Take a few minutes to enjoy 25 truly breathtaking photos of the Earth and Moon from space.
This photograph of Earth was taken by astronauts on the Apollo 11 spacecraft on July 20, 1969.
Spacecraft launched by humanity enjoy views of the Earth from a distance of thousands and millions of kilometers.
Captured by Suomi NPP, a US weather satellite operated by NOAA.
Date: April 9, 2015.
NASA and NOAA created this composite image using photos taken from the Suomi NPP weather satellite, which orbits the Earth 14 times a day.
Their endless observations allow us to monitor the state of our world under the rare positions of the Sun, Moon and Earth.
Captured by the DSCOVR Sun and Earth Observing Spacecraft.
Date: March 9, 2016.
The DSCOVR spacecraft captured 13 images of the moon's shadow running across Earth during the 2016 total solar eclipse.
But the deeper we go into space, the more the view of the Earth fascinates us.
Taken by the Rosetta spacecraft.
Date: November 12, 2009.
The Rosetta spacecraft is designed to study comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. In 2007, it made a soft landing on the surface of a comet. The main probe of the device completed its flight on September 30, 2016. This photo shows the South Pole and sunlit Antarctica.
Our planet looks like a shiny blue marble, shrouded in a thin, almost invisible layer of gas.
Filmed by the Apollo 17 crew
Date: December 7, 1972.
The crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft took this photograph, entitled "The Blue Marble," during the last manned mission to the Moon. This is one of the most circulated photographs of all time. It was filmed at a distance of approximately 29 thousand km from the surface of the Earth. Africa is visible in the upper left of the image, and Antarctica is visible in the lower left.
And she drifts alone in the blackness of space.
Filmed by the Apollo 11 crew.
Date: July 20, 1969.
The crew of Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin took this photo during a flight to the Moon at a distance of about 158 thousand km from Earth. Africa is visible in the frame.
Almost alone.
About twice a year, the Moon passes between the DSCOVR satellite and its main observation object, the Earth. Then we get a rare opportunity to look at the far side of our satellite.
The Moon is a cold rocky ball, 50 times smaller than the Earth. She is our greatest and closest heavenly friend.
Filmed by William Anders as part of the Apollo 8 crew.
Date: December 24, 1968.
The famous Earthrise photograph taken from the Apollo 8 spacecraft.
One hypothesis is that the Moon formed after a proto-Earth collided with a planet the size of Mars about 4.5 billion years ago.
Taken by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO, Lunar Orbiter).
Date: October 12, 2015.
In 2009, NASA launched the robotic interplanetary probe LRO to study the cratered surface of the Moon, but it seized the opportunity to capture this modern version of the Earthrise photograph.
Since the 1950s, humanity has been launching people and robots into space.
Taken by Lunar Orbiter 1.
Date: August 23, 1966.
The robotic unmanned spacecraft Lunar Orbiter 1 took this photo while searching for a site to land astronauts on the Moon.
Our exploration of the Moon is a mixture of the pursuit of technological conquest...
Photographed by Michael Collins of the Apollo 11 crew.
Date: July 21, 1969.
Eagle, the lunar module of Apollo 11, returns from the surface of the Moon.
and insatiable human curiosity...
Taken by the Chang'e 5-T1 lunar probe.
Date: October 29, 2014.
A rare view of the far side of the Moon taken by the China National Space Administration's lunar probe.
and search for extreme adventures.
Filmed by the Apollo 10 crew.
Date: May 1969.
This video was taken by astronauts Thomas Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan during a non-landing test flight to the Moon on Apollo 10. Obtaining such an image of Earthrise is only possible from a moving ship.
It always seems that the Earth is not far from the Moon.
Taken by the Clementine 1 probe.
Date: 1994.
The Clementine mission was launched on January 25, 1994, as part of a joint initiative between NASA and the North American Aerospace Defense Command. On May 7, 1994, the probe left control, but had previously transmitted this image, which showed the Earth and the north pole of the Moon.
Taken by Mariner 10.
Date: November 3, 1973.
A combination of two photographs (one of the Earth, the other of the Moon) taken by NASA's robotic interplanetary station Mariner 10, which was launched to Mercury, Venus and the Moon using an intercontinental ballistic missile.
the more amazing our house looks...
Taken by the Galileo spacecraft.
Date: December 16, 1992.
On its way to study Jupiter and its moons, NASA's Galileo spacecraft captured this composite image. The Moon, which is about three times brighter than the Earth, is in the foreground, closer to the viewer.
and the more lonely he seems.
Taken by the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Shoemaker spacecraft.
Date: January 23, 1998.
NASA's NEAR spacecraft, sent to the asteroid Eros in 1996, captured these images of the Earth and Moon. Antarctica is visible at the South Pole of our planet.
Most images do not accurately depict the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
Taken by the Voyager 1 robotic probe.
Date: September 18, 1977.
Most photographs of the Earth and Moon are composite images, made up of several images, because the objects are far apart. But above you see the first photograph in which our planet and its natural satellite are captured in one frame. The photo was taken by the Voyager 1 probe on its way to its “grand tour” of the solar system.
Only after traveling hundreds of thousands or even millions of kilometers, then returning, can we truly appreciate the distance that lies between the two worlds.
Taken by the automatic interplanetary station “Mars-Express”.
Date: July 3, 2003.
The European Space Agency's robotic interplanetary station Max Express (Mars Express), heading towards Mars, took this image of Earth at a distance of millions of kilometers.
This is a huge and empty space.
Captured by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.
Date: April 19, 2001.
This infrared photograph, taken from a distance of 2.2 million km, shows the enormous distance between the Earth and the Moon - about 385 thousand kilometers, or about 30 Earth diameters. The Mars Odyssey spacecraft took this photo as it headed toward Mars.
But even together, the Earth-Moon system looks insignificant in deep space.
Taken by NASA's Juno spacecraft.
Date: August 26, 2011.
NASA's Juno spacecraft captured this image during its nearly 5-year journey to Jupiter, where it is conducting research on the gas giant.
From the surface of Mars, our planet appears to be just another “star” in the night sky, which puzzled early astronomers.
Taken by the Spirit Mars Exploration Rover.
Date: March 9, 2004.
About two months after landing on Mars, the Spirit rover captured a photograph of Earth appearing as a tiny dot. NASA says it is "the first ever image of Earth taken from the surface of another planet beyond the Moon."
The Earth is lost in the shining icy rings of Saturn.
Taken by the Cassini automatic interplanetary station.
Date: September 15, 2006.
NASA's Cassini space station took 165 photos of Saturn's shadow to create this backlit mosaic of the gas giant. The Earth has crept into the image on the left.
Billions of kilometers from Earth, as Carl Sagan quipped, our world is just a “pale blue dot,” a small and lonely ball on which all our triumphs and tragedies are played out.
Taken by the Voyager 1 robotic probe.
Date: February 14, 1990.
This image of Earth is one of a series of "solar system portraits" that Voyager 1 took about 4 billion miles from home.
From Sagan's speech:
“There is probably no better demonstration of stupid human arrogance than this detached picture of our tiny world. It seems to me that it emphasizes our responsibility, our duty to be kinder to each other, to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot - our only home.”
Sagan's message is constant: there is only one Earth, so we must do everything in our power to protect it, protect it mainly from ourselves.
Japan's artificial lunar satellite Kaguya (also known as SELENE) captured this video of the Earth rising above the Moon at 1000% acceleration to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Earthrise photograph taken by the Apollo 8 crew.
Incredible facts
Death is a special topic for every person. There is something sinister about it that makes us cringe, although it does not threaten us anytime soon. However, people have learned to accept death. They just accept it and don't think about it.
Every person knows that death cannot be avoided, and nothing can be done about it. However, not every death happens routinely. The passing of some people into another world leaves behind more questions than answers, and this is clearly visible in their photographs.
We are talking about photographs that were taken shortly before death. If you look closely, you can see the approach of death. So here they are.
Latest photos
1. Justus Belfield, a US veteran of World War II, wore the uniform he wore to take one last photo before he died. The man was 98 years old.
2. This photo is believed to be the last in the life of Adolf Hitler. On April 30, 1945, he committed suicide in a bunker outside Berlin.
3. Philippine lawmaker Reynald Dagsa is photographing his wife, daughter and mother-in-law, and his killer accidentally appears in the frame. The latter just got out of the car and pointed the weapon at the 35-year-old man. Moments later, Dagsa was killed.
5. This photo of English singer Amy Winehouse was taken one week before her death in 2011. She walks down the street near her apartment in London. Amy died of alcohol poisoning after going on a long drinking binge. The girl was 27 years old.
6. The photo shows a 17-year-old boy Andrei Retrovsky, who wanted to take a staged photo of the fall. But a few seconds after the photo was taken, the guy fell off the roof. The safety rope could not stand it, its straps broke, and Andrei fell to his death.
7. A few hours before her death, Stephanie Hernandez, a 21-year-old US resident, posted this photo online of her boyfriend aiming a gun at her. She was shot in the head that same evening.
Last lifetime photos
8. Pop legend Michael Jackson died in his sleep on June 25, 2009 after taking too much sleeping pills. This photo was taken at the last rehearsal of Jackson's show in Los Angeles. The star planned to go on tour around the world.
9. Has anyone ever thought that the most cheerful person was so unhappy? The first photo was taken the day before Robin Williams died at his house at a party. The second - a few days before suicide. Robin suffered from a rare form of dementia that prevented him from living a normal life. The 63-year-old comedian committed suicide on August 11, 2014.
10. This photograph was the last in the life of the great singer Whitney Houston. On February 11, 2012, Whitney left the Grammy Awards rehearsal and headed to her hotel. Two days later she was found dead in the bathroom.
11. Robert Kennedy was the brother of the assassinated John F. Kennedy and a senator from New York. He was shot on June 6, 1968. This terrifying photo was taken just after Robert was shot three times at point-blank range by a 24-year-old Palestinian.
Latest photos of stars
12. Two years before Freddie Mercury's tragic death, his band stopped performing live. All because of his serious physical condition, and also because before his death he really wanted to record more new songs.
For the last album, black and white videos were shot, which helped hide Freddie's emaciated body. This photo was taken before the singer made the following statement to the press:
“There have been rumors in the press for a long time, and I want to confirm: there is HIV in my blood, I have AIDS. I did not talk about it in order to preserve the peace of mind of my loved ones and relatives. But it's time to tell my friends and fans about it. I believe everyone will join the fight against this terrible disease.”
Less than a day after this statement, Freddie died of pneumonia caused by AIDS.
13. In the summer of 2017, the legendary Linkin Park lead singer Chester Bennington committed suicide by hanging in his apartment in a Los Angeles suburb. The 41-year-old singer was married for the second time and had six children, but this did not stop severe depression from eating him up from the inside. The musician was also a drug addict, and often spoke about the arrival of internal demons when he gave up.
This photo was taken shortly before his suicide while on vacation with his family, and it was this photo that served as the impetus for the “Face of Depression” flash mob. As part of this flash mob, a huge number of people published their cheerful and happy photographs, from which it cannot be said that the person is actually thinking about suicide and is very exhausted.
Last photos during life
14. In this photo, Marilyn Monroe is having a good time with Buddy Greco, who was a jazz pianist. The action takes place in early August 1962. A few hours later, on the night of August 5, the star’s body was found in her home. Marilyn was poisoned by barbiturates.
A reliable fact: for the last few years of her life, the actress used stimulants and sedatives, as she was in a neurotic state. These facts fully justify the version of suicide, but many experts believe that someone else is behind Marilyn’s death.
15. Steve Jobs lost his battle with pancreatic cancer on October 5, 2011. This photo is one of the last. Steve's family said his last words were: "Wow, wow."
16. This photo shows Heath Ledger during the filming of his latest film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. He played the main role there, but was never able to finish filming. On January 22, 2008, the actor was found lifeless in a hotel room. His heart gave out due to the fact that in the last few months of his life he used a lot of sleeping pills, painkillers and tranquilizers.
The director of the film did not abandon his brainchild, finding an original way out and changing the plot. Heath's hero finds himself in another dimension, in which he changes his appearance several times. Colin Farrell, Johnny Depp and Jude Law agreed to help Ledger finish the game. The actors gave the fees they received for the film to Heath’s little daughter Matilda.
Last photos before death
17. This photo shows the great scientist Nikola Tesla. This is his last known image. Nikola died in the hotel in 1943, completely alone. His contribution to the creation of alternating current devices cannot be overestimated. In addition, he was a good physicist, engineer and inventor.
Towards the end of his life, Nikola became impoverished and ate very poorly. All day he sat in the park and fed pigeons, and at night he worked on mathematical formulas and equations.
18. In December 2015, the premiere of the musical “Lazarus” by the talented musician took place. This was his last appearance in public. The singer fought cancer for more than a year, and at the end of the fight he already knew perfectly well that he would soon leave. His latest album “Blackstar” has a lot of themes about death.
19. This photograph belongs to the American traveler Christopher McCandless, who went to Alaska, or rather to its uninhabited part, taking with him a minimal amount of food. He relied on being able to feed himself. The photo was found in his camera.
Four months after the start of the journey, the guy died of exhaustion. Later, a book was written about him and the film “Into the Wild” was made.
20. The last photo of Muhammad Ali was taken by his daughter on May 22, 2016. On June 2, Ali was admitted to hospital with a respiratory illness, and a day later, after a sharp deterioration in his condition, he died of septic shock.
The athlete suffered from Parkinson's disease since 1984, but until his last days he tried to lead a normal life. He was 74 years old.
Latest celebrity photos
21. This photo was taken in October 2016 for the launch of his latest album in Los Angeles. Leonard Cohen died at the age of 82 from cancer, but he passed away very peacefully, in his sleep. The musician died 3 weeks after the picture was taken.
22. This photo was taken a few months before 36-year-old musician Bob Marley died of cancer. At the time of filming he weighed 35 kg and died in 1981.
23. This photo was taken at Nirvana's last official shoot, approximately 5 months before Kurt Cobain's passing. The musician was deeply depressed and suffered from heroin addiction. In April 1994, he shot himself with a gun in his own home. Kurt was 27 years old.
24. Young Russian actor Anton Yelchin died as a result of an accident under the wheels of his own car. This photo is the last in the life of the 27-year-old actor, which he published online three days before his death.
25. This photo was taken in May 1923 and is known as the last photograph of Vladimir Lenin. By this time, Lenin had already suffered three strokes, as a result of which he lost his speech and was partially paralyzed.
They allow you to obtain spatial information about the earth's surface in the visible and infrared ranges of electromagnetic wavelengths. They are able to recognize passive reflected radiation from the earth's surface in the visible and near-infrared ranges. In such systems, radiation hits the corresponding sensors, which generate electrical signals depending on the intensity of the radiation.
In optical-electronic remote sensing systems, as a rule, sensors with constant line-by-line scanning are used. You can select linear, transverse and longitudinal scanning.
The total scanning angle across the route is called the viewing angle, and the corresponding value on the Earth's surface is shooting bandwidth.
Part of the data stream received from a satellite is called a scene. The schemes for cutting the stream into scenes, as well as their size for different satellites, differ.
Optical-electronic remote sensing systems carry out surveys in the optical range of electromagnetic waves.
Panchromatic the images occupy almost the entire visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum (0.45-0.90 microns), and are therefore black and white.
Multispectral(multispectral) imaging systems produce multiple separate images over broad spectral regions ranging from visible to infrared electromagnetic radiation. The greatest practical interest at the moment is multispectral data from new generation spacecraft, including RapidEye (5 spectral zones) and WorldView-2 (8 zones).
The new generation of high- and ultra-high-resolution satellites, as a rule, survey in panchromatic and multispectral modes.
Hyperspectral imaging systems form images simultaneously for narrow spectral zones in all parts of the spectral range. For hyperspectral imaging, it is not the number of spectral zones (channels) that is important, but the width of the zone (the smaller the better) and the sequence of measurements. Thus, a shooting system with 20 channels will be hyperspectral if it covers the range of 0.50-070 microns, with the width of each spectral zone not exceeding 0.01 microns, and a shooting system with 20 separate channels covering the visible region of the spectrum , near, short-wave, mid- and long-wave infrared regions will be considered multispectral.
Spatial resolution- a value characterizing the size of the smallest objects distinguishable in the image. Factors affecting spatial resolution are the parameters of the optical-electronic or radar system, as well as the orbital altitude, that is, the distance from the satellite to the object being imaged. The best spatial resolution is achieved when shooting at nadir; as you deviate from nadir, the resolution deteriorates. Satellite images can have low (more than 10 m), medium (from 10 to 2.5 m), high (from 2.5 to 1 m), and ultra-high (less than 1 m) resolution.
Radiometric resolution determined by the sensitivity of the sensor to changes in the intensity of electromagnetic radiation. It is determined by the number of gradations of color values corresponding to the transition from the brightness of absolutely “black” to absolutely “white”, and is expressed in the number of bits per pixel of the image. This means that in the case of a radiometric resolution of 6 bits/pixel, we have only 64 color gradations, 8 bits/pixel - 256 gradations, 11 bits/pixel - 2048 gradations.
Many users are interested in online satellite maps, which give them the opportunity to enjoy a bird's-eye view of their favorite places on our planet. There are quite a number of such services on the Internet, but all their diversity should not be misleading - most of these sites use the classic API from Google Maps. However, there are also a number of resources that use their own tools to create high-quality satellite maps. In this material I will talk about the best high-resolution satellite maps available online in 2017-2018, and also explain how to use them.
What you need to know about online satellite maps?
When creating satellite maps of the earth's surface, both images from space satellites and photos from special aircraft are usually used, allowing photography to be carried out at a bird's eye view (250-500 meters).
Satellite maps of the highest resolution quality created in this way are regularly updated, and usually the images from them are no more than 2-3 years old.
Most online services do not have the ability to create their own satellite maps. They usually use maps from other, more powerful services (usually Google Maps). At the same time, at the bottom (or top) of the screen you can find a mention of the copyright of a company for displaying these maps.
Viewing real-time satellite maps is currently not available to the average user, since such tools are used primarily for military purposes. Users have access to maps, photographs for which were taken over the past months (or even years). It is worth understanding that any military objects may be deliberately retouched in order to hide them from interested parties.
Let's move on to a description of the services that allow us to enjoy the capabilities of satellite maps.
Google Maps - view from space in high resolution
Bing Maps – online satellite map service
Among online mapping services of decent quality, one cannot ignore the Bing Maps service, which is the brainchild of Microsoft. Like other resources I have described, this site provides fairly high-quality photos of the surface created using satellite and aerial photography.
Bing Maps is one of the most popular mapping services in the United States. The functionality of the service is similar to the analogues already described above:
At the same time, using the search button you can determine the online location of a specific satellite, and by clicking on any satellite on the map you will receive brief information about it (country, size, launch date, etc.).
Conclusion
To display high-resolution satellite maps online, you should use one of the network solutions I listed. The Google Maps service is the most popular worldwide, so I recommend using this resource to work with satellite maps online. If you are interested in viewing geolocations on the territory of the Russian Federation, then it is better to use the Yandex.Maps toolkit. The frequency of their updates on our country’s relations exceeds the similar frequency from Google Maps.