China's Satellite Captures The Moon And Earth From A New Angle

In January 2019, the Chang-e’4 launched by China landed on the other side of the Moon, which has never faced our Earth. Now, a Chinese satellite takes a photo allowing us to see both planets fully from behind the Moon.

As can be seen in the picture, the Earth and its natural satellite – the Moon, from a different angle.

The photo was taken from behind the Moon by China's Longjiang-2 satellite

The image you see here was captured on February 4 by a camera on the DSLWP-B / Longjiang-2 satellite of China. This may also be the first picture where the Earth and the Moon stand together in one shot taken from the Moon’s backside since 2014 when China’s Chang’e-5T1 took a similar photo.

China’s Longjiang-2 had to stop taking pictures for some months so that the Chang’e-4 could land successfully, but it now looks like the satellite is back to work. However, for us to have such an image to admire, certain efforts were involved. The photo was downloaded by the Dutch Dwingeloo Radio Telescope at the speed as low as less than 1KB per minute.

As stated on Twitter by Tammo Jan Dijkema, an operator of the telescope, it took nearly 20 minutes to download the image, which is 16 kilobytes. The team then edited the color of the original image.

The original photo, before it was color edited

Dijkema also shared the pre-edit photo on Twitter, revealing a much more violet version of the Earth and the Moon.

Longjiang-2, along with Longjiang-1 are included in the Chang'e-4 mission; in Chinese, Longjiang means Dragon River. The two microsatellites were launched in May 2018. While the Longjiang-1 could not enter lunar orbit, the Longjiang-2 succeeded.