NASA Releases 1st Full Image of Sunlit Side of Earth Since 1972 Apollo 17 Mission - Polidicks

[QUOTE=galimatias;48266904]Meanwhile, JAXA releases a new picture every ten minutes [url]http://himawari8.nict.go.jp/[/url][/QUOTE] woah this is so cool

[QUOTE=galimatias;48266904]Meanwhile, JAXA releases a new picture every ten minutes [url]http://himawari8.nict.go.jp/[/url][/QUOTE] This is cool, but it isn't as full an image as DSCOVR. Himawari 8 is a geostationary satellite. It's 35,800km up. You can see something like 40% of the Earth at once from there. DSCOVR is an L1 satellite. That's 1,600,000km from Earth. You'd have to be at infinity to see a full 50%, but from there, it's over 49%. And every image it creates will be in full sunlight.

[QUOTE=Kommodore;48271570]woah this is so cool[/QUOTE] I made a [url=http://i.imgur.com/NVb2Ibc.jpg]Wallpaper[/url] from one of the earlier shots from today. I thought it looked extremely cool, feel free to take it if anyone wants it.

[QUOTE=bull04;48271773]I made a [url=http://i.imgur.com/NVb2Ibc.jpg]Wallpaper[/url] from one of the earlier shots from today. I thought it looked extremely cool, feel free to take it if anyone wants it.[/QUOTE] I want a wallpaper that continuously updates with the data from the thing. [editline]22nd July 2015[/editline] NASA has this live stream looking at earth from the ISS, too: [url]http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/HDEV/[/url] [editline]22nd July 2015[/editline] (it just shows black at night for obvious reasons)

[QUOTE=bull04;48271773]I made a [url=http://i.imgur.com/NVb2Ibc.jpg]Wallpaper[/url] from one of the earlier shots from today. I thought it looked extremely cool, feel free to take it if anyone wants it.[/QUOTE] Thanks for the new desktop for me.

Those hot pixels are probably just from radiation hitting the sensor while it was taking the exposure. When you have pretty much any electronic camera sensor, you can activate pixels by hitting them with things like electrons.

Those supposed hot pixels, why can't they be satellites? They tend to have very reflective surfaces.

[QUOTE=KorJax;48266260]What is funny to think is that the only reason the oceans look blue is that they are reflecting the sky that surrounds them, something that isn't visible from the outside. It is like our whole planet is one big one-way mirror that reflects inside itself. If our atmosphere composition was any different to cause our sky took look different as well, the oceans would have a totally different color from space.[/QUOTE] bruh what. That kinda blows my mind is this true?

[QUOTE=skynrdfan3;48273558]bruh what. That kinda blows my mind is this true?[/QUOTE] [del]Partially. Not entirely.[/del] [editline]23rd July 2015[/editline] Water absorbs light as it passes. Blue light penetrates the deepest. So the ocean appears blue, because there's more blue light than other colors. [B]The ocean absorbs light[/B], so the color you're seeing from space is the blue color of the water. On the opposite side, [B]ice reflects light[/B], so it appears bright white from space. So if "Ocean is blue because sky" was true, snow and ice would also be blue, but it isn't, because it reflects the full wavelength back. The ocean eats it up but saves blue for last. So it's a dark, abysmal blue from space. [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/bzumnAK.jpg[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/6tuDnsD.jpg[/img_thumb] [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/XEEbKKx.jpg[/img_thumb] The deeper you go, the darker the blue. That's why shallow reefs look cyan/turquoise and open ocean looks deep blue. Or why very shallow pools look clear. This is the same reason the sky is blue. The composition of the sky reflects more blue to our eyes than other colors. It's also why sunsets/rises are red and orange. You have to remember that the ocean is not always blue. There are murky parts where it's muddy and silty and that changes its composition and changes how it reflects light. The early ocean wasn't even blue. Neither was the sky. Earth was a hellish landscape for a very long time. So to answer the question, the color of the sky might reflect a bit, but the ocean absorbs most of the light that hits it, and that's why it's blue. :eng101: [editline]23rd July 2015[/editline] A lot of critters use this to their advantage. Things that are red in the deep sea are [B]Invisible.[/B] (until a diver shines a light on them) [img]http://i.imgur.com/5erTZHU.jpg[/img] Also, the whole ice reflects/ocean absorbs thing is a huge issue for climate change. The hotter the oceans get, the more ice melts, the more heat the oceans absorb, the more ice melts, etc, etc, until there's no more ice. [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice-albedo_feedback[/url]

[t]http://www.hdwallpapersos.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/moraine_lake_and_faint_reflection.jpg[/t] And when it gets silty, sometimes it gets a bit freaky. I've been here, and yes, this water really does look like a lake full of Windex, but up close, it's clear. It's only after it's about 50 feet away that you start seeing it at the right angle to get the bright-blue reflection.

[QUOTE=paul simon;48273552]Those supposed hot pixels, why can't they be satellites? They tend to have very reflective surfaces.[/QUOTE] They're not that reflective compared to the surface of the Earth.

[QUOTE=LarparNar;48273942]They're not that reflective compared to the surface of the Earth.[/QUOTE] Some, if not most of them are covered in very reflective metallic foil. I'd say that mostly outclasses the earth in terms of reflectivity, and may explain why they show up as single pixels.

[QUOTE=paul simon;48274631]Some, if not most of them are covered in very reflective metallic foil. I'd say that mostly outclasses the earth in terms of reflectivity, and may explain why they show up as single pixels.[/QUOTE] It actually doesn't, because they are very small compared to the Earth. Similar example: when you look at the moon, do you see the spacecraft and satellites that are still orbiting it?

[QUOTE=LarparNar;48274696]It actually doesn't, because they are very small compared to the Earth. Similar example: when you look at the moon, do you see the spacecraft and satellites that are still orbiting it?[/QUOTE] Pixel bloom is a thing - one overloaded pixel will overload nearby pixels. But I don't think that's what's happening here. It might be an Iridium satellite - they have very reflective straight surfaces, and so they frequently and predictably "flare", and can be quite bright. Apparent magnitude -9.5 at the highest - brighter than anything in the sky except the Moon and Sun, quite visible even during the day. And from DSCOVR's position, it would likely be getting that peak brightness more often - it will always be fully backlit by the sun. But then again, the hot pixels seem to be far further from Earth than Iridium satellites orbit. The most likely explanation remains either a bright astronomical body, perhaps Jupiter, or a sensor defect, probably transient, as has previously been discussed.

[QUOTE=LarparNar;48274696]It actually doesn't, because they are very small compared to the Earth. Similar example: when you look at the moon, do you see the spacecraft and satellites that are still orbiting it?[/QUOTE] I'm talking about actual reflectiveness, not apparent magnitude.