NASA’s Parker Solar Probe snaps Earth pic on its way to 'touch' the Sun

Washington, Oct 26: NASA has released an image of the Earth captured by the Parker Solar Probe on its historic journey to the Sun.

Parker solar probe looks back at home

Parker captured a view of Earth on September 25, as it sped towards the first Venus gravity assist of the mission, NASA said in a statement. Earth is the bright, round object visible in the right side of the image.

Image captured by WISPR instrument

The image was captured by the WISPR (Wide-field Imager for Solar Probe) instrument, which is the only imaging instrument on board Parker Solar Probe. One of the images shows a hemispherical shaped feature in the middle -- a lens flare, a common feature when imaging bright sources, which is caused by reflections within the lens system. In this case, the flare is due to the very bright Earthshine.

About Parker Solar Probe:

Parker Solar Probe was launched on August 12 on a seven-year long journey to unlock the mysteries of sun's fiery outer atmosphere and its effects on space weather.

The images also show objects such as Pleiades, Betelgeuse and Bellatrix, which appear elongated because of reflections on the edge of the detector, according to the US space agency.