Sunday at around 10:40 a.m. MT, NASA's Orion spacecraft will splash down in the Pacific Ocean after its several week-long journey to the moon and back. Space buffs can tune into NASA's livestream to witness some extreme physics—what will be the last leg of the historic Artemis 1 mission, which launched from Florida Nov. 15.

The numbers are mind-boggling: The Orion capsule will hit Earth's atmosphere flying at speeds of almost 25,000 mph (or about 11 kilometers per second) and experience temperatures nearing 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit in the process.

Iain Boyd is a professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences who has spent his career studying hypersonics, or vehicles that travel far faster than the speed of sound. He also leads a $15 million NASA institute called the Advanced Computational Center for Entry System Simulation (ACCESS). This effort investigates new ways to protect spacecraft as they undergo the extremes of entering atmospheres on Earth, Mars and beyond.

A photograph taken by NASA's Orion spacecraft has given us a new perspective on our home planet.

The snap was taken during the Artemis I mission, which sent an uncrewed vehicle on a journey around the Moon and back in preparation for astronauts' planned lunar return in 2025.

We get pictures of Earth every day from satellites and the International Space Station. But there's something different about seeing ourselves from the other side of the Moon.

How does this image compare to other iconic views of Earth from the outside?

Earthrise

In December 1968, three astronauts were orbiting the Moon to test systems in preparation for the Apollo 11 landing. When they saw Earth rise over the lunar horizon, they knew this was something special. The crew scrambled to find color film in time to capture it.

Photographer Galen Rowell called the resulting image "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken.