Blue marble

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Blue Marble , captured by Apollo 17 on December 7, 1972

Blue Marble ( English for Blue Marble ) is a known photo of the Earth , the crew of Apollo 17 in 1972 km recorded from a distance of about 29,000 or 45,000. The image became popular on posters, flags and T-shirts as part of the environmental protection movement of the 1970s ; it is also the symbol of the Global Ethic Project .

The original Blue Marble

The photo is officially known AS17-148-22727 and was designed by Harrison Schmitt on December 7, 1972 at 10:39 UTC with a 70-millimeter - Hasselblad - medium format camera and a Zeiss -80-millimeter prime lens - Lens added. It is one of the few recordings made by astronauts that shows a fully lit globe. The original photo shows the South Pole above. For better orientation and because of the recognition value, the photograph was rotated 180 degrees. The original image description of the photograph reads:

“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 east coast of Africa is the Republic of Madagascar. The Asian mainland is on the horizon toward the northeast. "

“View of the earth as seen by the Apollo 17 crew on their way to the moon. This moon flight photo stretches from the Mediterranean Sea to the Antarctic ice cap. For the first time, the Apollo trajectory made it possible to photograph the Antarctic ice cap. Note the dense cloud cover over the southern hemisphere. Almost the entire coast of Africa is clearly visible. The Arabian Peninsula is visible on the northeastern edge of Africa. The large island off the east coast of Africa is the Republic of Madagascar. The Asian mainland is on the northeastern horizon. "

Blue Marble was not the first clear picture of the illuminated globe: Similar pictures had been taken by satellites since 1967. Alternative movements evaluated the images as an expression of a new global consciousness (for example, the Whole Earth Catalog used the satellite images for its cover image). At the time of its publication, however, the blue marble image became very popular due to the numerous environmental movements and is considered to symbolize the vulnerability and uniqueness of the earth planet.

The Blue Marble: Land Surface, Ocean Color and Sea Ice as a square flat map (equirectangular projection)

The Blue Marble series from NASA

The NASA called collagen from many satellite photos show a similar perspective, also called Blue Marble. For example the series Blue Marble: Next Generation , published in 2005 , which reproduces the earth on a monthly basis. The images are based on data from the Terra and Aqua satellites . They achieve a resolution of up to 500 m / pixel. Like all of its photos, NASA has also given pictures of the Blue Marble series for free use in the public sector .

Another example is the Blue Marble: Cloudless Earth from 2002, a cloud-adjusted overall view of the earth. It is the basis of many applications, such as NASA World Wind . This graphic can also be used freely and - in maximum resolution in TIFF format - has a size of around 31 megabytes . Robert Simmon, one of the creators, explained that he was stitching together images from satellites, removing the clouds and shaping them into a sphere.

See also

Web links

Commons : The Blue Marble  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: marble  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Apollo 17 30th Anniversary: ​​Antarctica Zoom-out . Scientific Visualization Studio, NASA, January 23, 2003, accessed July 22, 2019.
  2. ^ History of the Blue Marble . Earth Observatory, NASA, October 13, 2005, accessed July 22, 2019.
  3. ^ Nasa website. Retrieved November 10, 2013 .
  4. ↑ For the original image see Apollo Image Atlas AS17-148-22727 , Lunar and Planetary Institute
  5. ^ The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth
  6. ↑ ATS-III Image Collection images of the earth from the ATS-3 satellite, November 1967 to March 1969
  7. ↑ rektangular , duden.de, accessed on February 27, 2018
  8. ↑ Reto Stockli: Blue Marble Next Generation. In: NASA Earth Observatory. October 13, 2005, accessed May 19, 2017 .
  9. ↑ References to nasa.gov