Image: Juice snaps moon en route to Earth

During the first step of humankind’s first-ever lunar-Earth flyby, ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission captured this stunning view of the moon.

The image was taken by Juice monitoring camera 1 (JMC1) at 23:25 CEST on 19 August 2024, soon after Juice made its closest approach to the moon. This successful flyby of the moon slightly redirected Juice’s path through space to put it on course for a flyby of Earth on 20 August 2024.

The image shows some signs of real color differences in the large-scale features on the lunar surface.

The Juice monitoring cameras were designed to monitor the spacecraft’s various booms and antennas, especially during the challenging deployment period following launch.

They were not designed to carry out science or image the moon. A scientific camera called JANUS is providing high-resolution imagery during the cruise phase flybys of Earth, the moon and Venus, and of Jupiter and its icy moons once in the Jupiter system in 2031.

JMC1 is located on the +X side of the spacecraft and looks diagonally up into a field of view that sees deployed antennas, and depending on their orientation, part of one of the solar arrays.