NASA shares first photo of Earth with new satellite

NASA has shared for the first time a photo taken with the new DSCOVR satellite. From 1.6 million kilometers away – well beyond the moon – DSCOVR captured a picture of North and part of South America. More photos to follow, NASA promises.

The photo is actually three different photos that have been combined, NASA reports. The camera of the DSCOVR, which was launched in February, takes ten pictures in a row when recording. Three of these are clearly visible to humans: those in the red, green and blue light spectrum. Those photos were combined for recording. In addition, the camera also detects ultraviolet and infrared light, among other things.

The image from the satellite still shows Earth has a bluish hue, due to the way sunlight is broken up by molecules in the atmosphere. The team behind the camera on board the DSCOVR is working on a technique to remove that effect, so that land should be more visible.

From September, new photos will be posted every day on the project’s website, which will be published with 12 to 36 hours delay. That is not the primary purpose of the satellite, which is mainly built to monitor solar wind. These particles thrown from the sun into the solar system can also have consequences on Earth. It also monitors the composition of the ozone layer, as well as the height of clouds and the way the Earth reflects ultraviolet light.

The DSCOVR satellite is located 1.6 million kilometers from Earth. That’s farther than the moon, which is roughly between 370,000 and 405,000 kilometers from Earth. It’s not the photo taken at the furthest distance from Earth, for example, Marslanders have already taken photos of Earth from their new home base. However, Earth was only a tiny speck on the horizon.

The satellite is located at the first so-called Lagrange point. In this case, that is the point at which the gravitational pulls of the sun and the earth are balanced out, causing it to more or less hover.