Jupiter-bound JUICE probe snaps photo of Earth, the moon and Uranus

Europe's Jupiter probe has captured a stunning view of Earth, the moon and a surprise planetary guest. 

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission, which launched on April 14, 2023, captured a unique view of the Earth, its moon and Uranus, which, like Jupiter, is a gas giant. The celestial trio was photographed by JUICE as the spacecraft makes its way toward Venus for its second gravity assist in 2025. 

"These two little marbles we call our cosmic home were photographed by JUICE from over 5 million km [3 million miles], as the spacecraft waved us goodbye while heading towards Venus," ESA wrote in a post on X (formally Twitter) releasing the new images on Sept. 18. 

A gravity assist is a maneuver in which a spacecraft uses the gravity of a celestial body to propel it toward another. Swinging by Venus, along with flybys of Earth and the moon, will help JUICE reach the Jupiter system in 2031. 

In August, JUICE performed a first-of-its-kind Earth-Moon gravity assist, which gave the spacecraft an extra boost on its way to Venus. After visiting the second planet from the sun, the spacecraft will complete two more flybys of Earth in 2026 and 2029, both without the additional boost from the moon. As the spacecraft looked back at the Earth and moon, it also captured the planet Uranus in the distance. 

"One oversaturated image brought to light a photobomber: planet Uranus, which was 2.9 billion km [1.8 billion miles] away from JUICE," ESA officials wrote in the post on X. "Can you spot which dot is the planet?"

The new images from JUICE were taken using different exposure times as part of inflight tests and calibrations of the spacecraft's two monitoring cameras. The cameras offer different fields of view and are tasked with monitoring the spacecraft's instruments in flight. 

JUICE is designed to explore Jupiter and its three large ocean-bearing moons, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. It will investigate the gas giant's complex environment and look for signs of possible habitability on the icy moons.