10 Breathtaking Images of Earth from Space

So, Here we begin!!...

10. June 4, 1965, Earth Observations From Gemini IV

This photograph of the Florida Straits and Grand Bahama Bank was taken during the Gemini IV mission during orbit no. 19, on June 4, 1965, with a Hasselblad camera and a 70mm lens. The Gemini IV crew -- astronauts Jim McDivitt and Ed White -- conducted scientific experiments, including photography of Earth's weather and terrain, for the remainder of their four-day mission following White's historic first American spacewalk on June 3.

Astronauts have been photographing Earth from space since the early Mercury missions beginning in 1961. Today, they observe the Earth from their unique point of view aboard the International Space Station, providing researchers with key data and recording changes over time from human-caused changes like urban growth and reservoir construction, to natural dynamic events such as hurricanes, floods and volcanic eruptions.

Image Credit: NASA

9. Star Trails Seen From Low Earth Orbit

Astronauts on the International Space Station captured a series of incredible star trail images on Oct. 3, 2016, as they orbited at 17,500 miles per hour. The station orbits the Earth every 90 minutes, and astronauts aboard see an average of 16 sunrises and sunsets every 24 hours.

Images Credit: NASA

Careful!.. Here comes the ancient one...

8. Lunar Orbiter Gives First View of Earth From Moon

Designed to scope out the lunar surface for potential landing sites, Lunar Orbiter 1 gave us the first view of Earth from the vicinity of the Moon.

Same as the previous one but with colors...

7. Earth Rising over the Moon's Horizon

This view of Earth rising over the Moon's horizon was taken from the Apollo 11 spacecraft. The lunar terrain pictured is in the area of Smyth's Sea on the nearside. Coordinates of the center of the terrain are 85 degrees east longitude and 3 degrees north latitude. While astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, commander; and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot, descended in the Lunar Module (LM) "Eagle" to explore the Sea of Tranquility region of the moon, astronaut Michael Collins remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) "Columbia" in lunar orbit.

Image Credit: NASA

6. Earth from Juno

On Oct. 9, Juno flew by Earth using the home planet's gravity to get a boost needed to reach Jupiter. The JunoCam caught this image of Earth, and other instruments were tested to ensure they work as designed during a close planetary encounter.

The Juno spacecraft was launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Aug. 5, 2011. Juno’s rocket, the Atlas 551, was only capable of giving Juno enough energy or speed to reach the asteroid belt, at which point the Sun’s gravity pulled Juno back toward the inner solar system. The Earth flyby gravity assist increases the spacecraft’s speed to put it on course for arrival at Jupiter on July 4, 2016.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems

5. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Swallows Earth

Measuring in at 10,159 miles (16,350 kilometers) in width (as of April 3, 2017) Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is 1.3 times as wide as Earth. This composite image was generated by combining NASA imagery of Earth with an image of Jupiter taken by astronomer Christopher Go.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Christopher Go

4. The wispy atmospheric layer of the air glow crowns the Earth's horizon

ISS063E006674 (May 5, 2020) --- The wispy atmospheric layer of the air glow crowns the Earth's horizon in this nighttime photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited over the South Atlantic Ocean. In the foreground, are a pair of the station's main solar arrays (left) and the Kibo laboratory module's Exposed Facility (top center) from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency).

3. #Earth

ISS043E080629 (04/01/2015) --- NASA astronaut Terry Virts, commander of Expedition 43 on board the International Space Station tweeted this beautiful image of our planet with this simple comment "#Earth".

2. Galileo: Earth and Moon

Don’t accuse the Galileo spacecraft of heresy for this 1992 shot showing the Moon in orbit about Earth. With only a third of the brightness of Earth, the Moon has been digitally enhanced to improve visibility.

1. The Black Marble: Our Planet in Brilliant Darkness

In the years since the 2011 launch of the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite, a research team at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center has been analyzing night-lights data and developing new software and algorithms to make night lights imagery clearer, more accurate and readily available.

This is one of several global images released in 2017.

Fifty years ago, on April 22, 1970, people around the world marked the first Earth Day. On this Earth Day, as we physically separate ourselves by necessity, we can still collectively appreciate the wondrous beauty of our planet and the extraordinary science that helps us understand how it all works – and we can do it from our homes.

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using Suomi NPP VIIRS data from Miguel Román, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

#earth #space #imagesofearth #spacephotos