Step back for a few seconds and take a look at Earth from 31 million miles away. What were you doing on May 29th? On that day, NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft was wandering around space at 23,000 miles per hour, taking a time-lapse photo of the moon passing in front of the earth. Though 31 million miles sounds like a long way away, in the grand scheme of things, that spacecraft was right next to us.
This animation was captured on Deep Impact's next leg of a mission called EPOXI. Its first adventure was to bury a probe into a comet. Next it investigates other comets, as well as planets orbiting around stars. Looks like it found one: Us. Jump to the next page for another photo of the earth and moon — this one taken from Mars — that’ll make you feel even smaller.
There we are, a two-shot just in time for Sunday's 39th anniversary of the first moon landing, on July 20, 1969. Maybe it's not too late to
get on board for the next one.