That's one step for space engineering, one giant leap for science photography. The Chinese lunar test mission Chang'e 5T1 captured a collection of seriously epic photos from the far side of the moon.
The photos were taken with the Chinese spacecraft's solar array monitoring camera. They include a jaw-dropping image of the Earth and the moon together. At its waning gibbous phase, the Earth looks like a tiny, blue and white marble that is partially eaten up by the darkness of space.
Viewers can also see craters as spots that illuminate the waxing crescent of the moon, which is in the forefront of the photo. The image was captured on Oct. 28 from the far side of the moon.
On an eight-day round-trip engineering mission around the moon, the Chinese Chang'e 5 spacecraft launched on Oct. 23 and is now on its way back to Earth.
The mission was a test run for China's fourth lunar probe set to launch in 2017 to collect samples from the surface of the moon. The test run did not reach lunar orbit, only swinging halfway around, but was able to send back these epic photos before landing back on Earth on Oct. 31.
Chang'e 5T1 also captured images of the Earth and moon separately. Check out the epic photos below from the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
