China’s Tianwen-2 probe sends stunning Earth and Moon images from deep space PHOTO

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) on July 1 unveiled images of Earth and the Moon captured by its Tianwen-2 probe, currently orbiting in space.

The probe’s narrow-field-of-view navigation sensor recently took these photographs, demonstrating strong and reliable functionality, Caliber.Az reports, citing Chinese media.

Among the released images is a shot of Earth taken from about 590,000 kilometres away. Another new photo of the Moon was also captured from a similar distance. Once transmitted back to Earth, the images underwent processing and refinement by scientific researchers to enhance their quality.

Currently, Tianwen-2 has been in orbit for over 33 days and is located more than 12 million kilometres away from Earth, maintaining good operational status, according to the CNSA.

China launched the Tianwen-2 mission on May 29, 2025, marking its first-ever asteroid sample-return expedition. This mission aims to shed light on the formation and evolution of asteroids, as well as provide insights into the early solar system’s development.

Tianwen-2 has a multi-faceted objective planned over its decade-long voyage: to collect samples from the near-Earth asteroid 2016 HO3 and to explore the main-belt comet 311P, which lies farther from Earth than Mars.

The mission’s recent images, including a view of Earth captured on May 30, 2025, were processed and released by CNSA, underscoring the probe’s excellent performance and the scientific team’s ongoing work.

By Tamilla Hasanova