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NASA unveils most spectacular image of Earth rising over the moon

Published: 19 Dec 2015 - 11:31 am | Last Updated: 03 Nov 2021 - 04:12 am
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NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recently captured a view of Earth from the spacecraft's vantage point in orbit around the moon. The large tan area in the upper right is the Sahara Desert, and just beyond is Saudi Arabia. The Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South America are visible to the left. On the moon, we get a glimpse of the crater Compton, which is located just beyond the eastern limb of the moon, on the lunar farside. AFP/NASA/HANDOUT

 

Washington: A beautiful new high-resolution photo of the Earth as seen from the moon has been released by NASA. And it’s simply stunning.

The picture is montage using images from two cameras on board the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). This spacecraft has been monitoring the moon’s surface since 2009.

Detailed calculations and careful manipulations are required to get what is claimed to currently be the most spectacular hi-definition digital image of our planet.

A narrow-angle camera recorded images of the Moon and the Earth in black and white and a wide-angle camera (WAC) was used to capture color images of our planet, using special filters.

"The colors are only approximately what an intrepid explorer would see from the Moon because the human eye is fully sensitive to all colors across the visible wavelength range, whereas the WAC sees through a set of narrow band filters (the view here combines the 604 nm (orange), 556 nm (yellow-green), and 415 nm (violet) bands displayed in red, green, and blue, respectively," NASA commented.

The free image of Earth is available in multiple resolutions and can easily be downloaded and printed to fit perfectly on any wall.

QNA