Photography by ©Miki Asai. Photography by ©Walter Spoor. Our planet Earth, as seen by the crew of Apollo 11 in July 1969. A New and Vivid Earthrise. Earth can be forgiven its vanity.
We may have long ago learned that our flyspeck world does not sit at the center of the universe, that it’s a pint-sized planet in an afterthought solar system, in an outer province of an ordinary galaxy. But say this for Earth: it’s gorgeous. In a universe of planets that too often are burnt umber or ice white or slate gray, ours is a riot of brilliant colors and swirling patterns. That loveliness is even more striking when pictures of the Earth are taken from the moon—with the bleakness of our only natural satellite contrasting sharply with the brightness of our home planet. NASA has been photographing the Earth and moon in tandem for a long time—from the first black and white image taken by the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft in 1966, to the transformative Earthrise photo taken by the crew of Apollo 8 in 1968, to the celebrated blue marble picture captured by the crew of Apollo 17 four years later.
See the Evolution of the Iconic Blue Marble Photo.
Creeks and Waterfalls. One Day On Eart (Part2 Of 4) One day on Earth (Part3 Of 4) Earth - Take a trip around the pale blue dot we all call home. In this short film, BBC Earth explores the tiny little planet we all live on.
We're releasing it in tribute to the astronomer Carl Sagan, who was born on this day in 1934. Sagan gave us perhaps the clearest demonstration that, while the Earth may seem enormous, compared to the universe it is minuscule. In 1990 he arranged for the Voyager 1 spacecraft to take a photograph of Earth. But this was no ordinary photo. Voyager 1 was 6 billion km from Earth, beyond the orbit of the most distant planet, Neptune. The resulting photograph is reproduced below. In his 1994 book Pale Blue Dot, published two years before his death, Sagan spelled out what the image tells us: "Consider again that dot. "The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.
"The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. You can listen to Carl Sagan read this passage on the Library of Congress website.
FIRE. PHOTO COLLECTIONS. SCOTLAND. Windows on Earth. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 51. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 50. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 49. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 48. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 47. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 46. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 45. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 44. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 43. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 42. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 41. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 40.
OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 38. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 37. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 36. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 34. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 33. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 32. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 31. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 30. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 29. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 28. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 26. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 25. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 24. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 23. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 22. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 21. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 20. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 19. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 18. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 17. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 16. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 15. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 14. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 13. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 12. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 11. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 10. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 9. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 8.
OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 6. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 5. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 4. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 2. OUR BEAUTIFUL EARTH 1. LAND AND SKY SCAPES.