NASA’s image of the day shows the first photograph of an earthrise. Did anyone ever imagine an earthrise before this picture illustrated it? Astronaut Bill Anders exposed this photo during the Apollo 8 mission 40 years ago today. From this photograph Oliver Morton begins a thoughtful contemplation of life and our planet:
That the Earth is small is undeniable. If the inner solar system were the size of the United States, the Earth would be the size of a football field; if the distance to the center of the galaxy were a mile, the Earth would be less than an atom. But if the “Earthrise” photo could have captured our planet in the dimension of time instead of space, things would look different. In its duration, as opposed to its diameter, the Earth demands to be measured on a cosmic scale. At more than four billion years old, it stretches a third of the way across the history of the universe, a third of the way back to the Big Bang itself. Many of the stars you can see on a clear winter’s night are younger than the planet beneath your feet.