The farthest
NASA's exploration robots have rumbled around Mars, swooped around Saturn, and flown well beyond the planets, into interstellar space.
But the space agency's engineers often direct their machines to peer back at the vivid blue dot in the distance.
"During almost every mission we turn around and take a picture back home," NASA's former chief historian, Bill Barry, told Mashable. "There seems to be an irresistible tendency to look back at home."
"During almost every mission we turn around and take a picture back home."
Indeed, in the cosmic images below you'll glimpse some of the farthest-away views of our humble, ocean-blanketed Earth ever captured by humanity. When we view other objects, worlds, stars, or even galaxies, we often see just dots. But to most of the cosmos, we're just a dot in the vast ether, too.
SEE ALSO:The first images of Earth are chillingEarth and the moon floating in space
Earth in the top left, and the moon in the lower right.Credit: NASA Goddard / University of ArizonaFrom 804,000 miles away, we can still see Earth in its true, marbled form, and even spy the shadowed moon, too.
NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft — which traveled to the rubbly asteroid Bennu to successfully capture a sample — snapped this image en route to its deeper space destination. In this black and white photo, Earth and the moon are about a quarter million miles apart. Unlike most space exploration robots, OSIRIS-REx will return back home to drop its precious asteroid sample into Earth's atmosphere; from there the sample will plummet to the surface.
A dot in the Martian sky
Earth seen above Mars' horizon.Credit: NASA / JPL / Cornell / Texas AMNASA's Spirit rover, which explored the Martian surface for six years and found evidence of a once watery planet, snapped this historic image in 2004.
"This is the first image ever taken of Earth from the surface of a planet beyond the Moon," wrote NASA.
You can see the rolling Martian hills below, and a relatively faint Earth high in Mars' atmosphere.
Here on Earth, with the unaided eye, Mars looks like a bright red dot in the sky to us Earthlings.
Zooming past Earth
En route to Jupiter in 2013, NASA's Juno spacecraft swung around Earth to pick up speed, a strategy known as a gravity assist. Meanwhile, a camera aboard the craft captured views of Juno approaching Earth and the moon, beginning from 600,000 miles away.
"The result was an intriguing, low-resolution glimpse of what our world would look like to a visitor from afar," NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory wrote.
By 2016, Juno arrived at the "King of the Planets," hundreds of millions of miles beyond Earth.
The vista from glorious Saturn
Earth as viewed from the Cassini spacecraft.Credit: NASAIn 2013, NASA's Cassini spacecraft snapped an exceptional view of our vivid blue planet beyond Saturn's glorious rings.
"At a distance of just under 900 million miles, Earth shines bright among the many stars in the sky, distinguished by its bluish tint," NASA writes.
Earth's rich blue color, clearly visible throughout much of the solar system, comes from sunlight scattered in our planet's atmosphere. The blue wavelength of light is short and choppy, allowing atmospheric molecules to scatter it around, creating a blue sky.
The view from Mercury
An overexposed Earth and moon as observed from 61 million miles away.Credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of WashingtonNot many spacecraft visit Mercury, the closest planet to the sun.
Related Stories
- So, how hot will Earth get?
- What Earth was like last time CO2 levels were so crazily high
- Climate change will ruin train tracks and make travel hell
- This scientist keeps winning money from people who bet against climate change
- 3 signs the climate op-ed you're reading is full of it
But in 2013, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft — short for Mercury Surface, Space, Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging — captured this image of Earth and the moon from 61 million miles away. At the time, the mission was actually looking for possible small moons around Mercury.
Earth and the moon can be quite dim from such a distance, so MESSENGER captured a long exposure of reflected light from their respective surfaces. "They appear exceptionally bright and large when, in reality, both are less than a pixel in size in this image," NASA wrote.
Earth and moon align
The moon crosses Earth in 2015.Credit: NASA / NOAAIn this image captured by the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite, you can see the rarely viewed dark side of the moon in front of the sunlit Earth. It's a shot from 1 million miles away.
The legendary pale blue dot
The "pale blue dot" of Earth viewed from the deep solar system.Credit: NASA / JPL-CaltechPerhaps the most poignant picture of Earth is also the smallest view of Earth.
Over three decades ago, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft — which has journeyed deeper into space than any other mission — captured this image from a whopping 3.8 billion miles away. "The planet occupies less than a single pixel in the image and thus is not fully resolved," NASA explains.
Making the shot especially glorious is a ray of sunlight fortuitously intersecting our planet.
The great astronomer and thinker Carl Sagan suggested Voyager take the image before NASA shut down the camera to save energy. The vista didn't disappoint. As Sagan wrote:
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
This story has been updated.
相关文章
- 本报讯8月23日,中国劳动关系学院劳动关系与人力资源学院副院长张才明一行赴雅考察职工思想政治引领数智化发展工作开展情况。中国劳动关系学院为中华全国总工会和教育部联合共建,是全国总工会唯一一所普通高等院2024-09-22
闈掑矝甯傚啗浼戣€佸勾澶у涓捐绉嬪瀛︽湡鏁欏笀鑱樹换浠紡
銆€銆€9鏈?0鏃ヤ笅鍗堬紝鍦ㄥ叏鍥界37涓暀甯堣妭鏉ヤ复涔嬮檯锛岄潚宀涘競鍐涗紤鑰佸勾澶у鍦ㄥ競鍐涗紤娲诲姩涓績澶氬姛鑳藉巺闅嗛噸涓捐2021骞寸瀛e鏈熸暀甯堣仒浠讳华寮忋€傚競閫€褰2024-09-22- 近日,中国银保监会印发《商业银行和理财公司个人养老金业务管理暂行办法》,发布首批开办个人养老金业务的机构名单,中国工商银行是首批获得个人养老金业务资格的商业银行之一。11月25日,工商银行青岛市分行作2024-09-22
大寒已至 春日可期 ——“顺时令·承非遗”市南区24节气传承创新文化活动邀您共会
中国山东网-感知山东1月20日讯 为营造新春庆祝氛围,推进二十四节气文化和非物质文化遗产的传播传承,展现丰富的民俗文化活动,深入开展青岛市市南区文化驿站(简称“青文驿”)服务企2024-09-22[Graphic News] Average book price nears 20,000 won
The cost of purchasing a book in South Korea is approaching 20,000 won ($14.80), according to recent2024-09-22娑﹀痉淇韩 鐢扮ゥ婀戠殑涔︽硶鎺㈢储涓庝汉鐢熷鐣宊涓浗灞变笢缃慱闈掑矝
銆€銆€涓浗灞变笢缃?mdash;鎰熺煡灞变笢8鏈?鏃ヨ銆€鏈変汉璁や负锛屽綋涓嬪浜庝竴涓厖婊¤鎯戙€佷汉蹇冭簛鍔ㄧ殑鏃朵唬锛岃繖骞朵笉瀹屽叏瀹㈣銆傛瘡涓椂浠i兘鏈夊叾娴崕銆佺┖铏氱殑2024-09-22
最新评论