+

Cookies on the Business Insider India website

Business Insider India has updated its Privacy and Cookie policy. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the better experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we\'ll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on the Business Insider India website. However, you can change your cookie setting at any time by clicking on our Cookie Policy at any time. You can also see our Privacy Policy.

Close
HomeQuizzoneWhatsappShare Flash Reads
 

A mind-boggling photo from NASA's Lucy probe shows how far the moon is from Earth. Can you spot it?

Oct 27, 2022, 00:54 IST
Business Insider
NASA's Lucy spacecraft captured this image of the Earth and the moon from a distance of 890,000 miles, on October 13, 2022.NASA/Goddard/SwRI
  • A new photo from NASA's Lucy spacecraft captures Earth and the moon together — a rare sight.
  • The image reveals the vast space between us and the moon. About 30 Earths could fit there.
Advertisement

This is a picture of Earth and the moon. Our planet is obvious, on the far right side of the image, but the moon is a little harder to spot. Do you see it?

This isn't a prank. The moon is there. NASA's Lucy probe, a mission to a group of asteroids near Jupiter, snapped this photo as it zoomed past Earth on October 13. Not many spacecraft get this perspective of our planet and its rocky satellite.

NASA's Lucy spacecraft captured this image (which has been cropped) of the Earth, on October 15, 2022.NASA/Goddard/SwRI

It varies, but on average the moon is 238,855 miles from Earth. On a cosmic scale, that's not very far, but you could fit 30 Earths into that space. That's why it took three days for Apollo astronauts to reach the moon. NASA's new lunar rocket, called the Space Launch System, is set to spend 25 days traveling to the moon, swinging a wide U-turn around it, and coming back to Earth. In short: It's far away.

So do you see the moon in the image below? Here's a hint: It's on the left side of the picture.

Marina Koren, a staff writer covering space at The Atlantic, had trouble spotting it too.

Advertisement

"Every time I think I see it, I end up wiping another dust particle from my screen. Where is it??" she wrote on Twitter.

Well, it's right here.

NASA/Goddard/SwRI

Still don't see it? Let's turn up the brightness.

NASA/Goddard/SwRI

So that's how far away the moon really is.

The Lucy probe was swinging past Earth to get an extra boost toward Jupiter, flinging itself toward the outer solar system with the force of our planet's gravity. To calibrate its instruments, the spacecraft's camera system snapped these images from 380,000 miles away as it zoomed past.

Advertisement
You are subscribed to notifications!
Looks like you've blocked notifications!
Next Article