Science

NASA satellite camera takes an ‘EPIC’ new photo of Earth

We’re looking good from outer space.

The Deep Space Climate Observatory spacecraft (DSCOVR) undergoing light tests on the solar arrays in Titusville, Fla., near Kennedy Space Center, in 2014. The spacecraft will observe Earth, but its primary objective will be to monitor outbursts from the sun that could disrupt communications and power back on Earth. AP Photo/NASA, Ben Smegelsky

By Kristin Toussaint @kristindakota

July 23, 2015

1 minute to read

We’re all pretty sure we know what Earth looks like—we live here, after all. But from space, we gain an entirely different perspective.

The image we have in our heads of our little blue planet in outer space is based off of one famous photograph: the “Blue Marble,’’ which was taken by Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972.

Now, the Deep Space Climate Observatory, or DSCOVR for short, will provide all of us stuck down here with pictures from way up there.

This is its first view of the entire sunlit side of Earth, snapped from one million miles away. This image shows North and Central America, and was taken with Nasa’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Cameral—literally EPIC—and is the result of three combined images, according to NASA.