apollo17

NASA’s Iconic ‘Blue Marble’ Photo of Earth Turns 41 Years Old

Backlighting can be all moody and subtle, but you can seldom go wrong with full-on, straight-behind illumination. Especially if your subject is the planet on which your family, friends and all of humanity happens to reside.

That's what the trio of Apollo 17 astronauts -- and soon, the whole world -- discovered 41 years and two days ago today. Navigating towards the moon on Dec. 7, 1972,  the spacecraft had the sun behind it, providing a rare, fully illuminated view of the Earth.