2015: Earthrise 2.0 (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter)

“The image is simply stunning,” said Noah Petro, who was Deputy Project Scientist for LRO at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center when this unique view of Earth was taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Launched in 2009, LRO captures some 12 Earthrises daily, but is generally busy looking at the Moon’s surface. On occasions such as this, planets sometimes come into view as LRO points its instruments into space for atmospheric observations and calibration. This image is a composite of high-resolution black-and-white Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) and lower-resolution color Wide Angle Camera (WAC) images.