Photos taken from artificial earth satellites help. Five artificial satellites that monitor the universe

On October 4, 1957, the world's first artificial Earth satellite was launched into low-Earth orbit. So it began space age in the history of mankind. Since then, artificial satellites have been regularly helping to study the cosmic bodies of our galaxy.

Artificial Earth satellites (AES)

In 1957, the USSR was the first to launch a satellite into low-Earth orbit. The United States was the second to do this, a year later. Later, many countries launched their satellites into Earth orbit - however, satellites purchased from the USSR, USA or China were often used for this. Nowadays satellites are launched even by radio amateurs. However, many satellites have important tasks: astronomical satellites explore the galaxy and space objects, biosatellites help conduct scientific experiments over living organisms in space, meteorological satellites make it possible to predict the weather and monitor the Earth's climate, and the tasks of navigation and communication satellites are clear from their name. Satellites can be in orbit from several hours to several years: for example, manned spacecraft can become a short-term artificial satellite, and space station- a long-term spacecraft in Earth orbit. In total, more than 5,800 satellites have been launched since 1957, 3,100 of them are still in space, but of these three thousand, only about one thousand are operational.

Artificial lunar satellites (ALS)

At one time, ISLs were very helpful in studying the Moon: when entering its orbit, the satellites photographed the lunar surface in high resolution and sent pictures to Earth. In addition, by changing the trajectory of the satellites, it was possible to draw conclusions about the gravitational field of the Moon, the features of its shape and internal structure. Here Soviet Union again ahead of everyone: in 1966, the Soviet Union was the first to enter lunar orbit automatic station"Luna-10". And over the next three years, 5 more Soviet satellites of the Luna series and 5 American satellites of the Lunar Orbiter series were launched.

Artificial satellites of the Sun

It is curious that until the 1970s, artificial satellites appeared near the Sun... by mistake. The first such satellite was Luna 1, which missed the Moon and entered the orbit of the Sun. And this despite the fact that switching to a heliocentric orbit is not so easy: the device must gain a second escape velocity, without exceeding the third. And when approaching planets, the device can slow down and become a satellite of the planet, or speed up and completely leave the solar system. But NASA satellites orbiting the Sun near the Earth’s orbit began to take detailed measurements of the solar wind parameters. The Japanese satellite observed the Sun in X-rays for about ten years, until 2001. Russia launched a solar satellite in 2009: Coronas-Photon will explore the most dynamic solar processes and monitor around the clock solar activity to predict geomagnetic disturbances.

Artificial satellites of Mars (ISM)

The first artificial satellites of Mars were... three ISMs at once. Two space probes were launched by the USSR (“Mars-2” and “Mars-3”) and another by the USA (“Mariner-9”). But the point is not that the launch was a “race” and there was such an overlap: each of these satellites had its own task. All three ISMs were launched into significantly different elliptical orbits and performed different Scientific research, complementing each other. Mariner 9 produced a map of the surface of Mars for mapping, and Soviet satellites studied the characteristics of the planet: the flow of solar wind around Mars, the ionosphere and atmosphere, topography, temperature distribution, the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere and other data. In addition, Mars 3 was the first in the world to make a soft landing on the surface of Mars.

Artificial Satellites of Venus (ASV)

The first WIS were again Soviet spacecraft. Venera 9 and Venera 10 entered orbit in 1975. Having reached the planet. They were divided into satellites and devices lowered to the planet. Thanks to WIS radar, scientists were able to obtain radio images with a high degree of detail, and the devices that softly descended to the surface of Venus took the world's first photographs of the surface of another planet... The third satellite was the American Pioneer Venera 1 - it was launched three years later.

Original taken from logik_logik V

Original taken from universal_inf in Photos from the artificial Earth satellite Landsat 7

What you see are not photographs of distant planets at all. This is our familiar Earth. Photos taken in different time Landsat 7 satellite - the last satellite of the program, launched in 1999. In fact, the color scheme of the original photographs is not so bright, and sometimes not even so bright. US Geological Survey workers, who control the distribution of the images, changed the colors to make the photographs more pronounced and add some drama.

3D image of the Black Hills Mountains, South Dakota, USA.

Bogda Mountains in China. At the foot of these mountains lies a strange terrain that alternates between sand dunes and salt lakes. Another feature is that the entire territory is located below sea level.

The Argentine coast of the Atlantic Ocean is a couple of hundred kilometers from Buenos Aires.

Part of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The large lagoon of Terminos is protected from the Caribbean Sea by the long island of Isla del Carmen.

The snow-capped Colima volcano is the most active in Mexico and, in fact, is the merger of two craters - an older and a younger one.

The southern coast of the Netherlands is the most complex system channels and islands, most of which are sand dunes in the past. Such a system was created to prevent the North Sea from covering a significant part of the European state that is below sea level.

Swampy area in the bed of the Brazilian Demini River, which later flows into the Amazon.

The Green River flows through the Tawaputs Plateau and into Dismal Canyon, Utah, USA.

The delta of the Ganges River, which flows into the Bay of Bengal, is home to the Royal Bengal Tiger.

Negro River in the Brazilian Amazon. It is the largest tributary of the Amazon. During the rainy season, most of the islands disappear under its waters.

Troubled, teeming with volcanoes East End The Kamchatka Peninsula is covered with snow.
In the photo on the right, the Bering Sea is covered in ice.

Annual salt lake Disappointment in western Australia. Translated - disappointment. When explorer Frank Hann saw many streams, he hoped to find a lake with drinking water. But I was disappointed when I found out that the lake was salty.

The largest glacier in Alaska, the Malaspina glacier and its tongue.

Namib Desert, Namibia, Africa. Here, thanks to coastal winds, are the highest dunes in the world (up to 300 meters).

Niger Delta, Central Africa.

The Syrian Desert is a striking location on the physical map of the Middle East. Despite small sizes, it is part of four states at once.

The landscape of the Sahara Desert, near the Cherkezi oasis in Chad, is characterized by rocky outcrops.

Icelandic national park"Skaftaffel" in the southern part of the Vatnajökull glacier.

Volcanoes with cone-shaped peaks along the border of Chile and Argentina. Total number There are about 1800 volcanoes, of which about three dozen are active.

The Volga delta, which flows into the Caspian Sea, is largest place fisheries in Eurasia, thanks to more than five hundred canals.

The northwestern part of the island of Iceland consists of a series of peninsulas called
Western fjords. They make up approximately 1/8th of the entire landmass of the island, but occupy half
coastline.

Take a few minutes to enjoy 25 truly breathtaking photos of the Earth and Moon from space.

This photograph of the Earth was taken by astronauts spaceship Apollo 11 July 20, 1969.

Spacecraft launched by humanity enjoy views of the Earth from a distance of thousands and millions of kilometers.

Captured by Suomi NPP, a US weather satellite operated by NOAA.
Date: April 9, 2015.

NASA and NOAA created this composite image using photos taken from the Suomi NPP weather satellite, which orbits the Earth 14 times a day.

Their endless observations allow us to monitor the state of our world under the rare positions of the Sun, Moon and Earth.

Captured by the DSCOVR Sun and Earth Observing Spacecraft.
Date: March 9, 2016.

Spacecraft DSCOVR captured 13 images of the moon's shadow running across the Earth during total solar eclipse 2016.

But the deeper we go into space, the more the view of the Earth fascinates us.

Taken by the Rosetta spacecraft.
Date: November 12, 2009.

The Rosetta spacecraft is designed to study comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. In 2007, it made a soft landing on the surface of a comet. The main probe of the device completed its flight on September 30, 2016. This photo shows the South Pole and sunlit Antarctica.

Our planet looks like a shiny blue marble, shrouded in a thin, almost invisible layer of gas.

Filmed by the Apollo 17 crew
Date: December 7, 1972.

The crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft took this photograph, entitled "The Blue Marble," during the last manned mission to the Moon. This is one of the most circulated images of all time. It was filmed at a distance of approximately 29 thousand km from the surface of the Earth. Africa is visible in the upper left of the image, and Antarctica is visible in the lower left.

And she drifts alone in the blackness of space.

Filmed by the Apollo 11 crew.
Date: July 20, 1969.

The crew of Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin took this photo during a flight to the Moon at a distance of about 158 thousand km from Earth. Africa is visible in the frame.

Almost alone.

About twice a year, the Moon passes between the DSCOVR satellite and its main observation object, the Earth. Then we get a rare opportunity to look at the far side of our satellite.

The Moon is a cold rocky ball, 50 times smaller than the Earth. She is our greatest and closest heavenly friend.

Filmed by William Anders as part of the Apollo 8 crew.
Date: December 24, 1968.

The famous Earthrise photograph taken from the Apollo 8 spacecraft.

One hypothesis is that the Moon formed after a proto-Earth collided with a planet the size of Mars about 4.5 billion years ago.

Taken by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO, Lunar Orbiter).
Date: October 12, 2015.

In 2009, NASA launched the robotic interplanetary probe LRO to study the cratered surface of the Moon, but it seized the opportunity to capture this modern version of the Earthrise photograph.

Since the 1950s, humanity has been launching people and robots into space.

Taken by Lunar Orbiter 1.
Date: August 23, 1966.

The robotic unmanned spacecraft Lunar Orbiter 1 took this photo while searching for a site to land astronauts on the Moon.

Our exploration of the Moon is a mixture of the pursuit of technological conquest...

Photographed by Michael Collins of the Apollo 11 crew.
Date: July 21, 1969.

Eagle, the lunar module of Apollo 11, returns from the surface of the Moon.

and insatiable human curiosity...

Taken by the Chang'e 5-T1 lunar probe.
Date: October 29, 2014.

A rare view of the far side of the Moon taken by the China National Space Administration's lunar probe.

and search for extreme adventures.

Filmed by the Apollo 10 crew.
Date: May 1969.

This video was taken by astronauts Thomas Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan during a non-landing test flight to the Moon on Apollo 10. Obtaining such an image of Earthrise is only possible from a moving ship.

It always seems that the Earth is not far from the Moon.

Taken by the Clementine 1 probe.
Date: 1994.

The Clementine mission was launched on January 25, 1994, as part of a joint initiative between NASA and the Aerospace Defense Command. North America. On May 7, 1994, the probe left control, but had previously transmitted this image, which showed the Earth and the north pole of the Moon.

Taken by Mariner 10.
Date: November 3, 1973.

A combination of two photographs (one of the Earth, the other of the Moon) taken by NASA's robotic interplanetary station Mariner 10, which was launched to Mercury, Venus and the Moon using an intercontinental ballistic missile.

the more amazing our house looks...

Taken by the Galileo spacecraft.
Date: December 16, 1992.

On its way to study Jupiter and its moons, NASA's Galileo spacecraft captured this composite image. The Moon, which is about three times brighter than the Earth, is in the foreground, closer to the viewer.

and the more lonely he seems.

Taken by the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Shoemaker spacecraft.
Date: January 23, 1998.

NASA's NEAR spacecraft, sent to the asteroid Eros in 1996, captured these images of the Earth and Moon. Antarctica is visible at the South Pole of our planet.

Most images do not accurately depict the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

Taken by the Voyager 1 robotic probe.
Date: September 18, 1977.

Most photographs of the Earth and Moon are composite images, made up of several images, because the objects are far apart. But above you see the first photograph in which our planet and its natural satellite captured in one frame. The picture was taken by the Voyager 1 probe on its way to its " grand tour» across the solar system.

Only after traveling hundreds of thousands or even millions of kilometers, then returning, can we truly appreciate the distance that lies between the two worlds.

Taken by the automatic interplanetary station “Mars-Express”.
Date: July 3, 2003.

The European Space Agency's robotic interplanetary station Max Express (Mars Express), heading towards Mars, took this image of Earth at a distance of millions of kilometers.

This is a huge and empty space.

Captured by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.
Date: April 19, 2001.

This infrared photograph, taken from a distance of 2.2 million km, shows the enormous distance between the Earth and the Moon - about 385 thousand kilometers, or about 30 Earth diameters. The Mars Odyssey spacecraft took this photo as it headed toward Mars.

But even together, the Earth-Moon system looks insignificant in deep space.

Taken by NASA's Juno spacecraft.
Date: August 26, 2011.

NASA's Juno spacecraft captured this image during its nearly 5-year journey to Jupiter, where it is conducting research on the gas giant.

From the surface of Mars, our planet appears to be just another “star” in the night sky, which puzzled early astronomers.

Taken by the Spirit Mars Exploration Rover.
Date: March 9, 2004.

About two months after landing on Mars, the Spirit rover captured a photograph of Earth appearing as a tiny dot. NASA says it is "the first ever image of Earth taken from the surface of another planet beyond the Moon."

The Earth is lost in the shining icy rings of Saturn.

Taken by the Cassini automatic interplanetary station.
Date: September 15, 2006.

NASA's Cassini space station took 165 photos of Saturn's shadow to create this backlit mosaic of the gas giant. The Earth has crept into the image on the left.

Billions of kilometers from Earth, as Carl Sagan quipped, our world is just a “pale blue dot,” a small and lonely ball on which all our triumphs and tragedies are played out.

Taken by the Voyager 1 robotic probe.
Date: February 14, 1990.

This photograph of the Earth is one of the frames in a series of “portraits solar system", which Voyager 1 made at a distance of about 4 billion miles from home.

From Sagan's speech:

“There is probably no better demonstration of stupid human arrogance than this detached picture of our tiny world. It seems to me that it emphasizes our responsibility, our duty to be kinder to each other, to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot - our only home.”

Sagan's message is constant: there is only one Earth, so we must do everything in our power to protect it, protect it mainly from ourselves.

Japan's artificial lunar satellite Kaguya (also known as SELENE) captured this video of the Earth rising above the Moon at 1000% acceleration to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Earthrise photograph taken by the Apollo 8 crew.

What you see are not photographs of distant planets at all. This is our familiar Earth. The photographs were taken at different times by the Landsat 7 satellite - the last satellite of the program, launched in 1999. In fact, the color scheme of the original photographs is not so bright, and sometimes not even so bright. US Geological Survey workers, who control the distribution of the images, changed the colors to make the photographs more pronounced and add some drama.

3D image of the Black Hills Mountains, South Dakota, USA.

The Argentine coast of the Atlantic Ocean is a couple of hundred kilometers from Buenos Aires.

Part of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The large lagoon of Terminos is protected from the Caribbean Sea by the long island of Isla del Carmen.

The snow-capped Colima volcano is the most active in Mexico and, in fact, is the merger of two craters - an older and a younger one.

The southern coast of the Netherlands is a complex system of channels and islands, most of which are former sand dunes. Such a system was created to prevent the North Sea from covering a significant part of the European state that is below sea level.

Swampy area in the bed of the Brazilian Demini River, which later flows into the Amazon.

The Green River flows through the Tawaputs Plateau and into Dismal Canyon, Utah, USA.

The delta of the Ganges River, which flows into the Bay of Bengal, is home to the Royal Bengal Tiger.

Negro River in the Brazilian Amazon. It is the largest tributary of the Amazon. During the rainy season, most of the islands disappear under its waters.

The turbulent volcano-ridden eastern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula is covered in snow.
In the photo on the right, the Bering Sea is covered in ice.

The largest glacier in Alaska, the Malaspina glacier and its tongue.

Namib Desert, Namibia, Africa. Here, thanks to coastal winds, are the highest dunes in the world (up to 300 meters).

Niger Delta, Central Africa.

The Syrian Desert is a striking location on the physical map of the Middle East. Despite its small size, it is part of four states.

The landscape of the Sahara Desert, near the Cherkezi oasis in Chad, is characterized by rocky outcrops.

Icelandic Skaftaffell National Park in the southern part of the Vatnajokull glacier.

Volcanoes with cone-shaped peaks along the border of Chile and Argentina. The total number of volcanoes is about 1800, of which about three dozen are active.

The Volga Delta, which flows into the Caspian Sea, is the largest fishing ground in Eurasia, with more than five hundred canals.