NASA publishes Artemis II Earth image

NASA on June 4 published a new Earth Observatory feature built around a photograph taken during Artemis II, the agency’s first crewed lunar flyby in 50 years. The image itself was captured on April 2, 2026, from the Orion spacecraft after its translunar injection burn sent the crew out of Earth orbit and toward the Moon. NASA said the picture shows Earth’s full disk apparently glowing in sunlight, though the visible hemisphere was actually illuminated by moonlight. The agency posted the explainer as part of a broader stream of Artemis II images and mission materials following the flight’s April 10 splashdown. ### Why did this picture stand out from other Earth images? NASA said the Artemis II vantage point created a rare full-disk nighttime view of Earth that combined several low-light features in a single human-captured image. From Orion’s perspective, Earth was eclipsing the Sun, leaving only a thin sliver of bright light visible around the planet’s lower-right edge, according to the Earth Observatory article. (science.nasa.gov) The April 2 image also includes green auroras near both poles, zodiacal light to the lower right of Earth, and Venus as a bright point in the same corner of the frame, NASA said. On the planet itself, the agency identified city lights in Spain, Portugal, northern Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and Brazil. (science.nasa.gov) ### How was the crew able to photograph Earth in such low light? NASA said digital camera technology and illumination from a full Moon made the shot possible. The crew set the camera’s ISO to 51,200, a sensitivity level the agency contrasted with daytime photography settings of about 100 or 200. NASA said that high sensitivity allowed the camera to register details of Earth’s surface and atmosphere in low light, including city lights and auroral glow. (science.nasa.gov) The agency described the result as distinct from long-running nighttime Earth datasets because it is a single astronaut-made full-disk image rather than a sustained observing record. ### Where in the mission was Orion when the image was taken? Artemis II launched on April 1, 2026, and splashed down on April 10 after a mission lasting 9 days, 1 hour and 32 minutes, according to NASA’s mission page. The Earth image was taken on April 2 after Orion completed the translunar injection burn, the maneuver that placed the spacecraft on a trajectory toward the Moon. (science.nasa.gov) NASA’s Johnson Space Center recap identified the same frame as a view from one of Orion’s windows after translunar injection. That recap said the crew later traveled as far as 252,756 miles from Earth, which NASA described as the greatest distance humans have traveled in space. ### Who was on Artemis II when the image was captured? (nasa.gov) NASA said Artemis II carried NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. The mission was the first crewed flight of Orion and NASA’s first crewed lunar flyby since the Apollo era, according to the agency’s Artemis II page. NASA has not, in the Earth Observatory feature, identified which crew member took the April 2 Earth photograph. (nasa.gov) The agency attributed it more generally to “an Artemis crew member” aboard Orion. ### Where can readers find the rest of the Artemis II imagery? NASA’s Artemis II mission page and multimedia hub now link to additional mission visuals, including lunar flyby photographs released in April and later Earth-focused explainers published after the mission. (nasa.gov) NASA’s gallery material says the first moon flyby images were released on April 7, while the Earth Observatory feature on the moonlit Earth image was published June 4 and dated to the April 2 capture. (science.nasa.gov) NASA’s Earth Observatory article remains the agency’s most detailed public explanation of what appears in the frame, including the auroras, zodiacal light, Venus and the city lights visible on Earth’s night side. (science.nasa.gov) (nasa.gov)