The Artemis II crew snapped some mesmerizing photos of Earth

On their way around the Moon, the Artemis II crew had time to snap some terrific pictures of our blue planet. NASA has begun sharing the images, including the one above, which shows a striking view of Earth through the Orion capsule's window.

Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman overcame the crew’s problems with Microsoft Outlook and the toilet to capture the photos. He took the above pic after the craft completed its translunar injection burn on April 2.

Meanwhile, this second photo trades clever composition for a full-on view of our planet. If you look carefully, you can see two auroras: one on the top right and another on the bottom left. Easier to spot is the diffuse glow of zodiacal light (bottom right) as the Earth eclipses the Sun.

At the time of publication, Artemis II is over 105,000 miles from Earth. The 10-day journey will have the crew of four looping around the Moon and back again. Serving largely as a test run for future deep space travel, the mission is NASA's first to the Moon since the Apollo program. However, the crew won't be landing this time; that will have to wait for Artemis IV, currently planned for 2028.