Stunning NASA image from a spacecraft on its way to an asteroid shows Earth and the moon from three million miles away

Stunning NASA image from a spacecraft on its way to an asteroid shows Earth and the moon from three million miles away.

It is a unique view of our planet from a spacecraft speeding to a rendezvous with an asteroid. 

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft took this incredible image of home from 3 million miles (5 million kilometers) from Earth, about 13 times the distance between the Earth and Moon.

Asteroid Bennu, a carbon-rich hunk of rock that might contain organic materials or molecular precursors to life.

The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer—is to map and return samples. 

It is also an asteroid that could someday make a close pass or even a collision with Earth, though not for several centuries, according to the Daily Mail.

The OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft is expected to reach its asteroid destination, Bennu, in August 2018.

OSIRIS-REx is a mission to figure out where we came from, as asteroids are remnants from the formation of our solar system. 

“But while the spacecraft might tell us some things about where we have been and where we are headed, it also can remind us of where we are right now,” NASA said.