Why there are no photographs of earth from space ?

Question

i mean truecolor FULL DISK photographs that show the entire planet not composed images

So far i have found only 4 on the web

So many satellites and no photographs , only data

Answer 1

whoa whoa whoa! where did you learn math?! first of all, there are a lot more than 4 images.  second, "nothing" equals 0. 4 equals 4. 4 is greater than 0. thus 4 does not equal nothing!

here are some photographs:

http://herokids.files.wordpress.com/2008...

http://blogs.nolo.com/nonprofits/files/2...

http://www.synergetic.us/images/google_e...

http://www.hscdsb.on.ca/UserFiles/Image/...

http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/assets/channels/e...

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0705/ear...

Answer 2

There's plenty.  Although keep in mind, most of the sattelites and probes far enough out to take a complete Earth image, are pointing the other way looking outward.  The ones looking at Earth tend to do so close up for the purposes of collecting certain data.  So yes, there are more 'composits' perhaps than full images, but they are certainly out there.

Answer 3

Its called "blue marble" - and its the most famous photo of the Earth as it shows the entire disk of the Earth for the first time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Ma...

Answer 4

How many do you expect to find? To show a full disc the spacecraft taking the image must be directly between the Earth and the Sun, and far enough away to get the whole disc in its field of view. How many spacecraft have been in that precise position to take pictures? Earth orbiting satellites are too close. Geosynchronus satellites could do it, but they're not there for pictures. Anything going further away is off to take pictures of other things. Apollo 17 took a few on its way to the Moon.

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/apollo...

Then there's the Japanese Kaguya probes from earlier this year:

http://www.jaxa.jp/press/2008/04/2008041...

Other than a handful of cases of this particular alignment, you're just not going to get a full disc shot. There are literally thousands of images of Earth taken from space that show the whole planet, but in partial phases like the Moon, hundreds alone from the Apollo missions.

Answer 5

"Why there are no photographs of earth from space ? "

AND

"So far i have found only 4 on the web"

How could you say that there are NO photos after you've found 4?! "NO" = 0; 4 > 0

Get your stuff straight.

Answer 6

i recall  in particular ,i think it's the only 1 they have it's the continent of africa,you would think there would be more....tom

Answer 7

http://srd.yahoo.com/loc=head&st=yahoo/*...

Answer 8

1. Four images proof the existence of such photos. No further discussion about that. Even more, that you only found four shows that you must not have searched very hard.

2. Geostationary satellites return full disk photographs every few minutes. Most of the data these satellites gather is not in the visible portion of the spectrum, but in the infrared for seeing clouds better, but some satellites also cover the visible spectrum. For example the GOES family of satellites operated by NOAA. On their homepage, you can get a new gray scale full disk image every 3 hours. the Same applies for the European EUMETSAT.

3. "True color" is a very subjective term, as the resulting image is never showing the true color also this part of the spectrum it is pretty useless for any science.  

4. A satellite does also not take color photographs the way, you know it from a normal camera. Instead, it takes many gray scale images, each at a different wavelength and for making a "true color" image, many of these get joined together in one. Only for PR purposes, as the gray scale images work better for science and weather prediction.

Answer 9

Since the Earth is round, it is impossible to show the entire planet in one picture from space.  At best, you can get only 1/2 of the Earth.  And if the satellite & camera are close to the Earth, (many are only a few 100 km up), you can get only a fraction of that.

Use Google images search for "Earth pictures from moon"  -- I got several 1000.

Answer 10

I don't understand your question. There are thousands of pictures of Earth taken from space. The GEOS weather satellites alone take hundreds of them every day:

http://adds.aviationweather.gov/satellit...

The images taken from the space station only show the part of Earth over which it is passing, but the numerous pictures taken from the Moon show the full disk of the Earth. I also don't understand what you mean by "composed images."

Answer 11

There are lots. One of the more famous ones was taken by Apollo 17.

Answer 12

You are obviously looking in the wrong places, they are everywhere on the web.

Answer 13

really..where did u go to search it? basement?? no no...u will not find any images there ...i dunn know how did u fine 4? go and search the INTERNET.....not the spiders web ..INTERNET...u will find many there...lol