Starship Asterisk*

Leaving Earth

Explanation: What it would look like to leave planet Earth? Such an event was recorded visually in great detail by the MESSENGER spacecraft as it swung back past the Earth in 2005 on its way in toward the planet Mercury. Earth can be seen rotating in this time-lapse video, as it recedes into the distance. The sunlit half of Earth is so bright that background stars are not visible. The robotic MESSENGER spacecraft is now in orbit around Mercury and has recently concluded the first complete map of the surface. On occasion, MESSENGER has continued to peer back at its home world. MESSENGER is one of the few things created on the Earth that will never return. At the end of its mission MESSENGER crashed into Mercury's surface.

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Imagine going to Mars and looking out the window of your spacecraft, seeing the Earth shrink in the blackness of space. And imagine knowing you are never going to return.

That would give a whole new meaning to the word "homesickness", I think.

Ann

Hello!
Isn't the information on this picture a little bit outdated? I think MESSENGER's mission ended in 2015 and is not currently in orbit around Mercury, and the first complete map of the surface was released a couple of years ago.
Right?

Maybe some of the Apollo astronauts had words for that, especially with some uncertainty of returning.

Sometimes the APODs repeat, maybe with updated links.

Rauf wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 6:10 am Hello!
Isn't the information on this picture a little bit outdated? I think MESSENGER's mission ended in 2015 and is not currently in orbit around Mercury, and the first complete map of the surface was released a couple of years ago.
Right?

No comment, even if it is holiday time for the editors
I also like retro-APOD's! But maybe it should be declared as such.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130805.html
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/scie ... nasa-space

I would also like to see more exciting pictures from WEBB - but good things take time
IC1623 and VV114 in collision seen from WEBB: https://www.newscientist.com/article/23 ... 1659957100
HUBBLE in comparison: https://esahubble.org/images/heic0810bb/

Rauf wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 6:10 am Hello!
Isn't the information on this picture a little bit outdated? I think MESSENGER's mission ended in 2015 and is not currently in orbit around Mercury, and the first complete map of the surface was released a couple of years ago.
Right?

You are correct… it even states in the last sentence that it crashed into Mercury. Possibly a cut and paste with out checking the content closely.

..

costa wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 11:56 am Why that brightness if the Sun is behind the plane of the pic? https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/ ... 6735044675

Part of the Earth is illuminated by sunlight in the APOD video. And the white clouds in the Earth's atmosphere make the Earth very reflective and bright as the Sun shines on it. (Of course the sunlit Earth is still many, many, many times fainter than the Sun itself, but that's another matter.)


Ann

Mercury; the little planet! Alcoholic doggy I hope not

AVAO wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 8:46 am

Rauf wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 6:10 am Hello!
Isn't the information on this picture a little bit outdated? I think MESSENGER's mission ended in 2015 and is not currently in orbit around Mercury, and the first complete map of the surface was released a couple of years ago.
Right?

No comment, even if it is holiday time for the editors
I also like retro-APOD's! But maybe it should be declared as such.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130805.html
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/scie ... nasa-space

I would also like to see more exciting pictures from WEBB - but good things take time
IC1623 and VV114 in collision seen from WEBB: https://www.newscientist.com/article/23 ... 1659957100
HUBBLE in comparison: https://esahubble.org/images/heic0810bb/

Yeah, it will be a LONG time before I get sick of new Webb images. As for any more comet NEOWISE pics, if I never see another one of those, it will be far too soon

Ann wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 12:17 pm

costa wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 11:56 am Why that brightness if the Sun is behind the plane of the pic? https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/ ... 6735044675

Part of the Earth is illuminated by sunlight in the APOD video. And the white clouds in the Earth's atmosphere make the Earth very reflective and bright as the Sun shines on it. (Of course the sunlit Earth is still many, many, many times fainter than the Sun itself, but that's another matter.)

The Earth in 1972. Photo: NASA/Apollo 17 crew; taken by either Harrison Schmitt or Ron Evans

---

Ann

please look near the edge of the Illuminated part of the Earth on the left side. There is a permanent glow on the the Earth surface. Why? the Sun is behind the plane of the pic

..

costa wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 3:46 pm near the edge of the Illuminated part of the Earth on the center-left side. There is a permanent glow on the the Earth surface. Why? the Sun is behind the plane of the pic.

A glaze makes this video object very globular.

I miss geo annotations.

costa wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 3:46 pm Please look near the edge of the Illuminated part of the Earth on the center-left side. There is a permanent glow on the the Earth surface. Why? the Sun is behind the plane of the pic.

That is indeed the reflection of the Sun.


Taka a look at this video of the Moon passing in front of the Earth. If you look carefully, you can see a bright sort of beige spot more or less in the middle of the Earth. That is the reflection of the Sun.

Ann

..

Ann wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 4:19 pm

costa wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 3:46 pm Please look near the edge of the Illuminated part of the Earth on the center-left side. There is a permanent glow on the the Earth surface. Why? the Sun is behind the plane of the pic.

That is indeed the reflection of the Sun.

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Taka a look at this video of the Moon passing in front of the Earth. If you look carefully, you can see a bright sort of beige spot more or less in the middle of the Earth. That is the reflection of the Sun.

Ann

So the fact that the moon is in that video at all is incidental, correct?

Ann wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 4:19 pm That is indeed the reflection of the Sun.

It's hard to out-phase such a thing.
A team that reduced air effect on the colours of the Globe failed to remove the blaze:

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 6:47 pm

Ann wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 4:19 pm

costa wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 3:46 pm Please look near the edge of the Illuminated part of the Earth on the center-left side. There is a permanent glow on the the Earth surface. Why? the Sun is behind the plane of the pic.

That is indeed the reflection of the Sun.

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Taka a look at this video of the Moon passing in front of the Earth. If you look carefully, you can see a bright sort of beige spot more or less in the middle of the Earth. That is the reflection of the Sun.

Ann

So the fact that the moon is in that video at all is incidental, correct?

That's the way I understand it.

Ann

Ann wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 7:04 pm

johnnydeep wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 6:47 pm So the fact that the moon is in that video at all is incidental, correct?

That's the way I understand it.
Ann

It's great to have Moon's globe in the same frame: one can compare Sun's blaze on Earth's oceans versus no Sun's blase on Moon's seas

Rauf wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 6:10 am Hello!
Isn't the information on this picture a little bit outdated? I think MESSENGER's mission ended in 2015 and is not currently in orbit around Mercury, and the first complete map of the surface was released a couple of years ago.
Right?

Yes, my bad. This has now been fixed in the main APOD text. I apologize for the oversight.
- RJN