Original Caption Released with Image:
On December 16, 1992, 8 days after its encounter with Earth, the Galileo spacecraft looked back
from a distance of about 6.2 million kilometers (3.9 million miles) to capture this remarkable
view of the Moon in orbit about Earth. The composite photo-graph was constructed from images
taken through visible (violet, red) and near- infrared (1.0-micron) filters. The Moon is in the
foreground; its orbital path is from left to right. Brightly colored Earth contrasts strongly with the
Moon, which reacts only about one-third as much sunlight as our world. To improve the visibility
of both bodies, contrast and color have been computer enhanced. At the bottom of Earth's disk,
Antarctica is visible through clouds. The Moon's far side can also be seen. The shadowy
indentation in the Moon's dawn terminator--the boundary between its dark and lit sides--is
the South Pole-Aitken Basin, one of the largest and oldest lunar impact features. This fea- ture
was studied extensively by Galileo during the first Earth flyby in December 1990.
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