Satellite photographs of the earth. Google Earth - view of the planet from space

I often see interesting views Earth from space. It is somehow not interesting to publish them separately, but having worked hard and putting them together, you can get a very informative note. In fact, the photographs were collected and remembered for two years, at least. So, I consider this one of the most detailed materials on this topic. All images are clickable.

Earth Rise(Earthrise) is the name of a photograph of our planet taken by astronaut William Anders on December 24, 1968, during the flight of the Apollo 8 spacecraft around the moon. Perhaps the most famous view of earth from space.

blue balloon(Blue Marble) - a photograph of the planet Earth, taken on December 7, 1972 by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft from a distance of about 29 thousand kilometers from the Earth's surface.

In 2002, NASA "sewn" from a huge number of images new version famous photograph.

This is currently available.

Distant Earth and Moon. The photo was taken on September 18, 1977 by Voyager 1 from a distance of 11.5 million kilometers.

And this is a composite image compiled from photographs of the Galileo spacecraft.

Image compiled from 165 photographs taken spaceship Cassini September 15, 2006. Our planet is a top-right dot in the void between the dense rings and the penultimate ring.

Pale blue dot(Pale Blue Dot). Earth as seen by Voyager 1 from a record distance of 5.9 billion kilometers. (Point on the right side of the top line)

Niger River, Republic of Mali.

The sun rises over the Pacific Ocean.

The image is composed of four photographs taken by the ESA OSIRIS space camera.

No matter how familiar it is to see the northern lights from below, from the Earth, from space it looks much more spectacular.

Russian space station Mir over the Earth. Photo taken from shuttle Atlantis in June 1995.

The photo shows the shadow of the moon over Cyprus and Turkey. It's complete solar eclipse happened on March 29, 2006.

NASA astronaut Robert L. Stewart hovers above the clouds. Photo taken from the shuttle Challenger in February 1984.

The planet earth reflected in the helmet of astronaut Clayton C. Anderson on August 15, 2007.

And earlier I showed you the most beautiful and amazing.

Beautiful and amazing our planet. Perhaps, with the development of space tourism, the innermost dream of many people to see the earth from space will come true. Today, you can admire the breathtaking magnificent panoramas of the Earth in photographs.

Here is a selection of the ten most famous images of the globe from NASA.

"Blue marble" (blue marble)

Widely known and widespread until 2002, the image of our amazing planet. The birth of this photograph was the result of long and painstaking work. From cutting frames of many months of research on the movement of oceans, clouds, drifting ice, scientists have compiled an amazing color scheme mosaic.
"Blue Marble" is recognized as a universal heritage and even now is considered the most detailed and detailed image of the globe.

An image taken from a record (about 6 billion kilometers) distance using the Voyajer 1 space probe. This spacecraft managed to transmit about 60 frames to NASA from the very depths solar system, including the Pale Blue Dot, where the globe looks like a tiny (0.12 pixel) bluish speck on a brown stripe.
The “Pale Blue Dot” was destined to become the very first “portrait” of the Earth against the endless backdrop of outer space.

Another world-famous photo is the amazing view of the Earth, taken by the American crew of Apollo 11 during the historic mission: the landing of earthlings on the moon in 1969.
Then three astronauts, led by Neil Armstrong, successfully completed the task - they landed on the lunar surface and safely returned home, having managed to leave this legendary image for history.

An unexpected photo for human perception: two luminous crescents on an absolutely black background of the universe. On the bluish crescent of the Earth, you can see the contours of East Asia, the western Pacific Ocean and the white areas of the Arctic. The image was transmitted in September 1977 by the interplanetary probe Voyager 1. In this photo, our planet is captured at a distance of more than 11 million kilometers.

The Apollo 11 crew made two more famous photos, on which the Terminator of the Earth is visible with a rounded line (from the Latin terminare - to stop) - a light division line separating the illuminated (light) part of the celestial body from the unlit (dark) part, enveloping the planet in a circle twice a day - at sunset and sunrise. At the North and South Poles, this phenomenon is observed quite rarely.

Thanks to this photo, humanity was able to see what our house looks like from another planet. From the surface of Mars, the globe appears as a planetary disk shimmering above the horizon.

This image was first captured using the Swedish Hasselblad landscape reverse side Moon. This event occurred in April 1972, when the crew of Apollo 16 descended to the dark side of the Earth's satellite, with John Young as the expedition commander.

This photograph has notoriety: many experts believe that the picture was taken not at all on the Moon, but in a specially equipped studio that imitates the lunar surface. Many question the very fact of astronauts being on the moon.

(Total 29 photos)

1. Go, "Discovery"! On October 23, 2007 at 11:40 am, I went into space for the first time on the Discovery shuttle. He's beautiful... it's a pity that this is his last flight. I look forward to boarding the ship and it will arrive at the station in November.

2. Earth radiance. The space station in the blue earth glow that appears when the rising sun penetrates our planet's thin atmosphere and the station is bathed in blue light. I will never forget this place… from such a sight the soul sings, and the heart wants to fly.

3. NASA astronaut Douglas H. Wheelock.

4. Juan de Nova Island in the Mozambique Channel between Madagascar and Africa. The amazing color scheme of these places can compete with the views of the Caribbean.

5. Northern Lights in the distance on one of the beautiful nights over Europe. The photo clearly shows the Strait of Dover, however, like Paris, the city of lights. Light fog over the western part of England, in particular over London. How incredible to see the lights of cities and towns against the backdrop of deep space. I will miss this view of our amazing world.

6. “Fly me to the Moon…let me dance among the Stars…” (Take me to the Moon, let's dance among the stars). I hope we never lose the sense of wonder. A passion for exploration and discovery is a great legacy to leave to your children. I hope someday we will set sail and go on a journey. Someday this wonderful day will come...

7. Of all the places on our magnificent planet, few can compete in beauty and richness of colors with. This photo shows our Progress-37 ship with the Bahamas in the background. How beautiful is our world!

8. At a speed of 28,163 km/h (8 km/s)… we orbit the Earth, making one revolution every 90 minutes, and watching sunsets and sunrises every 45 minutes. So half of our journey takes place in total darkness. For work, we simply need lights on helmets. In this photo, I am preparing the handle of one device ... "M3 Ammonia Connector".

9. Every time I look out the window and see our beautiful planet, my soul sings! I see blue skies, white clouds and a bright blessed day.

10. Another spectacular sunset. In Earth's orbit, we see 16 such sunsets every day, and each of them is truly valuable. This beautiful thin blue line is what sets our planet apart from many others. It is cold in space, and the Earth is an island of life in the vast dark sea of ​​space.

11. A beautiful atoll in the Pacific Ocean, photographed with a 400mm lens. Approximately 1930 km south of Honolulu.

12. Beautiful reflection of sunlight in the eastern Mediterranean. There are no borders visible from outer space… From there, only a breathtaking view opens up, like, for example, the view of this island of Cyprus.

13. Over the center of the Atlantic Ocean, before another amazing sunset. Below, in the rays of the setting sun, the spirals of Hurricane Earl are visible. An interesting look at the life energy of our sun. Sunbeams on the station's port side and on Hurricane Earl...these two objects are collecting the last bits of energy before plunging into darkness.

14. A little further east we saw the sacred monolith of Uluru, better known as Ayers Rock. I have never had the opportunity to visit Australia, but someday I hope to be able to stand next to this natural wonder.

15. Morning over the Andes in South America. I do not know for sure the name of this peak, but I was simply amazed by its magic, stretching towards the sun and winds of the peaks.

16. Over the Sahara desert, approaching ancient lands and thousands of years of history. The Nile River flows through Egypt past the Pyramids of Giza in Cairo. Further, the Red Sea, the Sinai Peninsula, the Dead Sea, the Jordan River, as well as the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea and Greece on the horizon.

17. Night view of the Nile River, serpentine through Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea, and Cairo, located in the river delta. What a contrast between the dark, lifeless desert of North Africa and the Nile River, on the banks of which life is in full swing. The Mediterranean Sea is visible in the distance in this picture taken on a beautiful autumn evening.

18. Our unmanned 'Progress 39P' approaching the ISS for refueling. It is full of food, fuel, spare parts and everything we need for our station. Inside was a real gift - fresh fruits and vegetables. What a miracle after three months of tube feeding!

20. Soyuz 23C Olympus module docked to the nadir side. When our work is done here, we will return home to Earth. I thought you'd be interested in seeing this spectacle through the Dome. We are flying over the snow-capped peaks of the Caucasus. The rising sun reflects off the Caspian Sea.

21. A flash of color, movement and life on the canvas of our wonderful world. This is part of the Great Barrier Reef off the east coast of Australia, shot through a 1200mm lens. I think even the great impressionists would be amazed by this natural picture.

22. All the beauty of Italy on a clear summer evening. You can see many beautiful islands that adorn the coast - Capri, Sicily and Malta. Naples and Mount Vesuvius stand out along the coast.

23. In the southern end South America lies the pearl of Patagonia. The amazing beauty of the rocky mountains, massive glaciers, fjords and the open sea are combined in amazing harmony. I dreamed about this place. I wonder what it's like to breathe in the air there. Real magic!

24. The "dome" on the nadir side of the station gives a panoramic view of our beautiful planet. Fedor took this picture from the window of the Russian docking bay. In this photo, I'm sitting in the dome, getting my camera ready for our evening flight over Hurricane Earl.

27. Clear starry night over the eastern Mediterranean. Ancient lands with a thousand-year history stretch from Athens to Cairo. Historic lands, fabulous cities and enticing islands... Athens - Crete - Rhodes - Izmir - Ankara - Cyprus - Damascus - Beirut - Haifa - Amman - Tel Aviv - Jerusalem - Cairo - they all turned into tiny lights on this cool November night. From these places it seems to breathe grace and tranquility.

28. At this time of the year, you can fully enjoy the beauty of the polar mesospheric clouds. With our high light angle, we were able to capture a thin layer of noctilucent clouds at sunset.

29. Shannon, myself and Fedor in our Falcon suits in the MRM-1 module. We boarded the Olympus capsule to seal and check for leaks on our suits. All systems are running, the countdown has started.

Seeing Earth from space is an unforgettable experience. It is something soothing, beautiful and inspiring. Let's hope that in the near future many, and not just a select few, will be able to enjoy the view of our home planet from space. Until we have such an opportunity, we have to be content with breathtaking photographs like the ten that are included in this selection.

(Total 11 photos)

1. Earth from a distance of 4 billion miles from Voyager 1 (luminous dot in the center of the right glare). This photograph is an enlarged portion of one of the 16 frames that make up a panoramic view of the solar system. (NASA)

2. The most detailed view of the Earth for 2002, collected by a team of specialists from many frames made over many months. Most of the data was collected by the MODIS probe from the Terra research satellite. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Image by Reto Stockli)

3. Earth Rise. The picture was taken from the Apollo 11 in 1969 during the first manned flight and landing on the moon. (NASA)

4. The first shot of the Earth and the Moon in one frame. It was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft from a distance of 11.66 million kilometers from Earth. (NASA)

5. Terminator line on the surface of the Earth, the picture was taken during the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. (NASA)

7. View of the Earth and the Moon from Mars. The first ever photograph of the Earth from another planet, taken by the Mariner 10 probe. (SA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems)

8. Earthrise, view from the dark side of the moon. Photo taken from Apollo 16, 1972. The first photographs of the dark side of the Moon were taken by the Soviet apparatus Luna-3 in 1959. A man first saw her with his own eyes in 1968 from the board of Apollo 8. (NASA)

9. Astronaut from the crew of "Apollo 17" sets the flag on the surface of the moon, 1972. The mission, which lasted 504 hours, made it possible to bring 117 kg of soil samples from the Moon and carry out in-depth geological exploration. (NASA)

10. Crescent Earth above the lunar horizon. Photo from the Apollo 15, 1971. During this lunar mission, the MRV rover, capable of speeds up to 16 km / h, was used for the first time.

11. Water is everywhere on our planet - from the earth's crust to our cells. Water in the oceans and in the atmosphere. In the form of liquid or ice, it covers 75% of the planet's surface. The total volume of water on Earth is estimated at 1.39 billion cubic kilometers, and 96.5% of this volume is in the oceans. (NASA Earth Observatory)

Recently, NASA announced that on July 19, the Cassini probe orbiting Saturn will take a picture of the Earth, which at the time of shooting will be at a distance of 1.44 billion kilometers from the apparatus. This is not the first photo shoot of this kind, but the first one that was announced in advance. NASA experts hope that the new image will take pride of place among such famous pictures of the Earth. Like it or not, time will tell, but for now we can remember the history of photographing our planet from the depths of space.

Since ancient times, people have always wanted to look at our planet from above. The advent of aviation gave mankind the opportunity to rise beyond the clouds, and soon the rapid development of rocket technology made it possible to obtain photographs from truly cosmic heights. The first pictures from space (according to the FAI standards, according to which space begins at a height of 100 km above sea level) were made in 1946 using a captured FAU-2 rocket.

The first attempt to photograph the earth's surface from a satellite was made in 1959. Satellite Explorer-6 I took this amazing photo.

By the way, after the mission of Explorer-6 was completed, he still served the American Motherland, becoming a target for testing anti-satellite missiles.

Since satellite photography has developed at an incredible pace and now you can find a bunch of pictures of any part of the earth's surface for every taste. But the vast majority of these photos were taken from low earth orbit. What does the Earth look like from more distant distances?

Snapshot of the Apollos

The only people who could see the entire Earth (roughly speaking in one frame) were 24 people from the Apollo crews. We have a few classic shots as a legacy from this program.

And here is a picture taken with Apollo 11, where the earth terminator is clearly visible (and yes, we are not talking about a famous action movie, but about a line dividing the illuminated and unlit parts of the planet).

Photo of the Earth's crescent over the surface of the Moon, taken by the crew Apollo 15.

Another Earthrise, this time over the so-called dark side of the Moon. Photo taken with Apollo 16.

"The Blue Marble"- another iconic photograph taken on December 7, 1972 by the crew of Apollo 17 from a distance of approximately 29 thousand km. from our planet. It wasn't the first image to show a completely illuminated Earth, but it became one of the most famous. The Apollo 17 astronauts are so far the last people who could observe the Earth from this angle. For the 40th anniversary of the photo, NASA remake this photo by gluing a bunch of frames from different satellites into a single composite image. There is also a Russian analogue made from the Elektro-M satellite.

When viewed from the surface of the Moon, the Earth is constantly at the same point in the sky. Since the Apollos landed in the equatorial regions, in order to make a patriotic avatar, the astronauts had to get the hang of it.

Shots from moderate distances

In addition to the Apollos, a number of AMS photographed the Earth from a great distance. Here are the most famous of these pictures

Very famous photo Voyager 1 taken on September 18, 1977 from a distance of 11.66 million kilometers from Earth. As far as I know, this was the first image of the Earth and the Moon in one frame.

A similar picture taken by the device Galileo from a distance of 6.2 million kilometers in 1992

Photo taken on July 3, 2003 from the station Mars Express. The distance to Earth is 8 million kilometers.

And here is the most recent, but oddly the worst quality picture taken by the mission Juno from a distance of 9.66 million kilometers. So think - either NASA really saved on cameras, or because of the financial crisis, all the employees responsible for photoshop were fired.

Pictures from Martian orbit

This is what the Earth and Jupiter looked like from the orbit of Mars. The pictures were taken on May 8, 2003 by the apparatus Mars Global Surveyor, which was at that time at a distance of 139 million kilometers from the Earth. It is worth noting that the camera on board the device could not take color images and these are pictures in artificial colors.

Map of the location of Mars and planets at the time of shooting

And this is how the Earth looks already from the surface of the red planet. It is difficult to disagree with this inscription.

And here is another image of the Martian sky. The brighter point is Venus, the less bright one (pointed to by the arrows) is our home planet

Who cares, a very atmospheric photo of a sunset on Mars. It is somewhat reminiscent of a similar frame from a movie Stranger.

Pictures from the orbit of Saturn

in higher resolution

And here is the Earth in one of the pictures taken by the device mentioned at the beginning Cassini. The image itself is a composite image taken in September 2006. It was made up of 165 photographs taken in infrared and ultraviolet, which were then glued and processed to make the colors look like natural ones. In contrast to this mosaic, during the July 19 survey, the Earth and Saturn system will be filmed for the first time in so-called natural colors, that is, as they would be seen by the human eye. In addition, for the first time, the Earth and the Moon will fall into the lens of the Cassini camera with the highest resolution.

Here's what Jupiter looks like from Saturn's orbit. The picture, of course, was also taken by the Cassini apparatus. At that time, the gas giants were separated by a distance of 11 astronomical units.

Family portrait "from inside" the solar system

This portrait of the solar system was taken by the spacecraft MESSENGER in orbit around Mercury in November 2010. Compiled from 34 images, the mosaic shows all the planets in the solar system, except for Uranus and Neptune, which were too far away to be recorded. In the pictures you can see the Moon, the four main satellites of Jupiter and even a piece of the Milky Way.

In fact, our home planet .

Scheme of the location of the apparatus and planets at the time of shooting.

And finally, the father of all family portraits and ultra-long distance photographs is a mosaic of 60 photographs taken by the same Voyager 1 between February 14 and June 6, 1990. After the passage of Saturn in November 1980, the apparatus was generally inactive - others celestial bodies he did not have left to study, and before approaching the border of the heliopause, there were still about 25 years of flight.

After numerous requests, Carl Sagan managed to convince NASA management to reactivate the ship's cameras that were turned off a decade ago and take a picture of all the planets in the solar system. Only Mercury (which was too close to the Sun), Mars (which, again, was prevented by light from the Sun) and Pluto, which was simply too small, could not be photographed.

"Take another look at this dot. This is here. This is our home. This is us. Everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you've ever heard of, all people who have ever lived lived their lives on Our many pleasures and pains, thousands of self-confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and gatherer, every hero and coward, every builder and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every couple in love, every mother and every father, every capable child, inventor and traveler, every ethics teacher, every deceitful politician, every "superstar", every "greatest leader", every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived here - on a mote suspended in a sunbeam.

Earth is a very small stage in the vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood shed by all these generals and emperors, so that, in the rays of glory and triumph, they may become momentary masters of a fraction of a grain of sand. Think of the endless cruelties committed by the inhabitants of one corner of this point on the barely distinguishable inhabitants of another corner. About how frequent disagreements are between them, about how eager they are to kill each other, about how hot their hatred is.

Our posturing, our imagined importance, our delusion of our privileged status in the universe, they all succumb to this point of pale light. Our planet is just a single speck of dust in the surrounding cosmic darkness. In this vast void, there is no hint that someone will come to our aid in order to save us from our own ignorance.

Earth is the only known world capable of sustaining life. We have nowhere else to go - at least in the near future. Stay - yes. Colonize - not yet. Like it or not, the Earth is our home now."