From 1966 to the just-celebrated New Year 2023, for 50+ years and for more than a generation now, we have seen breathtaking images of our home, the Earth, taken from space, and it was – and still is – awe-inspiring to see, so much so that it has even been the catalyst for the environmental movement and the yearly Earth Day celebration.
We can't seem to get enough of these images, and those who have ventured out to space (in a spaceflight or on the Space Station) come back to Earth with a whole new perspective of life and a new comprehension of the fragility of it all (often referred to as the Overview Effect) – the scene of our blue planet against the darkness and vastness of space never gets old and inspires new generations!
Just within the first days of this new year, a new spacecraft, one from South Korea, showed us breathtaking photos of Earth from a lunar orbit with the Moon within the frame of the image (photo and details a little later in the blog).
We have entered a new space era, a supercharged, fast-moving, innovative, and exponentially increasing momentum in the space sector, one that is diverging from the old ways of doing things, and springing to life a whole new industry with many players.
Most of it will fuel the so-called Space Economy, creating new jobs, new fields, more start-ups, and capital specific for the industry. That is a given.
But there is more to the Space sector and all activities pertaining to it: Space inspires (young and old), and it promotes an innovative culture, STEM education, and the ultimate mission to venture out to space – far and near. And at the chore, that is to help sustain life on Earth as we know it, and for the betterment of the future of the planet and all its inhabitants.
Last year was special for spectacular cosmic images as the James Webb Telescope, (launched on Christmas Day the previous year, 2021), was fully functioning, sending back stunning, never-before seen images, and proved to be a great success.
One of those images is the “Cosmic Cliffs” of the Corina Nebula (here below), and that photo alone went completely viral (I have seen Christmas cards and envelopes, and even plastic cups with that very image).
Image Description:
The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
Also last year, several missions closer to home, the Earth, had spacecrafts orbiting either Earth, the Moon or both, with sharp and precise cameras, and as they journeyed through space, they too delivered incredible, breathtaking images.
Below is a series of those images from our “neighborhood”, and more specifically, of the Earth seen from space: Beginning with the Korean spacecraft mentioned above with its January 2023 image and going back in time, all the way to missions from the ‘60s.
Every human on this planet should look at the image of the Earth seen from space regularly, as a reminder of our preciousness and fragility, for how the Earth is nurturing and stunningly beautiful, especially against the darkness of space, and be humbled by it all.
There are no words about the Earth from space more profound and wise that those of Carl Sagan of the “Pale Blue Dot”, and although that quote comes from seeing the Earth from very far away in space as just a dot “on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam”, here are his famous words – words to reflect on daily:
"That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there."
Here are the series of images of the Earth seen from space.
The first is of the monochromatic image provided by the spacecraft "Danuri" of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), taken on January 2, 2023!
"Danuri" (launched in August of last year via SpaceX) is officially known as Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, and is a first for South Korea and KARI. Danuri is orbiting the Moon as a scientific mission with goals of returning to the Moon with a lander.
Credit: Korea Aerospace Research Institute
At the end of last year, in mid-December, a similar mission gave us an amazing image, this time it's from ispace, a privately owned Japanese startup. The HAKUTO-R mission's spacecraft – a lunar orbiter-lander – is a partnership (in scientific instruments) with the UAE, and Canada, and it's CANADENSY, a Canadian company, that provided the image to the right.
Still again in December of last year, but earlier in the month, it was the Artemis 1 mission that made so many headlines and delivered so many spectacular images, including this one below, once again of the Earth, with part of the Orion spacecraft within the image. The mission was un-crewed, however the following Artemis 2 and 3 will have a crew, and will continue where Apollo left of; this time with the mission of having a female astronaut, and the first person of color to walk on the Moon.
50 years exactly prior to the Artemis mission mentioned above, the crew of Apollo 17, on December 7, 1972, captured the now-iconic and one of the most distributed photos of all time, The Blue Marble, seen here below.
The header photo at the very top of the blog is of "Earthrise", taken by the crew of Apollo 8, the first "manned mission to the Moon", on December 24, 1968 – a historic moment for all humankind because of both, the mission and that stunning, one-of-a-kind photo shared world-wide.
Jim Lovell, Command Module Pilot of that mission, said the following in a live broadcast from lunar orbit:
"The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth."
"Earthrise" was still not the first; two years before that, in 1966, the first photo of the Earth from space with another astronomical object (the Moon) was from the Lunar Orbiter 1, (one of a five-series in the program), and that was with the purpose to search for the selection of landing sites for the eventual Apollo missions. (Very first photo of the Earth alone was in fact in 1946 by the V-2 rocket.)
With those images in mind, happy New Year 2023. Make it a great year, for the Earth and for us all on it!
Comments