#space-photography

#space-photography

We saw sights that no human has ever seen, not even during the Apollo missions, and that was amazing for us.

Veteran NASA astronaut Don Pettit returned from his 220-day mission on board the International Space Station in April 2025, the day of his 70th birthday, making him the oldest active astronaut on the space agency's roster. During his seven-month stint on board the aging orbital outpost, his fourth trip to space, Pettit took the time to photograph some dazzling views of the Earth below.

It's nearly 60 years since we first got to actually see our blue marble from afar. Not in some geography book as a painting, not in the form of a VFX shot in a Hollywood movie. But as an actual color photo clicked by an astronaut from space. Taken by William Anders during the Apollo 8 mission in 1968, this iconic photo set the earth against its nearest neighbor, the moon.

This thought-provoking study by palaeobiologists Sarah Gabbott and Jan Zalasiewicz discusses 'technofossils': the vast remnants of modern civilization. The authors itemize plastic bottles, ballpoint pens, concrete dams, credit cards, aluminium cans, teabags, motorways, mobile phones, T-shirts and computers, among numerous items "produced by our species for our comfort and pleasure and then, sooner or later, discarded". How long these items will last is unknown - but for many, it could be millions of years.