Earth swimming in a sea of stars amidst the Milky Way 

NASA's Parker Solar Probe captured this grand prospect of Earth swimming in a sea of stars over the course of ten days in April 2019. Earth is the first bright round spot that shows up before the Milky Way is seen. The Moon was too close to Earth to be resolved. The background star near Earth is Spica. Mercury is seen in transit across the Milky Way core. Venus is the very bright spot at the end. Jupiter is also seen just before Mercury appears while Saturn is in the background after Mercury's transit. The stripes are cosmic rays hitting the camera sensor. By the time Parker Solar Probe imaged Venus it was traveling at 95km/s (~213,000mph).
NASA Raw Data Source (Parker Solar Probe WISPR Outer Camera L3 Earth Encounter 2):
wispr.nrl.navy...
Music by Bernard Herrmann:
www.bernardherr...
I acknowledge the NASA Parker Solar Probe Mission and WISPR team led by R. A. Howard for use of data.