Cebu_4_2
3rd January 2016, 02:03 PM
Again no stars...
http://www.chron.com/about/article/NASA-releases-stunning-new-image-of-Earth-taken-6713006.php#photo-9143473
NASA releases stunning new image of Earth taken from lunar orbit
Image 1 of 25
This NASA image released December 18, 2015, shows what NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recently captured in a view of Earth from the spacecraft's vantage point in orbit around the moon. In this ... more
It seems appropriate that NASA's newest gorgeous Earth photo has come out in late December, in the same time frame as earlier iconic images of our planet.
On Friday, the space agency released a composite image in which Earth appears to rise over the moon. It's composed of a series of shots taken Oct. 12 by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, as it passed about 83 miles above the lunar crater Compton on the far side of the moon, NASA said.
According to Noah Petro, a leader on the lunar orbiter project, the stunning composite evokes the "Blue Marble" image taken by Astronaut Harrison Schmitt during Apollo 17 (https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_329.html), in December 1972. For one thing, Petro said in a statement, both photos show Africa prominently.
In the new image, the center of the Earth is just off the coast of Liberia. The large tan area in the upper right is the Sahara Desert, with Saudi Arabia just beyond that. The Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South America are visible to the left.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched on June 18, 2009, and has been collecting images since then. Although the orbiter is witness to 12 earthrises every day, its cameras are seldom pointed toward the Earth, making images such as the new composite rare, NASA said.
NASA's first Earthrise image was taken with the Lunar Orbiter 1 spacecraft in 1966, but the photo taken Christmas Eve, 1968, by Apollo 8 astronauts is arguably much more famous.
That evening, astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders held a live broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and moon as seen from their spacecraft, according to NASA.
"The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth," Lovell said during the broadcast.
http://www.chron.com/about/article/NASA-releases-stunning-new-image-of-Earth-taken-6713006.php#photo-9143473
NASA releases stunning new image of Earth taken from lunar orbit
Image 1 of 25
This NASA image released December 18, 2015, shows what NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recently captured in a view of Earth from the spacecraft's vantage point in orbit around the moon. In this ... more
It seems appropriate that NASA's newest gorgeous Earth photo has come out in late December, in the same time frame as earlier iconic images of our planet.
On Friday, the space agency released a composite image in which Earth appears to rise over the moon. It's composed of a series of shots taken Oct. 12 by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, as it passed about 83 miles above the lunar crater Compton on the far side of the moon, NASA said.
According to Noah Petro, a leader on the lunar orbiter project, the stunning composite evokes the "Blue Marble" image taken by Astronaut Harrison Schmitt during Apollo 17 (https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_329.html), in December 1972. For one thing, Petro said in a statement, both photos show Africa prominently.
In the new image, the center of the Earth is just off the coast of Liberia. The large tan area in the upper right is the Sahara Desert, with Saudi Arabia just beyond that. The Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South America are visible to the left.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched on June 18, 2009, and has been collecting images since then. Although the orbiter is witness to 12 earthrises every day, its cameras are seldom pointed toward the Earth, making images such as the new composite rare, NASA said.
NASA's first Earthrise image was taken with the Lunar Orbiter 1 spacecraft in 1966, but the photo taken Christmas Eve, 1968, by Apollo 8 astronauts is arguably much more famous.
That evening, astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders held a live broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and moon as seen from their spacecraft, according to NASA.
"The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth," Lovell said during the broadcast.