New “breathtaking” images of the moon have been beamed back to Earth from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Juice mission.

On Monday night the spacecraft began performing a the first ever fly-by of its kind on a shortcut to Jupiter via Venus.

First it used the moon’s gravity, and then on Tuesday night it will use the Earth’s, as a natural brake – slowing itself down and then sling-shotting on to the next phase of its journey.

During this risky manoeuvre, Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) managed to capture some pictures of the moon.

They show some sign of real colour differences in the large-scale features on the lunar surface.

Another image shows Earth photobombing the moon, appearing as a dark circle outlined by a light crescent at the top centre of the image, peeking out from behind the spacecraft structure.

It is visible just above a fuzzy blue blob, which itself is a ghost image caused by reflection of sunlight.

A graphic showing the path of the slingshot manoeuvre
(PA Graphics)

ESA director general, Josef Aschbacher, said on X, formerly known as Twitter, said: “Sometimes the journey is just as worthy as the destination.

“As humankind embarked on the monumental first lunar-Earth fly-by, ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission captured a breathtaking glimpse of our natural satellite.”

The successful fly-by of the moon slightly redirected Juice’s path through space to put it on course for a fly-by of Earth.

It is expected to reach its closest distance from the planet (6,840km, or 4,250 miles) at around 10.56pm on Tuesday.

Graphic shows the scientific instruments on board the Juice spacecraft
(PA Graphics)

The Juice monitoring cameras were designed to monitor the spacecraft’s various booms and antennas, especially during the challenging deployment period following launch.

They were not designed to carry out other scientific research or take images of the moon.

A scientific camera called JANUS is providing high-resolution imagery during the cruise phase fly-bys of Earth, the moon and Venus, and of Jupiter and its icy moons once it is in Jupiter’s system in 2031.

The mission launched in April 2023 on a 4.1 billion-mile journey to Jupiter which will take more than eight years.

Onboard are 10 scientific instruments, including from the UK, which will investigate whether the gas giant’s three moons – Callisto, Europa and Ganymede – can support life in their oceans.