Uploaded November 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
The ESA spacecraft Hera is on its way to the asteroid Didymos and its moon Dimorphos to examine the damage NASA's DART spacecraft did upon impact. On its way out it took thermal infrared images of Earth and the Moon, making this cool video showing the Moon's motion (both orbital plus due to the spacecraft's changing perspective as it moved out). If you look closely you can see the Moon is half full; the Sun was shining from the right. The Earth still looks full because it’s warm! The night side of Earth only cools off a little, so it still glows in infrared. The Moon rotates much more slowly, so the night side cools off a lot, and is much fainter in IR.
The video repeats twice.
Credit: ESA/JAXA
Original: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/11/Moon_waves_goodbye_to_Hera
The ESA spacecraft Hera is on its way to the asteroid Didymos and its moon Dimorphos to examine the damage NASA's DART spacecraft did upon impact. On its way out it took thermal infrared images of Earth and the Moon, making this cool video showing the Moon's motion (both orbital plus due to the spacecraft's changing perspective as it moved out). If you look closely you can see the Moon is half full; the Sun was shining from the right. The Earth still looks full because it’s warm! The night side of Earth only cools off a little, so it still glows in infrared. The Moon rotates much more slowly, so the night side cools off a lot, and is much fainter in IR.
The video repeats twice.
Credit: ESA/JAXA
Original: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/11/Moon_waves_goodbye_to_Hera
