NASA released on Wednesday the newest high resolution image of Earth in its series of stunning Earth images, popularly known as the “Blue Marble,” taken on January 4, 2012 from Suomi NPP.
NASA says that the newest “Blue Marble” image of the Earth was taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard Suomi NPP, NASA’s newest earth-observing satellite.
BLUE MARBLE 2012
Image Credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring
The National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) collects critical data to improve the agency’s understanding of long-term climate change and short-term weather conditions.
As noted by NASA, the NPP satellite was renamed “Suomi NPP” on January 24, 2012 to honor the late Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin who NASA calls “the father of satellite meteorology.”
THE ORIGINAL BLUE MARBLE FROM APOLLO 17
Image Credit: NASA Johnson Space Center
The original “Blue Marble,” which was one of the most famous photographs ever made of the Earth, was taken by the crew of Apollo 17 in 1972 by using a 70-millimetre Hasselblad camera with an 80-millimetre lens. This original ‘Blue Marble’ inspired later images of the Earth compiled from satellite data.
