SEE PIC: NASA spacecraft OSIRIS-Rex captures breathtaking new photo of the Earth

An unmanned NASA spacecraft called OSIRIS-Rex which launched a year ago on September 8, traveling to a distant asteroid veered toward Earth for a gravitational slingshot maneuver that will better aim it toward the Sun-orbiting space rock, Bennu.

Image: NASA

A color composite image of Earth was taken on September 22 by the MapCam camera on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. The above image was taken just hours after the spacecraft completed its Earth Gravity Assist at a range of approximately 106,000 miles (170,000 kilometers). MapCam is part of the OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite (OCAMS) operated by the University of Arizona.

Visible in this image are the Pacific Ocean and several familiar landmasses, including Australia in the lower left, and Baja California and the southwestern United States in the upper right. The dark vertical streaks at the top of the image are caused by short exposure times (less than three milliseconds). Short exposure times are required for imaging an object as bright as Earth, but are not anticipated for an object as dark as the asteroid Bennu, which the camera was designed to image.