Asteroid-circling spacecraft grabs extraordinary Earth pic

This image captured on Dec. 19, 2018, by a camera on the Osiris-Rex spacecraft shows the asteroid Bennu, top right, about 27 miles from the spacecraft, and the Earth and moon, bottom left, more than 70 million miles away. (NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin Space via AP)

Earth has a cool new snapshot itself — taken by a photographer from 70 million miles away.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft took the pic days before going into orbit around asteroid Bennu on New Year’s Eve.

The tiny asteroid — barely one-third of a mile across — appears as a big bright blob in the long-exposure photo released last week.

Earth appears as a white dot, with the moon an even smaller dot but still clearly visible.

OSIRIS-REx, which launched from Florida in 2016, is in orbit around the small celestial body from perhaps a mile out.

Next year, OSIRIS-REx  (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) will attempt to gather some samples from the carbon-rich asteroid, for return to Earth in 2023.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.