The photo, appears as a glowing blue marble against the blackness of space. Africa is clearly visible as the large landmass, with two glowing auroras lighting up the atmosphere
NASA just shared a stunning high-resolution image of Earth captured by the Artemis II crew as they journeyed toward the Moon and the internet is absolutely losing it. The official NASA Earth account posted the breathtaking photo with the simple, powerful caption, “That’s us! ”
In the image, appears as a glowing blue marble against the blackness of space. Africa is clearly visible as the large landmass, with two glowing auroras lighting up the atmosphere (one in the top right, another in the bottom left), plus zodiacal light and faint airglow visible. As Artemis II astronaut Christina Koch added her take on the post saying, “You guys look great.”
This is the first crewed Artemis mission since Apollo, and these are among the first photos ever taken by humans traveling this far from Earth since the 1970s. The crew is currently on their way to the Moon, having successfully completed the translunar injection burn.
The post has already exploded with 1.5 million views, 91K likes, 17K reposts, and thousands of replies in just hours. Netizens are flooding the comments with pure emotion, science love, and hilarious takes.
One user shared the awe feeling of living on earth saying, “Bro I literally stopped scrolling for a full minute just staring at this 😭🌍 Like we live THERE. That big beautiful blue marble spinning in all that darkness and we’re just out here complaining about Mondays.”
Another user compared the two photo of Earth taken 50 years apart, asking people to spot the difference, “Apollo 17 (1972) vs Artemis II (2026). Two photos of Earth from deep space, taken more than 50 years apart. Notice any differences?”
