Lunar eclipse photos, look at them and you will know how small we are

The Earth is the third farthest Earth-like planet from the Sun and is also the common home of countless creatures, including us humans, its radius is close to 6400 km, for humans or other creatures, the Earth is a behemoth, standing on the ground can not see the end at all, so in ancient times there are people who believe that the Earth is flat, and even that the Earth is the center of the universe.

Even with the progress of science and technology, we have a more comprehensive understanding of the Earth's home, such as knowing that the Earth is a round ball, know that the Earth is a planet in the solar system, but because so far we have not found signs of alien life, alien civilization, so many of us also think that the Earth may be the "Chosen One" Many of us believe that the Earth may be the only planet in the universe where life exists. But as we continue to explore the universe, we gradually find that the Earth, like other planets, does not seem to have any special features.

What does the Earth look like as seen from outer space?

The spacecraft and space station flying in near-Earth orbit is already in the space environment, and the astronauts inside the spacecraft and space station can see our Earth home from the perspective of outer space. The Earth shown in front of the astronauts is very special, no longer the same as we see on the ground.

For example, our astronaut Zhao Zhang recalled the first time out of the cabin in 2008, said after pulling open the hatch of the spacecraft saw the sky full of azure, and what can not see the black, azure is the home of the Earth. He felt that the spacecraft is suspended, the Earth is also suspended in the sky, and there is no support, and looking at the Earth are feeling insecure, and afraid that the Earth from the air floating away.

This is what it looks like to see the Earth in near-Earth orbit, although it has entered space, the size of the Earth is relatively large, in the hundreds of kilometres of near-Earth orbit and there is no way to completely take in the whole Earth, only to see the local areas of the Earth, but the distance is relatively close, so the astronauts can see the azure blue ocean, as well as see other colors of the land, as well as some white-capped snow. If we get farther and farther away from the Earth, the sight will be different again, because the farther the distance, the less detail we see, we may not see the azure blue ocean, white snow, or clouds.

On July 27, 2022, Sky Quest 1 took a deep look back at the Earth's home in deep space, about 1.2 million kilometres away from the Earth, and incidentally captured a photo of the Earth and the Moon together. Only because the distance from Earth is far away, the Earth is very small in the photo, and the Moon is even smaller. In this Earth-Moon photo, the larger "crescent" is the Earth, and the smaller "crescent" is the Moon.

The reason why the Earth and the Moon are crescent-shaped is that the Earth and the Moon are not luminous, and the bright area is the area where the sunlight shines, while the side with the back to the sun is dark.

The U.S. Department of State said that the U.S. Department of Defense has been working with the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a new plan for the development of the U.S. Department of Energy.

I believe many of you remember the night of May 15, 2022, the sky staged a "blood moon", the blood moon lasted for more than five hours, the so-called blood moon is an actual eclipse. As the Earth has an atmosphere that filters most colors of light, red light can penetrate through, when the eclipse is staged, the red light shines on the surface of the moon, the moon, and looks like a red moon. The moon's color change can be seen from Earth, but not from 100 million kilometres away.

From the images sent back by Lucy's spacecraft, we can see that there were 2 bright spots before the eclipse was staged, and Lucy's unmanned spacecraft could still see the Earth and the Moon. When the eclipse was staged, the Moon gradually became darker, and eventually, the Moon could not be seen, leaving only the Earth. As the moon leaves the shadow area, the brightness will be restored.

At one time we thought it was the center of the universe, and the Earth seen 100 million kilometres away is just a small, insignificant bright spot that shows us how small the Earth is, which is indeed a bit incredible.

How small is the Earth?

Large, small is relative, for humans, the Earth is indeed a behemoth, but in the face of the universe, the Earth is very small. Far from it, there are several planets in the solar system larger than the Earth, such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and so on, not to mention the mass of the solar system accounted for 99.86% of the overall mass of the Sun.

Even the solar system's largest object, the sun, in front of the universe is also very small, larger than the sun's stars are countless, in addition to stars, there are a large number of black holes and other objects, black holes these objects are also very large. In the middle of this month, scientists released the first photo of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgt A*) in the center of the Milky Way, the supermassive black hole is more than 4 million times the mass of the Sun, and this black hole in the universe is not the largest than Sagittarius A* (Sgt A*) larger black hole there are many.

For example, in 2019 scientists released the first photo of a black hole in human history. This supermassive black hole at the center of the super giant elliptical galaxy M87 in Virgo has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the Sun. So, there may be no biggest objects in the universe, only bigger ones. Those huge objects are far bigger than our Earth's home, too big to imagine, which in turn shows us how small the Earth is and how small humans are.