31 Million Miles from Planet Earth
Video Credit: Donald J. Lindler, Sigma Space Corporation, GSFC,
Univ. Maryland, EPOCh/DIXI Science Teams
Posted on 09/03/2008 4:01:59 PM PDT by sig226
Explanation: On July 4th, 2005, the Deep Impact spacecraft directed a probe to impact the nucleus of Comet Tempel 1. Still cruising through the solar system, earlier this year the robotic spacecraft looked back to record a series of images of its home world 31 million miles (50 million kilometers) away. In a sequence from top left to bottom right, these four frames from the video show a rotating Earth. They combine visible and near-infrared image data with enough resolution and contrast to see clouds, oceans, and continents. They also follow a remarkable transit of Earth by its large, natural satellite, the Moon. The Moon's orbital motion carries it across the field of view from left to right. Imaging the Earth from this distant perspective allows astronomers to connect overall variations in brightness at different wavelengths with planetary features. The observations will aid in the search for earth-like planets in other solar systems.
Interesting how dark the moon looks when compared realistically to the earth. Typically you see it light-colored, but the earth in the same frame would be overexposed. The dark basalt of the moon naturally has a lower albedo than earth’s oceans and clouds.
Very cool. Thanks for saving me the trouble of going to the NASA APOD website. I’d rather give the hits to FR any day.
“With just a little higher resolution, you could make out the Marxists in Sub - Saharan Africa. :)”
I’m straining to see the babes in Australia in the last frame.
DOH! My mistake- that’s South America coming around. Maybe you can see a Brazilian women.
Cool.
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