The famous "Hello, World" photo by astronaut Reid Wiseman isn’t quite what you think
Over the past few days, we’ve all watched transfixed as NASA’s Artemis II mission has blasted off on its way to the moon. It’s the first time in half a century that humans have ventured beyond Earth orbit. The crew, have of course, taken an array of cameras with them to document the voyage.
Artemis isn’t actually landing on the moon. Instead, it’s sling-shotting around it and returning to Earth, to test all the spacecraft’s systems. That’s the same thing as Apollo 10 did in 1968, as a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing. And just like Apollo 10, Artemis has sent back some absolutely stunning photos of Earth.
The most striking is titled “Hello, World”, and taken by astronaut Reid Wiseman. It shows our planet as a perfect circle suspended in space, dominated by the blue of the Atlantic Ocean covered by wispy cloud formations. The vast expanse of North Africa and the Sahara Desert can be seen clearly on the lower left. The view is almost upside-down compared to how we’re used to thinking of the world, with North at the 7 o’clock position.
At first sight, this photo doesn’t look that much different from those captured by Apollo astronauts all those decades ago. In particular, it’s reminiscent of the famous Blue Marble image below, which was taken by Harrison Schmitt from Apollo 17 in 1972. I’ve seen internet comments along the lines of “boring, seen it before” and asking why NASA hasn’t tried to show us something different.
But here’s the thing. “Hello, World” really is dramatically different, and unlike any photo of the Earth we’ve seen before. But the key difference is weirdly easy to miss. Especially if you only look at it at a relatively small size on a phone screen, as most of us probably do.
The key clues come from NASA’s caption. “A view of Earth taken by NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman from one of the Orion spacecraft’s window after completing the translunar injection burn on April 2, 2026. The image features two auroras (top right and bottom left) and zodiacal light (bottom right) is visible as the Earth eclipses the Sun.”
Look more closely at the image, and you’ll see a whole range of other details, too. Stars twinkle in the background, and the earth’s atmosphere is clearly visible, most obviously around a third of the globe, where it’s lit up brilliantly by sunlight. But wait – you can’t see the stars and aurora in the daytime. And if the Sun is behind the Earth, where is the light coming from that illuminates the photo?
There’s only one possible answer. This isn’t, like all those Apollo photos we’ve seen before, a daylight shot. Instead, “Hello, World” is a night-time photo, with the Earth lit solely by moonlight. We can also see city lights shining in the darkness, with Madrid lit up like a jewel in the middle of Spain.
That’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?
NASA actually provides camera exposure data with the image, which confirms that this is exactly what’s going on. The photo was taken using a Nikon D5 DSLR with a 14-24mm f/2.8 lens at 22mm, using an exposure of 1/4sec at f/4, and ISO 51,200. That confirms the scene was extremely dark, with the Nikon D5 presumably chosen for this particular shot due to its excellent low-light high-ISO capability.
The 22mm lens setting is pretty wide-angle, too. That means the photo was taken relatively close to Earth, in the context of the mission as a whole. That in turn explains why the land masses aren’t quite immediately recognisable – we’re not looking at a perfect half-sphere from a long distance, but instead a closer, slightly distorted view.
So there we have it. “Hello, World” isn’t quite the same thing as those Apollo shots after all, as it’s taken at night by moonshine. If anything, that makes it even more amazing, doesn’t it?
(Oh, and for the photo geeks – maybe the DSLR isn’t quite dead yet, after all.)
Related reading:
- The first ever selfie taken in space! NASA’s historic early images as they’ve never been seen before
- Apollo 11 anniversary special: the first camera on the moon
- Remastered photos shed light on Apollo moon landing
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