The moon photobombed Earth last month as NASA's Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite was snapping shots of the lunar "dark side" from a million miles away.
The rare images of the moon crossing past Earth from space were captured from 3:50 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. Eastern time, on July 16,
reported the Wall Street Journal.
"The view, while unique, isn't the first glimpse we've had of the far side of the moon shielded from us on Earth," wrote the Journal's Shawn Langlois. "That distinction, NASA says, belongs to the images returned by the Soviet Luna 3 in 1959. In 2008, NASA captured a similar view from 31 million miles away, but they showed a moon that, unlike the latest batch, showed only a partially illuminated moon."
NASA said the pictures were taken by the agency's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera on its DSCOVR satellite, which is conducting real-time solar wind monitoring for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"It is surprising how much brighter Earth is than the moon," said Adam Szabo, DSCOVR project scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Our planet is a truly brilliant object in dark space compared to the lunar surface."
The imaging camera on DSCOVR will post daily color images of Earth to a public website, according to NASA. The images will show various views of Earth as it rotates through the day, will be available 12 to 36 hours after they are taken, noted the space agency.
Many on social media, including President Barack Obama, found the moon and Earth images fascinating.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.