This strange view of the full Moon may look like a futuristic piece of modern art, but it's actually part of a key manoeuvre carried out by an artificial satellite orbiting our planet.
The NASA/UGS Landsat programme has been sending satellites to orbit and photograph Earth since 1972, and in that time has captured a wealth of images showing how our planet is changing over time.
This image was produced by a Landsat satellite during an important instrument calibration, without which scientists could not be sure that the satellite is capturing consistently accurate data over time.
Capturing the full Moon from Earth orbit
How do scientists make sure one Landsat satellite's images can be accurately compared with those captured by a previous Landsat satellite, decades ago?
They use the full Moon.
NASA says that, once a month during full Moon the spacecraft turns away from Earth and faces the Moon.
It then proceeds to capture the face of the full Moon 15 times over the space of two orbits of our planet.
More satellite imagery
The images and video seen here show scans captured by band 4 of the Operational Land Imager instrument on Landsat 9 on 3 January 2026.
By taking measurements of light reflecting off the Earth-facing side of the Moon, it can detect any sensor changes that need correction.
That, says NASA, is because the Moon is a relatively stable body with almost no surface changes, and therefore reflects light consistently every time.
That gives scientists the scientific 'control' they need to be able to confirm that the Landsat satellite's instruments are working as they should be.
There are some regions on Earth with relatively uniform topography, and these regions are used for Landsat instrument calibration, too.
They include expansive desert regions like White Sands National Park in New Mexico, USA, as seen above.
So, while many things are attributed to the full Moon in popular lore, we can add this to the list of scientific reasons why the full Moon is amazing.
Without it, satellites might not be able to accurately capture data showing how much our home planet is changing over time.
