NASA ’s OSIRIS - REx spacecraft , which is currently on its fashion to grab a chunk of an asteroid , has returned astunning imageof Earth and the Moon in the process .
The spacecraft crack the prototype on October 2 , 2017 , just after it made aflyby of Earth , although the double has only just been released by NASA . At this sentence the Moon was about 390,000 kilometers ( 240,000 miles ) from Earth .
OSIRIS - REx took this image from a length of more than 5 million kilometers ( 3 million mile ) from Earth , or more than 13 times the Earth - Moon length . It was taken by combine three range from dissimilar color wavelengths . The Moon was clear to make it more seeable .
The space vehicle was establish on September 8 , 2016 , but to get to its target area , it then revolve the Sun for a year before flying past Earth to get a speed boost from our planet ’s soberness . It made its unaired approach to our major planet – an altitude of 17,000 kilometers ( 11,000 miles ) – on September 22 , 2017 , and take this image 10 days later .
This will give it enough amphetamine to extend to Bennu , with the space vehicle due to rendezvous with the asteroid in August 2018 at a space of about 320 million kilometre ( 200 million miles ) from Earth . In sum , the spacecraft will travel 7.2 billion kilometers ( 4.5 billion stat mi ) to reach Bennu .
Once at the asteroid it will use arobotic armto collect a sample in July 2020 . In March 2021 , the space vehicle will begin its journey back to Earth , and in September 2023 the sample will be delivered in a condensation back to Earth – the biggest sampling returned since the Apollo commission . It ’s hoped this sample could tell us more about the origins of life on Earth .
That image above is n’t the only prison term we ’ve picture Earth and the Moon from blank . Quite a few other ballistic capsule have captured like views , designate the aloofness between our two bodies .
In 1992 , for deterrent example , the Galileo spacecraft captured an image of our two humankind on its style to Jupiter . In 2011 , the MESSENGER space vehicle took an image of Earth and the Moon from Mercury . And also in 2011 , the Juno spacecraft have a picture of Earth and the Moon on its way to Jupiter .
