In 1968, as Apollo 8 orbited the Moon, astronaut Bill Anders captured one of the most iconic images of all time: Earthrise.
In 1968, as Apollo 8 orbited the Moon, astronaut Bill Anders captured one of the most iconic images of all time: Earthrise. The photo, showing Earth as a vibrant blue-and-white sphere emerging over the barren surface of the Moon, helped propel a nascent environmental movement and changed NASA’s and humanity’s perception of our home planet.
“We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth,” Anders later said of his journey. “Earth was the only thing in color. Everything else was black or white. It was the only thing that had any life to it.”
Now, more than half a century later, a new image taken from the surface of the Moon offers a fresh perspective on the theme. The new “blue ghost” photograph shows a small gray Earth drifting in the cosmic expanse beyond the flat, lifeless surface of the Moon.
Read more at NASA Earth Observatory
Image: All photographs courtesy of Firefly Aerospace
