Moonrise seen from orbit. View of the Moon, just before sunrise, seen from the orbiting Shuttle Columbia during Mission STS-52. Note that only a thin

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Moonrise seen from orbit. View of the Moon, just before sunrise, seen from the orbiting Shuttle Columbia during Mission STS-52. Note that only a thin crescent of the Moon is directly illuminated by the Sun, most of the visible surface is illuminated by Earth-shine. The Sun, still about 28 degrees below the horizon, provides enough light to scatter in the atmosphere and show the different layers. Silhouetted at the horizon is a dense cloud layer. The strong red/brown band is the tropopause, separating the stratosphere (blue/white) from the troposphere (yellow). This photograph was taken in late October 1992.

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Size: 4724px × 3810px
Photo credit: © NASA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: astronomy, atmosphere, cosmology, dawn, earth, imagery, lunar, mission, moon, orbit, planetary, profile, rising, science, sts-52, sunrise