The 1968 photo by NASA Astronaut William Anders changed our view of Earth.

Photo of Big Blue Dot Shook Humanity’s Perspective

It was a miracle in its day. The Apollo 8 astronauts soared beyond the Earth’s atmosphere on their way to the moon on Christmas Eve of 1968, a quarter of a million miles above. For the first time, they took a color photo of the Earth, giving humanity the incredible experience of seeing what it really looked like from space for the first time.

Multiple publications wrote about the anniversary, but Wired magazine posted a video that condensed the significance of that event along with video taken from the spacecraft during the flight.

http://video.wired.com/watch/earthrise-chris-hadfield-apollo8-photo

A Facebook post by CNN on the same event posed a more troubling view of the world-shaking event that was referenced by Carl Sagan in his groundbreaking book “Cosmos.”

“Looking back, the hope implicit in Earthrise seems misplaced. Yes, we have taken some steps to restore our planet, including its once-thinning ozone layer. But we have failed miserably on numerous other fronts, continuing to take the biosphere for granted. Instead of uniting to preserve our fragile planet, we have plundered the very life support system on which our survival depends.”

The CNN editorial, paired with a video that puts the event in context, had a much more negative summary of where we are today as a planet. Referencing climate change, the story and video are pessimistic about the future of Earth.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/23/opinions/earthrise-racing-toward-earthset-patrick-evanoff/index.html?fbclid=IwAR329k23bZ_SpidZuQLQlw24ezlMhYywR_kmGosU4LB5n32GBzd7S74ciH0

NASA released 15 videos of earth as seen from outerspace. Watch here:

https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2015/12/25/iconic-1968-earthrise-photo-robert-zimmerman-interview-walker.cnn

National Geographic magazine summed it up best by explaining how the 90-second exposure of the earth from lunar orbit, kicked off five decades of awareness of our planet’s beauty and fragility.