Venus, Earth and Mars on November 18, 2020, as seen by the NASA-ESA Solar Orbiter (SolO). This image was captured approximately 250.6 million kilometers away. This is in contrast to our solar distance from the earth of about 150 million kilometers. In this image, the sun is on the right, outside the picture frame. Image via ESA / NASA / NRL / Solar Orbiter / SolOHI.
What does the earth look like from space? And … how far from the earth can we be and still see it with our own eyes?
Let us take an imaginary journey through the solar system to find the answer to these questions. Spacecraft exploring our solar system gave us an amazing view of the earth. Keep reading and look at the photos on this page to see what the earth looks like from different places in our own area.
First imagine that you are shooting down and are about 300 kilometers above the earth’s surface. This is approximately the height of the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS). From the window of the ISS the surface of the earth threatens large. During the day you can see the most important landforms. At night, from the Earth’s orbit, you see the lights of the Earth’s cities.
Earth in daylight, from the International Space Station in 2012. The North American Great Lakes shine in the sun. Read more about this image.
Earth at night, from the ISS in 2012. Ireland is in the foreground, and the UK behind and right. A bright sunrise is in the background. Vegetables and purples show an aurora borealis along the rest of the horizon.
Let’s get further away, say, the distance from the orbit of the moon.
As we pass the moon – about 380,000 km away – the earth looks like a bright ball in space. It is not entirely different from the way the moon looks to us.
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The first images of the earth from the moon come from the Apollo mission. Apollo 8 in 1968 was the first human spaceflight to leave Earth orbit. It was the first terrestrial spacecraft captured by and escaped from the gravitational field of another celestial body, in this case the moon.
It was the first journey in which people visited another world and returned to return to earth.
Earth seen from the moon via Apollo 8 astronauts in 1968. Image via NASA.
In the decades since Voyager first began traveling abroad, lunar exploration has become more common. The robotic Kaguya spacecraft orbited the Earth’s moon in 2007. Kaguya was launched by Japan and officially called the Selenological and Engineering Scout (SELENE) and studied the origin and evolution of the moon. The frame below comes from Kaguya’s HDTV camera on board.
Earth from Kaguya from the moon in 2007. Image via SELENE team JAXA / NHK.
Another image from Kaguya, who received footage and photos of the earth. Remember that if you were on the moon, the earth would not see rise or fall. But spacecraft in an orbit around the moon experience this scene. Image via JAXA.
Let us continue to move outward until we can see the earth and the moon in space. The next picture was surprising when it was first released. It shows a crescent-shaped earth and moon – the first of its kind ever taken by a spacecraft – on September 18, 1977.
This photograph of a crescent-shaped earth and moon – 1st of its kind ever taken by a spacecraft – was recorded on 18 September 1977 by Voyager 1 at a distance of 11.66 million km from Earth. The moon is at the top of the picture and beyond the earth as seen by Voyager. Image via NASA.
Since 1977, many robotic spacecraft have ventured outside our solar system. The mosaic below shows images of the Earth and the Moon obtained by the multispectral imager at the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Space (NEAR) on January 23, 1998, 19 hours after the spacecraft swung through the Earth on its way to the asteroid 433 Eros . The images of both were taken from a distance of 400,000 km, approximately the same as the distance between the two bodies.
Earth and Moon seen by NEAR spacecraft in 1998.
Fast forward from Earth and the lunar system, walking through the orbits of the planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Of all these worlds, the earth looks like a star that grows dimmer as you move away.
Earth and Moon, as seen from Mars by NASA’s Curiosity rover on January 31, 2014. Read more about this image.
Look bigger. | Earth seen behind the rings of Saturn. Do we see at the bottom right? Mars and Venus are at the top left. Image via Cassini spacecraft, July 19, 2013.
This is the famous statue known as Pale Blue Dot. This is a photograph of the Earth taken by the Voyager 1 space probe on February 14, 1990 from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers. The earth is the blue-white spot about halfway in the brown band to the right.
The photos above are of Saturn, the sixth planet outward in orbit around the sun. I have never seen any image of the earth of Uranus or Neptune or any other body outside Saturn’s orbit. Only five spacecraft from Earth – the two Voyager spacecraft, the two Pioneers and the New Horizons spacecraft, which passed Pluto in 2015 – have ever ventured into this. These vessels were not designed to look back at the earth, and to my knowledge they took no images of the earth from far beyond Saturn.
But, now theoretically speaking, can the earth be seen from far beyond Saturn?
Speak only in terms of the earth brightness, the answer is yes. Our world does not become too faint to see with the naked eye alone, far beyond Neptune’s orbit, about 14 billion kilometers from home. Now think of the orbit of Pluto. It is very elliptical and extends from just 4.4 billion kilometers to more than 7.3 billion kilometers from the sun. Pluto is within the limited distance at which we, if we only consider the brightness alone, are no other factors, can see the earth with the eye alone.
But there is another factor. As you go beyond the earth, our world appears ever closer to the scorching sun. As you get further away, the sunshine begins to overwhelm the view of the earth. From Pluto – even if the earth were bright enough to see – you probably can not see it in the sunshine.
So this is the answer to the question of how far you can be from the earth, and still see it with your own eyes. Although no one knows for sure, because no one has tried it (and because man’s vision differs from person to person), the Earth somewhere outside Saturn’s orbit would be impossible to see with the naked eye.
Let’s change the game now. Let’s say we could use instruments, and not just the eye alone. Suppose the intrepid astronaut-astronomers is to Pluto. Suppose they took all the instruments to see the earth in the sunshine. Can they use telescopes, dimming disks and other techniques to get a glimpse of the earth? Can be!
But it would still not be easy.
Read more: Wikipedia has a long article on outer space
In short: What does the earth look like from space? How far into space would you be able to see the earth with the eye alone? Consider only brightness, the answer is about 14 billion km away, about the distance of Neptune or Pluto. In practice, however, it would be a challenge to see it from that distance, because the brightness of the sun would overwhelm the view of the earth.
