Blue Marble

[gfish]

This is the "Blue Marble" picture, taken from Apollo 17 outbound to the final lunar landing in 1972. It's one of the most famous pictures ever taken. It's beautiful and stunning -- and I'm a little bit sick of it.

Its omnipresence is a little overwhelming once you start to look for it, like the space photography equivalent of Helvetica. The way it gets used, you'd think it was the only picture of the Earth we have from space. (It is one of the few where the visible hemisphere is entirely lit, admittedly.) Which is a shame, because there are so many stunning pictures of the Earth that never get used. This grand image, this relic of the greatest adventure our species has ever undertaken, has been reduced to little more than a generic representation of Earthiness. The JPEG compression should just output '⊕'.

I beg you: if you need an image of the Earth, explore the NASA archives a bit. Don't just take the first Google Image result.

Comments

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Because I'm curious... it's only the third result using Google Images in the co.uk incarnation.

I'm actually fairly unfamiliar with the image you've used here - it's not something that I recognise instantly as Apollo 17, or 1972, or an iconic image of the Earth, or anything like that. (I mean, I know it's the Earth. That goes without saying. I don't think "oh, that photo again" because from my perspective it's not yet over-used.)

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Just wait. Now that I've pointed it out, you'll see it everywhere. :)

Seriously, I'd say it's used about 90% of the time you see a picture of Earth.