The first photos of Earth from Artemis II are going viral, but look closer, or you’ll miss the best part. As an astrophotographer, I'm geeking out over this photo

A view of Earth from Artemis II with the northern and south lights at each pole — (Image credit: NASA / Reid Wiseman)

The crew aboard Orion on the Artemis II spaceflight has already begun sending back images of Earth – and it didn’t take long for the images to find viral traction on social media. But, view the image on a tiny social media screen, and you may miss the best part.

The photo of Earth taken on April 2 by Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman shows a stunning glimpse of the blue planet with swirling clouds. But, look closer, and you can spot a line of green light at both of the Earth’s poles.

That’s right, that viral shot of Earth shows both the northern lights and the southern lights all in a single photograph! As someone who has spent a lot of time chasing the aurora, I’m geeking out over how cool it is that the astronauts managed to see both the northern and southern lights at once.

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That’s not the only space phenomenon in the photo either. There’s a strip of zodiacal light on the bottom right of our home planet, which NASA explains is from the Earth eclipsing the sun from Orion’s view.

The four astronauts aboard – Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen – are also spending part of Friday practicing their photo-taking skills in preparation for the roughly six hours that they’ll be viewing the moon’s surface on Monday, April 6.

A view of Earth from inside the Orion spacecraft — (Image credit: NASA / Reid Wiseman)

The crew has already practiced with the Artemis II cameras – which include the Nikon D5 and a mirrorless Z9 – but observing the moon’s surface will be done in microgravity in a space that’s only about as large as two minivans put together, NASA explains. The crew will be prepping to photograph the moon with 80-400mm and 14-24mm lenses.

NASA estimates the crew – who are now the first astronauts to leave Earth’s orbit since 1972 – will see about 20 percent of the surface of the far side of the moon, the side that we can’t see earthside, on Monday.

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