Check Out NASA‘s Highest Resolution Image of the ’Blue Marble’
- Posted on January 26, 2012 at 5:30pm by
Liz Klimas
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The “Blue Marble” is an iconic image. Since the first Blue Marble was taken in 1972 by the Apollo 17 crew 28,000 miles away from Earth, it has since undergone a few updates as technology improved.
The picture of Earth earned the term “Blue Marble” since astronauts felt it looked like a glass marble.
This week, the Blue Marble image went to the next level of high-def. NASA released the new, highest resolution image of Earth taken by its VIIRS (Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite) instrument on its Suomi NPP satellite. According to the release, NPP is “the first of a new generation of satellites that will observe many facets of our changing Earth.”
2012 Blue Marble (Image: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring)
This image is a composite that “uses a number of swaths of the Earth’s surface” taken on Jan. 4, 2012.
1972 Blue Marble
Here is the original caption that went along with the 1972 Blue Marble: View of the Earth as seen by the Apollo 17 crew traveling toward the moon. This translunar coast photograph extends from the Mediterranean Sea area to the Antarctica south polar ice cap. This is the first time the Apollo trajectory made it possible to photograph the south polar ice cap. Note the heavy cloud cover in the Southern Hemisphere. Almost the entire coastline of Africa is clearly visible. The Arabian Peninsula can be seen at the northeastern edge of Africa. The large island off the coast of Africa is Madagascar. The Asian mainland is on the horizon toward the northeast.
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Comments (54)
gemmeri
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 4:24pmIt’s still such a beautiful place when viewed from space… You can’t even see all the pollution yet. Must have been PhotoShopped. Love the photo, guys. Keep up the good work.
Report Post »lylejk
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 3:27pmAmazingly beautiful and it must be seen at full rez. The clarity is nothing short of awesome. Thanks for sharing the flickr link. :)
Report Post »DTR
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:37pmLook at either of those pictures and tell me with a straight face that there is no God….. If you do, you’re not only wrong, you’re also stupid.
Report Post »G-WHIZ
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 12:24pmTHe nearest planet which NASA showed us a few weeks ago was millions of lightyears away. Sofar, we cannot build anything to travel that far w/o breaking-down or running-out of energy and just drifting. Do you reaize, the distance is soooooo far away, that even the thousands-of-times-removed grandchildren would have long-forgotten where and why they were goeing, even if they actually get there in millions of years. Of course, if we haven’t been catastropically(war) totally elimenated by then, maybe worm-hole travel will have been in use for some time…and in some decaying, recently dug-up museum, they found some scripture, just decoded as “antique-english” about a ship …….. .
Report Post »TyrannyNoMore
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 11:56amAnyone who was alive before the 90s, probably remembers when the skies on clear days, were a crystal clear, deep blue. Sadly, after years of chem-trails being sprayed in out air, this is no longer the case. Look closely at these images of the globe. Even where the skies are open, there is a gray haze present. I was a huge skeptic of chem-trails at first, but I have witnessed the patterns in the sky. Commercial aircraft don’t do 180 degree turns in the sky to fly parallel to where they have flown before. Some days it looks like a farmer plowing his fields in the sky, back and forth. When I was a kid, I would see the con-trails behind the jets, linger for a few seconds, then disappear. Chem-trails linger, then spread, then they grow and grow, until the sky turns a milky color.
Report Post »Dishevel
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 12:14pmPlease for the good of all humanity.
Report Post »Choose now. Choose to never, ever have children.
Stephen
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 6:21pmNo thanks, I’ll have six, six kids that is. Already got five and one on the way!
Report Post »Old Truckers
Posted on June 19, 2012 at 4:18pmTyrannyNoMore,
Chem-trails? As in chemicals?
Those planes leave vapor-trails (water vapor) with some exhaust mixed in from the engines. I think we should label them vapor-trails, not chem-trails. :-)
Report Post »ballsofFe
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 10:51amNice group-photo; everyone get together, smile at the camera, say cheese, and wave goodbye to American dominance in space. The next group photo will be brought to you by the Chinese.
Report Post »supressorgrid
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 9:33amMagnify the picture 150% and you can just make out Obama’s big bulbous fat swelled head.
Report Post »gipb
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 9:54amLol l!!!…
Report Post »gipb
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 9:55amlol ….
Report Post »pizzacorner
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 9:04amIt makes a nice desktop background, when you have your desktop color set to black.
Report Post »moreteaplease
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 6:07pmYes it does!
Report Post »Rayblue
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 7:53amEcclesiastes 1:4
Report Post »Generations go and generations come
but Earth abides forever.
MIBUGNU2
Posted on June 19, 2012 at 3:56pmGore said the North Pole would be GONE by now…….and
Report Post »we would all be under water…..Get a rope !!!!!!
Delores at CH WV
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 4:00amLook at that white stuff, Its Ben and Jerry’s new flavor of the year! yum yum!
No Glenn, you are on a diet! You too, Jeffie!
Report Post »democritusoilder267
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 1:44amThe Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. Carl Sagan
Report Post »ohmy2u
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 12:08amWow, Creator God is amazing! We haven‘t even figured out a full water drop in God’s ocean of knowledge! With the telescope, astronomers took a picture 1/16th by 1/16th, and found 3000 galaxies in that small amount of space!
Report Post »http://www.izoominews.blogspot.com http://www.ohmy2u.blogspot.com
ChiefGeorge
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 10:55amGod says build a bigger telescope, I’ve got much more to show you.
Report Post »Ookspay
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 11:07pmThis was obviously faked by the US Government. You can’t see stars in the background : D
Report Post »conbones
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 12:29amderp
Report Post »proudinfidel54
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 12:36amDoes the term cropping ring any bells???
Report Post »mastice
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 12:40amtouche.. nice little jab at the moon landing conspiracy theorists. I like. (:
Report Post »AgentP
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 12:43amdey took our jobs! maybe, and I mean just maybe they got one of them fancied up software thingies and whatnot and removed all light to blacken the backgound….it is supposed to be a picture of the blue marble, not the galaxy.
Report Post »conbones
Posted on January 28, 2012 at 11:53pmi download the original photo size and i can zoom in pretty far. Im sure, with that “most” awesome camera they used, the effects are like looking through a microscope focusing only on the target object. Or it could be an evil republican sceme to make us all think that stars do not exist.
Report Post »Fla Del
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 10:53pmAllahu Akbar! ?
All Blue Akbar!
Report Post »That makes more sense.
SurhanSurhan
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 10:21pmAllahu Akbar!
Report Post »Fla Del
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 10:52pmAllahu Akbar! ?
Report Post »no
All Blue Akbar!
That makes more sense.
sndrman
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 9:56pm“planet EARTH is blue and there’s nothing i can do”.“half the world hates half the world get on with anyways”“half the gives while the other half takes”
Report Post »OllieK
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 9:55pmJust think. Algore is saving this whole thing. Amazing!
Report Post »EvilConserv
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 9:47pmI’m just amazed that NASA was able to get that shot from Islamabad!
Report Post »duskerhu
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 5:32amYou must have noticed then, that the original “Blue Marble” shot has/is positioned -> the middle east, sqaure at the top of the planet…
Report Post »ottb
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 9:25pmHey, I see my house.
Report Post »MastrSSG
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 9:39pmHey I see your horse!
Report Post »liberalescheisskopf
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 9:25amI can see Obama waving good-bye!
Report Post »ThePostman
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 9:07pmMan, those people have it all. We should tax them into submission, then invade them, then humiliate them, take all their stuff, and then finally destroy their entire planet.
Ooops, sorry, my inner-democrat was showing.
Report Post »chfields62
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 9:05pmFunny how you can’t even tell there is life on this planet……
Report Post »Taxpaying Contributor
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 10:22pmThe Earth loves us. It is provident and resilient. Our creator has entrusted us with a resource rich home. Civilization has grown well with what God has given us. We could all use a lesson on were to take the trash out too? ; or even how to create less trash? But I’m not gonna be down with no Carbon Credit scam. The interwoven economic dealings are a tenatious tangle. Here is what of it can be seen from space:
Report Post »http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip2ZGND1I9Q
AB5r
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 8:30pmAnything we manufacture, such as a ball bearing, if enlarged to the size of the earth, would not be as smooth as the earth.
Report Post »nelbert
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 8:40pmBut the ball bearing could be made more truly spherical – that is, less oblate.
Report Post »ThePostman
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 9:09pmIf I climbed to the top of Mount Everest and shaved off one millimeter from the top, then the thing I manufactured would be smoother than the earth. Just sayin’. ;-)
Report Post »AB5r
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 9:45pmNelbert, that is right, the earth isn’t really perfectly round then is it? And with the new nanotechnology where they are manipulating individual atoms, perhaps mankind will one day be able to duplicate the smoothness of the earth in scale.
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 12:12amNELBERT
Report Post »Maybe in the future. Right now the Earth is a more perfect sphere and smoother than ANY ball bearing .
AB5r
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 9:13amStoic, look it up, the distance from the earth’s nucleus to sea level is about 13 miles larger at the equator than at the poles. Don’t forget it is spinning and there are various other forces acting.
But it is still amazing to think that what we see as huge mountains are smoothed out with the scale of it to the point we can’t match it even super small.
Report Post »Pontiac
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 7:43pmTime saver
Report Post »http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7151/6760135001_14c59a1490_o.jpg
ProbIemSoIver
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 8:00pmWhat I find most fascinating is how the Aluminum Oxides, Barium salts, Ethylene Dibromide and the ELF (Microwaves) waves that they use to heat up our Ionisphere really does steer the Jet Streams. The Heat combined with the chemical particulates from the chemtrails, eliminates the moisiture from the atmosphere.
Yes people, man can now Control the Weather.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bG9jUz_QYU
Report Post »@leftfighter
Posted on January 27, 2012 at 9:05amPay no attention to ProbIemSoIver.
He’s a lunatic.
Report Post »The citizen who cares
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 7:42pmsiiiiiiiiick
Report Post »KingCanon
Posted on January 26, 2012 at 7:39pmGorgeous!
Report Post »