Cape Town - Floating a million miles away, a Nasa camera on a new Deep Space Climate Observatory (Dscovr) satellite has captured a groundbreaking picture of Earth.
The photograph is not only its first view of the entire sunlit side of the planet, but also the first of many high-quality images of Earth that will be beamed down to Nasa’s headquarters after the satellite reached its planned orbit at the first Lagrange point, or L1, earlier this year.
The image, which was created by overlaying three separate photographs captured by the spacecraft's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (Epic), shows both North and Central America.
The central turquoise areas are shallow seas around islands in the Caribbean.
Once the satellite begins regular data acquisition, the camera will provide daily images of the Earth.
The satellite, which hangs in gravitational balance between Earth and the sun, aims to provide “space weather alerts” – forecasts and tracking of activity such as solar flares and their impact on Earth.
Cape Argus