Earth and Moon In the Year 1973. It's our Earth and Moon! These are old pictures! They were taken in November 1973 by NASA's mission Mariner 10, within 12 hours of launch. The Mariner 10 probe had just launched for its journey to Mercury via Venus. Earth and Moon images were combined together at scale, showing our space environment. Both pictures were taken from 1.6 million miles away (2.6 million km) and they became the first ever, high resolution color image data returned about our planet and its moon. The bright, blue, living colors of the Earth are contrasting with the desolated, grey aspect of the Moon as the difference of size of the two celestial objects is well documented too. The configuration sunlight-Moon-spacecraft was such that we are seeing Mare Crisium at Moon's center, with the row of Mare Serenitatis, Mare Tranquillitatis, and Mare Fecunditatis, at its left, as Mare Crisium is usually seen on the western limb of the Moon as seen from Earth. Earth is 7,521miles in diameter (12,100 km) as Moon 2,159 miles (3,470 km). NASA/JPL/Northwestern University