From perceiving Earth as a flat surface to discovering its true shape, close to an oblate spheroid, humans' conception of their home planet's shape and appearance has evolved over centuries. Different images of Earth provide a better understanding of our home planet. The National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) has shared images of planet Earth captured from different locations in space. Most of these images have been captured by high-profile cameras mounted on spacecraft and satellites.
The data produced by Earth-observing satellites help us understand how our planet’s systems interact and change and our place in the universe. Take a look at NASA images of Earth taken from 100 miles to 100 million miles.
The ‘Family Portrait’ of the Moon and the Earth was taken by Galileo spacecraft in 1992. The image was obtained by modifying the photos captured through visible and near-infrared filters.
The rare image of the Moon crossing Earth was captured by NASA's Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), which was aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite.
The image shows the rarely visible ‘dark side’ of the Moon as it moves in front of the sunlit side of Earth.
The unique view of the Earth was captured by NASA's Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter (LRO). The orbiter was launched in 2009. According to NASA, LRO captures around 12 Earthrises daily.
The giant blue planet appears as a shiny blue dot from Saturn. The image was captured from 898 million miles away. The blue dot, indicated by an arrow, is Earth, whereas the Moon is seen just to the right in the image. The Cassini-Hyugens mission, was terminated in 2017, and was a joint effort of NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency.
The photograph shows the Moon and the Earth as small circles of reflected light from a distance equal to the view from Mercury. The image was captured by the Messenger robotic spacecraft, which was launched in 2004. Its mission ended in 2015.
