Apollo 8 Photo
acquired December 24, 1968
download large Apollo 8 Photo image (687 KB, TIFF, 1920x1080)
On December 24, 1968, Apollo 8
astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders were coming
around from the far side of the Moon on their fourth orbit. Borman began
to roll the spacecraft, and as he did, the Earth rose into view over
the Moon’s limb. Anders, photographing the Moon from the right side
window, caught sight of the view, and exclaimed: “Oh my God, look at
that picture over there! There’s the Earth comin’ up. Wow, is that
pretty!”
He snapped a black and white photo (top), capturing humanity’s first
view of Earth from another planetary body. A few minutes later, Anders
put color film in the camera and took the iconic color photographs of a half Earth hanging over the lunar horizon.
While the astronauts were absorbed in this view of home, a second
camera mounted to the front-facing window continued to photograph the
Moon every 20 seconds on an automatic timer. By matching that series of
photographs to a high resolution model of the lunar terrain as observed
by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
(LRO), NASA scientists and visualizers have now identified exactly when
the Apollo spacecraft turned and where and when each Earthrise
photograph was taken. This allowed them to re-create the Earthrise
experience in a new video (below).
The second image above is a still from that re-created Earthrise. The
surface of the Moon is based on LRO data. Earth’s cloud patterns are
based on the Environmental Science Services Administration 7 satellite
as it observed our planet on December 24, 1968. The land surface is
based on the Earth Observatory’s Terra MODIS Blue Marble.
This high-fidelity re-creation shows the rising Earth as it must have
looked to Anders, Borman, and Lovell 45 years ago. The western coast of
Africa is visible along the lower part of the globe, with Antarctica in
the upper left and South America along the top.
The new analysis revealed a few little-known details about the
circumstances in which the photos were taken. Earthrise had occurred on
each of the previous three orbits, but none of Apollo’s windows were
looking that way. It was only during and after the roll that the event
was visible to the astronauts on their fourth orbit.
Experience Earthrise by
watching the new video below, with views matched to the onboard flight
recording of the astronauts and additional narration by Andrew Chaikin.
Then watch the Google Hangout
with Chaikin, LRO project scientist John Keller, and
producer/visualizer Ernie Wright, in which they discuss how the video
was made and what new insights it provides.
References
- NASA (2004) Apollo flight journal. Accessed December 20, 2013.
- NASA (2013, December 20) NASA releases new Earthrise simulation video. Accessed December 20, 2013.
- NASA Goddard (2013, December 20) NASA’s LRO Earthrise 45th anniversary hangout. Accessed December 20, 2013.
- NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio (2013, December 20) Earthrise: The 45th anniversary. Accessed December 20, 2013.
NASA Apollo 8 photo by Bill Anders, data visualization courtesy Ernie Wright, NASA Scientific Visualization Studio. Caption by Holli Riebeek.
- Instrument:
- Apollo
NASA: Earthrise Revisited - 12.25.13
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Mis blogs son una casa abierta a todas las culturas, religiones y países. Se un seguidor si quieres, con esta acción usted está construyendo una nueva cultura de la tolerancia, la mente y el corazón abiertos para la paz, el amor y el respeto humano.
Gracias :)
