Science: Europa’s Jupiter spacecraft captures stunning views of Earth, moon and a surprise planetary guest. The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Jupiter Icy Moons Probe (JUICE) mission, launched on April 14, 2023, has captured a unique view of Earth, its moons and the Jupiter-like gas giant Uranus. The images of the three objects were taken by JUICE when the spacecraft departed on its second gravity assist to Venus in 2025.
“These two tiny rocks that we call our cosmic home were photographed by JUICE from more than 5 million kilometers away as the spacecraft waved goodbye to us,” ESA quoted them as saying in a post. JUICE (formerly Twitter) posted a new image on September 18. A gravity assist is a maneuver in which a spacecraft uses the gravity of one celestial body to steer it toward another celestial body. A flyby of Venus and a flyby between Earth and the moon will help JUICE reach the Jupiter system in 2031.
In August, JUICE performed a first-of-its-kind Earth-Moon gravity assist, helping the spacecraft on its way to Venus. After visiting the second planet from the sun, the spacecraft is scheduled to make two more approaches to Earth, without leaving the moon, in 2026 and 2029. While observing Earth and the moon, this space probe also captured the distant planet Uranus. “Do you know where this planet is?”
