Venus Express photographed the Earth and the Moon

A recent test of the Venus Express cameras during the preparation phase of the spacecraft made it possible to capture the initial remote sensing data when the Earth and the Moon were the test subjects.

This is what the Earth looks like from a distance of 3.5 million kilometers.

A recent test of the Venus Express imaging devices during the preparation phase of the spacecraft made it possible to capture the initial remote sensing data when the Earth and the Moon were the test subjects.

After a successful test of the systems in the first ten days of flight, the European Space Agency team decided to examine the health of the spacecraft's instruments and these observations were made as part of the test.

Of course, the small distance traveled by the spacecraft since launch makes the images of little interest to the general public, but to the scientific team, they show excellent operation of the instruments. This gives an indication that when the spacecraft reaches Venus it will be possible to take excellent photographs from a much closer distance.

Only two weeks after launch, the VIRITS instrument, which performs mapping in the ultraviolet, visible light and near infrared light, photographed the Earth-Moon system.

The observations were made from a distance of 3.5 million km when 65% of the earth's surface is illuminated by the sun, from the angle of view of the spacecraft.