A photo of Earth taken by the crew of Artemis II.
Born in fire, battered by the wreckage of colliding worlds, covered for eons in magma, wracked by volcanoes, frozen and thawed again and again, and after everything went just wrong and right enough, here it is: our home. The rarest gift in the known universe.
Happy Earth Day.
In the Science Ops room for the Mars Exploration Rovers. Opportunity, had landed hours earlier. We awaited first images. Murmuring and tension all around. On projection screen, terminal window began filling with text. Data on the ground. Image opened — and the room ROARED with joy. It was BEDROCK.
I'm struck by the number of modes of transit these astronauts will experience today.
1. Slicing through the Earth's atmosphere in a spaceship
2. An inflatable raft
3. A rope swing
4. Helicopter
5 Aircraft carrier
6. Airplane.
7. Van.
Science is good. We should fund it.
Capsule has its little bathing donut inflated to help make sure it stays upright during recovery
#Artemis websites I am watching today:
Main commentated broadcast:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3kR...
Uncommentated feed:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rwf...
Flickr photostream:
www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2...
Telemetry feed:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mtZ...
Amateur-produced live timeline:
x37b.nl/artemis/
💀 💀
Why am I reading this as an aching romance
A view from the window of the Orion spacecraft includes the nearby Moon and the distant crescent Earth.
I'm an unapologetic window gazer on airplanes, and this is SENDING me.
images.nasa.gov/details/art0...
If you’re looking for #ArtemisII wallpaper images for your phone/computer/intense and lasting joy, NASA has you covered.
www.nasa.gov/artemis-ii-m...
(April 6, 2026) – Earthset captured through the Orion spacecraft window at 6:41 p.m. EDT, April 6, 2026, during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the Moon. A muted blue Earth with bright white clouds sets behind the cratered lunar surface. The dark portion of Earth is experiencing nighttime. On Earth’s day side, swirling clouds are visible over the Australia and Oceania region. In the foreground, Ohm crater has terraced edges and a flat floor interrupted by central peaks. Central peaks form in complex craters when the lunar surface, liquefied on impact, splashes upwards during the crater’s formation.
“EARTHSET”
(source: images.nasa.gov/details/art0...)
they should have sent a poster
This is the face of a lunar scientist who has just been told that the #Artemis II crew saw SEVERAL impact flashes (the flashes when meteors hit the lunar surface) in real time 😃 🌓💥
Paging Kevin Zahnle: Uranus mentioned
They have discovered a planet. It has clouds made of xenon. What a good land.
A good time for an unneighborly squint
Conversation on Artemis right now on the relative age of Orientale compared to other lunar basins. I wrote about that a while back: www.planetary.org/articles/092...
Astronomical space art ideally shows something of what is known about the subject as well as what it is about the subject one finds visually appealing. This is a scan of an illustration in the classic book 'The Conquest of Space' by Willy Ley and Chesley Bonestell. Earth is covering the Sun, with Bonestell's very narrow version of the Zodiacal Light extending from behind Earth on both sides. The moonlit Earth shows Africa and the reflection of the Moon on the oceans. A suggestion of cloud detail shows a latitudinal detail bias that was common in his Earth portrayals. In the orientation of the visual elements this painting, done a lifetime ago, carried forward a vision that has just been seen by human eyes and photographed with state of the art equipment. #Sciart
Space art in its roots has been an effort to anticipate sights that future space travelers may one day see. In the late 1940s Chesley Bonestell painted a moonlit Earth that appeared in 'The Conquest of Space'. This modest work shows a view broadly similar to that revealed in the new Artemis photo.
Here's another version, combining the two different exposures made in quick succession. One much darker exposure made the bright limb stand out more from the rest, the widely circulated longer exposure brought out the dim light details. Combining the two images helps to restore the brightness range.
Sarah the Moon is sooooooo pretty
You’ve Got Mail hit cable TV at a very potent time window for present-day nostalgia (age ~15) and had solid jokes, yearning that registered but wasn’t embarrassing, and a terrific soundtrack. That’s the one for me
Memento cancri
Ooh with Dreamer in a very “Han Solo in the Return of the Jedi poster” stance!!
Was puzzled by the emotional pang I felt looking at this till I realized that’s my hometown Amtrak station (nice capture!)
I am so sorry for your loss.
Nigel making announcement while inflatable donkey costume collapses
The battery in the fan died and the suit is slowly deflating
Sigh.
This is the directorate that funds all of the earth, ocean & atmosphere research at NSF.
I love it so much
