The Blue Marble

The Blue Marble, taken by Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 crew in 1972. The original photograph was taken with the South Pole facing the top; however, cropped, rotated, and processed versions are the most commonly used, like this one. The Blue Marble is a photograph of Earth taken on December 7, 1972, by Harrison Schmitt aboard the Apollo 17 spacecraft on its way to the Moon. Viewed from around 29,400 kilometers (18,300 mi; 15,900 nmi) from Earth's surface, a cropped, rotated, and processed version has become one of the most reproduced images in history.

In the original NASA image, named AS17-148-22727 and centered at about 26°19′49″S 37°25′13″E / 26.33028°S 37.42028°E / -26.33028; 37.42028 with the South Pole facing upwards, The Blue Marble shows Earth from the Mediterranean Sea to Antarctica. This was the first time the Apollo trajectory made it possible to photograph the south polar ice cap, despite the Southern Hemisphere being heavily covered in clouds. In addition to the Arabian Peninsula and Madagascar, almost the entire coastline of Africa and most of the Indian Ocean are clearly visible, a cyclone in the Indian Ocean is also visible, the South Asian mainland and Australia is on the eastern limb, and the eastern part of South America lies on the western limb.