The Artemis 2 astronauts will make their return to Earth on Friday when they splash down in the Pacific Ocean near California.

NASA spokesperson Lauren Low told PolitiFact that one of the reasons Earth appears duller is because the new photo was taken at night, with only moonlight lighting the planet. The 1972 photo was taken in direct sunlight. The two images were also processed differently, she said.

NASA has an online tracker for Artemis II available on desktop and as a mobile app, which allows users to see where the Orion spacecraft is, how fast it's traveling, and how many miles it is in real time from both the Earth and the moon during its 10-day mission toward and around the moon, according to NASA.

NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen—are heading back to Earth after completing an historic lunar flyby.

Artemis II left the lunar sphere of influence on Tuesday afternoon – a milestone in the journey which will have the crew falling back home for the rest of its journey to Earth.

Wiseman, Hansen, pilot Victor Glover and Christina Koch were on track to pass as close as 4,070 miles (6,550 kilometers) to the moon, as their Orion capsule whips past it, hangs a U-turn and then heads back toward Earth. It will take them four days to get back, with a splashdown in the Pacific concluding their test flight on Friday.

Part of Artemis II's mission includes collecting samples of ice from the moon that will be compared to Earth’s oceans.

The astronauts lost connection with Nasa while behind the Moon, as they passed the furthest point humans have ever travelled from Earth.