Moon Gallery

First Picture of the Earth and Moon in a Single Frame

This picture of the Earth and Moon in a single frame, the first of its kind ever taken by a spacecraft, was recorded September 18, 1977, but NASAs Voyager 1 when it was 7.25 million miles (11.66 million kilometers) from Earth. The moon is at the top of the picture and beyond the Earth as viewed by Voyager. In the picture are eastern Asia, the western Pacific Ocean and part of the Arctic. Voyager 1 was directly above Mt. Everest (on the night side of the planet at 25 degrees north latitude) when the picture was taken. The photo was made from three images taken through color filters, then processed by the Image Processing Lab at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Because the Earth is many times brighter than the Moon, the Moon was artificially brightened by a factor of three relative to the Earth by computer enhancement so that both bodies would show clearly in the prints. Voyager 1 was launched September 5, 1977 and Voyager 2 on August 20, 1977. JPL is responsible for the Voyager mission.

© NASA

Catching Sweetfish in the Tama River under the Autumn Moon (Tamagawa aki no tsuki ayugari no zu)

5043605 Catching Sweetfish in the Tama River under the Autumn Moon (Tamagawa aki no tsuki ayugari no zu) (colour woodblock print) by Hiroshige, Ando or Utagawa (1797-1858); Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, UK; (add.info.: Autumn moon at Tama River. View across deep-blue water with footbridge in middle distance. Several people fishing, one of whome in foreground is assisted by a naked child. The top of a willow on left just breaks the circle of the full moon. Line of hills across background. Publisher: Maruya Jinpachi (Marujin, Enjud?). Signed: Hiroshige ga. Censor's seal: Tanaka Heishir?.
Snow, Moon, and Flowers at Famous Places (Meisho setsugekka)); Japanese, out of copyright.

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The Earth and Moon

During its flight, the Galileo spacecraft returned images of the Earth and Moon. Separate images of the Earth and Moon were combined to generate this view. The Galileo spacecraft took the images in 1992 on its way to explore the Jupiter system in 1995-97. The image shows a partial view of the Earth centered on the Pacific Ocean about latitude 20 degrees south. The west coast of South America can be observed as well as the Caribbean; swirling white cloud patterns indicate storms in the southeast Pacific. The distinct bright ray crater at the bottom of the Moon is the Tycho impact basin. The lunar dark areas are lava rock filled impact basins. This picture contains same scale and relative color/albedo images of the Earth and Moon. False colors via use of the 1-micron filter as red, 727-nm filter as green, and violet filter as blue. The Galileo project is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

© NASA