NASA releases dramatic image of Earth and moon taken by ASU camera

Cameras orbiting the moon and operated by Arizona State University have captured a striking image showing the Earth rising over the surface of the moon.

The Sahara desert can be seen peeking through swirling clouds in the right-hand corner of the image. Just beyond that is Saudi Arabia. The South American coast is visible on the left.

The image was composed of a series of images taken Oct. 12 as a minivan-size NASA spacecraft called the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter zoomed around the moon. Getting the image was complicated, said ASU Professor Mark Robinson, who is the lead scientist on the orbiter's cameras.

The spacecraft had to roll on its side to snap the image while speeding by at more than 3,580 miles per hour. The orbiter was about 83 miles above the moon at the time. Robinson said the team tried a practice run in the summer that almost worked. They regrouped and tried again in October.

"I was very happy it worked and very impressed by how beautiful it turned out to be," he said.

ASU has three cameras aboard the unmanned spacecraft, which has been in orbit since 2009 and carries scientific instruments. Two high-resolution cameras can zero in on objects the size of a car. A third camera with a wide-angle lens provides lower-resolution images the size of a football field.

"The image is simply stunning," said Noah Petro, deputy project scientist for LRO at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, in a statement. "The image of the Earth evokes the famous 'Blue Marble' image taken by Astronaut Harrison Schmitt during Apollo 17, 43 years ago, which also showed Africa prominently in the picture."

NASA's first Earthrise image was taken in 1966 by the Lunar Orbiter 1 spacecraft.

NASA says the most iconic Earthrise photo was taken by the Apollo 8 mission as the spacecraft entered lunar orbit Christmas Eve 1968.

That day, the astronauts had a live broadcast from orbit showing the pictures. Astronaut Jim Lovell said: "The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring, and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth."

In 2009, the orbiter cameras found landers, rovers and American flags from the famous Apollo missions of the late 1960s and 1970s. NASA released high-resolution photos in 2011 that made international news. Then, in 2012, NASA released high-resolution photos of five American flags that had been left by astronauts.

More images taken by the LRO cameras:

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