A photo supposed to show the Earth from the surface of the moon is often sharing on social media. In July 2019, for example, the Facebook page Beautiful World shared the photo with the caption "NASA's View of the Earth from the Moon".
Facebook
This is not an authentic photograph of the Earth of the Moon, but rather a digital composite of at least two different images.
The image is available on reference photography websites such as Shutterstock, where it is presented with the caption: "Blue Earth seen from the surface of the moon: elements of this image were provided by NASA" . The picture is attributed to the digital illustrator Romolo Tavani.
Although we were unable to find the original images used to create the composite displayed above, we found authentic photographs showing the Earth from the Moon's point of view. The following photograph was taken on July 21, 1969 by astronaut Michael Collins during the Apollo 11 mission:
NASA
Explanation: After the most famous journey of modern times, it was time to go home. After proving that humanity had the ability to go beyond the limits of the planet Earth, the first humans to walk into another world – Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin – flew over the stage from the ascent of their lunar module to meet Michael Collins in command in lunar orbit. and service module. In the photo above, on July 21, 1969, the ascending starship was captured by Collins as it approached, with the Moon below and the Earth far away. Tomorrow will mark the 40th anniversary of the first human landing. Recently, NASA's Lunar Orbit Reconnaissance Orbiter has returned the first images of most Apollo landing sites – including Apollo 11 – with sufficient resolution for the lunar module descent steps to be left behind.
A few years later, the crew of Apollo 17 captured some additional photos of the Earth on the surface of the moon. The following photo was taken on December 12, 1972 by astronaut Eugene Cernan and shows Harrison Schmitt and an American flag on the surface of the moon with Earth in the background:
NASA
Harrison H. Schmitt, scientific astronaut, stands near the American flag at the Apollo 17 moonwalk. At home, this small dot in the dark space above the flag is a quarter of a million kilometers away .
An article in Universe Today contained more information on how you could expect the Earth if you were standing on the surface of the moon. For example, the Earth would go through phases similar to those of the Moon, which means that you would see an "entire Earth" some nights and a partially darkened Earth others.
The moon is locked to us and presents only one face to the Earth.
If you were near the Moon, the Earth would still be in the sky. And if you were on the other side, you'll never see it …
If you stood on the Moon, looking up, you would see the Earth hanging in the sky forever, or as long as your robot body was holding.
It would go through phases, like the Moon, starting from total darkness, a quarter of illumination, from the entire Earth, and vice versa. But the characteristics of the Earth would change. The face of the Earth would be illuminated and you would see the whole planet spinning all day and you could use it to cheat in geography tests.
It would not be quite dark on the night side because "humans". You would see these beautiful spots of light shooting on the shaded parts of the Earth.
Our Moon follows an elliptical path around the Earth, ranging between 363,000 km and 405,000 km.
This means that the Earth would become bigger and smaller in the sky. Earth being much larger than the Moon, it would occupy 13 times more surface.
