Amazing and beautiful planet Earth. Perhaps in the near future with the development of space tourism, the dream of many people to see our planet from space will come true. But nowadays you can admire breathtaking magnificent panoramas of the Earth only in photographs.
What does Earth really look like from space? Does it shine like the moon does when we look at it? Answers to these and other questions can be found in this article.
Some general information about the Earth
Earth is the fifth largest planet in the solar system. 98% of it consists of such chemical elements as oxygen, sulfur, hydrogen, iron, aluminum, silicon, calcium, hydrogen, magnesium and nickel. The remaining chemical elements make up only 2%. Since ancient times, people argued about how this planet looks from the side. As a result, today it is precisely known that its shape is similar to a flattened ellipsoid. Its area is 12, 756 square kilometers, the circumference is 40, 000 km. Due to the rotation of the planet, a bulge is created in the region of the equator, therefore the equatorial diameter is 43 kilometers more than the polar one.
The earth rotates around its axis in 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds, and the period of time in orbit is just over 365 days.
The main difference between planet Earth and other celestial spheres is the abundance of water. More than half (3/4) of the Earth's surface is covered with gray glaciers and endless blue waters.
What does planet Earth look like from space?
The view of the planet from space is similar to the view of the moon. The earth also glows, only it has a beautiful blue tint, similar to the color of precious stones - amethyst or sapphire. In its arsenal, the Earth has many other colors - red, green, orange and violet, depending on the phase of its position - the period of sunset or sunrise, etc.
The main color is blue-blue, since the surface of the water surface on Earth is five times the land area. Among other things, from space you can see continents that have green or brown shades, curls of white-blue color - clouds floating above the surface of the Earth. At night, bright luminous points are visible from space, streaking the territory of America, Europe, Russia, Japan and South Africa. These are the most industrialized regions, and the brightest points are observed in the area of large megacities.
Modern man saw the Earth from the side thanks to a photo taken from Earth orbit. Using miracle technology, people can find out how the Earth really looks from space.
Something about the Earth satellite
In astronomical science, the Earth’s satellite is a cosmic body that revolves around the planet and is held by its gravity.
The only satellite of the Earth is the Moon, located at a distance of 384.4 kilometers from it. This is a fairly large satellite, occupying fifth place among all space satellites in the solar system.
Some interesting facts related to the Earth and its images
What does the Earth look like from space? She is beautiful! And you can envy the astronauts who saw such splendor with their own eyes. There are many interesting facts connected with this planet. Below are some of them:
- According to astrologers, interplanetary dust, annually reaching the Earth’s surface, in its mass is 30 thousand tons. How is it formed? Asteroids that wander in the solar system, colliding with each other, create dust and individual fragments, then approaching the Earth. More often they crash into the atmosphere. It is because of this that people see such a thing as shooting stars.
- In winter (February-January), the speed of the Earth's rotation slows down. Moreover, it becomes slower every year. The reasons for this phenomenon are not yet known to anyone, but there are some suggestions that this is due to the displacement of the earth's poles.
- Over 80% of the Earth's surface is of volcanic origin.
- What did the Earth look like from space before? The first photo of the Earth (from a distance of 105 km) was taken from the V-2 rocket. This happened in October 1946 (USA, New Mexico). The land even then looked beautiful.
- Yuri Gagarin did not take pictures in his great historical flight. He was only able to describe the wonders he saw and broadcast on the radio. In this regard, the astronaut Alan Shepard (USA) became the first space photographer. He made his first flight from Cape Canaveral on May 5, 1961.
- German Titov in August 1961 became the second person to reach the orbit of the Earth and the second space photographer in the world. In addition, he still has the title of the youngest astronaut who has fallen into space. He at that time was only 26 months old without one month.
- The very first image of the Earth in color was made in August 1967 (DODGE satellite).
What does the Earth look like from space? A review of the best frames from space, posted below, will demonstrate the splendor and uniqueness of the planet.
The first shot of two planets in one frame
This frame is unexpected for human perception. These are two luminous crescents (Earth and Moon) on a completely black background of the Universe.
On the Earth’s sickle, which has a bluish tint, the contours of East Asia, the western Pacific and the Arctic are white. The picture was taken in the fall of 1977 (interplanetary vehicle Voyager-1). In this photo, the planet Earth is captured from a distance of more than 11 million kilometers.
"Blue marble"
A fairly well-known and widely distributed before 2002 photo of the Earth perfectly demonstrates what the Earth looks like from space. The appearance of this picture was the result of long work. From the cuts of numerous frames made as a result of months of research (the movement of the oceans, drifting ice, clouds), scientists made a mosaic unique in color.
"Blue marble" and is now recognized and is considered a universal property. This is the most detailed and detailed image of the globe.
View of the Earth from the moon
One of the most famous photos in the whole world is a view of the Earth, which was shot by the crew of Apollo 11 (USA) during a historical mission - landing in 1969 on the moon.
Three astronauts, led by Neil Armstrong, successfully landed on the surface of the moon and safely returned home, having managed to take this legendary shot.
"Pale blue dot"
This famous image was taken from a record distance (approximately 6 billion km) using the Voyajer 1 space probe. The spacecraft was able to transmit to NASA about 60 frames from the vast depths of the solar system, including the Pale Blue Dot. In this photo, the globe looks like a bluish speck of tiny sizes (0.12 pixels) located on a brown stripe.
This is the very first portrait of the Earth against the backdrop of endless outer space. The photo is a demonstration of how the Earth looks in space from the farthest depths of the Universe.
Earth Terminator
The Apollo 11 crew performed two more famous photographs, in which the Terminator of the Earth is visible in the form of a rounded line. This is the name of the light-dividing line, which separates the light (illuminated) part of the celestial body from the dark (unlit), enveloping the planet in a circle in a circle twice a day for 24 hours - at sunrise and sunset.
A similar phenomenon at the South and North Pole is very rare.
Earth from Mars and the dark side of the moon
Thanks to this photograph taken from another planet, mankind was able to see what the Earth looks like from another planet. From the surface of Mars, it appears to be a disk that flickers above the horizon.
In the image below, made using Hasselblad (Swedish equipment), the view of the moon from the reverse side was first captured. This happened in 1972, when the crew of Apollo 16 (expedition commander John Young) descended to the dark side of the Earth’s satellite.
What does flat earth look like from space?
Surprisingly, even today, in the century of the hadron collider, there are people who believe that the planet Earth is flat. They completely disbelieve satellite images and believe that NASA is a bunch of false scientists and charlatans. In November 2017, 61-year-old Michael Hughes (an American activist) moved from words to action. In his garage he assembled a rocket and equipped it with a steam engine made by himself. He was about to climb several thousand meters in height and take a few pictures to prove that the shape of the Earth represents the form of a disk. But local authorities did not give permission to fly. In the United States that fall, an international conference was held where supporters of the theory of a flat earth met. They put forward some evidence that the Earth is flat.
They believe that the planet has no curvature, because visually the horizon is absolutely straight. In their opinion, if the Earth were curved, a bulge would appear in the middle of any body of water. They also believe that all photos from space are fake. Quite a lot of ridiculous statements are made by supporters of this movement.
Winter land
What does the Earth look like from space in winter? NASA demonstrated how the New Year holidays look. According to agency staff, during the New Year holidays in megacities, illumination increases by almost 30 percent. To make a video presented on the Internet, scientists were able to take pictures of the satellite Some NPP.
The experts from the National Office for Atmospheric and Oceanic Research and NASA carefully checked the information that was received from this device.
