The crew of Artemis II is now halfway to the Moon and taking a "spectacular" picture of Earth.

 

The image, titled Hello, World, shows the Earth as seen from the Orion capsule (Image: NASA/Reid Wiseman)

The first high-resolution images of the Earth that the crew of Artemis II took as they crossed the halfway point between the Earth and the Moon have been released by Nasa. Nasa claims that Reid Wiseman, the mission's commander, captured the "spectacular" images after the crew completed a final engine burn that set them on a course toward our nearest neighbor. At about 07:00 BST, Nasa's online dashboard showed the Orion spacecraft was now 142,000 miles (228,500 km) from Earth, and 132,000 miles from the Moon.

READ MORE: Artemis II leaves Earth's orbit on track for far side of the Moon

 Astronaut Christina Koch said that when the crew heard about the milestone, which was reached roughly two days, five hours, and 24 minutes after launch, they all had an "expression of joy." The first image, titled "Hello, World," depicts the vast expanse of blue that is the Atlantic Ocean, framed by green auroras at either pole and a glow from the atmosphere as the Earth eclipses the Sun. The western Sahara and Iberian Peninsula can be seen to the left and the eastern part of South America to the right, and the Earth appears to be upside down. Nasa identified the bright planet to the bottom right as Venus.

Wiseman also took this picture, titled Artemis II Looking Back at Earth, from one of the Orion spacecraft's four main windows (Image: NASA/Reid Wiseman)

The crew successfully completed a trans-lunar injection burn early on Friday, and the pictures were taken afterward. As the four astronauts on board aim to travel more than 200,000 miles to the Moon, the burn lifted the Orion spacecraft out of Earth orbit. Artemis II is now on a looping path that will carry the crew around the far side of the Moon and back again.  It is the first time since 1972 that humans have travelled outside of the Earth's orbit.

 The spacecraft took off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on April 6 and is scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean on April 10 to bring the crew back to Earth.

Another image taken by the crew shows the divide between night and day, known as the terminator, cutting across Earth)Image: NASA)

Mission specialist Jeremy Hansen informed Houston mission control that the crew was "glued to the windows" taking pictures after the burn was finished. "We are getting a beautiful view of the dark side of the Earth, lit by the Moon," he said.

 After that, Wiseman called mission control in Houston once more to inquire about how to clean the windows because the astronauts' enthusiasm for going into space had made them dirty.

The commander had initially found it difficult to take photographs of our planet from the spacecraft, claiming that it was difficult to adjust exposure settings because of the distance. He explained to mission control, "It's like trying to walk out back at your house and take a picture of the Moon." "That's what it feels like right now."

 However, this is no longer a problem. Another view captured by Wiseman shows the Earth divided by night and day.  That frontier between light and darkness is known as the terminator.

Lights twinkle in the nighttime as the Earth completely occludes the Sun(Image: Reid Wiseman)

A subsequent image from Nasa showed the Earth nearly completely dark, with human-made electric lights twinkling in the darkness. It also produced a side-by-side comparison of 2026's Earth view and the Apollo 17 team's 1972 Earth view, which was the last time humans walked on the Moon. "One thing hasn't changed over the past 54 years: our home looks beautiful from space!" It penned.

Then and now: Earth, as seen in 1972 (right) and 2026 (left) (Image: NASA)

Source:  BBC