The first humans to travel around the moon in more than 50 years experience hours of scientific wonder — and moments of deep emotion.

Eclipse chasers on Earth know that the Moon’s passage in front of the Sun offers a rare opportunity to see the solar corona, the Sun’s outer atmosphere. The super-heated corona extends millions of miles into space. For the Artemis II astronauts, the corona created a halo-like effect around the perimeter of the Moon.

By Joey Roulette HOUSTON, Texas April 6 (Reuters) - The four astronauts of NASA's Artemis II mission entered the moon's gravitational sphere of influence early Monday morning as they cruised along a path that will soon take them over the shadowed,

Astronauts are flying by the Moon’s far side and setting records. Nature is in Houston with the mission’s scientists.

There was a temporary communications blackout as the spacecraft passed behind the moon, which was expected and planned. Follow for live updates.

Here are some of the best photos of the moon and Earth from Artemis II's astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft on its historic space flight to the moon and back.

After beginning its journey to the moon after a dramatic trans-lunar injection, the four-strong crew of the Orion spacecraft sent back some spectacular images of Earth.

NASA’s four Artemis astronauts swung behind the moon and are headed home, in a journey that shattered space travel distance records and brought people the closest they’ve been to the lunar surface in more than 50 years.

Less than an hour before kicking off the fly-around and intense lunar observations, the four astronauts surpassed the distance record of 248,655 miles (400,171 kilometers) set by Apollo 13 in April 1970. They kept going, hurtling ever farther from Earth. Before it was over, Artemis II beat the old record by 4,101 miles (6,600 kilometers).

NASA's latest photos from the Artemis II mission show Earth in stunning details as the astronauts near a milestone distance of 100,000 miles away.

The Artemis II astronauts have set up cameras to capture the stages of the eclipse, after earlier losing connection with Nasa for 40 minutes.