Web_geM: The Earth and Moon

By John de Guzman on July 23, 2008 1:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) |

Every once in a while, something pops up on the web that even
HAWT finds noteworthy. This is the series called Web_geM,
and it's gonna snuggle you into clapping, hitting refresh
and forwarding it on to everyone you know...

There's something mind-bending about seeing Earth from outer space. In fact, the first photo taken from the moon, in Apollo 8, actually sent a shock around the world.

Relive the shock. I can't believe no one had seen the Earth from this vantage point before four decades ago. Holy moly. And how fragile the planet seems! It's almost like we could change it beyond recognition with just a century of industrialized living... *cough* Scanning SpaceImages.com, I realized how few photos of our planet are out there. Another one that blew me away is one of Earth through Saturn's rings.

That's our planet, just up and right from center. You can juuuuuust notice JLF there, sitting at his computer. Amazing. Hit up SpaceImages.com for more beauties.

Well, NASA knows there is an army of us out there who stare at these photos for days, and they just released video.

NASA's EXPOXI spacecraft is on a mission to study extrasolar planets, which essentially means comets. On its way out into the universe, it turned its camera back on Earth. It was 31 million miles away and it caught the moon crossing Earth. From what I know, this is the first time video like this has been captured. Enjoy.

I'm dizzy. That might be the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. It's right up there with a warm chocolate chip cookie. Perfection. HAWTaction [hot ak-shuh