--- title: NASA Releases New Image of Earth description: NASA released the first image of Earth from its Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite on Monday. canonical: https://time.com/3964653/nasa-earth-photo/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-20T17:04:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:23.963Z article:section: Science og:title: NASA Releases New Image of Earth og:description: NASA released the first image of Earth from its Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite og:url: https://time.com/3964653/nasa-earth-photo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0d8aa36443e829af/69885b97524fc05ae8df3a41/earth-blue-marble-dscvr.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Earth Blue Marble DISCOVR Nasa og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: NASA Releases New Image of Earth twitter:description: NASA released the first image of Earth from its Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0d8aa36443e829af/69885b97524fc05ae8df3a41/earth-blue-marble-dscvr.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # NASA Releases New Image of Earth ## Video: A Year in Space - Ep.1: Leaving Home [Watch (HLS stream): A Year in Space - Ep.1: Leaving Home](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6ookw4W2.m3u8) (13:31)  _Published 2021-03-11. A Year in Space - Ep.1: Leaving Home_ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jul 20, 2015 5:04 PM UTC  Earth seen from a distance of one million miles captured by a NASA scientific camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory spacecarft on July 6, 2015. Earth seen from a distance of one million miles captured by a NASA scientific camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory spacecarft on July 6, 2015.NASA by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jul 20, 2015 5:04 PM UTC NASA [released](http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/nasa-captures-epic-earth-image) the first image of Earth from its Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite on Monday. The image shows a sunlit Earth from one million miles away. NASA says the photo was snapped with a Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), a four megapixel CCD camera, and a telescope. Soon, EPIC will be taking daily photos of Earth, which will be uploaded to a website 12 to 36 hours later so people can view them by September. This is the first time researchers will be able to study the daily variations of the globe. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson took to his Facebook page “at the request of the White House” to [comment on the new photo](https://www.facebook.com/neildegrassetyson/photos/a.10150118520416613.320365.7720276612/10153483689966613/?type=1&theater): --- > “” --- ### See the Evolution of the Iconic Blue Marble Photo  Blue Marble, 1972; The original "Blue Marble" was taken on Dec. 7, 1972, by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft en route to the Moon at a distance of about 29,000 kilometres (18,000 mi). It shows Africa, Antarctica, and the Arabian Peninsula. NASA  NASA created these two images to exhibit high-resolution global composites of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. The land surface data were acquired from June through Sep. of 2001\. The clouds were acquired on two separate days - July 29, 2001, for the northern hemisphere and Nov. 16, 2001 for the southern hemisphere. The images were rendered in late January 2002. NASA  In 2002, NASA released the most detailed true-color image of the Earth’s surface ever produced up to that point. Scientists and data visualizers created the image by stitching together data collected over 4 months from NASA’s Terra satellite. The 2002 Blue Marble featured land surfaces, clouds, topography, and city lights at a maximum resolution of 1 kilometer per pixel. (NASA image by Robert Simmon and Reto Stöckli)  The Blue Marble: Next Generation was a series of images that show the color of the Earth’s surface for each month of 2004 at very high resolution (500 meters/pixel) at a global scale. This image is a mosaic showing South America from September 2004 (with clouds removed). Reto Stöckli and Robert Simmon/NASA  Known as the "Black Marble", this image of North and South America at night is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012. NOAA/NASA/SuomiNPP  An image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA's Earth-observing research satellite, Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface taken on 4 Jan. 4, 2012. NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring  The newest "Blue Marble", Earth seen from a distance of one million miles captured by a NASA scientific camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) spacecraft on July 6, 2015. NASA _Read Next:_ [_Home, Sweet Home: In Praise of Apollo 17’s ‘Blue Marble’_](http://time.com/3879555/blue-marble-apollo-17-photo-of-earth-from-space/?iid=time%5Freadnext) [_Download TIME’s mobile app for iOS to have your world explained wherever you go_](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/time-mobile/id328218429) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3964653/nasa-earth-photo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3964653/nasa-earth-photo/"},"headline":"NASA Releases New Image of Earth","datePublished":"2015-07-20T17:04:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:41:23.963Z","description":"Check out the latest photo of planet Earth","url":"https://time.com/3964653/nasa-earth-photo/","keywords":["space 2017","Space","NASA","earth","Photo","satellite"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0d8aa36443e829af/69885b97524fc05ae8df3a41/earth-blue-marble-dscvr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0d8aa36443e829af/69885b97524fc05ae8df3a41/earth-blue-marble-dscvr.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Earth Blue Marble DISCOVR Nasa","caption":"Earth Blue Marble DISCOVR Nasa","creditText":"NASA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space-2017/","name":"space 2017"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3964653/nasa-earth-photo/","name":"NASA Releases New Image of Earth"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"A Year in Space - Ep.1: Leaving Home","description":"A Year in Space - Ep.1: Leaving Home","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/6ookw4W2/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2021-03-11T18:13:57.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/6ookw4W2.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3964653/nasa-earth-photo/","duration":"PT13M31S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3964653/nasa-earth-photo/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```