Chevron icon It indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options. HOMEPAGE

Feel incredibly lonely as you stare at this photo of the Earth and moon drifting through space

On November 26, a Japanese spacecraft captured this image of the Earth and the moon from 1.9 million miles away, just drifting through the inky black void of space:

Advertisement

When you think about the scale of the universe, it's hard to imagine that most of it is made of empty space. Photos like this one help give us some context.

The moon is roughly 239,000 miles away. The closest planet, Venus, is 25 million miles away. Pluto is a staggering 3 billion miles away. And that's just our tiny solar system.

earth moon space jaxa hayabusa
JAXA/Hayabusa

The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Hayabusa 2 captured this image on its journey to the asteroid Ryugu. The spacecraft is expected to rendezvous with the asteroid in 2018.

When it arrives, the probe will take pictures and samples, then return to Earth by 2020:

Advertisement
hayabusa2 spacecraft asteroid jaxa
Artist's concept of Hayabusa 2 approaching asteroid Ryugu.
JAXA

Scientists think that asteroids may have carried the necessary ingredients for life to Earth long ago when the solar system was first forming. So the Hayabusa 2 mission could help us figure out how life evolved on Earth.

NASA Space
Advertisement
Close icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.

Jump to

  1. Main content
  2. Search
  3. Account