From about 225 miles (360 kilometers) over the Earth, International Space Station crewmembers photographed the crescent Moon through the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere.

At the bottom of the image, a closed deck of clouds is probably at about 3 miles (6 kilometers) above the surface. The shades of blue grading to black are caused by the scatter of light as it strikes gas molecules of the very low-density upper atmosphere.

The image was taken using a Nikon digital camera with an 800-mm lens.

Credit: NASA/ISS/Julie A. Robinson, Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory (Lockheed Martin), Johnson Space Center