TheRainbowegoSweet007
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54 years of space exploration captured in two iconic views of our home...
On the left: The classic "Blue Marble" perspective from the Apollo 17 crew in 1972.
On the right: The breathtaking view the Artemis II crew will experience in 2026 as humanity returns to the Moon!
What do you think is the most exciting part about this new era of spaceflight? Let me know in the comments!
Huor
I mean it’s great, but considering how things are I just don’t believe there’s a “new era of space flight”
JimiFloyd2
Hasselblad against iPhone
SirNinjaPirateBot
Now do a per-pixel-accurate size comparison!
BatmanAndCradleRobin
the improved photo quality means we can see the atmosphere now, incredible
donpat
The direction of the sun really helps too. The sun is illuminating the other side of the earth so it makes it much easier to see the limb of the atmosphere than in a front lit photo.
GimcrackGewgaw
Huh... looks pretty flat to me
OrkenMork
Much better resolution and greater light sensitivity!
julle7589
Looks like the colors have paled over the 50 years. Much like those in my old maps. They should really buy a new one already. And turn the darn thing upward again! (/s)
Bam906
Damn it Tell him to take it again, I think I blinked in that one
NoMoreMorons
Pretty sure aliens lock their doors before passing earth. Sadly it's not without reason that every single telescope searching for intelligent life points away from this planet.
ShereeAnderson
Not flat
manystripes
Wow the planet rotated a lot between those two pictures
KilroyLichking
upside down Africa and Strait of Gibraltar
Snarkophilus
Madrid clearly visible (prominent white dot in the center of Spain)
gtotherizzle
We're going back to the friggin' moon!
slack3rdav3
fuckin*
gtotherizzle
Frickin' https://youtube.com/shorts/sz3ANAWX7wQ?si=-Z4yZHXMGZL5d9Tc
IWasACatAllAlong
I mean yes, but not really. Unless they bring back some cheese, it doesn't count.
ongabonga
Lies! /s https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1cHQ2cmk5cmpkZGcycGozb3c2ZXl4MjI0OTM3aWZzZms1ZTVrazZoayZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/bPBBsS3tnBKVhx8Iuz/200w.webp
nefroye
Of note - one key difference between these pics is the right-side one is the dark side of earth, with long exposure (sun is behind earth); left-side one is sun-lit (sun-behind-photographer). As a result a different set of things can be seen, such as the atmosphere and auroras, in the longer-exposure pic. Also it looks more washed-out. This isn't due to photo quality but the type of exposure. Pretty cool contrast.
BaddieValentina
Thank you! I was wondering about that.
LZorro
Took 50 years to turn around and get a booty pic
JuffThePoint
NGL i wish it was the same content that was captured just saying
GlenL
Flat earther's haven't been this upset since they were told they'd have to repeat 2nd grade for the 4th time
Zetor
Pale blue dot.
malakit
What I missed, and only found out yesterday. This image is taken in the middle of the night, only illuminated by moon light. The sun is on the other side of that earth. Fancy cameras.
Onebigcanuck
I'd be much happier if we weren't at risk of eventually having moon nazis.
SilverDust133
What was the point of the mission we’ve done a handful of times?
hellospacemonkey
Suck my d*ck, Flat Earthers. So so quiet these days. Go back to being D students in high school.
Goodwill82
Nice try, fake science. The earth always has America showing, and it's right side up. Look at a globe! /s
Suomijuusto89
ReallyOG
We used to have a lot more clouds
imaynotbeasmartmanjenny
Appears as though there’s a giant desert area on the globe in this shot not exactly gonna produce at a lot of clouds in an arid environment
gurgledeeznutz360
We used to have a lot of things /s
allmj
Missing alot of ice on the polar caps as well
rockhydra
They’re there. Just clear and more like a mirror for heat. So yay
BananaForScaIe
It's that time of year, earth is wearing sun dresses and I'm here for it! You slay Gaia!!! *rawr*
wario37
The fact that we can see the damage and reason for climate change? There literally are not clouds in the second picture.
tinyfootprints
I'm having difficulty figuring out what coastline I'm seeing in the newer pic. I can't tell what part of the planet I'm looking at.
Detoc
That's understandable. They're currently orbiting Proxima Centauri b. I'm not familiar with the geographical names there either.
skunkworkz
It's upside down compared to what you'd see on the map, but that's the northern side of Africa on the left, coming to a point at Gibraltar, with Spain and Portugal at the bottom left in green.
tinyfootprints
That was my best guess, but my confidence in that guess was less than 50%. Thanks for the clarification.
Skevoid
tinyfootprints
Ah! that makes it obvious! Many thanks.
jimhotep
Still round, after all these years...
MikeRInternetTraveler
Always has been (cocks gun)
akmck
Kinda surprised it's still here, considering...
BerryButcher
It's going to be there even after we're gone, this planet is 4.543 billion years old, we're less than insects to it in terms of time, there has been five known major mass extinctions events when life was almost completely wiped out, we're just in a line to die for others to take over. There's a system, it's beyond us, don't fret.
IWasACatAllAlong
You could explode all 11-12 thousand nukes and it would still be around. Humans are just insects.
spittleteets
Pretty wild how you can see aurora borealis glimmering in the upper atmosphere *AND* was transmitted with lasers, using a top of the line processor from 1998 (RAD750 which is a radiation-hardened version of a Power PC 750).
anteyeclimbaxe
Not sure if NASA is doing this - but others have found that looking for rad resistant chips in the general supply is actually cheaper than designing new ones. Source several thousand and test their behavior while exposed to radiation to pick out the few that have the chance combination of characteristics that pass.
spittleteets
Reliability > Max Output
LordHosk
I don't see an Aurora Borealis, I see a Aurora Australis
lastmanonearthbutidroppedmyglasses
You’d be surprised how little processing power you need when you’re not downloading gigabytes of tracking JavaScript and useless GUI gizmometers.
freakdiablo
Also helps that if you have very specific hardware to program for, you can highly optimize the code.
spittleteets
Yup 1000% correct...unless you have "two Microsoft Outlooks and both don't work" lolz
/gallery/BtP94Dm
Someshithead241
An aurora borealis? This time of day? Localised entirely in the top right of the image?
donpat
Thats the aurora australis. The aurora borealis is in the bottom left. North is down in this image
dirtyFrenchman
steelundecided
Well great. Now I'm hungry for a steamed ham. Thanks loads.
LordHosk
Aurora Australis, its over the southern hemisphere.
candle340
That white haze in the bottom right? Yeah, that's the sun shining through the atmosphere. The Earth is lit by moonlight in this photo.
mippijRunner
The moon is lit up by the sun the same way the Earth is. It doesn’t have its own light.
donpat
"Moonlight" is a perfectly correct word to use in this situation. It's the light coming from the moon. I doesn't have to be generated by the moon. But it's definitely coming from there.
gronzilla
Nobody argued that, but your addition might nudge people to think further if they hadn't
candle340
I did not say it does. "Moonlight" refers to the light reflected from the sun by the moon onto the Earth's surface.
mippijRunner
Sorry, I had originally read the earth is lit by the moon. My mistake.