Hello, World, taken by Reid Wiseman of the Artemis II crew on April 3, 2026. Vertically flipped.

Hello, World is a photograph of Earth taken by NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman aboard the Orion spacecraft during the Artemis II mission and was published on April 3, 2026.[1][2][3] Captured during the spacecraft's outbound journey toward the Moon, it is the second in-person photograph showing a complete Earth hemisphere (a full disk). The first one was The Blue Marble, taken by the Apollo 17 crew in 1972.[2]

Image

Previous photograph by Wiseman, taken with a lower exposure

The image shows Earth at night illuminated by moonlight from a full Moon. Africa dominates the center of the frame, with the Sahara desert largely unobscured by cloud cover and parts of Europe visible to the north; the Iberian Peninsula appears at the lower left. The Atlantic Ocean is visible, with South America to the right.[2] City lights are visible across the night side, while a bright lens flare near the center is caused by window reflection. The image is rotated approximately 146° from a standard north-up orientation, and the outlines of Orion's windows are visible as dark cutouts along the edges of the frame. Along Earth's limb, the upper atmosphere appears as a thin band of airglow. Auroras are visible near both poles. Sunlight refracted along the horizon produces a faint afterglow and is reflected in space by interplanetary medium as the zodiacal light. The planet Venus appears as a bright point below and to the right of Earth.[4]

Original Hello, Earth photograph
Original Artemis II image with south-up orientation

The photograph was taken on April 3, 2026,[5][a] approximately one day after launch, shortly after completion of the trans-lunar injection burn that placed Orion on a trajectory toward the Moon.[6] Wiseman captured the image through a spacecraft window using a Nikon D5 camera with a long exposure ( f/4, ISO 51,200, 1/4-second shutter speed).[7][b] NASA also released a lower-exposure "night" version of the image, captured shortly beforehand, which emphasizes city lights and reduces reflected glare.[8]

The title "Hello, World" references both the crew's greeting and the traditional test message used in computer programming.[9]

See also

  • Images of Earth
  • Earthset, another photograph by Reid Wiseman, from April 6, 2026
  • Earthrise, a December 24, 1968 photograph by William Anders from the Apollo 8 mission
  • The Blue Marble, a December 7, 1972 photograph by Harrison Schmitt from the Apollo 17 mission
  • Pale Blue Dot, a 1990 image of the Earth taken by Voyager 1
  • The Day the Earth Smiled, a 2013 image of the Earth taken by Cassini

Notes

  1. ^ The EXIF date and time information is April 3, 2026, 00:27:39 UTC.
  2. ^ The image metadata indicates that it was taken using a Nikon D5 camera with a 14–24 mm f/2.8 lens at an aperture of f/4, an exposure time of 1/4 second, and an ISO setting of 51,200; the exposure was set manually and the image was later processed using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic.

References

  1. ^ Miller, Katrina (April 3, 2026). "NASA Unveils 1st Earth Photos From Artemis II Moon Mission: 'You Look Beautiful.'". The New York Times. Retrieved April 5, 2026.
  2. ^ a b c Ferreira Santos, Sofia (April 3, 2026). "Artemis II crew now halfway to Moon as they take 'spectacular' image of Earth". BBC News. Retrieved April 5, 2026.
  3. ^ Breen, Kerry (April 3, 2026). "NASA shares first photos of Earth taken by Artemis II: "Hello, World"". CBS News. Retrieved April 3, 2026.
  4. ^ Ernst, Nico (April 4, 2026). "What NASA's images of Earth show and how they were taken". heise online. Retrieved April 5, 2026.
  5. ^ "Earth From the Perspective of Artemis II". Retrieved April 3, 2026.
  6. ^ "Hello, World - NASA". Retrieved April 3, 2026.
  7. ^ Stout, Andy (April 5, 2026). "A tale of two photos: Artemis II's Hello World and Apollo 17's Blue Marble". www.redsharknews.com. RedShark News. Retrieved April 6, 2026.
  8. ^ @NASA (April 3, 2026). "These two images were taken by @astro_reid only minutes apart. The stark difference is the result of camera settings. In the first, a longer shutter speed let in much more light from Earth, while the shorter shutter speed in the second emphasizes our planet's nighttime glow" (Tweet) – via X (formerly Twitter).
  9. ^ "Artemis II". www.globalsecurity.org. Global Security. April 2, 2026. Retrieved April 6, 2026.