NASA just dropped new high-quality Moon photos from Artemis II

[Daniel Sims]

The big picture: When the Artemis crew set off for the Moon last week, many observers likely anticipated the eventual transmission of new, high-resolution images of the natural satellite's far side. With the lunar flyby now complete and the crew headed home, NASA has published several photos of the Moon from a new perspective, with more on the way.

Around two dozen high-resolution photos of the Moon, taken by the Artemis II mission crew, are now available to download on NASA's website and the agency's Flickr page. During the mission, four astronauts observed portions of the Moon's far side that humans have never seen directly.

The photos depict regions of the Moon familiar to Earth observers, as well as areas rarely photographed. During the flyby, the astronauts provided fresh descriptions of craters, lava flows, and other geographical features, along with details of the Moon's color and texture. The astronauts flew at about 4,067 miles above the lunar surface, much farther away than Apollo 13, which flew only about 70 miles above the surface in 1970.

As the Moon, Sun, and Artemis II spacecraft aligned, the crew witnessed a nearly hour-long total solar eclipse. During this period, the astronauts studied the solar corona, normally outshone by the disk, to learn more about the solar atmosphere. The crew also reported six flashes from meteoroid impacts on the far side of the lunar surface, which would only have been visible in the darkness of the eclipse.

In NASA's photos of the eclipse, part of the Moon is dimly lit by light reflected from Earth. However, since the Moon obscures the sun, stars and planets become visible in the background. In one image, Venus appears as a bright flash on the far left side. In another, Saturn appears as a bright spot just below the Moon's bottom right edge, while Mars is visible on the right edge of the photo.

Other images show Earth rising and setting behind the Moon as the Artemis II craft passed behind the natural satellite. This caused a planned 40-minute communications blackout during which the Moon blocked all communications between the crew and Earth.

Artemis II, which launched on April 2, brought humans beyond Earth's orbit for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. The planned 10-day mission also broke the record for the farthest distance humans have traveled away from Earth – 252,756 miles, compared to Apollo 13, which traveled 248,655 miles.

The crew is expected to splash down off the coast of San Diego on the evening of Friday, April 10. The mission will provide crucial data for Artemis III, which aims to conduct the first crewed lunar landing in more than 50 years in early 2028.

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NASA just dropped new high-quality Moon photos from Artemis II

 

[Hotdog1n]

Holy, these AI generated photos are great!

 

[Jonny5]

Holy, these AI generated photos are great!

Yes the earth is clearly flat

 

[madboyv1]

The framing for that first picture is stunning, definitely gonna use that for a desktop background.

 

[GeforcerFX]

Artemis launched April 1st not the 2nd. Well it was the 1st still in America.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Neat!

 

[Anton Longshot]

Personally I would have preferred a "for all mankind" mission instead of "beat the Chinese".

The billionaires who profit off nationalist animosity should be shown the door.

 

[fadingfool]

Personally I would have preferred a "for all mankind" mission instead of "beat the Chinese".

The billionaires who profit off nationalist animosity should be shown the door.

Apollo missions were "beat the USSR" so not much has changed.

 

[havok585]

Yes the earth is clearly flat

what? what does CGI photos have to do with a minor unproven theory?

 

[Endymio]

Personally I would have preferred a "for all mankind" mission instead of "beat the Chinese".

The billionaires who profit off nationalist animosity should be shown the door.

Would you prefer if US astronauts had to first request a visa from China before visiting the moon, after buying their tickets on a Russian rocket?

 

[TooQik]

Just downloaded a few of the pictures from NASA's Flickr page for my desktop backgrounds. Good stuff!

 

[Tantor]

Why no stars in the Artemis-earth-moon lineup? But the solar eclipse has stars close to the corona, despite the obviously higher light values. It even has some illumination of the backside edges of the moon, which is a bit iffy considering there is no atmosphere to refract the light.

I'm rather skeptical. The original Apollo astronauts said they saw no stars at all from their window, which is impossible. Perhaps this Artemis mission is of similar ilk.

 

[solstice245]

Why no stars in the Artemis-earth-moon lineup? But the solar eclipse has stars close to the corona, despite the obviously higher light values. It even has some illumination of the backside edges of the moon, which is a bit iffy considering there is no atmosphere to refract the light.

I'm rather skeptical. The original Apollo astronauts said they saw no stars at all from their window, which is impossible. Perhaps this Artemis mission is of similar ilk.

I'm no photographer, but here's my uneducated understanding of what we're seeing.

In the first image you mention, you can clearly see the spacecraft on the left side which is directly illuminated by the Sun. This is not to mention the Moon and the Earth are visible due to direct sunlight as well. If the image were sufficiently exposed to show stars in the background, anything lit directly by the Sun would be blown out due to overexposure, which is evidently not the case.

As for the eclipse image, the fact stars are visible in that photo is rather a challenge to your assumption that the corona has "obviously higher light values". The illumination on the left side of the moon is not from the Sun, but is light bouncing off the Earth. Earthshine, if you will. The earthshine appearing this bright is also supporting evidence this is a more exposed shot.

These are just my arguments. I used an authoritative voice to make them, but again, I'm not a photographer, they could well be wrong.

 

[JamesBlond]

1000% fake ai
If you take a camera with High Zoom function and telescope you can see clearly, sun on the moon earth and ship all fake, imagine a day when these people stop lying about being in outer space...

 

[Lionvibez]

1000% fake ai
If you take a camera with High Zoom function and telescope you can see clearly, sun on the moon earth and ship all fake, imagine a day when these people stop lying about being in outer space...

lmao embarrassing take in 2026.

 

[LordVile95]

Yes the earth is clearly flat

Actually it's more like a minstrel

 

[Tech420]

1000% fake ai
If you take a camera with High Zoom function and telescope you can see clearly, sun on the moon earth and ship all fake, imagine a day when these people stop lying about being in outer space...

Literally nobody thinks these images are fake, and they also don't believe the earth is f. People who say they are fake are pulling the ultimate troll cause they like to get a reaction from people

what? what does CGI photos have to do with a minor unproven theory?

Literally nobody actually believes the earth is flat. People who say they believe it are doing what is called "trolling" where they try to get a reaction out of people by saying something ridiculous. It works because every single comment section on every platform about this space trip has someone doing this same troll

 

[joe2025]

It's amazing how many brain dead conspiracy nuts there are today. I stopped talking to my sister over a year ago after she texted me a youtube video saying the moon landings were fake.

 

[KnightSayNI]

We will never know if the Earth is flat because all eyeballs, windows, and camera lenses are convex.

 

[Northy]

We keep sending people to the moon despite knowing that there's literally nothing to do there, but can't make Outlook work properly here on earth.

 

[user556]

... The illumination on the left side of the moon is not from the Sun, but is light bouncing off the Earth. Earthshine, if you will. The earthshine appearing this bright is also supporting evidence this is a more exposed shot.

Good point. I'd not even noticed myself. It was the right-hand side of the moon, and Earth, that were directly illuminated.

Also, the stars are streaked from movement too - Another way to say the eclipse photo was long exposure.

PS: And amusingly, the article itself talks about all this.

 

[ThomasTECH]

If these images are real then what is NASA doing with AI? Nothing? I mean if I were NASA I would be like we can now go to mars. We will substantiate our trip with photos that people will believe are actually from mars. F it lets explore Venus it's more gender relevant. Bottom line is don't even bother releasing photos NASA nobody will believe their real. Unless they really are, which if they were they would be classified and never released to the public.

 

[Endymio]

Bottom line is don't even bother releasing photos NASA nobody will believe their real. Unless they really are, which if they were they would be classified and never released to the public.

NASA already scrubbed out the location of all our secret rocket bases on the moon ... even the one where we're raising an army of dolphins with surgically-implanted forehead lasers.

 

[JamesBlond]

Literally nobody thinks these images are fake, and they also don't believe the earth is f. People who say they are fake are pulling the ultimate troll cause they like to get a reaction from people

Literally nobody actually believes the earth is flat. People who say they believe it are doing what is called "trolling" where they try to get a reaction out of people by saying something ridiculous. It works because every single comment section on every platform about this space trip has someone doing this same troll

I take it the latest interview from the space station where the guy slipped saying we broadcasting from "York Ohio" was a mistake...cause I don't think they are as stupid as you think you are or maybe they are, actors in a movie, just this time your in the movie

 

[JamesBlond]

It's amazing how many brain dead conspiracy nuts there are today. I stopped talking to my sister over a year ago after she texted me a youtube video saying the moon landings were fake.

At least you know she was right after the actual pilot admitted over 12 times that they never left the earth and it was all stagged in a 4 hanger large fake moon scene on earth, so you don't have to feel bad she was right, you are wrong she has brains and uses them