There hasn’t been a new sunlit photo of Earth from outer space since astronauts captured the iconic “blue marble” photo in 1972 – until now.
NASA released the public first image from the Deep Space Climate Observatory (nicknamed DSCOVR) Monday, taken from the craft’s vantage point between the Earth and sun. The satellite completed a journey of about 1 million miles from its launch off a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which begin in February.
It hasn’t been possible to capture images of the entire sunlit side of Earth at once since Apollo 17 took the last photos more than forty years ago, according to a NASA blog post on the new image. While other “blue marble” images have been released since then, they’ve largely been composite images stitched together with photo editing software.
The iconic Blue Marble photo of Earth, taken from Apollo 17 in 1972.
DSCOVR is hanging at one of the solar system’s points of gravitational equilibrium, known as Lagrange point 1, which allows the spacecraft to remain relatively stable. This position means the satellite will always be facing the sunny side of Earth, which will also allow it to gather solar data.
Apollo 17 astronaut Buzz Aldrin added context for Monday’s milestone in a blog post, saying the project “is an innovative advance in redefining the word ‘exploration’ – and also is a powerful stepping stone to practice similar operations at Mars and its moons to establish a settlement on the planet Mars.”
New images are expected to come in every day after the satellite goes into full operation, the Guardian reported.
