57 years ago on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 1968, astronaut Bill Anders aboard Apollo 8 captured this awe-inspiring picture named "Earthrise" of a blue earth rising above the barren lunar landscape.
With Apollo 8, astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders became the first humans to orbit the Moon and the first to witness the magical "Earthrise"
50 years later, Anders observed - "We set out to explore the moon and instead discovered the Earth."
Wilderness photographer Galen Rowell called Earthrise "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken."
Here is a recreation of that famous moments, thanks to NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio, as human eyes saw Earth rise above the moon's barren surface for the first time ever.
Anders: Oh my God, look at that picture over there! There's the Earth comin' up. Wow, is that pretty!
Borman: Hey don't take that, it's not scheduled. (Chuckle)
Anders: You got a color film, Jim? Hand me a roll of color, quick, would you?
Lovell: Oh man, that's great.
science.nasa.gov/...
Anders: Oh my God, look at that picture over there! There's the Earth comin' up. Wow, is that pretty!
Borman: Hey don't take that, it's not scheduled. (Chuckle)
Anders: You got a color film, Jim? Hand me a roll of color, quick, would you?
Lovell: Oh man, that's great.
Two days earlier, on Dec 22, 1968, Bill Anders took this pic of full Earth from a distance of 30,000 km, the first such image captured by a human being from space. earthobservatory.nasa.gov/...
More Apollo 8 pics at www.flickr.com/…
The Earthrise photo is widely credited with propelling the global environmental movement and leading to the creation of Earth Day, an annual event promoting environmental activism and awareness, in 1970.
Before Earth Day, people talked about how space exploration had made it far clearer how unique we are, adds Kathleen Rogers, president of the Earth Day Network. "Once the photo was published, members of Congress and global leaders all started talking about how fragile the Earth was. Earthrise highlighted the uniqueness of Earth in that big black universe and it drove home to millions of people how dirty our planet was."
www.bbc.com/...
57 years later, we are still struggling to send humans to the moon, as the mostly privatized industry is focused on extracting every dollar possible from low orbit satellites, while they dangle visions of colonizing Mars to keep the masses happy.
We have made considerable progress on the environmental front, but the rise of the far-right and the tech bros, make further progress much more difficult, if not impossible. Unless we stop them soon, Earth is careening towards a much warmer fossil-fueled future, with rising oceans, disease and suffering, and perennial wars for scarce resources like land, water, food and minerals.
We are reminded of Carl Sagan’s sagacious words about the “Pale Blue Dot” from 1994 that it is up to us to save Earth, in spite of the savagery that exists within humankind.
So, let’s keep working to stop them. Let’s work to throw out these hyenas from the White House, from Congress and from state and local offices everywhere. Let’s turn things around so that everyone understands “our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”
