Watch: Earth Rising Over Moon Captured By Japan's Kaguya Spacecraft

Thanks to the rapid evolution in science, humanity can see some of the most impossible places in the universe, on their television, laptop, mobile or anything. A video is making rounds on the internet, which shows what our earth rising from the moon’s horizon looks like.

Over the past few decades, scientists have sent several spacecraft to the moon, regarded as humanity’s one of the greatest achievements. A video was shared on the social media site X (formerly Twitter) by the account @wonderofscience, showing the rising of our earth over the moon, thanks to the Japanese Kaguya spacecraft.

In the time-lapse 36-second clip, we can see the earth slowly rising from side, as the spacecraft camera moves forward, over the grey, cratered land of the moon. The tweet on the video reads, “Stunning timelapse of Earth rising over the Moon captured by lunar orbiter spacecraft Kaguya.”

Netizens react to the clip in the comments. A user wrote, “You gotta admit, earth is beautiful and special.” Another netizen shared, “We are indeed a small dust in space.” A third user voiced his doubts about the video’s authenticity, “Seems fake. How can the shadow be cast towards the camera and on the face of the earth at those angles.”

Also known as Selene (Selenological and Engineering Explorer), Kaguya is Japan’s second unmanned moon mission, which was launched in September 2007, by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. It consisted of three spacecraft, which were launched in the lunar orbit. These three spacecrafts were named: the Selene, the Ouna and the Okina. Kaguya was launched from the Tanegashima Space Centre, in the Tanegashima Island, Kagoshima prefecture, Japan.

The name Kaguya was given to the spacecraft by the general public. It is the name of a moon princess from the ancient Japanese folktale called The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. The names Okina and Ouna are taken from the folktale’s elderly couple, who adopt Princess Kaguya.