Very few of us are lucky enough to see
the Earth in all its glory from space and even fewer get to glimpse our planet
from the Moon.
In fact the grandest view of the third
planet from the sun that most of us are ever likely to enjoy is from the window
of an airplane at a mere 40,000ft.
But thanks to the efforts of the likes
of NASA and the images of the Earth from space that are relayed back from
various manned and unmanned space missions, we're able to see our blue planet
home from an alien's eye view.
The latest majestic images to make
headlines showed Earth as little more than a speck in the distance above
Saturn's instantly recognisable rings.
The pictures, gleaned back from the
Cassini spacecraft, which has been orbiting the ringed planet since 2004, were
taken from a distance of 900 million miles away and were only the third set of
images of our planet taken from outer space.
But, according to Discover magazine,
there have been a wide range of shots taken from slightly closer to home which
show the planet from every conceivable angle.
On the same day that the Cassini
spacecraft took its much celebrated pictures of the Earth from Saturn, the
Messenger spacecraft took an interesting shot of the entire solar system.
The picture offers an insight into
just how vast the solar system really is, with the different planets looking
like tiny dots of light.
While the Apollo astronauts took
pictures of Earth rising while they explored the moon, a Japanese spacecraft -
the Kaguya - went a step better and took still images and a video of the planet
setting behind the horizon of the moon in 2007.
An image of Venus crossing the sun
over the Black Sea in Romania and astral clouds of rose-coloured gas revealing
star formations in distant galaxies are just two of the incredible images
shortlisted for the 2013 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition.
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