--- description: Equipment aboard NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured the longest-range photos in history, of the Wishing Well star cluster. title: These NASA Photos Were Taken 3.79 Billion Miles From Earth image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5385b09abdeeeb2f/698927100a4a22c2089d1b9c/kbo_2102hz84_and_kbo_2102he85.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Science](/section/science/) ## Science Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Space](/tag/space/) ## Space Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # These Photos Were Taken a Record-Breaking 3.79 Billion Miles Away from Earth  by [Jamie Ducharme](/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Feb 10, 2018 8:03 PM CUT  NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI  by [Jamie Ducharme](/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Feb 10, 2018 8:03 PM CUT A few blurry photographs broke a long-standing NASA record — by some 40 million miles. Images released by NASA on Thursday were taken by equipment operating further away from earth than any other cameras in history, [according to the agency](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-captures-record-breaking-images-in-the-kuiper-belt "undefined"). The first of these photos, taken by equipment aboard the [New Horizons](http://time.com/4018747/new-horizons-flyby/ "undefined") spacecraft in December, was captured some 3.79 billion miles away from our planet. Snaps taken just two hours later were even further away, NASA says. The photos, which depict a cluster of stars called Wishing Well, were taken by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager on Dec. 5\. They surpassed a photo of earth taken by NASA’s Voyager 1 vessel when it was 3.75 billion miles away from the planet, which held the record for longest-range image for 27 years, according to NASA. On Dec. 9, New Horizons also set the record for the most distant course-correction maneuver ever, according to NASA. It will also land in the history books for charting the furthest planetary encounter in history, a full billion [miles beyond Pluto](http://time.com/4110863/see-plutos-topography-in-stunnings-colors/ "undefined"). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5143262/nasa-longest-distance-photos/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5143262/nasa-longest-distance-photos/"},"headline":"These Photos Were Taken a Record-Breaking 3.79 Billion Miles Away from Earth","datePublished":"2018-02-10T20:03:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:14:06.237Z","description":"They show a cluster of stars","url":"https://time.com/5143262/nasa-longest-distance-photos/","keywords":["Space","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5385b09abdeeeb2f/698927100a4a22c2089d1b9c/kbo_2102hz84_and_kbo_2102he85.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5385b09abdeeeb2f/698927100a4a22c2089d1b9c/kbo_2102hz84_and_kbo_2102he85.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Wishing Well","caption":"Wishing Well","creditText":"NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5143262/nasa-longest-distance-photos/","name":"These Photos Were Taken a Record-Breaking 3.79 Billion Miles Away from Earth"}}]}] ```