Edge of moon, showing Sea of Serenity above Sea of Tranquility
Half-moon seen during day-time, when moon is in first/third quarter, at right angle to the Sun-Earth line, allowing 50% of the sunlit surface to be seen.
Jupiter, largest planet in solar system, gas giant mostly of hydrogen and helium with a mass over 300 times that of Earth, fifth planet from the Sun, with some 95 moons.
Jupiter and its four largest moons: from left to right: Callisto, Ganymede (shadow over Jupiter surface), Io and Europa.
Sun,150 million km distant (light speed, 8.3 minutes), orbits the Milky Way every 230 million years, about 4.5 billion years old, will last another 5 billion years.
Image of moon, coloured red; lens glare added with Adobe Photoshop.
Moon, formed roughly 4.5 billion years ago, from a collision between Earth and a Mars-sized body, 27% size of Earth, average 384,400 km distant, near side of the moon always faces Earth.
Earth, image taken by Artemis II crew, April 2026; 4.5 billion years old, 150 million km from the sun, which it orbits at 30 km/s.
Near and far sides of Moon, image taken by Artemis II crew, April 2026; Orientale basin in centre lies between near (left of image) and far (right of image) sides of the moon.
Artemis II craft, image acquired by Pixinsight Team on April 5, 2026 at 01.38 UTC; in upper left quadrant, above plane trail and below two stars is a short very faint slightly curved line of Artemis II trail. I thank Vicent Peris & colleagues for taking, processing & sharing the image.
