Earth From the Perspective of Artemis II

art002e000192 (April 3, 2026) - This nighttime picture of Earth was taken on April 2, 2026, by an Artemis II crew member aiming a camera through a window of the Orion spacecraft. The image was captured after Orion completed its translunar injection burn, the critical maneuver that sent the spacecraft on its path toward the Moon and back. The visible hemisphere appears awash in sunlight, but it is actually lit by moonlight — sunlight reflected from the lunar surface. Along the upper left (south) and lower right (north) edges of Earth’s disk, green auroras glow against the dark sky, showing charged particles from the Sun interacting with gases in Earth’s atmosphere. Africa is visible on the left, while a translucent cone of light capped by a bright Venus extends into space from Earth’s lower right edge. This zodiacal light is caused by sunlight reflecting off interplanetary dust. A thin white crescent along the lower right edge of Earth marks the planet’s daytime atmosphere illuminated by the Sun, which lies on the opposite side of Earth from Orion’s perspective. City lights are also visible, especially along coastlines. Credits: NASA