Beneath a Desert Moon | International Space Station

Beneath a Desert Moon | International Space Station

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured this photo of the Earth and Moon while orbiting over Iraq (not pictured). Taken at an oblique angle from an altitude of 406 kilometers (252 miles), the photo has a perspective that highlights Earth’s atmospheric limb, or the edge of the atmosphere.

The blue-toned haze that fades into the darkness of space is the mesosphere, which reaches an altitude of about 80 kilometers (50 miles). Above the mesosphere is the thermosphere. Although this layer is part of Earth’s atmosphere, it is commonly considered part of outer space.

In the center of the image, Earth’s moon peeks over the horizon. The Moon is about 405,500 kilometers (251,000 miles) away from Earth at its furthest point, or apogee. In this image, the Moon is in the waning gibbous phase, which occurs between the full moon and half-moon phases.

Below the wispy clouds in the middle of the view is Lake Assad, a Euphrates River reservoir in northern Syria. Lake Assad is Syria’s largest lake and a primary source of the region’s drinking and irrigation water. The Tabqa Dam, which created the lake, is the largest hydroelectric dam in the country.

This astronaut photograph ISS069-E-18445 was acquired on June 8, 2023, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a focal length of 25 millimeters. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 69 crew. 

Credit: ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center

Caption by Minna Adel Rubio, GeoControl Systems, JETS Contract at NASA-JSC

Image Date: June 8, 2023

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