Blue Marble, 1972

Apollo 17 crew. The Blue Marble. December 7, 1972. NASA Johnson Space Center. Retrieved April 11, 2013, from http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photos/milestones-space-photography/#/earth-full-view_6125_600x450.jpg

 

Most of us have probably seen this photograph, “The Blue Marble,” many times in our lives. “The Blue Marble” was taken on December 7, 1972 by the crew of Apollo 17 as they traveled to the moon, and is one of the first and only photographs showing a fully-illuminated Earth in its entirety (“Milestones in Space Photography,” n.d.). Significantly, this photograph is also thought to be one of the most widely-distributed photographs in history (“The Blue Marble,” n.d.).

The wide distribution of this photograph is a testament to its resonance with the world. One of the greatest contributions of “The Blue Marble” is its ability to influence our understanding of the world and our place within it. With this photograph, people were able to fully see the planet we inhabit for the first time, and the representation is simple but striking. On the ground, the Earth looks nothing like the planet we see in this photograph. The world we live in is populated with people, trees, buildings, mountains, and all sorts of objects. But the vision of Earth here is stark, empty, and lifeless, despite the fact that there were billions of people populating the planet at the moment this photograph was taken. The busy world we live in is shown to be a quiet, strangely empty place. Due to the scale of the photograph, you cannot see any of the things that we see in our daily life. There is nothing in this picture to suggest life or movement of any kind.

An image like this forces the inhabitants of Earth to rethink our place in the universe and our relative importance. The empty black background is the most startling and significant element of this picture, showing how isolated the Earth is and how little humans matter on a universal scale. Harrison Schmidt, a member of the Apollo 17 crew who took the photograph, made a statement about this moment that is very telling. He commented: "If there ever was a fragile-appearing piece of blue in space, it's the Earth right now.” (Boyle, 2012).

This fragile appearance might be seen as a contradiction to how humans have previously seen themselves. On the Earth’s surface humans have become dominant, and we have left our mark on every corner of the planet. However, outside of the limits of our atmosphere we are insignificant. There is no trace of us, we are invisible, and these qualities are difficult to grasp for a race that is used to being in charge and prides itself on its innovation and significant contributions to the world. The photograph reveals how little we are, and before photos like “The Blue Marble” it would have been difficult to truly realize this.

It is difficult to understand how individuals in 1972 would have felt when they saw this vision of Earth for the first time, although Schmidt’s statement gives us some idea. For Schmidt and others the image was probably surprising, and it may have required many people to reorient their worldview. We as humans are technically part of this photograph (as we are living on this Earth), and yet this photograph is completely outside of us and everything we know. The Earth we see here is from a completely new perspective. Most people will never get to see the Earth from this viewpoint, except in photographs. But now that we have this photograph, how does that inform the opinion we had previously established of ourselves and our planet?

Due to its popularity and wide distribution, this photograph has already made its mark. Most notably, this photograph immediately found a place in the environmental movement and has frequently been used to supplement the message of Earth’s frailty and our need to protect it (“The Blue Marble,” n.d.). This past December marked the 40^th anniversary of “The Blue Marble,” yet the increasing importance of environmentalism in the present day indicates that this photograph is as relevant as ever. Very likely the environmental message of “The Blue Marble” will still be relevant for many years to come, and it may well continue to play a part in inspiring future activists and environmentalists.

References:

Boyle, Alan. (2012). 40 years later, Apollo 17’s Blue Marble leaves a mark on our memory. NBC News Cosmic Log. Retrieved April 12, 2013 from http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/07/15755286-40-years-later-apollo-17s-blue-marble-leaves-a-mark-on-our-memory?lite

Milestones in space photography. (n.d.). National Geographic. Retrieved April 11, 2013, from http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photos/milestones-space-photography/#/earth-full-view_6125_600x450.jpg

The Blue Marble. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved April 11, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Marble