Posted on 11/23/2022 1:19:04 PM PST by MtnClimber
Explanation: Eight billion people are about to disappear in this snapshot from space. Taken on November 21, the sixth day of the Artemis 1 mission, their home world is setting behind the Moon's bright edge as viewed by an external camera on the outbound Orion spacecraft. The Orion was headed for a powered flyby that took it to within 130 kilometers of the lunar surface. Velocity gained in the flyby maneuver will be used to reach a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. That orbit is considered distant because it's another 92,000 kilometers beyond the Moon, and retrograde because the spacecraft will orbit in the opposite direction of the Moon's orbit around planet Earth. Orion will enter its distant retrograde orbit on Friday, November 25. Swinging around the Moon, Orion will reach a maximum distance (just over 400,000 kilometers) from Earth on Monday November 28 exceeding a record set by Apollo 13 for most distant spacecraft designed for human space exploration.
For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
I’d rather be there then here.
And they did it from the surface of the Moon to boot.
No, they didn’t. They were in lunar orbit. There’s no “earthrise” or “earthset” from the moon’s surface; the earth just sits in the same place in the sky all the time. (Where that place is depends on where you are on the moon, but it doesn’t change for any particular spot.)
Yep, lunar orbit.
That photo in 1968 set the bar to be exceeded.
I always appreciate your posts. I use all of the images in the wallpaper switcher. ;-)
That’s not entirely true. Because of eccentricities in the moon’s orbit, something like 59% of the surface is visible at one time or another from earth—so there is a small portion of the moon where the earth is sometimes above the horizon and sometimes below the horizon.
Forgot which Apollo mission, but they took a picture where technically speaking, every person, dead or alive, was in the picture, except the photographer.
Glad to post sources for your wallpaper!
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