Earth looks different 31 million miles away
Written by admin on July 21st, 2008 in gadgets.
Credit: Donald J. Lindler, Sigma Space Corporation/GSFC; EPOCh/DIXI Science Teams
NASA has released images and a vides of a planet which looks very alien to the observer. In reality, it’s our own Earth as seen by the Deep Impact spacecraft from 31 million miles away.
Deep Impact’s primary mission was to travel to comet Tempel 1 to release an impactor directly into its path. When the impactor collided with the comet on July 4th, 2005 the Deep Impact spacecraft examined the material ejected to determine what the comet was made of.
Now the Deep Impact mission has been extended to include two new mission components including the search for alien (extrasolar) planets and a fly-by of another comet called Hartley 2. On its way to Hartley 2, Deep Impact snapped a 15-minute cadence of shots which was then made into a color video. The images as well as the video can be seen on the NASA website.
These videos definitely make you look at Earth in a whole new light. It’s incredible to see the moon pass in front of the camera. You really believe that this is an alien world somewhere far off in the universe. I suppose from the perspective of the Deep Impact spacecraft it is.
Read more and watch the videos at the NASA press release
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