, doesn't seem to post-scale even at ISO 102400
My 2015 Sony a7s2 has “native” iso to 102400, and expanded to 409600, but it was a special full frame low light sensor and it’s only 12MP (most from back then were 20-30MP with the same sized sensor.
From Wikipedia:
Also apparently one was installed on the ISS
Apparently they are using Sony going forward:
https://sonyaddict.com/2026/04/01/breaking-nasa-selects-sony-as-official-imaging-partner-for-artemis-lunar-program-the-first-new-moon-camera-in-over-50-years/sony-in-space/
"Old" high-end DSLRs are aging well, digital photography has been in the diminishing returns for a while now. You're almost surely getting better pictures out of a 10 year old flagship than a brand new mid-level camera, and the "thoroughly tested" part matters a lot in spaceflight
Still surprises me that it's a D5 of all things, but then my main camera is only a year newer than that one. Not sure I'd use a DSLR at this point though.
when you build your own spacecraft, feel free to use whatever you want.
For what it's worth, they are switching to Sony: https://sonyaddict.com/2026/04/01/breaking-nasa-selects-sony-as-official-imaging-partner-for-artemis-lunar-program-the-first-new-moon-camera-in-over-50-years/sony-in-space/
Fairly well. The newest sensors do have better dynamic range, with some exceptions (like the fully stacked ones).
TBH they should probably take a medium-format Fuji with a brighter lens to space. Or an A7S like someone had above.
Thank you, I was annoyed when the source link just went to a blue sky post from some rando who themselves didn’t post their source.
Down left, Spain.
Above, Northwest Africa.
On the right, South America.
Top: the aurora australis.
Actually, now that I look closer, if you look even more down left, there's also some aurora borealis!
Aurora Borealis!?
At this time of year?
At this time of day?
In this economy?
In this time of the year?!
top right also
Behind: Things that are very very very very very very very far away.
This makes me want to cry.
I try to be stoic and harden my heart to defend it from the horrors of the world and current events, but this is just so beautiful and amazing and all I ever wanted since I was a kid.
I don't know how people can look at this and be unable to pause and just want peace. We are so small and fragile.
We as a species should be working together, not trying to kill each other at every possible moment.
It's all I've ever wanted, and as I've aged I've become jaded and felt it's just been a stupid dream. But seeing this picture reminds me of that feeling, a world without borders.
Thank you NASA.
Many of us have been having the same stupid dream...
...and (grow) most of my food too!
Fuck stuff, it's where all where the people and critters are
And more importantly it's the only planet with chocolate
That we know of
Egad!
"all your stuff" is the big part of why the earth is being destroyed.
Here's the full res shot from the NASA website:
::: spoiler click for full res :::
https://images.nasa.gov/
They should have brought a brighter lens, heh.
More:
::: spoiler click to expand
:::
On a seperate note, the top Twitter comments are making my brain rot:
circles aurora
(seemingly a bot post?)
(posts a picture of a Google AI search hallucination)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HE_cAXKaMAAunQ_?format=jpg
I knew Twitter was bad now, but... Wow.
Isn’t that the nazi social media?
If it makes you feel any better- it's also mostly bots.
Dammit. It's upside down. Again!
Remember when the earth used to be more green than brown?
🫥
I'm pretty sure you're staring at the Sahara dessert.
I'm pretty sure you are incorrect
It is, indeed, the Sahara desert. Africa is upside down, but that little tip at the bottom of the photo is the Strait of Gibraltar. That greener lit up coast on the right is the Americas... Brazil, I think?
Nope
Check old pictures
Nope. Definitely always been brown.
Not sure if my original comment went through, here's a rotated version for those struggling with the orientation
Edit: Tried to line up as similar an angle as I could be bothered to on Google Maps
yeah, I can't believe a team of professional astronauts don't know which way up to hold a camera. I hope someone got fired for this.
/s
Wait, so that image looks kind of... flat??? 🤔
I'm just asking questions! Doing my own research!
Oh! That's Africa!
I am an idiot, what continent is that brown land mass?
North Africa. That's the strait of Gibraltar and Spain lower left. It's not in the orientation that you're used to, north is somewhere to the left.
That’s all there is. And a bunch of shortsighted rich motherfuckers are doing their best to end it.
The earth will be fine.
The plants and creatures on it? They will be battered, but recover.
Humans on the other hand... 👎
George Carlin
Kinda interesting how the billions seem to believe all they can do is sit and watch helplessly as a tiny handful of humans do that, too.
Where are all the international borders?
/s
Sadly, you can see the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic from space. Dominican Republic is the side with vegetation.
Think they emailed it down?
They installed a 3rd outlook just for that picture
Everyone knows a real picture of Earth would have the North American centered. This is clearly fake.
Not to mention that it isn't flat!
And I see no God up there
Turn the image upside down. The desert is Sahara.
Yeah, took me a while to parse the geography. The picture seems to be taken upside down over the south Atlantic.
Spain is visible, south America partially covered by clouds.
I like it this way. It poses an interesting challenge and new perspective.
author of the photo is secret agent of cartographers for social equality... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH1bZ0F3zVU
Your username had me quite worried!
no need to worry. so say we all.
Looks like a disc to me. Checkmate, spherists.
And discs are flat. Point, Flat Earthers.
to quote the old meme:
To think we'd willingly destroy that beauty
It already looks browner and less vibrant.
To be fair that's mostly the Sahara desert we're looking at there, and South America is having a cloudy day
Astronauts left just in time before a wave of green light will be turning us all to stone
Edit: wait wtf you can actually see one at the top XD
Hopefully, someone in Japan with a leek haircut will emerge and restore civilization /s
I can’t watch, I feel high anxiety.
Looks pretty fake to me, AI definitely made it, and the earth is definitely flat and square despite this.
looks pretty flat though,must be real
and now i am confused, can you two just make up your mind and tell me what to think? damn it...
ask chatgpt
/s?
"/s?".replace("?","")
the fuck did you call me
"/s"
Did you just Python at me?
Kotlin, but really that's a common string thing so might be the same in many languages.
Huh. Well at least you didn't swear.
I don't know it looks flat enough to me?
Sorry it was more a comment on how it doesn't look square.
It so funny to see a bunch of idiots fighting over the shape of earth when its obviously not flat.
(The image i
::: spoiler Spoiler Content :::
s not clanker generated)
This should be sent to flat earthers every time they post...
The world is flat and circular. This pic proves it.
They probably used some fancy lens to make it look circular its definitely a square.
What is this bright thing at the center? Reflection of an interior light as it was taken through a window? Or what?
Looks like window reflection.
test
You can also see the window frame at the bottom left.
Just Starfleet violating directives again. It's probably best to ignore it; somebody else's problem.
Since the photo is received from the astronauts, it must be a reflection from their warm interior, indeed!
That's my guess. It's too large to be anything external.
Aliens with malfunctioning cloaking device
All this theatrics just to have astronauts dump the Epstein files on the far side of the moon.
Kinda wild it looks like Gibraltar and the Sahara survived a water world incident.
Anyone know if the grain is due to radiation or just ISO?
This is on the night side of Earth, so lit only by moonlight. It’s grain from
long exposurehigh ISO - thanks for the correction.Wouldn't a long exposure have less grain? Usually it's short exposure and high ISO that results in grain.
Less grain than a shorter exposure? Absolutely. Due to motion you still have to cap exposure duration to a somewhat small number or you'll start getting light streaking. It would be very interesting to see the exif information for this photo.
It is there:
Thanks! I should have looked.
ISO 51,200 is pretty high, which is why there's the grain/noise. I wonder if whomever took the photo also tried with a somewhat longer shutter speed and/or wider aperture. Both would reduce ISO and thus noise but come with trade-offs. Longer shutter speed can result in light streaks due to motion and a wider aperture will give less depth of field.
it is the high iso that produces the visible grain.
long exposure time would have less grain, but to use it, you need for the scene to not move long enough.
the movement and subsequent blurred image is introduced by two different things. either the scene itself is moving, or it is the camera that is moving (your shaky hand, or the spaceship doing 20000+ km/h.
if the scene is not moving and you can use tripod to stabilize the camera movement, then you can use long exposure time and however low iso you want.
if this is impossible, because tripod in a spaceship would still not help shaking the camera relative to phographed object that is outside of the spaceship, then short exposure time (and high iso to compensate for that) is your only choice. (and still, even with the super high iso, it still was 1/4s. i suspect some stabilization in the lens.)
https://digital-photography.com/camera/aperture-exposure-time-iso-understanding.php
They're in a moving spacecraft taking a shot of a rotating object. You can't do too long of an exposure. It's why astrophotographers either have to take lots of individual photos and stack them.
Thanks!
Ohhh. This makes more sense. I was wondering where all the light was coming from.
Oooh it's the night side??? That makes a lot more sense, but I'll still leave my other comment up for info.
They left the EXIF data in the file, you can see the huge ISO. Really interesting lens also.
EDIT: I've now seen this is actually the night side, so it checks out.
This is full of interesting but slightly puzzling information.
First, it's shot at 22mm, which is a pretty wide angle, so I guess they were still pretty close when they took it.
What's really puzzling to me though, is why did they need to crank up the exposure so much?
We're looking at 51k ISO @ f4, I can shoot in really dark places with this kind of ISO (but I don't, because it looks like trash).
They seem to be shooting the day side of earth as far as I can tell, so I don't really understand why they needed that much sensitivity, instinctively I would've assumed you'd only need the same kind of settings you'd use on daytime exteriors here on earth (so nowhere near that ISO).
It looks like the daytime side because the ISO is cranked up that high.
This is the nighttime side, only lit by reflected moonlight. The sun is behind earth on the bottom right.
They wanted to fire off that first shot as soon as all of earth fit in the window, instead of waiting 12 hours.
Yeah I realized that afterwards. At the end of the day moonlight is basically just sunlight but dimmer (also something you learn when trying to shoot night scenes), that's why we can shoot "day for night" and it looks mostly correct.
"As we can clearly see, the earth is flat, with australia being the only continent, apart from what we believe to be "east asia". Also: this whole mission is totally fake. "
-- Conspiracy mystics, probably.
(Edit: we are seeing north africa and western parts of south europe.)
So all the maps without New Zealand were true!
Btw it's Africa. And a bit of Europe.
That's a pretty nice...
Outlook
Look! There’s no any borders in sight.
The image also doesn’t capture any languages or any jealousy.
Needs a banana for scale.
There are probably a lot of bananas in that picture
All of them. Unless someone on board took a banana with them.
Most of the bananas are obscured by either clouds or a planet.
point to Australia, bet you caaan't~ :D
Can't what?
Can't point to Australia
Astounds me every-time I see the razor thin line of defense we have from the universe.
The part with oxygen is very thin lol
TIL we all live in a bubble..
My eyes were closed
Hey, I can see my home from there! Kinda, the clouds are in the way
Oh look! More proof for flat earthers to look at and immediately decide is AI generated!
Looks cool, flat earth talk aside. If I wasn't afraid of heights, I wouldn't mind if I could see Earth from that high up some day.
Is "height" even a concept without gravity or ground?
I am like 99% sure you're still being influenced by gravity at this distance
Well obviously gravity has infinite range in principle, however it does fall off with the square of the distance. So it will get irrelevant at some point, with local sources being the major factor. But obviously the Earth's influence is still quite significant, since the Moon doesn't go flying off. The Moon's orbit is what it is because of the gravity of Earth, although the Sun is a huge factor as well.
The Moon's gravity is what's causing the tides on Earth, so both objects influence each other through gravity signifanctly. The spacecraft will be decelerating on the way to the Moon because the Earth is pulling it down. However once they cross a certain point, the Moon's gravity becomes dominant and they get pulled towards the Moon. They are going too fast to be able to be captured by the Moon and get into an orbit. But they are going too fast to be captured by the Moon. So they will sling past the Moon, the Moon will pull them around and they will fall back to Earth again. They would then be going too fast to be in a proper orbit, instead being flung past the other side. So they will perform a braking maneuver to go back into Earth orbit and slow down further still to land back on Earth.
What confuses people is they see astronauts at 300km up and they are weightless. So one would assume gravity falls off much faster than it does. In fact at 300km the gravity from Earth is still 90% of what it is on the surface. The reason those astronauts are weightless is because they are falling.
Imagine a skydiver falling down and shaking hands with another skydiver, they are weightless compared to each other. If it weren't for the air rushing by, you would be able to tell they were falling and they would look weightless. In fact there is this awesome video floating around where skydiver also have a car falling down and they get in it, it all looks weightless, because it is. The famous vomit comet plane does the same, it flies up, then follows a parabolic curve down (aka falling), before pulling up again. Whilst falling things are in fact weightless.
So if those astronauts are falling, how come they don't fall down to the ground, obviously something is keeping them up there. The answer is speed, they are falling down, but at the same time going horizontally at great speed. Such a great speed in fact, they miss the Earth and instead fall around it. Imagine shooting a cannon faster and faster till it goes over the horizon and if fired fast enough all around the world.
Going to space isn't about going up, it's about going fast. The reason rockets go straight up is because they want to get above much of the atmosphere as fast as possible. This reduces air resistance and makes going faster easier (or possible even). As soon as they go up a little bit, they start turning to go horizontally, often in a so called gravity turn. This is where you use the gravity of Earth to curve downwards, so the gravity helps out instead of fighting it. LEO is only something like 300km up, and the widely recognized limit for "space" is only 100km up. You could easily drive that with your car in no time at all, so why do we need a huge rocket to get to space? Because to go into orbit you need to be going 8km/s, not 8km/h, but 8km every second. To go that fast you need a lot of power and a rocket has that power.
Orbital mechanics are really weird when you first learn about them. But we have the great Kerbal Space Program game to get a feel for them. Speed and altitude are directly related, changing one influences the other, often in ways we feel are not intuitive. This is why people who know faceplam at a movie like Gravity where an escape pod points up and just flies off into deep space. That's not how any of this works, most likely there wouldn't be enough energy (delta V as the nerds like to say) to get out of Earth orbit. At best it might end up in a helio centric orbit near Earth, but it's unlikely. It isn't like you can just point to outer space and go there.
The Overview Effect (a supposed increase in wisdom from simply seeing your home planet from far away) is mostly a distraction from solving the problems of deciding who gets to own stuff in space and how do we as a society mitigate the risk of autocrats hurling extinction-level rocks at one another for their own personal short term profit.
Ok but cool rock where I live though
Wait no, I thought about it more and this is the lamest thing I have ever seen online
Like bro it's a distraction for as long as you look at the picture, sure. But can you not take 10 seconds to admire the beauty of the world?
Huh?
You can see planet earth’s big naturals
What's that light in the middle?
could be aliens, could be reflection on window through which the photo was taken. we will never know. 🤷♂️
I think the yellow tinted light is a reflection in the capsule window, and the other more white-ish light is the sun reflecting in the ocean. The Sun has a very diffuse reflection from the light reflecting off all the waves, but also a more specular reflection in the middle. I always wondered what the ratio between those was. Now I know.
Edit: Could also be the moon reflecting, not the sun.
Is this the bottom side or the top side?
boooo!
Haha, is that a futurama quote
what am i looking at
Erf.
On the left side is North Africa with Europe below it, and on the right side is South America
Home.
yawn, I've seen pictures like these since decades. Why did we need to send four people in a tin can for this now?