A Korean probe has taken amazing photos of Earth. What does our planet look like as seen from the Moon?

New remarkable photographs of Earth as seen from the Silver Globe have been taken by the Korean orbiter Danuri. Our planet is black and white on them and looks stunning. This is a must see.

In images of Earth from the Silver Globe as we know it, our planet is intensely blue. The blue and white patches in photographs from the Apollo 11 mission contrast with the monotonous gray of the Moon’s surface. The message is intuitive. The Earth is alive, while its satellite is a dead rocky world, extremely different from it.

The two celestial bodies, as seen from above the Moon’s surface, can also look very different. As in the photos published two days ago by the South Korean space agency (Korea Aerospace Research Institute, KARI). These photographs are in black and white. The Earth shown in them still stands out from the Moon, but in a different way than before.

What does the Earth look like from the Moon?

When the color disappears, the first thing that strikes the eye is the shape of our planet. From the distance between it and the Moon, which is 384,000 km, it appears perfectly round. On its surface, white spots stand out clearly: clouds arranged in powerful storm systems. They contrast with the darker oceans below.

In some shots, the Earth emerges from behind the Moon, dominating its horizon. Much of it is submerged in blackness. The flat Moon is pockmarked with smaller and larger craters. It has a uniform dark gray color. The slightly rough texture of its surface is clearly visible.

What probe photographed the Earth from the Moon?

Unusual photos of our planet and its satellite were taken by the Danuri orbiter. This name is a word cluster of two Korean words meaning moon and enjoy something. Danuri is South Korea’s first lunar orbiter. Its other name is the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO).

Danuri was launched into space on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket in August 2022. The flight trajectory was chosen to maximize fuel economy. That’s why the probe’s journey to the moon took more than four months. On December 16, the space vehicle entered lunar orbit.

What are the goals of the Danuri mission?

The published images were taken between December 24 last year and January 1, 2023. They were taken 120 kilometers above the surface of the Silver Globe. The photographs will be used, as stated in a statement released by KARI, to choose the best place to land on the Moon. South Korea is trying its hand at this in 2032.

Danuri orbits the Moon in two hours. On board the orbiter are six scientific instruments weighing a total of 40 kg. Five of them were built in Korea, the sixth came from NASA.

Among them are three different types of cameras, including one for photographing permanently shadowed craters that may contain water ice. And there’s also a spectrometer, a magnetometer and a device to test new communications technologies. These are to become the basis of the future interplanetary Internet.

The Danuri mission is expected to kick off South Korea’s space exploration. For the next month, scientists will test and calibrate the research equipment with which the probe is equipped. It will then begin its work. It is expected to make topographic maps of the surface of the Silver Globe, as well as look for traces on the Moon indicating the presence of uranium, helium-3, silicon and aluminum.

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