Iconic Earth images

While researching, I stumbled across this great article about 10 Iconic Images of the Earth from Space. Images featured include the Blue Marble and the Pale Blue Dot.

One of the most iconic photos ever is the Earthrise taken by astronaut William Anders on Dec 24, 1968 during the Apollo 8 mission. To quote Anders: "We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth"

The first public image of an Earthrise from Moon orbit (Dec 24, 1968)

In 2007, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) launch a lunar orbiter SELENE (nicknamed Kaguya after the moon princess from Japanese folklore) whose on-board HDTV cameras recorded high-definition video footage of a newer Earthrise:


We are indeed lucky to be living at a time when technology allows us to appreciate our home planet from a perspective that must have once been unimaginable.