At the time of publication it represented the best available science.
Blue marble original photo.
The blue marble this spectacular blue marble image is the most detailed true color image of the entire earth to date.
In the nasa archive its formal designation is as17 148 22727 but it s commonly known as the blue marble shot and forty years later we still aren t sure who actually took it.
View of the earth as seen by the apollo 17 crew astronaut eugene a.
Using a collection of satellite based observations scientists and visualizers stitched together months of observations of the land surface oceans sea ice and clouds into a seamless true color mosaic of every square kilometer 386 square mile of our planet.
It was the first ever clear image of fully illuminated earth.
Nasa s website gives us finer details of this photograph.
Nasa image by robert simmon and reto stöckli published oct 13 2005 atmosphere land water snow and ice.
The blue marble from apollo 17 this page contains archived content and is no longer being updated.
Next generation features imagery of land surfaces during each month of 2004 with a maximum resolution of 500 meters per pixel.
Later nasa chose photo number as17 148 22727 of this series to be titled as the blue marble.
The original caption is reprinted below.
It mainly shows the earth from the mediterranean sea to antarctica.
This translunar coast photograph extends from the mediterranean sea area to the antarctica south polar ice cap.
The blue marble from apollo 17 this classic photograph of the earth was taken on december 7 1972.
Blue marble one of the most widely known photographs of earth this image was taken by the crew of the final apollo mission as the crew made its way to the moon.
View of the earth as seen by the apollo 17 crew traveling toward the moon.
The blue marble is an image of earth taken on december 7 1972 from a distance of about 29 000 kilometers 18 000 miles from the planet s surface.
Evans command module pilot.
And scientist astronaut harrison h.
Nasa has used the moniker blue marble for many photos of our planet since the original the highest resolution of which was released in january of last year full res here nasa photograph.