As part of an engineering test, NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft captured this image of the Earth and Moon using its NavCam1 imager on January 17 from a distance of 39.5 million miles (63.6 million kilometers). When the camera acquired the image, the spacecraft was moving away from home at a speed of 19,000 miles per hour (8.5 kilometers per second).
The Earth is the largest and brightest point in the center of the image, while the smaller and fainter Moon appears to the right. Various constellations can also be seen in the surrounding space. The bright star cluster in the upper left corner is the Pleiades in the constellation Taurus. Hamal, the brightest star in Aries, is in the upper right corner of the image. The Earth-Moon system is centered in the middle of five stars that comprise the head of the Cetus whale.
NavCam1, a grayscale imager, is part of the TAGCAMS (Touch-And-Go Camera System) navigation camera suite. Malin Space Science Systems designed, built and tested TAGCAMS; Lockheed Martin integrated TAGCAMS into the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft and operates TAGCAMS.
Image credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin
Explanation from: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2018/osiris-rex-captures-new-earth-moon-image
Leave feedback about this