Happy anniversary to the Blue Marble photograph

[progressoid]

The Blue Marble is a famous photograph of the Earth, taken on December 7, 1972, by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft, at a distance of about 45,000 kilometres (28,000 mi).

The photograph was taken about 5 hours and 6 minutes after launch of the Apollo 17 mission, and about 1 hour 54 minutes after the spacecraft left its parking orbit around the Earth, to begin its trajectory to the Moon. The time of Apollo 17's launch, 12:33 a.m. EST, meant that Africa was in daylight during the early hours of the spacecraft's flight. With the December solstice approaching, Antarctica was also illuminated.

An Indian Ocean cyclone can be seen in the upper right quadrant of the image. This storm had brought flooding and high winds to Tamil Nadu state on December 5, two days before the photo was taken.

The photograph's official NASA designation is AS17-148-22727. (The photograph AS17-148-22726, taken just before and nearly identical to 22727, is also used as a full-Earth image.) The photographer used a 70-millimetre Hasselblad camera with an 80-millimetre lens. NASA officially credits the image to the entire Apollo 17 crew–Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Jack Schmitt–all of whom took photographic images during the mission with the on-board Hasselblad. Although the identity of the specific photographer of the Blue Marble remains unverified, evidence examined after the mission suggests that it was likely Jack Schmitt.

Apollo 17 was the last manned lunar mission. No humans since have been at a range where taking a whole-Earth photograph, such as The Blue Marble, would be possible.

The Blue Marble was the first clear image taken of an illuminated face of the Earth. Released during a surge in environmental activism during the 1970s, the image was seen by many as a depiction of Earth's frailty, vulnerability, and isolation amid the vast expanse of space. NASA archivist Mike Gentry has speculated that The Blue Marble is the most widely distributed image in human history.

The picture originally was taken with South at the top of the image, but was rotated before it was distributed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Marble

Cross-posted in DU3!

[Tansy_Gold]

1. I love this picture. n/t

[bananas]

2. The Apollo photos really brought home the concept "Spaceship Earth". nt

[jberryhill]

3. That picture changed the world.

[sakabatou]

4. My fave from Apollo is "Earthrise."