As part of their 45th anniversary celebration, NASA is releasing a new simulation of the events which gave birth to the popular image called “Earthrise.” The new video is created using data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) , a space probe which has been revolving around the moon since 2009.
In the Christmas Eve of 1968, the first moon explorers were in the moon. Carried by Apollo 8, Frank Borman, William Anders, and James Lovell, spotted the magnificent phenomena and took a picture of it.
"This new simulation allows anyone to virtually ride with the astronauts and experience the awe they felt at the vista in front of them," NASA said in a release teasing the video.
It was Christmas Eve 1968, and the first lunar voyagers in all of history — Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders — were emerging from behind the moon for the fourth time. It was then that Anders first spotted it, the Earth, peeking over the horizon.
"In lunar orbit, it occurred to me that, here we are, all the way up there at the moon, and we're studying this thing, and it's really the Earth as seen from the moon that's the most interesting aspect of this flight," Anders told Andrew Chaikin. Chaikin was the author of the book "Voices from the Moon."
The photo of the Earthrise was declared to be one of the greatest images of the 20th century. It was also included in the 100 Photographs that Changed the World, made by editors from TIME and LIFE magazines. Five months after returning to Earth, a postage stamp of Anders’s Earthrise was released by the U.S Postal Service.
Although the picture is extremely popular, details on how exactly it was created are still sparse and scientists had to rely on the astronauts’ anecdotes. However, with the data returned by the LRO, we will finally know how this iconic photograph came to be.
Watch the video here.
