A view of Earth from a Distance
March 26th 2010 04:50
Category: No Category
Rosetta image of earth- ESA photo
Observing planets in our solar system through a telescope or space craft is exciting and yet seeing our planet form a distance seems more special.
Seeing the earth from a distance the image taken by the Rosetta probe makes you think how this blue planet is our only home.
The image I have posted was recorded by Navigation Camera 1 5 March 2005. At this time, Rosetta was flying away from the Earth having completed the closest-ever fly-by performed by an ESA mission the day before.
Note that cloud tops are over-exposed. At the bottom, Antarctica can be seen on the right below South America.
Perhaps as we see our blue planet we all call home as a refuge perhaps even as being fragile.
I can’t help being a little biased. Sure Jupiter Saturn even Mars are beautiful objects yet our earth is unique as being the only planet in our solar system to have life as we know it.
Are we as a species the only ones in the universe?.
Did we originate from another planetary object as a fragment of rock ejected into space from a cosmic explosion eons ago and happen to find earth?. Are we the aliens on this planet, migrants as it were from another planet or galaxy?.
Rosetta’s 12 year expedition began in February 2004, with an Ariane-5 launch . The three-tonne spacecraft was inserted into a parking orbit, before being sent on its way towards the outer Solar System.
Rosetta’s has encountered (2867) Steins (2008) and (21) Lutetia in September 2010.
Rosetta will have an encounter with a comet in 2014, and will be the first mission ever to orbit a comet’s nucleus and to deliver a lander, called Philae, on its surface.
Little is known about asteroids Lutetia and Steins. Actually, very little is known about asteroids in general. Out of the many millions of asteroids that populate the Solar System, only a few have been observed so far from near-by.
According to what we know so far, Steins and Lutetia have rather different properties. Steins is relatively small, with a diameter of a few kilometres. Lutetia is a much bigger object, about 100 kilometres in diameter.
The answers to these questions will be answered by future space exploration. Perhaps the findings may deny or confirm our existence as being from earth. Evidence will be found to our origins in our neighbouring planets in time. Our origin is not important, we all belong to the universe we are made from the very elements that exist in the stars.
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Comment by S.L.
The Political Brief
Comment by Mr Nice Guy
Pop Culturist
Pop Rock Factory
Took in a great doco the other night on the formation of the moon as well and the theory that the earth and another similar sized planet collided during the formative eons.
Fascinating program - and the supportive evidence here on earth is starting to gain real momentum.
Cheers
Comment by CarlCan
Astroearth
Camera Sense
Thank you for the coments.
We are starting to piece things together regarding our origins.