It’s the iconic “Earthrise” photo. Of course, this isn’t one of 2022’s images of Earth from space that I’m showcasing below. But I thought I should start with it — for context.

The first images of Earth, though low-resolution and ghostly, arrived at a time when space and defense technology was rapidly advancing. Here are the first images ever taken of our humble planet.

The first space rock, asteroid 2011 UL21, passed by Earth on June 27 at a distance of 4.1 million miles (6.6 million kilometers), or 17 times the distance between Earth and the moon.

The Earth Observatory describes the feature as “one of the most recognizable points on the planet” for astronauts gazing down at Earth. NASA/Earth Observatory/Scott Kelly 11.

Images of Earth from space are now so commonplace that it’s hard to fathom the pre-spaceflight era—a time when people were forced to use their imaginations instead.

Telescopic images of the Soviet Cosmos 482 Venus descent craft in Earth's orbit taken by satellite tracker Ralf Vandebergh of the Netherlands. (Image credit: Ralf Vandebergh) ...

Free sources for raw satellite images All the free options below offer different spatial resolutions for satellite or aerial imagery, depending on its use case. Sentinel-2 According to the ...

Google Earth is celebrating its 20th anniversary by allowing users to access historical Street View images directly in the geographic visualization app. Users can scroll through older views of ...

Science Space Dead satellite hurtles towards Earth in new grainy images After 29 years in orbit, ERS-2 is en route for a fiery demise tomorrow. Andrew Paul Feb 20, 2024 11:00 AM EST ...

But take another look. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft captured these images at a distance of 3.79 billion miles from Earth — the farthest from our planet an image has ever been made. In a span ...