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.

A new milestone for humankind: The crew of Artemis II are now the farthest any human has ever travelled, reaching a maximum distance of 252,752 miles from Earth. This surpasses the previous record set by Apollo 13 in 1970 by about 4,102 miles. pic.twitter.com/DbLFvvdEfT

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.

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.

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.