Viewing the Earth from space celebrates 70 years

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In 1946, we made history by photographing the Earth from space for the first time. How far we’ve come!

“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.’”
–Edgar Mitchell

In 1946, the advent of rocket technology from World War II enabled humanity to surpass balloon-borne heights and cross into space for the first time.

*The first photograph of the Earth from space, taken in 1946 from a V2 rocket. Image credit: U.S. Army / White Sands Missile Range / Applied Physics Laboratory.*

These images, taken from atop V-2 rockets, revealed the blackness of space, as well as the Earth’s true curvature.

*A panorama of many images stitched together from V2 rockets from flights in 1948. Image credit: Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory, U.S. Navy.*

By the 1960s, Earth-monitoring satellites were placed to track weather and other transient phenomena.

*Hurricane Gladys as imaged by NASA’s Nimbus 1 satellite in 1964. Image credit: NASA / E. Siegel (post-processing).*

By traveling to greater distances, an entire hemisphere of Earth could be photographed at once.

*The first color image of the Earth from space, thanks to the DODGE Satellite. Image credit: Department of Defense.*

Traveling to the Moon enabled the first color photo of Earth seen rising over the limb of our natural satellite…

*The famous “Earthrise” photo as taken by the Apollo 8 crew in 1968.*

… while departing under just the right lighting conditions enabled the first color photo of the fully illuminated Earth to be taken.

*The iconic “blue marble” photo taken by the crew of Apollo 17 in 1972. Image credit: NASA.*

Since then, other spacecraft have imaged the Earth and Moon together, such as Voyager 1 in 1977.

*This 1977 image is the first photo of the complete Earth and Moon in a single photograph. Image credit: NASA / Voyager 1.*

Earth and the Moon have also been seen from Mars, thanks to Mars Global Surveyor in 2003.

*The Earth and Moon, together, as captured from Mars in 2003. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Mars Global Surveyor.*

And from Mercury, thanks to the Messenger spacecraft in 2010.

*The Earth and Moon, as photographed together by Messenger in 2010. Image credit: MESSENGER science team, NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington.*

Earth has also been spectacularly viewed from Saturn, thanks to Cassini.

*Earth as viewed by NASA’s Cassini mission in 2013. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.*

Numerous satellites in low-Earth and geosynchronous orbits view Earth continuously today, enabling the creation of the highest-resolution, full-coverage photos ever.

*The 2001–2002 composite images of the Blue Marble, constructed with NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data.*

Mostly Mute Monday tells the story of a single astronomical phenomenon or object primarily in visuals, with no more than 200 words of text.

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Travel the universe with Dr. Ethan Siegel as he answers the biggest questions of all