The Earth

[Fishy]

Nasa 'Earthrise' astronaut dies at 90 in plane crash https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cw99wj5e5q8o

One of the most wonderful images

[Slim]

I remember Apollo 8 very well. Just done a bit of googling and the image was taken at 10:40 AM UK time on Christmas Eve 1968.

The famous Earthrise image was not the first one that Bill took. The first one was taken using monochrome film but there's a colourised version of it, using colour data from the other image here: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap181224.html

Looking at the images carefully, the terminator line is over eastern Africa. You can make out the Sahara desert through a gap in the clouds. I think the UK would just be visible at about 1 o'clock, if you imagine the sphere of the Earth as rendered on the image as a clock face. But (unsurprisingly) it's cloudy.

Which matches the weather for 24th Dec 1968 in the UK as reported here https://community.netweather.tv/topic/96517-christmas-1968-wet-rather-than-white/

[The Picnic Wasp]

Not good for my brain to look at that image too long. Too many unanswerable questions. How can we be just hanging there in unending nothingness? Somewhere on that blue globe there's an atom of a creature deeply concerned about having to sell his car. Even a war seems microscopic from this perspective.

[Thenop]

I love this picture, always have. It is a comforting thought it was already there before I was born, even though that does not change anything. Just that a few certainties in life remain. Like: it will be there after I am gone. Which is inevitable, so be it.

I find absolutely nothing disturbing about it, just in awe of it. Fortunately, it does not 'hang' in 'nothingness' even though I can appreciate it can be perceived like that by just looking at a picture without context.

[The Picnic Wasp]

I love this picture, always have. It is a comforting thought it was already there before I was born, even though that does not change anything. Just that a few certainties in life remain. Like: it will be there after I am gone. Which is inevitable, so be it.

I find absolutely nothing disturbing about it, just in awe of it. Fortunately, it does not 'hang' in 'nothingness' even though I can appreciate it can be perceived like that by just looking at a picture without context.

Yeah, I know that there's about 95% of what makes up the universe still unknown to us as yet, but to my feeble mind it's just an overpoweringly empty, black void which conjures up unwelcome feelings in my gut when I contemplate it.

[Thenop]

I love this picture, always have. It is a comforting thought it was already there before I was born, even though that does not change anything. Just that a few certainties in life remain. Like: it will be there after I am gone. Which is inevitable, so be it.

I find absolutely nothing disturbing about it, just in awe of it. Fortunately, it does not 'hang' in 'nothingness' even though I can appreciate it can be perceived like that by just looking at a picture without context.

Yeah, I know that there's about 95% of what makes up the universe still unknown to us as yet, but to my feeble mind it's just an overpoweringly empty, black void which conjures up unwelcome feelings in my gut when I contemplate it.

Funny how that works, I find nothing more comforting than staring at a night sky and marvel at it. I am happily ignorant about it.

[Nickslikk2112]

Whenever I look at pictures of Earth from space, I think how shallow the atmosphere is and what if it just floated away...

[Fishy]

I always get this photo confused with the blue marble one which is equally awesome...

[Slim]

I always get this photo confused with the blue marble one which is equally awesome...

That one was taken during Apollo 17 (1972). Surprising that no-one had a go at taking another one in the intervening missions.

[Slim]

Not good for my brain to look at that image too long. Too many unanswerable questions. How can we be just hanging there in unending nothingness?

It's not really hanging there, it's orbiting the Sun in much the same way that the Moon orbits the Earth. Also, it's not known whether the Universe is unending.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Not good for my brain to look at that image too long. Too many unanswerable questions. How can we be just hanging there in unending nothingness?

It's not really hanging there, it's orbiting the Sun in much the same way that the Moon orbits the Earth. Also, it's not known whether the Universe is unending.

Yes, hanging was just my poetic description of what's more likely to be some sort of gravitational pocket in bent space. Crack what gravity actually is and we're well down the path to perhaps finding answers. I can't think of any reason for space to be quantifiable in size. I think it's the limitations of the human mind to truly imagine infinity which is the issue. We seem to think as a species that we are able to own all the knowledge one day. It's very unlikely that will ever happen. I was amused yesterday when I heard the old adage again that if you tell humanity they and the universe were created by an invisible man in the sky, most will believe you. But if you warn them about wet paint, nearly all will check. I leave my door to the master of infinity open hoping for a welcome one day.

[Matt2112]

This thread reminds me I must get round to reading Carl Sagan's book Pale Blue Dot.

[Slim]

I was amused yesterday when I heard the old adage again that if you tell humanity they and the universe were created by an invisible man in the sky, most will believe you.

That was true once, but not any more. Depending on culture, of course.