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Astronomy Picture of the Day 3-24-03
NASA ^
| 3-24-03
| Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell
Posted on 03/24/2003 4:53:57 AM PST by petuniasevan
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2003 March 24
A Digital Sunset Over Europe and Africa
Credit: NASA; Copyright: The Living Earth, Inc.; Used with Permission
Explanation: No single spacecraft or astronaut took this picture. It is a digital composite of archived images taken over many orbits by several Earth-orbiting satellites. Similar images can be digitally stitched together for any Earth location by John Walker's Earth and Moon Viewer website. Specifically, the daytime images were taken by the MODIS instrument on NASA's Terra satellite, while the nighttime images were taken by the DMSP satellites. This image is different from what an astronaut would see for reasons including a complete lack of clouds and an unrealistic exaggeration of lights and contrasts. The image has become both an internet soliton in that it continues to circulate as an attachment to digital correspondence, and a modern urban legend. Another image like that is Earth at Night. The reason for the image's continued popularity might be simple: it is really cool looking.
TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: composite; continent; earth; geology; image; ocean; photo; photography; satellite
HERE is that image that Rush put up on his website some time back. It is NOT from the space shuttle of course. It's a composite of various types of satellite imagery. Please ping interested parties to this thread.
Good morning.
To: MozartLover; Joan912; NovemberCharlie; snowfox; Dawgsquat; viligantcitizen; theDentist; ...
2
posted on
03/24/2003 4:55:45 AM PST
by
petuniasevan
(POWS: Justice will be served. In this life or the next.)
To: petuniasevan
Good morning...bttt
3
posted on
03/24/2003 5:11:46 AM PST
by
firewalk
To: petuniasevan
Another urban legend bites the dust! Great pic, though...
4
posted on
03/24/2003 5:13:40 AM PST
by
GodBlessRonaldReagan
(where is Count Petofi when we need him most?)
To: Pokey78
5
posted on
03/24/2003 5:19:53 AM PST
by
petuniasevan
(POWS: Justice will be served. In this life or the next.)
To: petuniasevan
Thank you.
To: petuniasevan
Thanks for helping clear up the misconceptions on this 'legendary' photo...
The Living Earth site is an interesting one to visit, and has also been instructional in showing how the earth-sun relationship changes over the course of a year. I did break a smile at the recent disclaimer on their main page re: frequent refreshes of the maps by folks trying to catch "live action" in the Middle East.
7
posted on
03/24/2003 6:01:43 AM PST
by
mikrofon
To: petuniasevan
This is pretty cool! Thanks!
8
posted on
03/24/2003 6:24:51 AM PST
by
Freedom2specul8
(Please pray for our troops.... http://anyservicemember.navy.mil/)
To: petuniasevan
pretty cool!
9
posted on
03/24/2003 6:54:06 AM PST
by
Joan912
(i'm speechless)
To: petuniasevan
Interesting. Thanks for the ping.
10
posted on
03/24/2003 12:47:43 PM PST
by
sistergoldenhair
(Don't be a sheep. People hate sheep. They eat sheep.)
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