The Blue Marble is the most famous photo of the Earth ever taken...
I use this logo to remind myself of my personal mission to advance humanity, to stay humble and to do great things for others. Here is a little history of the photo and some of my favorite quotes as well.
A Little History
This photograph, known as The Blue Marble, was shot on 7 December 1972 by the crew of the Apollo 17 (the last manned mission to the moon) and it is one of the most often printed and distributed images in the history of photography.
The photo was taken on the way to the moon, about 5 hours and 14 minutes after launch. When the picture was taken the Apollo 17 capsule was already at a distance of about 18,000 miles from our planet. Unlike many other Earth picture taken from space the Blue Marble image shows the entire planet, this is due to the fact that the spaceship was heading directly towards the Sun when the photo was made. It was the first photograph ever of the Earth to offer such a high image quality. The photo was taken using a 70-millimeter Hasselblad, the same camera type used to make the photos on the moons surface.
The photo is officially credited to the entire crew of Apollo 17 and as Apollo 17 was the last manned lunar mission this photo can also be considered to be the last photo from the Earth taken by a human at such a distance. It is the number one most requested photo from NASA.
Wonderful Quotes
"Once a photograph of the Earth, taken from the outside, is available, a new idea as powerful as any in history will be let loose." - Sir Fred Hoyle (1948)
"As we begin to comprehend that the earth itself is a kind of manned spaceship hurtling through the infinity of space - it will seem increasingly absurd that we have not better organized the life of the human family." - Hubert Humphrey (1966)
"One of the most powerful visions I have experienced was the first photograph of the Earth from outer space. The image of a blue planet floating in deep space, glowing like the full moon on a clear night, brought home powerfully to me the recognition that we are indeed all members of a single family sharing one little house." - The Dalai Lama
"Never in all their history have men been able truly to conceive of the world as one: a single sphere, a globe, having the qualities of a globe, a round earth in which all the directions eventually meet, in which there is no center because every point, or none, is center — an equal earth which all men occupy as equals. The airman's earth, if free men make it, will be truly round: a globe in practice, not in theory." - Archibald MacLeish
