Posted on 08/21/2025 12:38:48 PM PDT by Red Badger
NASA reveals a breathtaking photo of Earth and Moon taken from deep space.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU | The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel
From nearly 290 million kilometers away, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft turned its gaze homeward and captured an arresting glimpse of Earth and the Moon, now just distant specks of light nestled among the stars of the Aries constellation. According to NASA, this deep-space photo opportunity came as part of a scheduled instrument calibration while the spacecraft continues its cruise toward the asteroid Psyche.
Testing Cameras With Familiar Cosmic Landmarks
The image, taken on July 20 and 23, was created using Psyche’s twin multispectral cameras, each equipped with filters and telescopic lenses designed to examine planetary surfaces in various wavelengths of light. By selecting familiar targets that reflect sunlight—like Earth and the Moon—scientists are able to verify the cameras’ performance and detect any changes over time. These long-exposure photos, lasting up to 10 seconds, were taken during one of the mission team’s routine checkouts of the spacecraft’s science instruments.
The team also previously pointed Psyche’s cameras at Jupiter and Mars, whose more reddish spectral tones offered another calibration point. Comparing these datasets helps engineers and scientists ensure the instrument remains finely tuned ahead of its primary science mission.
According to Jim Bell, lead for the imaging instrument at Arizona State University, this is just the beginning. “After this, we may look at Saturn or Vesta to help us continue to test the imagers,” he said. “We’re sort of collecting solar system ‘trading cards’ from these different bodies and running them through our calibration pipeline to make sure we’re getting the right answers.”
Psyche Trajectory Illustration - Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Journey Toward An Asteroid’s Metallic Heart
Launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in October 2023, Psyche is en route to a one-of-a-kind asteroid believed to be the exposed metallic core of a failed planetesimal, a remnant from the early solar system. The spacecraft is following a complex spiral trajectory that will loop it around the inner solar system. A gravity assist from Mars, scheduled for May 2026, will provide the necessary velocity boost to guide Psyche on its billion-mile journey toward its final destination, arriving in July 2029.
The cameras are not the only systems undergoing routine checkouts. During the July sessions, the mission team also tested Psyche’s magnetometer and gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer, instruments crucial for analyzing the asteroid’s composition. These evaluations happen every six months and are designed to confirm the spacecraft’s instruments are operating smoothly during the long cruise phase.
Shedding Light On Planetary Formation
The mission’s primary goal is to understand how planetary bodies with metallic cores—like Earth—might have formed. The surface of Psyche, orbiting between Mars and Jupiter, could hold clues to processes that shaped the early solar system. By analyzing its spectral features, scientists hope to identify specific patterns, such as the “bumps and wiggles” found in the spectra of other bodies like the Moon and asteroid Vesta.
The imager instrument, operated by ASU in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems, is tailored for this challenge. It will deliver detailed views across different light wavelengths to help decode the asteroid’s surface composition.
How Will #MissionToPsyche See Its Target Asteroid?
A Testbed For Deep-space Tech
Alongside its primary science objectives, the Psyche mission is also pushing the boundaries of space communication. The spacecraft successfully tested its optical communications system, which recently beamed data—including a cat video—back to Earth using high-powered lasers. This experimental technology could one day enable high-speed internet across interplanetary distances, making Mars and beyond more connected than ever.
With instruments active, systems calibrated, and its next milestone set for a Mars flyby, the Psyche mission is progressing steadily on its multi-year journey to one of the most intriguing objects in the asteroid belt.
Psyche Ping!..........................
To look at it, you’d never know Earth is the place the Lord God chose to create man in his image, send His to die for man, and abide there forever.
He choses the “weak” things to confound the mighty. God’s way are not our ways.
Amen!
I can see my house!
If I’d known they were going to take a picture of all of us that day, I would have worn a nicer shirt and smiled a little more.
LOL
Nice! Thanks Red Badger.
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Launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in October 2023, Psyche is en route to a one-of-a-kind asteroid believed to be the exposed metallic core of a failed planetesimal, a remnant from the early solar system.
What if it gets to the asteroid and finds that it’s solid gold?!?!?!!?..................
slang used to indicate you're joking or have just fooled someone
Indeed.
I can see Sarah Palin!..................
More likely nickel-iron. But either way, we need to plant our flag and prospect for more.
It's likely that our prospecting will be done from one of the Lagrange points, using a (finger quote) laser (finger quote).
From a different vantage point, maybe one or more sats cruising in Solar orbit, when the laser hits, the sats would read the emission spectra to assay the composition without waiting for a close-up visit which would take years and have to be done one at a time.
And, a possibly related sidebar:
Too bad that, given the cost of transportation, it would still not be economically viable to lug any of that gold back to Earth.
Regards,
Shows no sign of intelligent life.
And even if it was, it would crash the market for whatever metal was in it, making it as cheap as iron.............
Earth, the Final Frontier,
...these are the voyages, of the Starship, Psychopaths,
..a 5 year mission,
...to seek out the Only Life and Civilization,
...and to bodily go where only Man-Adam, has gone before....
I think I see me!
Stunning? I’m stunned! Or... Am I stuned? It’s an earth and a moon in a picture from way out. Kind of what we would expect it to look like, isn’t it?
From 177 million miles away...
I guess we have different definitions of “breathtaking”...
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