The Blue Marble
Encyclopedia
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
of the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
taken on December 7, 1972, by the crew of the Apollo 17
Apollo 17
Apollo 17 was the eleventh and final manned mission in the American Apollo space program. Launched at 12:33 a.m. EST on December 7, 1972, with a three-member crew consisting of Commander Eugene Cernan, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 remains the...
spacecraft at a distance of about 45000 kilometres (27,961.8 mi).
The name also has been applied by NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
to a modern series of image data sets covering the entire globe at relatively high resolution, created by carefully sifting through satellite captured sequences taken over time, to eliminate as much cloud cover as possible from the collated set of images.
The photograph
The snapshot taken by astronauts on December 7, 1972, is likely one of the most widely distributed photographic images in existence. The image is one of the few to show a fully illuminated Earth, as the astronauts had the Sun behind them when they took the image. To the astronautAstronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
s, Earth had the appearance of a glass marble
Marbles
A marble is a small spherical toy usually made from glass, clay, steel, or agate. These balls vary in size. Most commonly, they are about ½ inch in diameter, but they may range from less than ¼ inch to over 3 inches , while some art glass marbles fordisplay purposes are over 12 inches ...
(hence the name).
History
Coordinated Universal Time
Coordinated Universal Time is the primary time standard by which the world regulates clocks and time. It is one of several closely related successors to Greenwich Mean Time. Computer servers, online services and other entities that rely on having a universally accepted time use UTC for that purpose...
), about 5 hours and 6 minutes after launch, and about 1 hour 54 minutes after the spacecraft left parking orbit around the Earth to begin its trajectory to the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
. The time of Apollo 17s launch, 12:33 a.m. EST, meant that Africa was in daylight during the early hours of the spacecraft's flight. With the December solstice
Solstice
A solstice is an astronomical event that happens twice each year when the Sun's apparent position in the sky, as viewed from Earth, reaches its northernmost or southernmost extremes...
approaching, Antarctica also was illuminated.
The Indian Ocean cyclone
Tropical cyclone
A tropical cyclone is a storm system characterized by a large low-pressure center and numerous thunderstorms that produce strong winds and heavy rain. Tropical cyclones strengthen when water evaporated from the ocean is released as the saturated air rises, resulting in condensation of water vapor...
seen in the upper right quadrant of the image had brought flooding and high winds to Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
state on December 5, two days before the photo was taken.
The photograph's official NASA designation is AS17-148-22727. (The photograph AS17-148-22726, taken just before and nearly identical to 22727, is also used as a full-Earth image.) The photographer used a 70-millimetre Hasselblad
Hasselblad
Victor Hasselblad AB is a Swedish manufacturer of medium-format cameras and photographic equipment based in Gothenburg, Sweden.The company is best known for the medium-format cameras it has produced since World War II....
camera with an 80-millimetre lens. NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
officially credits the image to the entire Apollo 17
Apollo 17
Apollo 17 was the eleventh and final manned mission in the American Apollo space program. Launched at 12:33 a.m. EST on December 7, 1972, with a three-member crew consisting of Commander Eugene Cernan, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 remains the...
crew–Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans
Ronald Evans
Ronald Ellwin Evans, Jr. was a NASA astronaut and one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon. He also served as a captain in the United States Navy....
and Jack Schmitt–all of whom took photographic images during the mission with the on-board Hasselblad. Although the identity of the photographer remains unverified, evidence examined after the mission suggested that it was likely Jack Schmitt.
Apollo 17 was the last manned lunar mission. No humans since have been at a range where taking a whole-Earth photograph such as The Blue Marble would be possible.
The Blue Marble was the first clear image of an illuminated face of Earth. Released during a surge in environmental activism during the 1970s, the image was seen by many as a depiction of Earth's frailty, vulnerability, and isolation amid the expanse of space. NASA archivist Mike Gentry has speculated that The Blue Marble is the most widely distributed image in human history.
The picture originally was taken with South at the top
Reversed map
thumb|right|The [[The Blue Marble|Blue Marble]] photograph in its original orientationA reversed map, also known as an Upside-Down map or South-Up map, is a map where south is up, north is down, east is left and west is right. Thus the Southern Hemisphere at the top of the map instead of the bottom...
of the image, but was rotated before it was distributed.
The satellite imaging series
The release was greeted enthusiastically and a subsequent release was made in 2005, named Blue Marble Next Generation. This time it was produced with the aid of automated image-sifting which enabled the inclusion of a complete, cloud-free globe 'frozen in time' for each month of the year, at even higher resolution (500m/pixel). The original release of a single-image set covering the entire globe had, of necessity, not been a true reflection of the extent of seasonal snow-and-vegetative cover across both hemispheres, but this newer release closely modeled the changes of the seasons.
A number of interactive viewers for this data also have been released, among them a music visualization
Music visualization
Music visualization, a feature found in electronic music visualizers and media player software, generates animated imagery based on a piece of music...
for the PS3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
that is based on the texture data. The PC strategy game
Strategy game
A strategy game or strategic game is a game in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome...
Supreme Ruler 2010
Supreme Ruler 2010
Supreme Ruler 2010 is a computer wargame in which a player who controls all aspects of a region's government attempts to unite a world of fragmented states of the world in the year 2010....
also made use of the NASA original Blue Marble imagery as the terrain map for its tactical gameplay, and the sequel Supreme Ruler 2020
Supreme Ruler 2020
Supreme Ruler 2020 is a grand strategy computer wargame developed by BattleGoat Studios and published by Paradox Interactive. The game was released on June 17, 2008 and is a sequel to Supreme Ruler 2010. In the game, the player controls all aspects of a region's government attempts to unite a world...
incorporated the Next Generation imagery in a whole-world map at the full 500m/pixel resolution. Blue Marble Next Generation is also one of the base image layers in NASA World Wind
NASA World Wind
World Wind is an open-source virtual globe developed by NASA and the open source community for use on personal computers. Old versions need Microsoft Windows but the more recent Java version, , is cross platform and provides a suite of . The World Wind Java version was awarded in November 2009...
virtual globe
Virtual globe
A virtual globe is a 3D software model or representation of the Earth or another world. A virtual globe provides the user with the ability to freely move around in the virtual environment by changing the viewing angle and position. Compared to a conventional globe, virtual globes have the...
.
Other applications of the term blue marble
Subsequent similar images of Earth (including composites at much higher resolution) also have been termed "blue marble" images, and the phrase "blue marble" (as well as the picture itself) is used—such as in the Earth flagEarth flag
The flag of the Earth is a flag used to represent the Earth. Though there is no internationally agreed upon flag to represent the whole planet, some individuals and organizations have promoted designs for a flag; however, none of these designs have managed to gain much broad recognition.-World...
—frequently by environmental activism organizations or companies attempting to promote an environmentally conscious image. There has also been a children's television program
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
called Big Blue Marble
Big Blue Marble
Big Blue Marble was a half-hour children's television series that ran from 1974 to 1983 in syndication. Distinctive content included stories about children around the world and a pen-pal club that encouraged intercultural communication...
.
See also
- Deep Space Climate Observatory, an as-yet-unlaunched satellite which will have regularly produced full Earth images
- EarthriseEarthriseEarthrise is a famous photograph taken on the 1968 Apollo 8 space mission.Earthrise may also refer to:* Earthrise , a computer game by Interstel...
, another iconic picture of the Earth taken aboard Apollo 8Apollo 8Apollo 8, the second manned mission in the American Apollo space program, was the first human spaceflight to leave Earth orbit; the first to be captured by and escape from the gravitational field of another celestial body; and the first crewed voyage to return to Earth from another celestial... - Pale Blue DotPale Blue DotThe Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of planet Earth taken in 1990 by the Voyager 1 spacecraft from a record distance of about kilometers from Earth, as part of the solar system Family Portrait series of images. In the photograph, Earth is shown as a tiny dot against the vastness of space...
, an image of the Earth taken by Voyager 1Voyager 1The Voyager 1 spacecraft is a 722-kilogram space probe launched by NASA in 1977, to study the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space. Operating for as of today , the spacecraft receives routine commands and transmits data back to the Deep Space Network. At a distance of as of... - Stewart BrandStewart BrandStewart Brand is an American writer, best known as editor of the Whole Earth Catalog. He founded a number of organizations including The WELL, the Global Business Network, and the Long Now Foundation...
, author who in 1966 lobbied NASA to release a then-rumored satellite photograph of the entire Earth - Whole Earth CatalogWhole Earth CatalogThe Whole Earth Catalog was an American counterculture catalog published by Stewart Brand between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998...
, an eclectic catalog compiled by Brand which was inspired in part by photographs of the Earth as a globe - Earth flagEarth flagThe flag of the Earth is a flag used to represent the Earth. Though there is no internationally agreed upon flag to represent the whole planet, some individuals and organizations have promoted designs for a flag; however, none of these designs have managed to gain much broad recognition.-World...
, a flag featuring the Blue Marble photo
External links
- NASA history of Blue Marble image releases
1972 photograph
- The one, the only, photograph of Earth a short list of places in which the image has been used.
- Apollo Image Atlas Photos from magazine NN of the 70mm HasselbladHasselbladVictor Hasselblad AB is a Swedish manufacturer of medium-format cameras and photographic equipment based in Gothenburg, Sweden.The company is best known for the medium-format cameras it has produced since World War II....
camera used on Apollo 17 (includes the Blue Marble photo and others quite similar to it)
21st century NASA composite images
- Blue Marble (2002)
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- Blue Marble Mapserver Web interface for viewing small sections of the above
- Blue Marble: Next Generation (2005; one picture per month)
- Blue Marble Navigator Web interface for viewing local sections of the above, incl. links to other such interfaces, download sites etc.
- Blue Marble: Next Generation in NASA World Wind