The Earth from afar: Ten incredible images of our planet from space

Take a look at some stunning images of the Earth that have been snapped over the past five decades, including the latest picture of our world recently taken by the Cassini spacecraft from Saturn.

comments

The Earth from Saturn
Cassini, 2011

Cassini 2011

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured this image of Saturn eclipsing the Sun and, as a bonus, Earth appears just above the rings of the giant planet.

Juno’s image of the Earth-Moon system
Juno, 2011

Juno

This fascinating picture of the Earth and Moon was taken by the solar powered Juno spacecraft as it made its way towards Jupiter from a distance of 9.7 million kilometres (6 million miles).

A stunning view of the Earth at night
Suomi NPP, 2012

Black Marble

This incredible ‘Black Marble’ composite image was taken by the Suomi NPP satellite in April 2012, showing the Earth lit up at night by a mixture of artificial lights and the Sun.

The day the Earth smiled
Cassini, 2013

Cassini July 2013

This incredible image of Earth, the blue dot of light to the centre-right of the image, was taken by the Cassini spacecraft from Saturn, 1.45 billion kilometres (900 million miles) away, on 19 July 2013.

An interplanetary first
Messenger, 2013

Messenger 2013

While Cassini imaged Earth from Saturn on 19 July, NASA’s Messenger spacecraft did the same from Mercury 98 million kilometres (61 million miles) from our planet, the first cross-Solar System interplanetary image taken by two spacecraft simultaneously.

Images courtesy of NASA

You can follow Jonathan on Twitter @Astro_Jonny

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,