A crater etched in history by one of the most iconic space photos ever taken is once again at the center of exploration — this time, as a gateway to searching for life beyond Earth.
Once called “Pasteur T,” the massive lunar impact site known today as Anders’ Earthrise Crater spans nearly 25 miles (40 kilometers) across the Moon’s far side. It entered public consciousness in 1968, appearing in the foreground of the unforgettable “Earthrise” photograph taken by astronaut William Anders during the Apollo 8 mission. That image — a half-lit Earth ascending over the Moon’s horizon — became legendary, prompting the crater’s official renaming in 2018.
Now, nearly six decades after that historic mission, a new spacecraft has turned its sensors toward the famed crater — this time not for photography, but for extraterrestrial science. The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), launched in April 2023 and scheduled to reach Jupiter by 2031, flew past the Moon in 2024 for a crucial test of its instruments.
The lunar flyby marked JUICE’s first opportunity to assess its onboard science equipment on a solid, natural surface. ESA used the occasion to fine-tune the Radar for Icy Moon Exploration (RIME), a critical tool for its future mission: peering beneath the icy crusts of Jupiter’s moons in search of liquid water and possibly life.
According to ESA officials, RIME measures elevations using radio wave echoes. Its job at Jupiter will be to scan under the surfaces of moons such as Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto to map their unseen rocky layers. But before attempting that, RIME needed silence — uninterrupted and absolute.
Anders’ Earthrise Crater offered that silence.
During the Moon flyby, ESA engineers powered down all other instruments aboard JUICE for eight full minutes, allowing RIME to operate without interference. The instrument successfully mapped the crater’s topography, collecting data that scientists later compared with NASA’s Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) readings.
The comparison revealed discrepancies caused by electronic noise within JUICE itself, prompting ESA to spend months developing a correction algorithm. That work paid off. The final map aligned precisely with LOLA’s data, confirming RIME’s accuracy and readiness for deep space tasks.
These results mark a significant step forward in the JUICE mission. With its instruments now validated, the spacecraft continues its interplanetary journey, heading next toward Venus. There, a gravity assist will propel it onward toward the Jovian system.
Between 2034 and 2035, JUICE will complete 35 close flybys of Jupiter’s largest moons and eventually orbit Ganymede. The mission aims to deepen our understanding of gas giant formation, planetary systems, and most importantly, the habitability of icy worlds.
Anders’ Earthrise Crater — once the silent witness to humanity’s awe at Earth’s beauty — is now helping us listen for echoes of life far beyond it.
