Starship Asterisk*

Today's illustration on APOD depicting the amount of water on Earth first appeared on APOD in 2012 and has appeared numerous times on other sites. Have you seen it before? We would be grateful if you would indicate yes or no in the above poll. Although only an informal poll, we are curious to better understand the effect of past exposure on the popularity of specific APODs. Comments are also welcome below. Thanks for any help you can be!

The image is again posted here for clarity:
- RJN for APOD

Said I saw it elsewhere because the first time I saw it was before it was on APOD. But I've seen it both elsewhere and on APOD. I'm assuming the question refers to where it was first seen.

I remember this picture very well, but I can't say if I first saw it on APOD or elsewhere.

Ann

I saw it on APOD in a comparison with the water content of the Jovian moon Europa (which actually has more water than Earth!)

I'm pretty sure I saw this same image at the Smithsonian Air & Space in DC. It was a fairly new exhibit, they probably got it from APOD...

It's gotta be more than that?!

I want to find out which is correct, if either. This latest image has text saying that the ball representing all water on earth is 700 K/ms in diameter while the 2012 image says it is 1,385 K/ms. This creates a large credibility gap and makes room for a lot of detractors of science to gain traction!
Please clarify.

Regards,

Dave Bisset,
Wanaka New Zealand.
davebisset@xtra.co.nz

It would seem that the 700 km quoted here is in error ? - its quoted previously elsewhere as ~860 MILES.

Which is ~1385 km, incidentally.

It doesn't seem like much water, expressed like that.
But its still a big enough sphere that the ISS would be well underwater if it encountered it like that !

Oops! I did not notice that one is quoted as diameter and the other is radius!

Sorry about that!

Regards,

Dave Bisset

Well, it IS "repeat Sunday".... fine with me... gives me a reminder of an interesting concept....

:---[===] *

I've seen this, or even a similar picture before, but can't remember where. Remember my surprise at the small dimensions of it.

"Why are they showing this again?"... reads description, clicks link. First time on forums, hi, been loving the pictures since 2010 <3 Keep it up

If I have seen it before,I forgot it. It is worth putting up every 5 years to remind us to conserve water!

I visit APOD every day, but I am 85 now. I voted that I had not seen this picture before, but I may have missed it during a trip to the hospital.
That happens more frequently the last several years.

Bob

Is the ball of water getting smaller?
how big a ball of water is drinkable?

When I first saw it, I was absolutely floored! So little water compared to the size of Earth. I was in Newfoundland shortly afterward and I was looking eastward and I knew there were thousands of km between me and the UK with all that water, and, yet, there really is not all that much. My favourite image from APOD.

When I try to consider the immenseness of the seas that are called shallow in the text, the pictured water droplet seems disproportional to my minds eye.

I've seen this image before, and one more even most stricking, that with another ball, smaller ball, showing just drinking water (not salad). both are wonderful to comprehend why we must take care of any drop of water in the Earth.

FYI: More information and a better quality image is available at
http://water.usgs.gov/edu/gallery/globa ... olume.html

Yes, but I see it only a week ago, recherging images of amount of water on Earth and other objet of Solar Sistem.
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17nn952 ... iginal.jpg
I read only day APOD, but evidenly forget that images....

I first saw it on APOD in 2012 (APOD has always been our home page) however right after (less than 3 weeks) saw it on a sight called "Earthweek" [http://www.earthweek.com/2012/ew120601/ew120601x.html]. The description captioned there was (extraordinarily) similar enough that at the time I thought "Hey, this paid entertainment company [© MMXII Earth Environment Service] has not only plagiarized APOD but is blatantly attempting to assert copyright over it" . Hadn't thought about that case for a while and I had to re-research the site but I see it's still there too. While I support the dissemination of information, I can't agree with that type of thievery.
PS Thanks for your awesome (and attributed) content!

I remember this and also - evidently from other sources - a similar comparison of "air" volume. Like this: http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/159214/view though I do not remember the big copyright stamp on it.

Rohan wrote:It would seem that the 700 km quoted here is in error ? - its quoted previously elsewhere as ~860 MILES.

Which is ~1385 km, incidentally.

It doesn't seem like much water, expressed like that.
But its still a big enough sphere that the ISS would be well underwater if it encountered it like that !

They're talking about the radius. Looking at the picture, the radius of 700 km seems correct to me, as the diameter would be 1400 km, which would be the ~860 miles. I know this looks like 1400 km in diameter because I look at maps lots.

Cheers!

But it is a great image and the message should be repeated.