Currently planning for my PhD defense, graduation, sister’s wedding, international move, new job, and my own wedding. All amazing things but I am incredibly overwhelmed 🫠 send help

A week since splashdown and I’m thinking a lot about the motivations and legacy of Artemis II…🧪🔭

A screenshot from the NASA livestream showing the splashdown of the Orion spacecraft. Three red and white parachutes are visible crumpling up at various distances from the small metal craft, all against the deep blue of the ocean

Seeing this was the 273719th time I cried happy tears this mission 🥹

Guys I’m so emotional that they splashed down safely and successfully 😭 welcome home you amazing brave humans!!! 🔭🧪

Earth peeks above the lunar horizon, which takes up the bottom half of the image. The dark grey moon is covered in craters, and earth is a cloudy white with bits of blue peeking through

Peekaboo

Obsessed with how cute our planet is in this picture, taken by the Artemis II astronauts as it sets behind the moon

📸: NASA 🔭🧪

Happy splashdown day!!!! The Artemis II astronauts are coming home and as always you can watch it happen live on NASA’s YouTube

Alrighty so NASA (and me and a lot of other people) had a little goof. But I think it’s a great opportunity to remind people that sometimes mistakes can actually be pretty cool and lead to a lot of new perspectives and understanding! 🧪🔭

Image from the Artemis II mission taken from a camera on the solar array. The Orion spacecraft is visible in silhouette on the left, with the top part slightly illuminated. On the right, a solar eclipse, with the moon blocking out sunlight. The moon is surrounded by a faint haze, and a slim crescent is lit up on the upper left of the side facing the camera, illuminated by Earthlight

Holy sh*t. A solar eclipse, seen for the first time by human eyes during a lunar flyby. The Earthlight illuminating the crescent of the moon and part of the spacecraft, the stars and planets in the background…I’m in tears 🤯

📸: NASA 🔭🧪

If our representatives have even the slightest bit of courage and integrity they will impeach this dangerous imbecile immediately.

Don’t mistake my excitement about Artemis as apathy towards what’s happening here on Earth. The behavior of the president is terrifying and despicable, literally threatening war crimes and crimes against humanity on social media.

Both are beautiful and incredible but from very different missions at very different distances. Today’s a great day for misinformation and fake images/attributions, stay safe out there folks (3/3)

Earth set: the illuminated crescent of earth is visible above the illuminated crescent of the moon. Swirling clouds are visible over blue ocean on Earth. The moon in the foreground is a grey brown and pockmarked with craters

That is incredibly far from both the earth and the moon, allowing for this particular sense of scale. By contrast, the Artemis II astronauts were at most ~250,000 miles from earth/4,000 miles from the moon. That gives you this sort of perspective! (2/3)

📸: NASA

A high resolution image of earth fully illuminated. In the lower left region, the far side of the moon is lit up as it transits the earth, appearing about 1/4 the size of the planet

I’m seeing this picture going around today being dropped in with the other amazing Artemis II shots, but this is not an Artemis photo!!!! This was taken by the DSCOVR satellite in 2015, from a distance of a million miles from Earth. 🧪🔭 (1/3)

📸: NASA, NOAA

I guess zoom is a better word than crop, long lenses and all that but yeah their whole field of view was much larger!

Let’s talk about the iconic new images from Artemis II…and why they look a bit different from Apollo 8’s Earthrise!

Hey if you see “pictures from Artemis” and you can’t find them on NASA’s website THEY ARE NOT REAL

Lunar Flyby - NASA

I am begging you: take a couple minutes and look at the images from yesterday’s lunar flyby. They are absolutely incredible www.nasa.gov/gallery/luna...

The moon, almost completely in shadow, blocks out the sun in an eclipse. The suns atmosphere is a white haze extended out past the moon, and stars are visible in the background. The left side of the moon is slightly lit up due to light coming from earth

Oh my god this almost doesn’t look real 🤯 this is a solar eclipse-the
moon blocking the sun-as seen by the crew on Artemis II during their lunar flyby yesterday. The haze is the sun’s atmosphere, only visible during eclipses. The illumination on the left of the moon is coming from Earth!!! 🧪🔭📸:NASA

Earth set: the illuminated crescent of earth is visible above the lunar horizon. Swirling clouds are visible over blue ocean (the Oceania region). The moon in the foreground is a grey brown and pockmarked with dozens of craters

Earth rise: the earth is a slim crescent with the right edge illuminated but partially blocked by the limb of the moon. The moon is completely dark, but rugged terrain is visible in its silhouette against the earth

Earth set and Earth rise from Artemis II. Views of our home humans haven’t seen since 1972. A generation defining moment. I just woke up and I am sobbing 🧪🔭

📸: NASA

This is the perfect video for this moment

I really appreciated this video by Kihana Wilson (who is not on Bluesky, alas) about the mixed feelings of #Artemis II. Follow her on Instagram (www.instagram.com/the_astro_st...) if you're over there!

An image of the Orion spacecraft with the crescent earth in the background. Annotations labelling Orion “4 people” and earth “8.3 billion people”

The first image we get after comms come back is us. All of humanity is in this shot. And I’m crying again. 🧪🔭

📸: NASA, annotations by me

You’ll have to wait and see! It’s a package I’m building and testing right now 👀

By the way the quote came from pilot Victor Glover!!!

Screenshot from NASA livestream showing the Orion spacecraft on the left, with a crescent moon in the foreground and in the distance on the right the crescent Earth

From #ArtemisII right before they lost signal going behind the moon: “As we prepare to go out of radio communication, we’re still able to feel your love from Earth. And to all of you down there, on Earth and around Earth, we love you, from the moon.” Godspeed Artemis 🫡 ❤️ 🔭🧪

Just announced that at closest approach #ArtemisII crew will be 4,067 miles above the moon, and max distance from Earth will be 252,756 miles. The crew did request these values in kilometers and parsecs but they didn’t get them so neither will you 😂🔭🧪

For those who don’t know, the terminator is the line between day and night. The angle of sunlight at that point puts everything in sharp contrast, allowing for a lot of detail. The Artemis II astronauts have shared that it’s a really remarkable sight multiple times!

Screenshot from the Artemis II livestream showing the edge of the Orion spacecraft and a half moon. A red arrow points to the line that cuts the moon in half-the terminator

“There is so much magic in the terminator” -Victor Glover 🥺

📸: NASA (screenshot from Artemis livestream two minutes ago)🔭🧪

Slight correction, I believe the t-shirt was actually being used to block Earthlight! Moon is still bright but not as much as our planet

I cannot wait for the pictures 🤯 What a crazy experience to be an external observer to the motion of the earth, moon, and sun. Most of us can never separate from the Earth, but those astronauts are getting to watch this cosmic dance from a very special seat