Astronauts on NASA’s Artemis 2 mission captured a rare image of the moon eclipsing the sun, with Mars and two other planets visible in the same frame.The image, taken during the crew’s deep space flight, shows the moon completely blocking out the sun and revealing the glowing solar corona.
Off the moon’s lower right edge, three bright spots of light appear, with a reddish tint in the middle point.
NASA confirmed that this body is Mars, while the other two planets are likely bright planets visible due to the significant decrease in sunlight during the eclipse.
Images taken on April 6 from cameras mounted on the solar system wings of the Orion spacecraft also captured the Moon as a dark, sharply defined sphere backlit by the Sun, with its cratered surface faintly visible along the edge.
Part of Orion’s structure is visible in silhouette in the foreground, confirming the spacecraft’s position during alignment.
This moment comes as part of NASA’s broader Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon for the first time since the Apollo era. Launched aboard a Space Launch System rocket, the crew travels in the Orion spacecraft, designed for long-duration missions beyond low Earth orbit.
This mission is an essential step towards establishing a sustainable human presence around the Moon.
Unlike the Apollo missions, which focused on short landings on the moon’s surface, Artemis was designed for long-term exploration. The current crew — Reed Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — has been hailed as the most diverse ever sent on a deep space mission, representing a mix of backgrounds and experience and representing a shift in how NASA approaches human spaceflight.
Plans include building the Lunar Gateway, a space station that will orbit the moon and support repeat missions to the lunar surface, especially near the South Pole where water ice has been discovered.
NASA officials view Artemis as a foundation for future human missions to Mars. By testing new technologies and working farther from Earth than ever before, the program prepares astronauts for the challenges of deep space travel while still providing rare and stunning views of the solar system.
