Family Photo Snapped by Solar Orbiter Shows Venus, Earth And Mars Gleaming Like Stars:
Every now and again, we get a little glimpse of just how far human ingenuity has gone.
Quite literally: The above image was taken by a spacecraft travelling through the Solar System while it was at a distance of 251 million kilometres (156 million miles) from Earth – more than the distance between Earth and the Sun by nearly half again.
It was snapped by NASA and the European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter, a mission to study the Sun, on 18 November 2020, while en route to its destination. It joins a burgeoning tradition of photos of Earth taken by instruments far beyond where humans ourselves can venture.
But it's not just Earth in Solar Orbiter's image; Venus and Mars make an appearance, too, 48 million and 332 million kilometres from the spacecraft, respectively. It's a lovely family portrait when you think about it – three rocky planets, so similar in many ways, but so very different from each other – seen through a scientific instrument – the Heliospheric Imager – designed to study the heart of the Solar System.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 02 2021, @08:41PM (4 children)
Venus does not look like it is in the same plane as Mars and Earth.
(Score: 3, Funny) by srobert on Tuesday February 02 2021, @08:50PM (1 child)
I blinked. Can we take it again?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday February 02 2021, @09:10PM
Nope, that's what Photoshop is for.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 03 2021, @02:07AM
It's perspective. The spacecraft is also not on the same plane as the planets, and is 5x closer to Venus than Earth and Mars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 03 2021, @02:11AM
It could be that Mars isn't on the same plane as Venus and Earth?
Or maybe Earth isn't on the same plane as Venus and Mars?
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday February 02 2021, @09:27PM (4 children)
Where's our flat-Earth A/C?
I want his take on this image.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 02 2021, @09:53PM (2 children)
You are right, it is impossible to fake a photo as detailed as this.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday February 02 2021, @11:48PM
Checkmate atheists!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 03 2021, @02:29AM
^^ Do I *have* to tag all my posts with /s so the Soylentils get it? It's called dry humor. I would add a laugh track to get the message across if I could.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 02 2021, @10:45PM
It's photoshop. Remember the moon landing hoax? Same thing, but analog.
(Score: 2) by jelizondo on Wednesday February 03 2021, @06:28AM (3 children)
Funny, a few days ago I was thinking about how exactly the planets would look like from somewhat afar while watching “The Expanse” intro, where they show the planets like, planets instead of point of light.
I know, artistic license and whatnot, but that is what a real Science Fiction series should show. (OT, I believe SciFi refers to watered down Science, more like Fantasy actually.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 03 2021, @07:55AM (2 children)
threw a telescope the planets do look like, well planets, though the two innermost are harder to resolve in the cheap chinese model i have to hand.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 03 2021, @07:57AM
through. the other version is less effective at resolving images.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Wednesday February 03 2021, @01:03PM
Chinese make planets now? OMG!