Earth seen from MESSENGER

[twibkidx]

Who would dislike EARTH?

[arctree]

What happened to the moon?

[yasu3japan]

wow...

That might be what future astronauts bound for Mars might be looking at. Must be traumatic, so away from home

[monkeymirror]

I disliked it because the clouds don't change. If it's time lapse, shouldn't we see different cloud formations forming?

[twibkidx]

@monkeymirror Clouds don't move fast enough to be caught by this. Besides, the Earth is rotating, so you don't get the chance to look at a cloud for long enough

[yourmaker74]

why are we alive on that floating orb

[serjito87]

so the earth rotates from up to down? i dont get it :(

[VamYang]

@serjito87, you said, "so the earth rotates from up to down? i dont get it :("

Remember that in space, there is no such thing as up or down. It's 3D space, and not flat in a traditional sense where you have north and south. We only say "up" (north) because we are talking in relation to the north pole. People also say "true north" which is in relation to the north star. The picture was probably taken with the shadow of the earth in mind so that it's horizontal to the video.

[serjito87]

@VamYang "Remember that in space, there is no such thing as up or down..."

Yeaah sometimes I feel so fool xD but I got it, I really hope someday , Google will surprise us with a "Google Orbit" where we can know exactly wich is our exact position respect to the sun (and other planets), where and how our home is rotating, all in 3D xD" that would be nice !

[hempartist420]

I hate that place

[bushwhack69]

so beautifull and fragile, and we are destroying that little pearl

[mellowmark1]

@bushwhack69

We are a surface nuisance, nothing more. The Earth will kill humans long before humans kill the Earth.

[teta809]

is that real?

[ugowar]

@teta809 Yes, it's a time-lapse sequence taken by the probe as it receded from Earth. Images were taken every 4 minutes and this is played at film rate so everything is sped-up.

[peterloohunt]

There are two people who DISLIKE this..?! Er... WHY would anyone dislike this..?!

[zombiesocks99]

@peterloohunt Aliens?

[Koppurointi]

That space is Dark... Where is all the stars??

[ugowar]

@Koppurointi The Earth is too bright so camera exposure is too short to see start. You don't see stars in broad daylight, do you?

[Koppurointi]

@ugowar You can't believe that?

[ugowar]

@Koppurointi I don't BELIEVE that, I KNOW it's a fact. If you knew ANYTHING about photography or ever actually TRIED to photograph stars during the night with your camera set for daylight you'd understand that.

But hey, realizing that actually requires some logical thinking on the matter so I'm not surprised people are gullible to believe otherwise.

[Koppurointi]

@ugowar I understand.. But i would like to see the real space... I think that it is more beatiful than NASA/NAZI can show to us.

[ZeroByte]

This is probably my fav. video from an unmanned mission (and one of the very few). It really humbles you to see the Earth vanishing into the void of space as you leave it behind forever. I think it's sad that our media emphasizes celebrity worship, and squabbling over something as wonderful as space exploration. Humanity's benefit from this endeavor is immeasurable. More people should be exposed to this and inspired by it.

[sasquash12]

ZOMG this is AWESOME. That thing was moving nearly fifteen and a half THOUSAND kilometres per hour relative to Earth!

[george7378]

That is an amazing video. It's like a digitally restored cinematic version of the Apollo films. :)

[catsrool5]

it just reminds you how small we all are doesn't it

[metroidprime4]

I wonder when it will come back again?

[ugowar]

It won't come back, MESSENGER is currently in the inner solar system losing orbital energy (on purpose) to enter Mercury orbit. It will never again come close to Earth.

[metroidprime4]

Shame. Still, there plenty of time left to do it again.

[ugowar]

Err... do what again?

[metroidprime4]

Send loads of deep space probe and such.

[ugowar]

Oh that. Yeah, many deep space probes are forced to use such gravity assists. Not all of them take pretty pictures while at it, though. Even fewer take time-lapse movies like this one...

[ConsciousDistortion]

What exactly causes the stars to not be visible?

[ugowar]

Exposure duration setting. All stars are much too dim to be visible in exposures set for imaging Earth. And Earth is *bright*, especially the cloudtops.

[wslx0195]

Exposure and also because of the same reason why we can not see stars in the night sky in a brightly lit city or when the full moon is out. It's because of the light distribution from a larger, brighter source floods out dimmer light sources, such as comparing stars to a nearby city or the bright full moon. You probably won't see stars in person either because of how bright the earth is. It's light pollution.

[hershey976]

COO---OOOL =DDD

I'm leaning about this in science class =DD

[kikque]

It's fantastic footage. You can actually see the sun reflecting off the sea during the first half of the film. I have to compliment you ugowar, your youtube videos are evocative and really interesting.

P.s Do you know the maximum velocity the Saturn V managed to achieve (in mph)?

[ugowar]

Thanks.

As for Saturn V, depends on what you consider - the rocket 3rd stage or the Apollo spacecraft itself. I think the highest speed for the 3rd stage was immediately after translunar injection burn, after which it immediately starts dropping. It was something in excess of 11 kilometers per second, but at that point the altitude was something like 180 nmi.

When Apollo capsules returned, they picked up some more speed before reentry which was lower altitude so generally it's about 11.2 km/s

[woollyjumperfilms]

Bye bye.

[goddesslush]

Nice and calming...

[DeeJay572]

No a real film ... it's the game "Orbiter" !

[ugowar]

LOL at that comment. I guess that's a compliment to Orbiter's graphic capability more than anything else.

This indeed *is* a time-lapse color sequence taken by the MESSENGER spacecraft.

[Frapazoid]

I've played Orbiter to death, and that is no Orbiter shot.

[wkreps]

Amazing!!

[johnyskywatcher]

nice view........

[dingorex]

nice background music

[Ursacke]

Breathtaking.