{"id":14398,"date":"2026-05-06T12:53:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:53:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/06\/the-best-of-nasas-newly-released-photos-from-the-artemis-ii-mission-nautilus-science\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T12:53:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:53:58","slug":"the-best-of-nasas-newly-released-photos-from-the-artemis-ii-mission-nautilus-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/06\/the-best-of-nasas-newly-released-photos-from-the-artemis-ii-mission-nautilus-science\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best of NASA\u2019s Newly Released Photos From the Artemis II Mission &#8211; Nautilus | Science"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>These are the highest-resolution images of the moon ever captured by human beings<br \/><span>5:00 PM CDT on May 5, 2026<\/span><br \/>The Artemis II astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen snapped countless photos on their 10-day mission to the moon, and NASA just deposited 12,000 of them online.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, their <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/eol.jsc.nasa.gov\/SearchPhotos\/ShowQueryResults-TextTable.pl?results=1777903744102201\" target=\"_blank\">photo system<\/a> is a bit unwieldy\u2014and might be overburdened by enthusiastic human spaceflight fans at the moment. So until they\u2019re packaged more conveniently for public consumption, we\u2019ve posted a few of the most staggering images from the database below.\u00a0<br \/>If you\u2019re feeling particularly patient, you can download the entire 15.5 gigabyte zip file <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/artemis_2_image_dump_2026_05_03\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<br \/>A view of the Earth showing breathtaking cloud formations swirling miles below, as well as the thin glow of Earth\u2019s atmosphere.\u00a0<br \/>A crescent of the Earth illuminated by the sun\u2019s light. Views like this are what can lead astronauts to experience the \u201coverview effect,\u201d a sense of overwhelming and perspective-shifting awe.<br \/>The picture-perfect moon framed in the center of one of the Orion spacecraft\u2019s windows. The instrument panels give you a sense of the somewhat cramped interior.\u00a0<br \/>The rugged lunar surface in stark relief. The pristine detail captured really brings home that these are the highest-resolution photographs of the moon ever taken by a human.<br \/>Another image of the moon with what appears to be a reflection of the inside of the Orion capsule on the window.\u00a0<br \/><strong>Read more: \u201c<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/nautil.us\/the-best-photos-of-the-artemis-ii-mission-1279789\" target=\"_blank\">The Best Photos of the Artemis II Mission<\/a>\u201d<\/strong><br \/>The surface of the moon with the crescent Earth looming in the background. The Artemis Crew II passed around 4,000 miles of the lunar surface and went farther into space than any human beings had ventured before.\u00a0<br \/>Earthset on the moon.\u00a0<br \/>As the Artemis II astronauts passed behind the moon they were treated to the rarest of solar eclipses. The stray bits of illumination are dust particles gleaming in the vacuum of space.\u00a0<br \/>Light from the sun\u2019s corona peeking over the lunar horizon highlighting the rough surface. During their lunar flyby, the Artemis II crew spent most of their time documenting features on the surface.\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>Crescent moon and crescent Earth photographed in the same window, showing where the astronauts have been and where they were returning back to. <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.nautil.us\/sites\/3\/nautilus\/nautilus-favicon-14.png?fm=png\" style=\"width:14px\" class=\"wp-image-13765\"\/><br \/><em>Enjoying <\/em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/nautil.us\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nautilus<\/a><em>? Subscribe to our free <\/em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/nautil.us\/newsletter\/?_sp=c43011db-6fcf-42f2-a38c-e033b87a4a1d.1759265717430\" target=\"_blank\"><em>newsletter<\/em><\/a>.<br \/><em>Lead image: NASA<\/em><br \/>Sign up for our free newsletter<br \/>Astronomers aren\u2019t sure why<br \/>Meet Loki<br \/>We know they\u2019re there, we just don\u2019t know how deep they are<br \/>The robotic space probe is 15 billion miles away and is nearing the end of its life in the distant cosmos<br \/>Astronomers are circling the answers<br \/>The total solar eclipse in 2024 hushed the Earth by striking awe in the humans in its path<br \/>Sign up for our free newsletter<br \/>\u00a9 Copyright <!-- -->2026<br \/>Made in partnership with <a tabindex=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/joinlede.com\">Lede<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMimAFBVV95cUxOOFdfOEtkeGJBZTFSVklZMTJzNl9IcXFRc3FNQmdLdTJGTXZPT3k4VWE0U051UUhzNmZPNHcwUGVLbk9acl9TSGQyWktvYWVsdy1KMlpnRC1zRTlUME5rcWIyUmJBMnZnVlk4OTVwZmVQZWN0QlFPYlNvd3NQZkVOVGxndWpjVXdNR1Q0RlF1ekR6bkZRUmVKZg?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These are the highest-resolution images of the moon ever captured by human beings5:00 PM CDT on May 5, 2026The Artemis II astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen snapped countless photos on their 10-day mission to the moon, and NASA just deposited 12,000 of them online.\u00a0 Unfortunately, their photo system is a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}