Apr 07, 2026
3 min read
As the astronauts relax after landing on the moon, NASA has released two of the most amazing photos of their trip.
"Humanity from the other side": spectacular images taken by Artemis II from the moon.
NASA published two images taken by the Artemis II mission crew during their flight to the moon on Tuesday morning: the entry of Earth above the moon's horizon and the solar eclipse they were able to observe for an hour.
In the first image, the crew saw Earth above the lunar horizon, similar to the famous Apollo 8 image known as "Earthrise."The photo was originally advertised as "Sunshine on Earth" on the White House's X account."Humanity, on the other side," the message says, describing it as "the first image from the far side of the moon," though that's not true.
"Part of this world was already in darkness, and the rest is still alive, and the clouds are swirling in the ocean half a world away," described the NASA control center in the live stream.
A spectacular eclipse
Another image was taken a few minutes later by the crew of Artemis II and shows the moon completely eclipsing the sun. "From their vantage point, the moon appears large enough to completely block the sun, making for about fifty-four minutes of totality," says the spokesperson.
Although distant stars are visible in the moon's shadow, the points of light that usually appear are washed out in images like this one.A faint glow on the moon's surface is also visible at the edge."This sunlight bounces off Earth and gently illuminates the near side. It's an incredible sight and a unique opportunity to observe and document the corona as we return to deep space," Houston Mission Control concluded.
It's actually a "sunset"
“It’s exciting to see (again) the beginning of an era of discovery,” says Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque. “The new photo of Earth at sunrise reminds us once again that we are all on one small planet together.”“I wish that if we saw ourselves like this from a distance, we would really be aware that we are fragile, vulnerable and, above all, equal,” says Eva Villaver, astrophysicist and deputy director of the IAC.“That we are a bunch of complex chemistry, more or less organized, on the surface of an isolated rock in the vastness of space.”
"Because I'm part of the chosen team, let's say it's not a normal sunrise, because everyone already knows from the moon that you can't see the sunrise and sunset on Earth because it's always (more or less) in the same place," said astronomer Javier Armentia."Later I said, you look at it and you can't understand anything after you see something great. Satellite: amazing, unknown, bless us, we want everything to go well.
"It's actually an Earth sunset: Artemis II is orbiting the Earth in the opposite direction to Apollo 8, so it disappears behind the Moon. But nobody likes to think about a sunset," says Robert Poole, a historian at the University of Central Lancashire and author of "Earthrise."“It reminds me of the opening images of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, which brought the message of humanity's future in space.
“Images of sunsets on Earth have been taken before, albeit with unmanned probes (for example Lunar Orbiter), but Apollo's were sunrises,” says astrophysicist Daniel Marín. “The curvature of the Moon is striking because the Apollo images were taken from a low lunar orbit, while Artemis II did not approach the surface more than 6,500 km.” On the other hand, he emphasizes, it is not true that it is the firstPhoto of the Earth from the other side, because craters on the other side can clearly be seen in the Apollo images. “Of course, this photo was taken with the ship almost behind the moon, unlike Apollo.”
Back to Earth
The four astronauts aboard Artemis II are now flying back to Earth after their short trip to the Moon that made them the furthest humans have ever traveled from our planet.The milestone was reached at 1:07 a.m.this Tuesday (Peninsula Spanish time) while on the other side of our satellite during a 40-minute communications blackout.At that time, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen were about 406,780 kilometers from Earth, about 7,000 kilometers farther than the Apollo 13 astronauts, who in 1970 set the mark of 400,171 kilometers.
The mission ends on Saturday, April 11 (the 10th day of the flight), at which time the mission module will separate to reveal the capsule's heat shield just before the violent storm re-enters.At 02:10 in the morning (Friday to Saturday night), after enduring a temperature of 1,650 ºC and losing its speed, the ship deploys a series of eight parachutes and explodes in the Pacific Ocean, where the ship and professional rescuers will be ready to rescue the crew within a maximum of two hours.
