WISE2011-003-lg.jpg (JPEG Image, 1600x1600 pixels) - Scaled (40%) Pic01-530303main_cassini20110322-43_full_946-710.jpg (JPEG Image, 1363x1023 pixels) - Scaled (62%) The Whole Earth Disk: An Iconic Image of the Space Age. Earth from Apollo 17.
NASA Image #AS17-148-22727 Who has not seen the bright blue and white image of the Earth, swaddled in clouds and looking inviting, in numerous places and in various settings? Taken by the Apollo 17 astronauts on December 7, 1972, this photograph is one of the most widely distributed images in existence. It was the best one taken by these astronauts of a fully lit Earth, as the astronauts had the Sun behind them when they took the image. Sometimes called the “blue marble,” this photograph taken during the translunar coast en route to the Moon, showed the Mediterranean Sea area in the north and extended to a good depiction of the to the Antarctic south polar ice cap.
WISE2011-022-lg.jpg (JPEG Image, 1600x1309 pixels) - Scaled (49%)