Recently, NASA announced that on July 19, the Cassini probe in orbit around Saturn will photograph the Earth, which at the time of shooting will be at a distance of 1.44 billion kilometers from the device. 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 images of the Earth. Whether this is true or not, time will tell, but for now we can remember the history of photographing our planet from the depths of space.
For a long time, people have always wanted to look at our planet from above. The advent of aviation gave humanity 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 photographs from space (if we accept the FAI standard, according to which space begins at an altitude of 100 km above sea level) were taken in 1946 using a captured V-2 rocket.
The first attempt to photograph the earth's surface from a satellite was made in 1959. Satellite Explorer-6 I took this wonderful photo.
By the way, after Explorer 6's mission was completed, it still served the American Motherland by becoming a target for testing anti-satellite missiles.
Since then, satellite photography has developed at an incredible pace and now you can find a bunch of images 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?
Apollo Snapshot
The only people who could see the entire Earth (roughly speaking in one frame) were 24 people from the Apollo crews. We are left with several classic photographs as a legacy from this program.
Here's a photo taken with Apollo 11, where the earth's terminator is clearly visible (and yes, we are not talking about a famous action movie, but about the line dividing the illuminated and unlit parts of the planet).
Photo of the Earth's crescent above 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. This was not the first image to show the Earth fully illuminated, 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. To mark the 40th anniversary of the photo, NASA remade this photo, stitching together a bunch of frames from different satellites into a single composite image. There is also a Russian analogue, taken from the Electro-M satellite.
When viewed from the surface of the Moon, the Earth is constantly located at the same point in the sky. Since the Apollos landed in equatorial regions, in order to make a patriotic avatar, the astronauts had to get the hang of it.
Moderate distance shots
In addition to the Apollo missions, a number of spacecraft photographed the Earth from a great distance. Here are the most famous of these pictures
A 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 photo 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 enough the worst quality image taken by the mission Juno from a distance of 9.66 million kilometers. Just think - either NASA really saved money on cameras, or because of the financial crisis, all the employees responsible for Photoshop were fired.
Images from Martian orbit
This is what Earth and Jupiter looked like from Mars orbit. The pictures were taken on May 8, 2003 by the device Mars Global Surveyor, located at that time at a distance of 139 million kilometers from Earth. It is worth noting that the camera on board the device could not take color images and these were pictures in artificial colors.
Scheme of the location of Mars and the planets at the time of shooting
And this is how the Earth looks from the surface of the red planet. It's hard to disagree with this inscription.
Here's another image of the Martian sky. The brighter point is Venus, the less bright one (pointed to by the arrows) is our home planet.
For those interested, a very atmospheric photo of a sunset on Mars. Somewhat reminiscent of a similar shot from a movie Stranger.
Images from Saturn's orbit
Higher resolution
But the Earth in one of the pictures taken by the apparatus mentioned at the beginning Cassini. The image itself is composite and was taken in September 2006. It was made up of 165 photographs taken in the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum, which were then glued together and processed, making the colors look natural. In contrast to this mosaic, the July 19 survey will film Earth and the Saturn system for the first time in so-called natural colors, that is, as the human eye would see them. In addition, for the first time, the Earth and Moon will be captured by Cassini's highest-resolution camera ever.
By the way, here’s what Jupiter looks like from Saturn’s orbit. The image, of course, was also taken by the Cassini spacecraft. 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 made by the apparatus MESSENGER, orbiting Mercury in November 2010. The mosaic, compiled from 34 images, shows all the planets of the solar system, except for Uranus and Neptune, which were too far away to be recorded. In the photographs you can see the Moon, the four main satellites of Jupiter and even a piece of the Milky Way.
Actually, our home planet .
Diagram of the location of the apparatus and planets at the time of shooting.
And finally, the father of all family portraits and ultra-distant 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 device was generally inactive - it had no other celestial bodies left to study, and there were still about 25 years of flight left before approaching the heliopause boundary.
After numerous requests, Carl Sagan managed to convince NASA management to reactivate the ship's cameras, which were turned off a decade ago, and take a photograph of all the planets in the solar system. The only things that were not photographed were Mercury (which was too close to the Sun), Mars (which, again, was hindered by the light from the Sun) and Pluto, which was simply too small.
"Take another look at this point. It's here. This is our home. This is us. Everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you've ever heard of, every person who has ever existed lived their lives on Our many pleasures and sufferings, thousands of self-confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and gatherer, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every couple in love, every mother and father, every capable child, inventor and traveler, every ethics teacher, every lying politician, every “superstar”, every “greatest leader”, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived here - on a speck suspended in a ray of sunshine.
The 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 might become the short-term masters 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 often disagreements are between them, about how eager they are to kill each other, about how hot their hatred is.
Our posturing, our imagined importance, the illusion of our privileged status in the universe - they all give in to this point of pale light. Our planet is just a lonely speck of dust in the surrounding cosmic darkness. In this grandiose emptiness there is not a hint that someone will come to our aid in order to save us from our own ignorance.
Earth is so far the only known world capable of supporting life. We have nowhere else to go—at least not in the near future. To visit - yes. Colonize - not yet. Whether you like it or not, the Earth is our home now."
Interplanetary robotic reconnaissance missions from NASA, the European Space Agency and others are currently collecting information about our solar system. Right now, spacecraft are in orbit around the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and Saturn, while others are flying towards small space objects.
Thanks to the astronauts and all the automatic mechanical scouts in space, we have the opportunity to look at “family” photographs of our Solar System.
This is Pan-STARRS - a non-periodic circumsolar comet. In March 2013, it could be observed with the naked eye, while it was near perihelion. It is named after the Pan-STARRS telescope located on the island of Maui (Hawaii).
This photo of the comet was taken on March 15, 2013 from Stereo Behind, part of one of the most unusual projects to study the Sun. So, one device moves in an orbit located to the Sun a little closer than the Earth’s, the other - a little further. As a result, Stereo Ahead and Stereo Behind send pictures taken from different points at the same time. This allows you to form a three-dimensional picture of observations.
Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun in the Solar System. In its physical characteristics, Mercury resembles the Moon. It has no natural satellites, but has a very rarefied atmosphere. The temperature on the surface of Mercury ranges from −180 to +430 °C. The photo was taken from the American automatic interplanetary station Messenger for the study of Mercury.
Mercury is the smallest terrestrial planet. Its radius is only 2440 ± 1.0 km, which is less than the radius of Jupiter's moon Ganymede and Saturn's moon Titan. Comparative sizes of the planets (from left to right: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars):
Kertesz Crater on Mercury. It is named after Andre Kertesz, an American photographer of Hungarian origin. The diameter of the crater is 33 km.
This is Venus - the second inner planet of the solar system. Its relative dimensions are shown in the 4th photo. Venus is classified as an Earth-like planet and is sometimes called "Earth's sister" because the two planets are similar in size, gravity, and composition. By cosmic standards, Venus is a young planet, and the surface of Venus is approximately 500 million years old.
In ancient times, Venus is believed to have become so hot that the Earth-like oceans it is thought to have evaporated completely, leaving behind a desert landscape with many slab-like rocks. The atmospheric pressure on the surface of Venus is 92 times greater than on Earth.
Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide walked into outer space from the ISS, November 1, 2012. Contrary to popular belief, space is not completely empty space - it contains a very low density of some particles (mainly hydrogen), as well as electromagnetic radiation. Also, there is still no consensus on what to consider as a factor in the beginning of space, since the atmosphere gradually thins out as it moves away from the earth’s surface.
According to NASA scientists, contrary to popular belief, when entering outer space without a protective suit, a person will not freeze, explode, or instantly lose consciousness, and his blood will not boil. Instead, there will be rapid death from lack of oxygen.
Northern Lights in Alaska, March 17, 2013. 1000–1100 km - the maximum height of the auroras, the last manifestation of the atmosphere visible from the Earth's surface.
A crater lake is a body of water formed when a volcanic crater fills with water. This satellite photo of Quebec shows two circular crater lakes not covered with snow - Pingualuit and Couture. Both craters were formed millions of years ago by the impact of meteorites on the Earth's surface.
Test launch of the Antares rocket, developed by the American company Orbital Sciences Corporation and intended to deliver cargo to the International Space Station, April 21, 2013. We have already talked about this launch in detail.
December 7, 2012 was 40 years since the launch of Apollo 17, the manned spacecraft that carried out the sixth and final landing of men on the Moon as part of the Apollo program. This photo was taken in 1972 from Apollo 17. The Earth can be seen rising above the lunar horizon.
The Curiosity rover is monitored by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft in Martian orbit. This image shows rover tracks on the surface of the Red Planet, January 2, 2013.
Aeolis or Mount Sharp is the central peak of Gale Crater on the planet Mars, September 20, 2012. The main goal of the Curiosity rover's scientific mission is to conduct research in the area at the foot of Mount Sharp.
On February 8, 2013, the American rover Curiosity drilled a hole in Mars (diameter 1.6 cm, depth 6.4 cm) and obtained a soil sample.
Gullies on the Vesta asteroid. It is one of the largest asteroids in the main asteroid belt. Among asteroids it ranks first in mass and second in size after Pallas. Vesta was discovered on March 29, 1807 by Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers and, at the suggestion of Karl Gauss, received the name of the ancient Roman goddess of home and hearth, Vesta.
Our home in space is the Solar System, a star system consisting of eight planets and part of the Milky Way galaxy. In the center is a star called the Sun. The solar system is four and a half billion years old. We live on the third planet from the sun. Do you know about other planets in the solar system?! Now we will tell you a little about them.
Mercury- the smallest planet in the solar system. Its radius is 2440 km. The period of revolution around the Sun is 88 Earth days. During this time, Mercury manages to rotate around its own axis only one and a half times. A day on Mercury lasts approximately 59 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury is one of the most unstable: not only the speed of movement and its distance from the Sun, but also the position itself changes there. There are no satellites.
Neptune- the eighth planet of the solar system. It is located quite close to Uranus. The radius of the planet is 24547 km. A year on Neptune is 60,190 days, that is, about 164 Earth years. Has 14 satellites. It has an atmosphere in which the strongest winds have been recorded - up to 260 m/s.
By the way, Neptune was discovered not through observations, but through mathematical calculations.
Uranus- the seventh planet in the solar system. Radius - 25267 km. The coldest planet has a surface temperature of -224 degrees. A year on Uranus is equal to 30,685 Earth days, that is, approximately 84 years. Day - 17 hours. Has 27 satellites.
Saturn- the sixth planet of the solar system. The radius of the planet is 57350 km. It is second in size after Jupiter. A year on Saturn is 10,759 days, which is almost 30 Earth years. A day on Saturn is almost equal to a day on Jupiter - 10.5 Earth hours. It is most similar to the Sun in the composition of chemical elements.
Has 62 satellites.
The main feature of Saturn is its rings. Their origin has not yet been established.
Jupiter- the fifth planet from the Sun. It is the largest planet in the solar system. The radius of Jupiter is 69912 km. This is as much as 19 times larger than the Earth. A year there lasts as many as 4333 Earth days, that is, almost less than 12 years. A day is about 10 Earth hours long.
Jupiter has as many as 67 satellites. The largest of them are Callisto, Ganymede, Io and Europa. Moreover, Ganymede is 8% larger than Mercury, the smallest planet in our system, and has an atmosphere.
Mars- the fourth planet of the solar system. Its radius is 3390 km, which is almost half the size of the Earth. A year on Mars is 687 Earth days. It has 2 satellites - Phobos and Deimos.
The planet's atmosphere is thin. Water found on some areas of the surface suggests that some kind of primitive life on Mars was once before or even exists now.
Venus- the second planet of the solar system. It is similar in mass and radius to the Earth. There are no satellites.
The atmosphere of Venus consists almost entirely of carbon dioxide. The percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 96%, nitrogen - approximately 4%. Water vapor and oxygen are also present, but in very small quantities. Due to the fact that such an atmosphere creates a greenhouse effect, the temperature on the surface of the planet reaches 475 °C. A day on Venus is equal to 243 Earth days. A year on Venus is 255 days.
Pluto is a dwarf planet on the edges of the solar system, which is the dominant object in a distant system of 6 small cosmic bodies. The radius of the planet is 1195 km. Pluto's orbital period around the Sun is approximately 248 Earth years. A day on Pluto is 152 hours long. The mass of the planet is approximately 0.0025 the mass of the Earth.
It is noteworthy that Pluto was excluded from the category of planets in 2006 due to the fact that in the Kuiper belt there are objects that are larger or equal in size to Pluto, which is why, even if it is accepted as a full-fledged planet, then in this case it is necessary Add Eris to this category - which is almost the same size as Pluto.
A giant solar flare caused a magnetic storm on our planet on August 31, 2012. A cloud of hot plasma rose at a speed of 5.2 million km/h hundreds of thousands of kilometers above the surface of the star.
A young couple invited a photographer to Moscow for a long-awaited sunset photo shoot. They had long planned to turn to a team of creative and talented specialists to make their long-time dream come true.
The Sun, partially obscured by the Earth's shadow.
(read about how the inhabitants of the planet accepted)
Photo of a crater on the Moon, from which rock fragments are flying over the edge of Komarov Crater, taken using NASA's orbiting lunar research vehicle.
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, flight engineer for Expedition 32. During the spacewalk, which lasted 6 hours and 28 minutes, Williams and his team completed the installation of the main bus switch, and they also installed cameras on the International Space Station's robotic arm, Canadarm 2.
Polar mesospheric clouds. The photo was taken from the International Space Station.
Astronaut Andre Kuipers watches a drop of water in zero gravity on the space station on June 24, 2012.
The photo was taken 240 miles above the Earth. It took 47 frames to create this photo.
Hurricane Isaac over the Gulf of Mexico. The clouds are illuminated by moonlight.
(see causing floods, floods and destruction)
SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Titusville, Florida.
The setting sun illuminates the clouds above the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
Surface of Mars. The image was taken from the Opportunity research vehicle, which studied the western part of Endeavor Crater. The diameter of the crater is 22 kilometers, its size is comparable to Seattle (the largest city in the northwestern United States).
A detailed photograph of the Martian soil (the length of the photographed area diagonally is 8 centimeters).
Photo of the base of Mount Sharp, where the new Curiosity rover is heading.
Vesta is one of the largest asteroids in the main asteroid belt. It is the brightest and the only one that can be observed with the naked eye. Opened on March 29, 1807. Vesta has a huge crater (460 km across) that occupies the entire south pole. The bottom of the crater lies 13 km below the average level, the edges rise 4–12 km above the adjacent plains, and its central part has a height of 18 km. (for comparison: the height of Everest is 8.9 km).
Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system, a gas giant composed mainly of hydrogen. The planet's mass is 95 times the mass of Earth, and wind speeds on Saturn can reach 1,800 km/h in places. In front of Saturn, its largest satellite is observed - Titan (the second largest satellite in the Solar System), which is the only body in the Solar System, besides the Earth, for which the existence of liquid on the surface has been proven. Titan's diameter is 50% larger than that of the Moon.
Enceladus is the sixth largest moon of Saturn, discovered in 1789, against the backdrop of the rings of Saturn itself. Its diameter is approximately 500 km.
Class C3 flare on the Sun.
Relief on the surface of Mercury, including the Kipling (bottom left) and Steichen (top right) craters.
The photograph shows a fading crescent moon and a thin line of the earth's atmosphere.
A meteor rushes past the stars. Night sky over Stonehenge in England.
The Mertz Glacier, off the coast of East Antarctica, floats along the coast of George V.
Hurricane Daniel captured by the International Space Station.
A hole on the Moon reaching 400 meters in width.
Phobos, the moon of Mars, was captured using the high-resolution stereo camera aboard the Mars Express.
Dune on the surface of Mars.
Wind-formed reliefs on the surface of a shield volcano in the Tharsis region of Mars.
Dunes in the Matara crater on Mars.
The soil of Mars and traces left by the Opportunity rover.
Dione, one of Saturn's moons, against the background of the foggy Titan (the second largest moon in the Solar System). Dione is located 1.8 million kilometers from Titan.
Photo of the Sun.
A funnel and extensive system of depressions on the surface of Mercury.
Photo of Venus.
The moon above the surface of the Earth. Canadian Space Agency photo taken from the International Space Station.
Black and white image of the Earth.
(read about)
Aurora over North America. The picture was taken at night.
Northern Lights in Kenai, Alaska, March 17, 2013.
Ungava Peninsula, Quebec (the first province in Canada by area and second by population). Ice-free areas are craters that were formed millions of years ago by the fall of meteorites on the surface of the Earth; today these are deep lakes: Couture - 8 km wide, 150 meters deep; Pingualuit - about 3 km, depth 246 meters.
In the layers of the atmosphere, exhaust traces from the Soyuz rocket, which launched from Kazakhstan on October 23, 2012, are observed. The Soyuz passed through the troposphere (the lower layer of the atmosphere, extending to an altitude of 8-10 km), the stratosphere (at an altitude of 11 to 50 km), the mesosphere (at altitudes from 50 to 90 km) and the thermosphere (beginning at an altitude of 80-90 km). km and extends up to 800 km). These marks will remain visible for a long time (from several minutes to several hours).
A small plane against the backdrop of the rising moon on February 25, 2013.
Traces from a meteorite flying over Chelyabinsk, Russia, February 15, 2013. The small asteroid was only 17-20 meters wide, but it managed to damage a large number of buildings, hundreds of people were injured of varying severity.
In Virginia, on April 21, 2013, a test launch of Antares took place from site 0A.
December 13, 2012 marked the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 17 spacecraft. The earth rises like a crescent above the lunar horizon.
The rover at the site that was chosen as the site for the first rock drilling.
Mount Sharp on Mars.
Saturn. The planet and rings are illuminated by the Sun.
Planets and their satellites
Below are the planets of the solar system in order of distance from the sun - they make up our solar system. The article will not contain large text, statistics or small stories. Only photographs of objects that orbit the Sun.
This is our home in space.
Just as people remember the location of the colors of the rainbow by coming up with a semantic phrase: “Every Hunter Wants to Know Where the Pheasant Sits,” similarly, a phrase was invented for remembering the location of the planets in the solar system relative to the Sun: “We Know Everything Yulia’s Mom Sat on Pills in the Morning” - Mercury , Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.
This collection of billions of stars and planets is known as the "Milky Way". Our Galaxy is 100,000 light-years long and 90,000 light-years across.
Sun
1. Planet Mercury
The first planet from the Sun, Mercury has no satellites.
2. Planet Venus
The second planet from the Sun, Venus also has no moons
This is what Venus looks like through the Hubble telescope
3. Planet Earth
Third from the Sun. Large blue marble. Earth is the life of our solar system.
The Moon is the Earth's satellite. Our planet has only the Moon as its only satellite.
4. Planet Mars
Red planet Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun.
We landed a probe with a camera on Mars, so we have a larger set of photographs from space and on the surface of Mars itself.
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Earth as seen from Mars in the night sky. A few pixels contain all of humanity.
Mars has 2 satellites called Phobos and Deimos.
Scientists have talked for years about the future terraforming of Mars, seeing the planet as more Earth-like than most.
Arranging the planet with a breathing atmosphere will provide Mars with normal pressure to support human life and will also produce weather and climate conditions like on Earth - with rain, like in some tropical regions. This will create oceans and green space for valleys and mountains.
The following 5 photos are computer generated to show what Mars will look like from space from Earth once its atmosphere is created.
5. Planet Jupiter
The fifth planet from the sun is a large gas giant. Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system.
The black dot visible on the lower left side of the planet is the shadow on the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa.
Jupiter has 16 satellites. 12 of the moons are small asteroids that are too small to photograph clearly. The 12 tiny moons are called: Adrastea, Thebes, Leda, Himalia, Lysithea, Elara, Ananke, Karme, Pasiphae, Sinope.
Here are photographs of 4 large moons of Jupiter - Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto.
6. Planet Saturn
The sixth planet from the sun is also a large gas giant with no real surface.
Saturn has 14 satellites. Many of them are too small to have a photo. Other satellite images are not clear enough to be included here. So here is a diagram showing the moons of Saturn.
This photo shows some of the moons in the Saturn system.
7. Planet Uranus
The seventh planet from the Sun is Uranus. Pronounced (Your-Anus). Unfortunately, it's a stupid joke. No The first photo did not turn sideways. The rings actually work in a vertical position.
Uranus has 21 satellites. 16 of these moons are small orbital rocks. Their names are Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Vressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Belinda, Puck, Caliban, Sycorax, Prospero, Setebos, Stefano, Trinculo.
Here is a photo of the remaining 5 large satellites of Uranus.
8. Planet Neptune
The eighth planet from the sun is the blue planet Neptune.
Neptune has only 1 Moon, called Triton.
9. Planet Pluto
The ninth and last planet from the Sun, Pluto—the smallest planet in our solar system—has been reclassified as a dwarf planet.
But Pluto will always be a typical planet.
Pluto has 3 satellites: Charon, Nyx, Hydra - shown in the photo.