The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (Nasa) astronaut Matthew Dominick recently shared a striking image on social media, showing the moon descending over the Pacific Ocean from a unique angle.
Dominick, who has been onboard the International Space Station (ISS) for the past four months, captured the image from space and shared the unique sight with the world through Nasa’s Instagram account.
“The moon setting over the Pacific. Went to the cupola to shoot Tropical Storm Hone near Hawaii but right after we passed by the storm the moon started to set,” Dominick said in the caption.
The photo, which exhibits the moon against a background of blue hues from the Earth’s atmosphere and clouds, immediately went viral online.
Giving technical specifics about the magnificent photo, he wrote: “400mm, ISO 500, 1/20000s shutter speed, f2.8, cropped, denoised.”
While some netizens were in awe of the beauty, one Instagram user pointed out: “And to think it still take nearly 3 days to arrive to the moon. The vastness of space is so humbling and so beautiful.”
The image comes days after the American space agency shared another picture of a moonrise — also captured by Dominick — from a “unique vantage point” inside the ISS.
The image showed a crescent-shaped moon is seen above the Earth’s atmosphere which resembled ocean-blue water.
“Layers of orange and black appear underneath the horizontal band of blue stretching across the centre of the image. The crescent moon is white and stands out against the blackness of space,” Nasa said in the caption.