Forty-five years after humanity's first journey around another celestial body, researchers have re-created Apollo 8's precise course to produce a high-resolution re-creation of "Earthrise," one of history's most famous images from space.
A team of experts — including John Keller, project scientist for NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter; NASA producer/visualizer Ernie Wright; and space historian Andrew Chaikin — used images of the moon from Apollo 8 and LRO to determine where the Apollo spacecraft was pointed at what time. Their findings are laid out in a video that reconstructs the chain of events that occurred in lunar orbit on Dec. 24, 1968.
To add to the occasion, NASA re-created the "Earthrise" picture — incorporating modern-day lunar imagery from LRO, Earth imagery from NASA's Blue Marble data set, and the cloud patterns documented by the Environmental Science Services Administration 7 satellite on that history-making day. (Use the Flash-based slider-bar gizmo on NASA's Web page to compare the original with the re-creation.)
The Earthrise re-creation is well-timed — not only to mark the anniversary, but to mesh with our Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar, which has been celebrating imagery of Earth from space on a daily basis during December.
This year's edition will close out on Christmas Day with an up-to-date view of our beautiful blue planet. In the meantime, catch up on the calendar goodies you may have missed, and check in with The Atlantic's Hubble Advent Calendar, Zooniverse's Advent calendar and the Galileo's Pendulum Science Advent Calendar.
Previously on the Space Advent Calendar:
- Day 22: Alien-looking clouds swirl on Earth
- Day 21: A scientific slant on winter's start
- Day 20: Christmas tree? No, it's Iceland
- Day 19: Japan's baby island is here to stay
- Day 18: Red and green lights glow in space
- Day 17: A child's face, visible from space
- Day 16: Where the Middle East's snow shows
- Day 15: Snaky Colorado river tricks the eye
- Day 14: A space farewell to Nelson Mandela
- Day 13: Happy St. Lucy's Day from space
- Day 12: Island of Love needs healing
- Day 11: A fractal puzzle, seen from space
- Day 10: London and Paris light the night
- Day 9: 'Starry Night' at sea
- Day 8: Mount Etna makes its mark
- Day 7: Staring down into Mount Vesuvius
- Day 6: Grand Canyon, seen and unseen
- Day 5: NASA salutes Nelson Mandela
- Day 4: Twin volcanoes act up in the Pacific
- Day 3: Syria's medieval marvel marred
- Day 2: Where the rain in Spain goes
- Day 1: Farewell, Earth ... Hello, Mars!
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with NBCNews.com's stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.