2. EARTH from the MOON, APOLLO 17 and MARS

The earth seen from the moon, 1968, Apollo 8, the first time a human being saw the earth from another space object than the earth!










This picture at the left has been taken by Apollo 17 shortly after leaving earth for a trip to the moon. You will recognize Africa at the right side and and a part of America at the left.




This picture is taken by a spacecraft orbiting the planet Mars. You see the earth and an artificial impression of what Mars really saw! See also next picture.
This is the original picture of how Mars sees the earth and its moon!

The rotation velocity of the earth is 1700 km/h and its orbital speed around the sun is 35 km/sec.!
It is a sphere with a diameter of about 13.000 km with an extreme thin atmosphere layer, less than ~ 0.1% of its diameter. But there is life on earth, because of its volume, its mass, because of the gravitation binding the atmosphere, because the distance to the sun giving exactly the right temperature and thanks to the composition of the atmosphere there are exactly the right elements (water!) and raw materials to make life possible.
A small ball, so insignificant, so invalid in the gigantic universe that it can oppressing anybody realizing that.