A newer version of this visualization is available
Earthrise
- Visualizations by:
- Ernie Wright
- View full credits
The sight of a small, intensely blue Earth rising above the barren, gray horizon of the Moon was one of the few things that NASA and the crew of Apollo 8 had not thoroughly planned and rehearsed beforehand. As historian Robert Poole noted, this lack of preparation meant that the sight of Earth came with the force of a revelation,
not just for the astronauts but for everyone on the ground. We came all this way to explore the Moon,
Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders said, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth.
Using the latest elevation data from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, this visualization attempts to recreate what the astronauts saw. The virtual camera of the rendering software is put in the position of the Apollo 8 spacecraft at the time of the photographs, as the spacecraft emerged from its fourth pass behind the Moon. It shows a two-minute interval centered on 16:39:06 UT (10:39 a.m. Houston time) on December 24, 1968. This is around the time of AOS (acquisition of signal), the moment when radio contact is re-established after being lost on the far side of the Moon.
The position and motion of the spacecraft are based on a state vector, a set of (x, y, z) position and (vx, vy, vz) velocity values, published in NASA's Apollo 8 Mission Report about a year after the flight. The animator translated these values, given in Moon-centered inertial coordinates for Besselian year 1969.0, into a modern coordinate system, then calculated an orbit. The spacecraft was 110 km (68 miles, 60 nautical miles) above the surface of the Moon at 11.2°S 113.8°E when the Earthrise photograph was taken.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
Animator
- Ernie Wright (USRA) [Lead]
Scientist
- Richard Vondrak (NASA/GSFC)
Producer
- Chris Smith (KBRwyle)
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Datasets used in this visualization
Clementine 750-nm Basemap (Collected with the UVVIS Camera sensor)
Apollo 8 Trajectory Reconstruction
Terra Blue Marble (Collected with the MODIS sensor)
Credit: The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).
See more visualizations using this data setLRO DEM (A.K.A. Digital Elevation Map) (Collected with the LOLA sensor)
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.
Related pages
Earthrise: The 45th Anniversary
Dec. 20, 2013, 5 a.m.
Read moreThe full video, with narration by Andrew Chaikin. You can also watch this video on the NASAexplorer YouTube channel. For complete transcript, click here.This video is also available on our YouTube channel. || In December of 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 became the first people to leave our home planet and travel to another body in space. But as crew members Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders all later recalled, the most important thing they discovered was Earth.Using photo mosaics and elevation data from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), this video commemorates the 45th anniversary of Apollo 8 s article Who Took the Legendary Earthrise Photo From Apollo 8? appeared in the January, 2018 issue of Smithsonian magazine. It includes the story of the making of this visualization.A Google Hangout discussion of this visualization between Ernie Wright (creator of the visualization), Andrew Chaikin, John Keller (LRO project scientist), and Aries Keck (NASA media specialist) was held on December 20, 2013. A replay of that hangout is available here.Ernie Wright presented a talk about the making of this animation at the 2014 SIGGRAPH Conference in Vancouver. He also wrote a NASA Wavelength blog entry about Earthrise that includes links to educator resources related to LRO. || The central portion of the video, covering the real-time visualization synchronized with the onboard astronaut audio. || An external view of the spacecraft as the Earth rises in the distance. The first frame corresponds to 10:37:19 a.m. Central Standard (Houston) Time, 16:37:19.0 Universal Time, and 75:46:19.0 Mission Elapsed Time. The frames cover an elapsed time of exactly three minutes. This frame set and several of the others are synchronized in time. || An idealized view of Earth rising above the lunar terrain, using a focal length similar to the telephoto lens used for the Earthrise photographs. For the 1920 2160 frame set covers the full three-minute interval starting at 75:46:19 MET. || The three Earthrise photographs, scaled and rotated to match the telephoto view of the preceeding frame set. They correspond to frames 1092, 2814, and 3545 of the 1920 2160 frames. The original photographs are AS08-13-2329, AS08-14-2383, and AS08-14-2384. || A nadir view of the lunar surface, overlaid with Apollo 8 vertical stereo photographs. This frame set is synchronous with others that begin at 75:46:19 MET. It shows photos AS08-12-2135 through AS08-12-2144 on magazine D. || The wide-angle view of the Moon and Earth through the right side window (window 5). These frames are synchronous with others that begin at 75:46:19 MET. The 1920 2160 frame set is complete. || The wide-angle view of the Moon and Earth through the right rendezvous window (window 4). These frames are synchronous with others that begin at 75:46:19 MET. The 1920 2160 frame set is complete. || The wide-angle view of the Moon and Earth through the hatch window (window 3). These frames are synchronous with others that begin at 75:46:19 MET. || The window border for the right rendezvous window (window 4). || The window border for the right side window (window 5). || The window border for the hatch window (window 3). || The head-up display of the time and the position and orientation of the spacecraft. These frames are synchronous with others that begin at 75:46:19 MET. || A nose-on view of the spacecraft as it begins to roll. This highlights the positions of the windows relative to the roll direction. The frames are synchronous with other frame sets that begin at 75:46:19 MET, but the coverage is partial, from frame 540 to 900. || A view of the spacecraft during an early orbit, showing that the windows faced away from Earth. || Through high thin clouds, a naked-eye view of the Moon from Earth on December 24, 1968. The Moon is a waxing crescent in the constellation Aquarius. || A telescopic view of the Moon from Earth as the spacecraft emerges from the far side. The position of the CSM is represented by a white dot, but the spacecraft could not be seen in even the most powerful telescopes. || The lunar terrain rolls beneath the camera as it chases the spacecraft, seen from a great distance. || A nose-on animated illustration of the command module showing the positions of the five windows. From left to right, the windows are numbered in descending order from 5 to 1. || A view of the rolling spacecraft used in the video to call out the windows in which the Earth is visible.
Earthrise 2.0
April 18, 2012, 8 p.m.
Read moreThe iconic photograph from the 1960s with a modern twist. || The visualization pauses to overlay two photos taken by the crew as they watched Earth rise above the moon s bold vitality and fragility, Earthrise (above) has been called the most influential environmental photo ever taken. || Earth photographed for the first time by a human in lunar orbit. The horizon is shown vertically, which is how it appeared to the Apollo 8 crew. || This map shows the lunar terrain visible in the Apollo 8 color photo (green), black-and-white photo (orange), and areas of overlap (yellow).
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Brings "Earthrise" to Everyone
April 18, 2012, 8 p.m.
Read moreOn December 24, 1968, Apollo 8 Commander Frank Borman and crew members William A. Anders and James A. Lovell, Jr. became the first humans to photograph the Earth rising over the moon. Now, the rest of us can see what it was like in a new NASA visualization that draws on richly detailed maps of the moon s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter!The narration in this visualization comes from the original audio recording of the Apollo 8 astronauts. The flight time has been compressed for effect. The Earth in this visualization is not an exact duplication of what the astronauts saw but a mosaic of more recent images taken by Earth-observing satellites. Representative clouds were then layered on top of the mosaic. || Watch the visualization here!For complete transcript, click here. || The first color Earthrise photograph taken by the Apollo 8 crew, rotated and scaled to match the simulation, with alpha channel. The second image is the clock overlay. || The black-and-white image taken by the Apollo 8 crew, rotated and scaled to match the simulation, with alpha channel. This was taken about a minute before the first color photo. || The raw frames, rendered at twice the frame rate of the other animations. Played at 30 FPS, these frames run at the actual speed of the Earthrise event. At 60 FPS, they match the running speed of the other animations. || || A map showing which parts of the lunar terrain are visible in the photographs. Annotated with coordinate values, crater names, and coverage outlines.