“Selfie with Earth” appears online

Tengrinews.kz – The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has released a photo showing the Tianwen-2 probe with Earth in the background during its orbital phase of flight, according to CGTN.

In the background of the image, our planet Earth can be seen. The stunning composition was captured using a monitoring camera mounted on the spacecraft’s robotic arm.

According to CNSA, Tianwen-2 is currently about 43 million kilometers from Earth and 45 million kilometers from asteroid 2016HO3.

The probe was launched on May 29 of this year. As reported by media, the spacecraft is tasked with multiple missions:

• studying asteroid 2016HO3;
• collecting samples from its surface and returning them to Earth;
• and conducting scientific observations of comet 311P, which lies beyond Mars’ orbit.

As of now, Tianwen-2 has spent 125 days in orbit and has successfully passed a series of in-orbit tests.