In October 2013, NASA’s Juno spacecraft came within 47,000 miles of Earth’s surface while performing a flyby maneuver that put it on a final trajectory for Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system. Juno launched in 2011 and was able to reach the asteroid belt before being pulled back toward Earth by the sun’s gravity. To escape the sun’s pull, the spacecraft had to return to Earth and use the planet’s gravity to boost its speed. As Juno approached Earth, an instrument aboard the spacecraft captured a series of images of our planet and the moon over four days. The views, which start from a distance of 2.1 million miles away and get progressively closer, offer a unique look at Earth at varying scale. Watch the video to see for yourself.
Please give credit for this item to: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Cover image and flyby video courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech Flight path animation courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI Earth image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems
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