Juno Spacecraft Sends Back A Beautiful First Image From Wednesday's Earth Flyby

NASA's Juno spacecraft flew by Earth on Wednesday Oct. 9 getting a slingshot-like blast of speed it needed to reach Jupiter. While it shot around us, it snapped some pictures of the planet we call home.

Juno started its five-year journey on Aug. 5, 2011. Though the craft has mysteriously entered "safe mode," it's started sending these images back to Earth. Mission control isn't too worried about this little glitch - everything still seems to be working on the craft.

The Twitter account @NASAshutdown just tweeted out one of the first of them to be downloaded from the spacecraft. It's slightly more cleaned up than the raw images posted by Universe Today.

The image was taken at 3:06:30 p.m. EST on Oct. 9 while flying over South America and the southern Atlantic Ocean. Check it out: