Planets and Moons  ID: 4593

Earthrise in 4K

This is a new, ultra-high definition (UHD, or 4K) version of the Earthrise visualization first published in 2013.

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 Apollo 8's historic flight by recreating the moment when the crew first saw and photographed the Earth rising from behind the Moon. Narrator Andrew Chaikin, author of A Man on the Moon, sets the scene for a three-minute visualization of the view from both inside and outside the spacecraft accompanied by the onboard audio of the astronauts.

The visualization draws on numerous historical sources, including the actual cloud pattern on Earth from the ESSA-7 satellite and dozens of photographs taken by Apollo 8, and it reveals new, historically significant information about the Earthrise photographs. It has not been widely known, for example, that the spacecraft was rolling when the photos were taken, and that it was this roll that brought the Earth into view. The visualization establishes the precise timing of the roll and, for the first time ever, identifies which window each photograph was taken from.
 

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Visualization Credits

Ernie Wright (USRA):
Lead Visualizer
Producer

Andrew Chaikin:
Producer
Narrator
Narration

Dan Gallagher (USRA):
Producer
Lead Video Editor

Noah Petro (NASA/GSFC):
Producer
Scientist

John Keller (NASA/GSFC):
Scientist

Richard Vondrak (NASA/GSFC):
Scientist

Michael Randazzo (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.):
Video Editor

David Ladd (USRA):
Associate Producer

Laurence Schuler (ADNET Systems, Inc.):
Technical Support

Ian Jones (ADNET Systems, Inc.):
Technical Support

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4593

Missions:
Apollo
LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter)
Terra

Data Used:
Terra/MODIS/Blue Marble
Credit:
The Blue Marble data is courtesy of Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC).
LRO/LOLA/Digital Elevation Map also referred to as: DEM
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/LRO Camera/Natural Color Hapke Normalized WAC Mosaic also referred to as: LROC WAC Color Mosaic
Mosaic - Arizona State University
This natural-color global mosaic is based on the 'Hapke normalized' mosaic from LRO's wide-angle camera. The data has been gamma corrected, white balanced, and range adjusted to more closely match human vision.
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.

This item is part of these series:
Narrated Movies
The Moon
LRO - Animations

Keywords:
SVS >> Elevation data
SVS >> Flyover
SVS >> HDTV
SVS >> Laser Altimeter
SVS >> Lunar
SVS >> Moon
SVS >> LRO
SVS >> Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
SVS >> LOLA
SVS >> LROC
DLESE >> Narrated
SVS >> Lunar Topography
SVS >> Lunar Elevation Map
SVS >> Solar System >> Moon >> Lunar Surface
NASA Science >> Planets and Moons
SVS >> Apollo 8
SVS >> Earthrise
SVS >> 4K