Unbiased AI-powered news
Astronaut Reid Wiseman photographed Earth from the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis II mission en route to the Moon. The image shows auroras, the thin atmosphere, zodiacal light, moonlight illumination, water coverage, and Venus. These features highlight Earth's environmental and space weather characteristics.
petapixel.comThe Artemis II mission, launched on September 16, 2024, involves NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen orbiting the Moon. The crew departed Earth aboard the Orion spacecraft and is conducting tests to prepare for future lunar landings under NASA's Artemis program.
By the time of the mission's progress, the spacecraft had traveled farther from Earth toward the Moon, allowing for observations of previously unseen lunar regions. During this journey, Wiseman captured an image of Earth from space, which illustrates several scientific phenomena.
The photograph depicts faint auroras near both poles. A greenish feature near the North Pole represents the aurora borealis, or northern lights, visible as a subtle layer around the planet. Near the South Pole, the aurora australis appears similarly.
NASA's website describes auroras as displays resulting from interactions between solar particles and Earth's magnetic field, part of space weather dynamics.
Earth's atmosphere appears as a thin layer in the image relative to the planet's size. NASA states that Earth has a diameter of about 8,000 miles, while the atmosphere extends roughly 60 miles from the surface. If scaled to a basketball, the atmosphere would equate to a thin sheet of plastic wrapped around it.
This layer, held by gravity, influences weather patterns, with visible clouds and weather systems in the photo.
Zodiacal light is evident as a faint haze in the lower right of the image. NASA defines zodiacal light as a pyramid-shaped glow of scattered sunlight from interplanetary dust, often visible near the spring or autumn equinox. From space, it appears as diffuse light rather than the cone shape seen from Earth's surface. This phenomenon underscores the presence of dust in the solar system.
The Earth's illumination in the photo results from moonlight rather than direct sunlight. Cosmologist Katie Mack explained to Alan Boyle of Cosmic Log that the Sun is positioned behind Earth, creating a solar eclipse-like effect with Earth blocking the light.
Moonlight reflects off the planet, faintly illuminating features such as city lights on the Iberian Peninsula. Such nighttime imaging is typically captured by low-Earth orbit satellites using similar lunar illumination.
The image highlights Earth's water coverage, with oceans dominating the visible surface. Approximately 71% of Earth's surface consists of water, of which 97% is in oceans. Freshwater makes up the remaining portion, sourced from rivers, lakes, groundwater, ice caps, glaciers, and permafrost. This distribution affects global climate, ecosystems, and human water resources.
A bright dot in the lower right corner of the photo is Venus. Venus is the planet closest to Earth on average, though its distance varies between about 24 million and 162 million miles. The image captures Venus against the backdrop of Earth, demonstrating relative positions in the solar system.
The Artemis II mission continues to provide data for upcoming Artemis III, which aims to return humans to the lunar surface in 2026.
A technical malfunction triggered an explosion and fire Sunday evening at the Barzan facility inside Ras Laffan Industrial City. Fifty-four people were injured and 18 remained unaccounted for early Monday. Emergency teams contained the blaze with no leak detected.
ForbesUFC CEO Dana White stated that negotiations for a cage fight between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg were genuine and included discussions about holding the event at Rome's Colosseum. White said the venue requested an estimated $150 million, which would have gone toward restoring o…
TankerTrackers data shows 36 million barrels shipped and another 36 million still at sea. Iranian officials separately reported 25 million barrels crossing the blockade line since Monday.