New Image of Earth Taken from The Moon

An eye-catching new view of Earth has been caught on camera by an American spacecraft circling the moon.

The new photo of Earth was taken from a distance of 231,358 miles (372,335 km) by NASA's unmanned Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter during a routine camera test as the probe orbited around the moon. The black-and-white snapshot catches Earth's portrait as it appeared on June 12.

"It was a beautiful clear summer day over the North Pole, you can see ice covering most of the Arctic Ocean with a few leads of open water (dark) starting to open up," wrote Mark Robinson,  principal investigator for the powerful Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) at Arizona State University, after posting the photo Thursday.

READ MORE: Space.com