by Joyce Mosher
“The Blue Marble” is the first fully illuminated photograph of Earth taken from outer space in 1972 by the Apollo 17 crew as they made their way to the moon.
Though blurry and partial images of Earth, most taken by satellite, had been published throughout the 1960s, “The Blue Marble” is the first complete color image of Earth taken by a human astronaut. More important than the moon rocks they collected, this photo shows the Earth in the center of the frame, floating in space. It is possible to clearly see the African continent, as well as the Antarctica south polar ice cap.
Traveling at 20,000 mph, the Apollo 17 astronauts had to pass through a narrow point between the earth and sun in order to see the planet as a fully illumined globe. They saw a blue-green beacon in a vast black cosmos, shrinking behind them as they sailed away from it. It must have appeared as a vision of world creation, a sight that had never been seen by human eyes.
It is not known who at NASA named this photo, but the title emphasizes the color blue over the color green, possibly capturing the striking revelation that, even as the Earth floats in space, the green land where we live floats on the blue waters that support all life.
“The Blue Marble” has earned its place as one of the most reproduced images in history. Many astronauts have said that they feel more protective of our home and its thin atmosphere, both of which appear so fragile from space, after gaining this perspective.
Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders, whose 1968 photo “Earthrise” shows Earth and part of the Moon’s surface, famously remarked, “We came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth.”
The Apollo 17 image was released during a surge in environmental activism during the 1970s, and became a symbol of the environmental movement, as a depiction of Earth’s vulnerability and isolation amid the immeasurable expanse of space. The Environmental Protection Act was passed in 1970, and during that decade, a great many new environmental and energy laws were passed and some old ones resurrected and refurbished. “The Blue Marble” is still, 54 years later, the emblem of Earth Day, April 22.
The crew of Apollo 17 — Gene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt, and Ronald Evans — did not set out to create outer-space art, but “The Blue Marble” remains a world-changing image of beauty, reflecting scientific fact and human capabilities. Wherever “The Blue Marble” is seen, people experience shock, disorientation, and new perspectives on our home, our planet. We are reminded that we spin, rotate, wobble, tilt, and speed around the sun on a fragile and astonishingly beautiful sphere, through apparently infinite space. Over the past half century, the Earth’s delicate fragility has become painfully evident. Not only environmental but also societal brittleness threatens the stability of all systems on the planet.
It is impossible to look at “The Blue Marble” and separate it from the urgency of today’s climate crisis. We now know that the planet’s life-support system is finite, and the photo shows a beautiful world in peril. Over 50 years after this image arrived back on Earth, we can revisit it and hope that regenerative food production can feed the nearly 10 billion people on the blue marble, and that we can reverse biodiversity loss, so we can live in peace for the future — on an earth full of variety and abundance.
“Get Wild” publishes on Fridays in the Summit Daily News. Joyce Mosher is a long-time Breckenridge resident, professor and friend of the Eagle Summit Wilderness Alliance, an all-volunteer nonprofit that helps the U.S. Forest Service protect and preserve the wilderness areas in Eagle and Summit counties. For more information, visit EagleSummitWilderness.org.
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