We saw Earth rise over the moon in 1968. It changed everything. - 1
Published 22 Dec 2018, 08:15 GMT
Earth appears to rise over the lunar horizon in a composite image made using data from the Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter, a NASA spacecraft that launched in 2009. The large tan area on the planet’s upper right is the Sahara desert. Below, the image shows Compton crater, which sits on the lunar far side.
Photograph by NASA, Goddard, Arizona State University
The night side of Earth twinkles with light in a composite pictures made using images from NASA's Suomi NPP satellite.
Photograph by NASA
Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt stands next to a United States flag during a moon walk at the mission's landing site. The flag seems to point toward Earth hovering in the background.
Photograph by NASA
This is humanity's first view of Earth from the moon, taken by NASA's uncrewed Lunar Orbiter 1 spacecraft on August 23, 1966.
Photograph by NASA
In 1990, the Voyager 1 spacecraft snapped this colour picture of Earth, later dubbed the Pale Blue Dot. At the time, the craft was more than four billion miles from Earth, and the entire planet appears as a mere point of light among the scattered sunbeams.
Photograph by NASA, Jpl
The Apollo 17 crew captured this view of Earth as they travelled toward the moon on their 1972 lunar landing mission. The picture marks the first time the Apollo flight trajectory made it possible to photograph the planet's south polar ice cap.
Photograph by NASA
Earth seems to hover below the mighty rings of Saturn in a picture taken by the Cassini orbiter in July 2013. At a distance of 898 million miles, the planet is the brightest speck of light among a scattering of background stars. Keen-eyed viewers can also make out the moon as a fainter protrusion off the right side of the planet.
Photograph by NASA, JPL, Space Science Institute
Inky blackness separates Earth and the moon in a picture taken by the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter, a NASA spacecraft that has been in Martian orbit since 2006. At the time this image was taken, Earth was 142 million kilometres away from the red planet.
Photograph by NASA, JPL Cal-tech, University of Arizona
Seen from the surface of Mars, Earth is the brightest point of light in the twilight sky. NASA's Curiosity Mars rover snapped this image about 80 minutes after sunset. According to NASA, a human observer standing on Mars would be able to see Earth and the moon as two distinct 'evening stars'.
Photograph by NASA, JPL Cal-tech, Msss, TAMU
The Deep Space Climate Observatory, or DSCOVR, launched in February 2015 with a mission to monitor Earth from a million miles away, affording the spacecraft a whole-planet view. That also created opportunities for the moon to 'photobomb' some of DSCOVR's images of the planet, like in this shot taken in July 2016.
Photograph by NASA, DSCOVR EPIC team.
