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On Monday, the four crew members of NASA’s Artemis 2 mission made history, officially breaking the record for the farthest any human has ever traveled from Earth, at an astonishing 252,752 miles from home.
At the time, the crew’s capsule was swinging around the Moon before starting its multi-day return journey, offering the astronauts some truly astonishing views. The team spent many hours using both professional-grade photography equipment — as well as their iPhones — to capture the exceedingly rare moment, from a dazzling “Earthset” to a total solar eclipse that lasted nearly an entire hour.
The team was extensively coached on how to take these pictures and what to look out for as they gazed at the rugged surface of the Moon through Orion’s windows. It was a highly organized “seven-hour lunar observation period,” as NASA notes, with the crew dividing into pairs. Two crew members observed for 55 to 85 minutes at a time, “while the other pair exercises or works on other tasks.”
Here are some of the most spectacular snapshots NASA recently received from the historic flyby.
Earthset
One particularly impressive image shows the Earth, half plunged into nighttime, peeking out from behind the cratered lunar surface. It’s essentially the equivalent of a sunset as seen from Earth, except that it’s the entire Earth setting below the horizon of the Moon, hence NASA’s use of the word “Earthset.”
Total Solar Eclipse
Another photo captures the total solar eclipse the crew was beholden to for a stunning 54 minutes as the Moon fully eclipsed the Sun from their perspective. The image shows the Sun’s corona in the form of a “halo around the dark lunar disk,” as NASA explains.
Eclipse Selfie
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