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Thursday, January 26, 2012

"The Highest Resolution Image of Earth Ever"

Posted by on Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 10:14 AM

As the world turns:

photostream.jpeg
  • NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring

I love most the blue of the atmosphere. It is almost the halo of life.

 

Comments (26) RSS

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Gurldoggie 1
Very cool. Are there any other angles available? I wanna know if you can really see the Great Wall from space.
Posted by Gurldoggie http://gurldogg.blogspot.com on January 26, 2012 at 10:28 AM
Posted by Matt from Denver on January 26, 2012 at 10:32 AM
3
Proportions are screwy. It's Apollo 17's Blue Marble photo meets "The World As Seen From New York's 9th Avenue."
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en…
Posted by cgd on January 26, 2012 at 10:41 AM
4
NASA photography is usually black and white, and they colorize it later. Is that the case with something like this, or do they use a different sort of camera when it's a photo taken so close to us?
Posted by Avtar on January 26, 2012 at 10:42 AM
Fifty-Two-Eighty 5
Something's really fucked-up with that picture. It makes it look like America takes up the whole world.
Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty http://www.nra.org on January 26, 2012 at 10:43 AM
rejemy 6
@3, they probably had to use a fish-eye lens to get the whole earth in one shot from near orbit.
Posted by rejemy on January 26, 2012 at 10:44 AM
rejemy 7
Ok, I was wrong about it being one snapshot, it is a composite image, but I was right about it being taken from a near earth orbit, which is why it looks so fisheyed.

http://npp.gsfc.nasa.gov/mission_details…
Posted by rejemy on January 26, 2012 at 10:47 AM
Vince 8
Not enough green.
Posted by Vince on January 26, 2012 at 10:47 AM
Gurldoggie 9
Oh right @2. I forgot that for some shut-ins it's preferable to use the machine than to ask questions of another human being. I don't have that particular problem, and since you've got nothing else to do, can you see if your device can find other HD earth photos from other angles? Ta.
Posted by Gurldoggie http://gurldogg.blogspot.com on January 26, 2012 at 10:53 AM
10
Halo of life, yes. No "almost" about it.
Posted by Eric from Boulder on January 26, 2012 at 10:53 AM
onion 11
beauty.
Posted by onion on January 26, 2012 at 10:55 AM
Fifty-Two-Eighty 12
Vince: It's winter. I don't see any green when I look out my window.
Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty http://www.nra.org on January 26, 2012 at 10:56 AM
13
Charles, that IS the halo of life.
Posted by olive oyl on January 26, 2012 at 10:58 AM
venomlash 14
@9: ...using a machine to ask questions of another human being who could be continents away...
Posted by venomlash on January 26, 2012 at 11:04 AM
aardvark 15
zoom in to see tacos. bwahaha
Posted by aardvark on January 26, 2012 at 11:09 AM
Vince 16
@12 5280 I sure do. I have all sort of evergreens right out my window. Green is all I see. I'm lucky.
Posted by Vince on January 26, 2012 at 11:09 AM
bedipped 17
Beautiful, thx, You reminded me of this campaign.
"In 1966, a visionary college student named Stewart Brand created and sold buttons which read, "Why Haven't We Seen A Photograph of the Whole Earth Yet?" Apparently Brand's 'Photograph of the Whole Earth' Campaign played a role in spurring NASA to procure high-quality photos of the planet from distant space."
Posted by bedipped on January 26, 2012 at 11:14 AM
Simone 18
Wow!
Posted by Simone on January 26, 2012 at 11:14 AM
Matt from Denver 19
@ 9, well, I suppose you could look in a lump of milled wood mash (what some call a "book") instead.
Posted by Matt from Denver on January 26, 2012 at 11:21 AM
prompt 20
I can see my house from here
Posted by prompt on January 26, 2012 at 11:44 AM
veo_ 21
What's startling to me is how dense urban areas just look like a bit of grey slime.
Posted by veo_ on January 26, 2012 at 12:40 PM
Dougsf 22
That light blue radiating from the coast of Ciudad del Carmen. I want to be there. Now.
Posted by Dougsf on January 26, 2012 at 1:06 PM
Free Lunch 23
Thank you, Charles. That's lovely.
Posted by Free Lunch on January 26, 2012 at 1:29 PM
24
This link provides a summary of how one of the earlier blue-marble composites was made. It is nothing like the Apollo 17 *photograph.*

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/e…

Lets be clear that the blue marble imagery that's everywhere today is an ARTISTIC VISUALIZATION OF SCIENTIFIC DATA, not a photograph. It's still super-cool though.
Posted by opticsdoug on January 26, 2012 at 2:30 PM
onion 25
by the laws of fisheye fysics, isn't it mexico that is actually the most exaggerated in this photo? north america less so. leading to the conclusing...north america really is kinda big.
Posted by onion on January 26, 2012 at 2:47 PM
26
Hey, I could put that image on my lock screen for my iFone!
Posted by Weekilter on January 26, 2012 at 2:58 PM

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