{"id":569916,"date":"2026-04-07T14:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T14:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/569916\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T14:28:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T14:28:12","slug":"new-images-from-artemis-iis-historic-lunar-flyby-reveal-earthset-and-eclipse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/569916\/","title":{"rendered":"New images from Artemis II\u2019s historic lunar flyby reveal \u2018Earthset\u2019 and eclipse"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n It was a moment for the history books: The Artemis II mission performed its much anticipated lunar flyby yesterday, and came within just 4,067 miles of the moon.\n <\/p>\n

\n While soaring aboard their Orion capsule beyond the far side of the moon, the crew also reached an estimated 252,756 miles from Earth, breaking Apollo 13\u2019s record<\/a> for the farthest humans have traveled into space.\n <\/p>\n

\n The flyby lasted seven hours, during which the astronauts could enjoy views of the lunar surface previously unseen by human eyes, with about 21% of the moon\u2019s mysterious far side illuminated by the sun from the crew\u2019s perspective.\n <\/p>\n

\n Working in two shifts across roughly five hours, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen took about 10,000 photos, according to NASA\u2019s livestream of the mission.\n <\/p>\n

\n Communications stopped for about 40 minutes during Orion\u2019s transit behind the moon. The crewmembers saw \u201cEarthset,\u201d or Earth appear to set behind the moon, not dissimilar to what the Apollo astronauts witnessed<\/a> in 1968.\n <\/p>\n

\n They were also treated to a very special solar eclipse.\n <\/p>\n

\"Totality,<\/p>\n

\n To the Artemis II crew, the moon appeared much larger through the windows of Orion than it does on Earth. As the moon blocked the sun from view, parts of the solar corona, or the sun\u2019s outer atmosphere, appeared visible, including structures called streamers they described as \u201cbaby hairs.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Totality, or when the sun is entirely blocked from view during an eclipse, lasted nearly an hour for the astronauts, while totality on Earth is typically just a few minutes long.\n <\/p>\n

\n The astronauts could also see planets like Mars, Venus and Saturn, as well as stars, and Earthshine, or the glow of Earth\u2019s light.\n <\/p>\n

\n After the flyby, Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman thanked the NASA science team for putting together such an exciting observing program for them, as well as \u201csome great, truly human experience moments here.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe were well prepared, and we appreciate all of you, and this is what we do best when we all come together and work as a team,\u201d Wiseman said. \u201cSo y\u2019all knocked it out of the park. Thank you for giving us this opportunity.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Science officer Dr. Kelsey Young in turn shared her gratitude with the crew: \u201cI can\u2019t say enough how much science we\u2019ve already learned and how much inspiration you\u2019ve provided to our entire team, the lunar science community and the entire world with what you were able to bring today. You really brought the moon closer for us today. And we cannot say thank you enough.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The photos will help inform scientists\u2019 understanding of the moon and its origins \u2014 and lay the groundwork for future missions to the lunar surface.\n <\/p>\n

\"Totality,<\/p>\n

In pictures: The historic Artemis II moon mission<\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou know from your experience of seeing the Earth from space how it just seems different,\u201d said Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, while speaking with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman about the flyby.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhen we were on the far side of the moon, looking back at Earth, you really felt like you weren\u2019t in a capsule. You\u2019d been transported to the far side of the moon. And it really just bent your mind. It was an extraordinary human experience. We\u2019re so grateful for it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a moment for the history books: The Artemis II mission performed its much anticipated lunar flyby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-569916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}