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[TheClimaxan]

Traveled all that way to take a goddam selfie, typical Earth.



JK. That's some cool shit.

 

[John Kowalski]

Jesus christ you people. A single picture of a planet you see everyday and a couple of words and your panties get all wet.

 

[Auctopus]

How about 6 billion km

That tiny blue dot is us.

thanks, carl

 

[TheJollyCorner]

Earth is still the most beautiful planet in the whole of the solar system. Can't tell me any different.

Earth! #1, baby!!!!

 

[Mr. Poolman]

Jesus christ you people. A single picture of a planet you see everyday and a couple of words and your panties get all wet.

There are only 2 kind of people.
The ones who find beauty everywhere, and those who don't.

 

[WeAreStarStuff]

I never get tired of Earth pics.

 

[cameron]

How about 6 billion km

That tiny blue dot is us.

2013 version. 1.44 billion km away. The bright blue dot on the centre right. The Day the Earth Smiled.

On July 19, 2013, in an event celebrated the world over, NASA's Cassini spacecraft slipped into Saturn's shadow and turned to image the planet, seven of its moons, its inner rings -- and, in the background, our home planet, Earth.

 

[Doc Az]

Looks so peaceful from way up. Real shame it isn't really like that.

Oh well, pretty picture I guess.

 

[wild wild rice]

Agreed, part of me thinks shame there are billions of humans fucking it up.

This is sadly sort of my first reaction as well.

 

[Blizzard]

The images were taken with a 4MP camera.

The composite image on the website is 2048x2048.

That should be pretty close to the raw resolution of the camera, assuming a square CCD.

By comparison, a standard 3MP digital camera is going to be 2048x1536, though that aspect is due to our general desire for prints in that ratio versus a perfectly square image.

What is more impressive than the raw resolution is the lens on that thing. The clarity.

For the people who are not impressed by an Earth photo:

This is what I still don't understand. What "sand structures" are they seeing with only a 2048x2048 image? I'm not even sure I can see rivers which they also mention.

 

[liquidtmd]

a four megapixel CCD camera

'Lol but my phone has a 20 megapixel camera, sucker!'

 

[Wyndstryker]

2013 version. 1.44 billion km away. The bright blue dot on the centre right. The Day the Earth Smiled.

Ok, those Saturn pics are awesome.

 

[CTLance]

Well, at least they didn't use a selfie-stick.

Spoiler

Neat photos.

 

[davepoobond]

too many clouds

 

[Anoregon]

How many people do you think were pooping when that picture was taken? Like that photo could literally contains millions of people taking a shit.

 

[Seanspeed]

too many clouds

I honestly think it's awesome how we are surrounded by this gas bubble basically, and how damn crucial it is for Earth to exist in the state it is in. But it's also scary how this bubble is so finely tuned to support our specific form of life and how fragile it(and life) ultimately is.

 

[maquiladora]

How many people do you think were pooping when that picture was taken? Like that photo could literally contains millions of people taking a shit.

And how many were cumming into an old sock. Perhaps we'll never know.

 

[SinShep]

upside down? in space? wut

This is the most commonly used picture of earth taken by Apollo 17. In the original photo it had the south pole at the top, but NASA flipped the image so that earth was the right way when they released it.

I am dumb

Not anymore, friend.

 

[davepoobond]

I honestly think it's awesome how we are surrounded by this gas bubble basically, and how damn crucial it is for Earth to exist in the state it is in. But it's also scary how this bubble is so finely tuned to support our specific form of life and how fragile it(and life) ultimately is.

i think its more scary than awesome, personally, but its also not very special to have one since there are whole gas planets and most planets have some sort of atmosphere, however thin it is.

 

[Blizzard]

And how many were cumming into an old sock. Perhaps we'll never know.

Sort of obscure reference:

Fifteen.

 

[marrec]

a perfect circle?

Actually an oblate spheroid.

 

[TheContact]

a perfect circle?

Nope. An oblate spheroid

 

[Dryk]

It's insane how good that image is considering that the camera's a little over 4 times further out than the moon is

 

[140.85]

I've never been awed by the "pale blue dot" pic. The fact that something appears smaller when farther away is not mind-blowing to me. A change in perspective to make something look smaller doesn't necessarily make it feel less significant to me.

 

[maquiladora]

Sort of obscure reference:

Fifteen.

9/10

 

[Seanspeed]

i think its more scary than awesome, personally, but its also not very special to have one since there are whole gas planets and most planets have some sort of atmosphere, however thin it is.

But these other planet's atmospheres are either entirely too extreme or just weak and barely existent. Ours is this perfect balance in *so* many important ways. Change one variable to any significant degree and the whole thing falls to shit. The atmosphere may still exist, but it could easily spell the doom of not just people, but perhaps the vast majority of animal or even plant life on the planet.

We are ridiculously lucky to exist.

And a bit of a side note - if you want to really understand how lucky *you* are, in particular, to exist, consider not just this, but also how you won out in a race of, what was likely to be, over 100 million sperm cells. That you or I exist at all is a fucking proper god damn miracle.

 

[StayDead]

what is this super green cloud above jamaica & friends?


oh

Quite obviously Chemtrails. NASA didn't do a good enough job of touching up the image to remove them all!

 

[davepoobond]

But these other planet's atmospheres are either entirely too extreme or just weak and barely existent. Ours is this perfect balance in *so* many important ways. Change one variable to any significant degree and the whole thing falls to shit. The atmosphere may still exist, but it could easily spell the doom of not just people, but perhaps the vast majority of animal or even plant life on the planet.

only because life evolved in this environment. i dont think anyone thinks that Earth is some special case in the universe at large. unless you believe in creationism.

We are ridiculously lucky to exist.

And a bit of a side note - if you want to really understand how lucky *you* are, in particular, to exist, consider not just this, but also how you won out in a race of, what was likely to be, over 100 million sperm cells. That you or I exist at all is a fucking proper god damn miracle.

law of averages, i would say. still not much of a "miracle" -- its just how math and the universe itself works.

 

[Hidden One]

How about 6 billion km

That tiny blue dot is us.

Shit.....

 

[Seanspeed]

only because life evolved in this environment. i dont think anyone thinks that Earth is some special case in the universe at large. unless you believe in creationism.

Our specific form of life only evolved *because* of the specifics of our atmosphere.

Obviously life most likely exists elsewhere, but we still don't know how common it would be for intelligent life like ours to exist. We're not the only ones out there, but it doesn't make our own existence as a species or as an ecosystem, any less crazy.

law of averages, i would say. still not much of a "miracle" -- its just how math and the universe itself works.

Such a weird way to see everything. Speaking of another thread, a pulsar may not be inexplainable or otherwise unheard of, but it doesn't make its existence any less insane or amazing to ponder.

And of yourself in particular, no, it's not the law of averages. You, yourself, as a conscious entity, would never exist in any other capacity. Everyone who exists has won a sort of mind boggling lottery from the get-go. This should be apparent unless you believe in souls, reincarnation, or other nonsense that assumes your consciousness is anything but the result of your very individual brain's existence.

 

[aerts1js]

yes very beauiful

 

[Rabbi_Vole]

I like how the USA is pretty much center.

 

[GK86]

I like how the USA is pretty much center.

Center of the Universe.

 

[Dai101]

I thought 1 million miles would be further away.


I feel better about listening to Procralimers 500 miles and Vanessa Carltons A Thousand miles now. Seems a lot more dooable than I thought.



The thing is, 1 km = 2,3 miles, so I forget how long miles are often.

Just for shit and giggles:

If the Moon were only 1 pixel

 

[Seanspeed]

Looks like the center of the photo is something like Honduras.

 

[Extollere]

Seeing pictures of Earth always freaks me out a little. Not because it's beautiful (which it is), or because it's where we all live... It's because all the other terrestrial planets in our solar system are rocky wastelands. In contrast, the Earth with it's hilariously thin atmosphere and fragile ecosystems seems like a rare beauty that's just one cosmic disaster away from becoming another rocky wasteland.

 

[maquiladora]

Seeing pictures of Earth always freaks me out a little. Not because it's beautiful (which it is), or because it's where we all live... It's because all the other terrestrial planets in our solar system are rocky wastelands. In contrast, the Earth with it's hilariously thin atmosphere and fragile ecosystems seems like a rare beauty that's just one cosmic disaster away from becoming another rocky wasteland.

We'll it's survived for 4+ billion years. Chances are humans will be long gone before something really catastrophic happens.

 

[SND]

Just like we left it, with the USA in charge!

 

[AlexBasch]

Wish we had cool fucking rings all around like Saturn instead of just this shitty blue color.

And how many were cumming into an old sock. Perhaps we'll never know.

If it was taken between 8-9AM GMT, then I'm on it.

 

[Seanspeed]

We'll it's survived for 4+ billion years. Chances are humans will be long gone before something really catastrophic happens.

I don't think humans will be going anywhere *unless* something catastrophic happens. Our rate of technological progress is such that we will gain the ability to either prevent or ward ourselves from certain otherwise disasterous scenarios, and I think, given a continued existence of just one to two thousand years, we might even be able to leave the planet in certain worst-case scenario situations.

 

[ntropy]

The most awe-inspiring photo ever taken of the planet. So insignificant in comparison to what else exists in the universe (hell, maybe even our own galaxy).

we are significant insofar as we are

 

[Seanspeed]

we are significant insofar as we are

Thank you.

Glad to see other people see things like that. Carl Sagan made a lot of effort to blow our minds with the scale of our existence and our world, but at no point did he ever try and say humanity, or individual humans, were insignificant as a result.

 

[GK86]

 

[Rabbi_Vole]

Shit.....

Only most of it..

 

[dr3upmushroom]

If only we would fuck off already.

Or fuck on, more like it

 

[jiggles]

We'll it's survived for 4+ billion years. Chances are humans will be long gone before something really catastrophic happens.

Something really catastrophic already has happened.

Spoiler

It's us

Spoiler

omg so deep maeks u fink

 

[waypoetic]

a perfect circle?

The Earth is not shaped like a circle though.

 

[E92 M3]

I love epic space pics - great thread.

 

[GK86]

NASA released another one. Wow:

 

[Orbis Tabula]

Sometimes I look up at the stars and remember that there is no up in space. That one perspective says I'm standing on a rock looking up, but that's not the only one. A quick change of perspective and suddenly I'm clinging to a tiny rock, looking down at infinite, bottomless abyss below me, just hoping that Earth doesn't drop me.