The Blue Marble
Photographer: Apollo 17 crew
Date: December 7, 1972
Location: Taken from space, ~45,000 km from Earth
Taken on December 7, 1972, by the crew of Apollo 17 — Harrison Schmitt, Eugene Cernan, and Ron Evans — while traveling toward the Moon at approximately 45,000 kilometers from Earth, this full-disk photograph of Earth shows Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Madagascar, and Antarctica beneath a swirl of cloud cover. It is one of the most reproduced images in history. The photograph came at a pivotal moment in the environmental movement, arriving shortly after the first Earth Day in 1970 and the creation of the EPA. NASA notes it is among the most widely distributed photographs ever made. The image is formally titled AS17-148-22727 and was technically taken by the crew collectively, though Harrison Schmitt, the only professional geologist to walk on the Moon, is often credited.
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