Kaguya Captures Stunning Earthrise from the Moon

With the help of its high-definition video camera, JAXA's Kaguya lunar orbiter captured stunning video images of the Earth rising and setting on the Lunar horizon. The images were shot on April 5th and released to public view on April 13th along with a press statement. "This is the first time that a high-definition image of the 'Full Earth-rise' has been captured from space," said JAXA officials. In order to obtain these images, Kaguya had to wait for the Sun, the Moon and the Earth to line up in a special configuration, which only occurs twice every year.

Better still, similar images can only be obtained from a spacecraft in orbit around the Moon, since our natural satellite is tidally locked to Earth and always shows the same side towards our planet. Thus a person located on the surface of the Moon would see the Earth roughly in the same position in space.

The Kaguya orbiter, also known as the SELENE, reached the Moon on October 18, 2007, and was immediately inserted into a circular orbit, at an altitude of 100 kilometers above the lunar surface. Kaguya is the first to shoot high-definition video images of our planet during Earthrise and Earthset. The images taken from 380,000 kilometers from our planet have been relayed back to Earth through the high-definition television for space use developed by NHK by JAXA's Usuda Deep Space Center.

A similar Earthrise was recorded by Kaguya less than a month since it was inserted into orbit, on November 7, 2007, however it was only able to capture a waning Earth, opposed to the full bright disc filmed on April 5. Kaguya is named after the Japanese folktale moon princes and will undergo a mission spanning the course of a year destined to map and explore the lunar surface; however, it may be further extended.

It carries 14 science instruments, including a high-definition camera and two miniature satellites to study the Moon's gravitational field. According to JAXA, telemetry reveals that Kaguya is in good health for now. You can see here the Earthrise and Earthset filmed by Kaguya.