Earth from Mars -- photo
Robbo sez, "Stunning photos of the Earth and the Moon taken from Mars by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. Akin to the seminal Earth rise photos from Apollo 8 in 1968 - these images made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. That's us out there." Link (Thanks, Robbo!
the latest
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Awe inspiring.
cool one from Japanese satellite
http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2008/04/img/20080411_kaguya_01l.jpg
Thanks - Like I dont feel small and insignificant enough. Ugh. :-(
You sure these were not taken from the Galactica?
But there aren't any stars in the photo.
Clearly this is part of a conspiracy implicated by the saucer people, under the supervision of the reverse vampires, in an attempt to force our parents to go to bed early in a fiendish plot to eliminate the meal of dinner.
@ #3 - Really? I love being made to feel small and insignificant by contemplating the unknowable vastness of the universe. It puts my petty complaints into perspective. Everything is so much bigger than I am! It's wonderful!
Anyway, pretty picture. Thanks.
I can see my house.
Really ?
It's kind of too big for me...
From the article: "..and we can also use it at Mars to view other planets."
"At Mars"; this wording caught my eye. I realize that a satellite can't be on Mars, but "at" just seems clunky. Does anyone know if this is an 'official' convention for near-planet orbits, or just the writer avoiding a couple extra words, like "from Mars orbit", or even just "from Mars".
I'm not being pedantic, I just dig conventions..
It's midey purdy.
I love this photo. The displacing feeling of looking at Earth from somewhere far away (in Earth-sized terms) feels a bit like looking through the eyes of a potential visitor.
Breathtaking.
From the article: "..and we can also use it at Mars to view other planets."
How about: "We can also use it from Mars orbit to view other planets".
I seem to recall seeing some pictures of Jupiter taken from HiRISE. Mars is a little closer to Jupiter than we are so it gets a better view, all things being equal.
Sky and Telescope did a recent feature on night time astronomy from Spirit and Opportunity. The caught some possible meteors.
@Longboxes-
Right, how about that liver, then?
We are so lucky to live there!
Awesome. Looking up at Jupiter or Saturn through a telescope and seeing their moons is awesome, its cool to see the same thing in reverse.
Though, I must admit, I'm slightly more awe struck by the "Pale Blue Dot" Voyager photo from beyond Neptune.
Total Perspective Vortex, anyone?
I like pictures like this because they jar with what I had envisioned in my mind. The moon seems really far away from Earth, I'd always thought it was much closer. The sunrise picture from Mars had the same effect, showing the surrealy tiny sun.
"Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us."
-- The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells
RedFoxOne,
Your URL goes in your profile, not in your comments.
Thanks
Look! The Earth is covered with canals!
redfox still doing that? Time for a hit upside the haid.
Very nice - but utterly misleading. This image conveys somehow that this system of earth and moon is this cozy doublet, but in reality the distance between is way bigger.
You may look at
http://www.merlinsilk.com/2008/06/09/how-the-martians-see-us/
for a 'scientific' explanation ;-)
Why is it NASA can't even figure out how to properly make a website? Using this crud instead of a simple link:
javascript:openNASAWindow('http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/selene/index_e.html')
@ Merlin Silk
Isn't it obvious? I don't think anyone thought that the earth and the moon were that close.
I don't mean to be rude if it's coming out that way.
Merlin, I think you are reading too much into the image. If it wasn't manipulated (which you allow in your blog-post), and was indeed a result of timing and perspective, then it's a valid photo. It's "true".
Just because you think someone may interpret the image as showing an acttual linear distance (where both objects sit on the same z-plane), doesn't mean Nasa's intention was to deceive.