During their test flight, NASA astronauts of the Artemis II mission captured the first close-up images of the Moon, revealing regions no human has ever seen before. The photographs, published on April 7, 2026, were taken a day earlier during a seven-hour flyby over the lunar far side, marking humanity's triumphant return to the lunar vicinity.
A Rare In-Space Solar Eclipse
From the crew's vantage point, the Moon appeared large enough to completely block the Sun, creating a phase of total eclipse that lasted nearly 54 minutes. The corona formed a glowing halo around the dark lunar disk, revealing details of the Sun's outer atmosphere. Stars, typically too faint to be captured by cameras when imaging the illuminated Moon, became clearly visible in the darkness. The image also shows a faint glow of the nearside of the Moon, illuminated by light reflected off the Earth (Earthshine).
Credit: NASA
Earth Setting Over the Lunar Horizon
On the sixth day of the mission, the Orion spacecraft captured a stunning scene: the Moon and Earth in a single frame. On the right, the sunlit side of the spacecraft is visible, with a crescent Moon behind it, and even further away — a tiny crescent Earth about to slip below the lunar horizon.
Later, the astronauts witnessed a full Earthset of our home planet. At that moment, swirling clouds were clearly visible on the day side of Earth over the Australia and Oceania region.
These images were taken just 3 minutes before the Orion spacecraft went behind the far side of the Moon and lost contact with Earth for 40 minutes. In the foreground on the right, Ohm crater is visible with terraced edges and central peaks. Such central peaks form in complex craters when the lunar surface, liquefied during a colossal meteorite impact, rebounds upward.
The muted blue Earth setting captured through the Orion spacecraft window. Credit: NASA
Shadow Play on the Lunar Terminator
During the far side flyby, the crew took a series of images of the terminator — the boundary between lunar day and night. The low angle of incoming sunlight creates long, dramatic shadows that reveal the Moon's topography in striking detail.
Craters like Jule, Birkhoff, and Stebbins stand out in the images. The astronauts paid special attention to Vavilov Crater (image on the right, taken with a 400 mm lens), located on the rim of the ancient Hertzsprung basin. The shadows accentuate the sharp transition from smooth inner materials to the highly rugged terrain.
Credit: NASA
A Vision for the Future. These unique visual data not only capture the imagination but also provide astronauts and scientists with invaluable information to prepare for future human landings on the lunar surface.
