An oblique photo taken from above the Middle East captures the Moon high above the edge of Earth's atmosphere. An astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured this photo of the Earth and moon while orbiting over Iraq. The image was taken at an oblique angle from an altitude of 252 miles (406 kilometers), with a perspective that highlights Earth's atmospheric fringe, or edge of the atmosphere.
The blue haze fading into the darkness of space is the mesosphere, which is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) high. Above the middle layer is the thermal layer. Although this layer is part of Earth's atmosphere, it is generally considered to be part of outer space.
In the center of the image, Earth's moon peeks over the horizon. The Moon's farthest point, or apogee, is about 251,000 miles (405,500 kilometers) from Earth. In this image, the Moon is in its waning gibbous phase, which occurs between the full and half moon phases.
Below the wisps of clouds in the center of the picture is Lake Assad, a reservoir on the Euphrates River in northern Syria. Lake Assad is Syria's largest lake and the region's main source of drinking and irrigation water. The Tabuka Dam that created the lake is the largest hydroelectric dam in the country.
Astronaut photo ISS069-E-18445 was taken on June 8, 2023 using a Nikon D5 digital camera with a focal length of 25 mm. It is provided by the International Space Station Crew Earth Observation Facility and the Johnson Space Center Earth Science and Remote Sensing Division. This photo was taken by the Expedition 69 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the International Space Station National Laboratory, helping astronauts take photos of Earth that are most valuable to scientists and the public and making these images freely available on the Internet. Caption: Minna Adel Rubio, GeoControl Systems, NASA-JSC's JETS contract.