From the planets themselves, to views of the solar system from afar, join me as we show
you REAL AMAZING Images FROM THE SOLAR SYSTEM! 11. The Earth From Afar
It's only appropriate that we start off this look at the solar system by checking out an
image of the Earth itself. This is after all the planet that we live on, and in many ways
are trying to get out from under because right now it's the only place we can live. But there
have been a lot of misconceptions about the Earth that have only been debunked because
of our adventures in space, and this picture here shows that.
For example, no, the Earth is not flat, it's a sphere (why people ever thought it was flat
is beyond me!) and it's a very lovely sphere at that. What's more, when this picture was
taken on the moon (more on that in a minute), it showed that the distance between the Earth
and the moon was so great (238,900 miles) that as you sit on the moon and look back
at the planet you came from...the Earth looks small.
Now, as for where the photo itself came from, that would be Apollo 11. You know, the mission
we took that got us to the moon? Yeah, this picture was taken during the time that Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked upon the surface of the moon, an honor that only a
handful of people have had the honor of doing. Looking at a picture like this really helps
put things into perspective about our place in the universe, because while we may feel
big, if you put enough distance between us, everything looks small. Speaking of which....
10. Pale Blue Dot This image right here is a legendary one that
was taken at the request of Carl Sagan, a legendary scientist and astronomer. He asked
that on February 14th, 1990, that the Voyager 1 (a spacecraft that was launched from Earth
to try and reach the outer edges of our solar system) take a picture of Earth from its viewpoint.
The picture perfectly showed why the universe is so big, and why the Earth itself is so
small. Sagan later wrote a book called "Pale Blue
Dot", and he made a legendary speech about why the Earth isn't as important as we think
it is, and that we should take stock of ourselves because of it. Here's an excerpt from the
book: "Look again at that dot. That's here. That's
home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard
of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy
and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every
hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization,
every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful
child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every
"superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species
lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood
spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could
become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited
by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants
of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how
fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance,
the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by
this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic
dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from
elsewhere to save us from ourselves." Kind of makes you think, doesn't it?
9. The Rings Of Saturn If you were to right now think about what
you believe is the most beautiful thing in our solar system, you might think of Earth
from the outside view, but no doubt your mind would eventually wander to that of the Rings
of Saturn. Ever since we discovered the Rings of Saturn
they have been a fascination for us, and images like this further cement exactly what kind
of beauty we are talking about here. The imagine, given to us by NASA, shows the way the rings
stand out in both the light and the shadow of the planet. We can also clearly see the
lines in the rings that help give them more depth and beauty. Showing that there clearly
"rings" of Saturn and not just a single big one.
We're not the only ones to like the rings of Saturn, as there are many others who like
to look at them as well: “if only because everything that came out
of [the Saturn probe] Cassini, including raw images of the planet, moons, and rings, were
pure works of art. There is something about these images that feels multisensory and also
reminds me of the music of the spheres—almost as if the arrangements, shadows, light are
sound in motion.” That's a lovely way of describing it.
8. The Earliest Pictures Of Jupiter I want you to think about the pictures you've
already seen on this list. There's been one that was taken on the moon, one that was taken
billions of miles from Earth, and one that was taken right next to Saturn. What do all
of those things have in common? Technology, specifically, the benefit of advanced technology,
which the earliest of astronomers didn't have. We've known about the other planets for centuries,
but to actually "see" them you needed to have powerful telescopes, and you couldn't just
pass pictures around of them. That's why pictures like this one of Jupiter,
taken in 1906, is so important, and so amazing. For it was pictures like these that were able
to help quantify what the planets were like and describe them to others not with words,
but with pictures. Astronomer E. E. Barnard took this photo of
Jupiter using the Yerkes Observatory's 40-inch refractor telescope in 1906. That means this
photo was taken nearly 125 years ago! Think about how different the world was back in
that time, and what something like this helped show about the space above our heads.
And now think about all of the high-definition pictures we're able to take of stars and planets,
it truly shows you how far we've come.
7. Uranus Yes, you can make jokes here if you want,
but Uranus is not only a key planet in our solar system, but it's one that actually doesn't
get enough credit for how simple in look, but complex in action, that it is. For example,
when you look at a picture like this, you see one color, which isn't something you see
in any other planet on our solar system, not even Mercury or Mars. But the reason for that
is its makeup, which allows it to be the coldest planet in our solar system.
Why is Uranus so much colder than Neptune or Pluto? While many of the other planets
in our solar system have a core that emits a lot of heat, Uranus doesn't. So by that
token, while it does get heat from the sun, it doesn't emit as much as the other planets,
even Neptune emits more heat than Uranus and it's much farther from the sun than its twin.
"Uranus is the only giant planet that is not giving off significantly more heat than it
is receiving from the Sun, and we don't know why that is," says Mark Hofstadter, a planetary
scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. So when you look at a picture like this of
Uranus, it's ok to think that it's simple, but it's not, it's cold, it's on a 'funny
tilt', it has rings that almost no one can see, and so on and so forth. It LOOKS basic,
but it's not. Before we continue our dive into amazing pictures
of the solar system, be sure to like the video and subscribe to the channel! That way you
don't miss any of our weekly videos! 6. Comets In Motion
Comets get a lot of attention here on Earth, but there are also points of contention of
what they are and aren't. First off, Comets aren't rocks at all, they're
ice, water, and dust, and they look MUCH cooler than all the other space rocks. You see, Asteroids,
Meteoroids, Meteors & Meteorites are all solid rock, inside and out. Sometimes they have
metal as well, but the point here is that they're solid. For a comet though, it's a
nucleus of ice and gasses that have been formed together and they remain in a state of non-solidity
that causes them to be much different. Just as important though, while most Asteroids,
Meteoroids, Meteors & Meteorites have atypical orbits or are kept in check by planets, Comets
have a direct line of orbit with the sun. Which is why they look how they do. Because
as they circle the sun, they start to have their ice melted and their gasses expanded,
and that creates the unique comet feature called a coma. You know it as its "tail".
This coma can streak across the sky, and can even be thousands of miles long!
That's important to note because Comets are so bright that they can be seen from Earth
at quite a distance, not unlike the stars in the sky. Which is poetic, because of this
picture right here. This is a photo of the Daniel comet, also known as C/1907 L2, taken
with the Bruce 10-inch photographic telescope at the Yerkes Observatory, August 21, 1907.
Through this picture, we can see the comet perfectly streaking through space with its
tail dangling behind it. And if one comet looks like this, imagine all the others that
are out there in the sky moving around.
5. Venus and the Sun Venus is known as our "sister planet", but
it's anything but a true twin, because while it may only be a little smaller than Earth,
it's also a greenhouse planet that has massively hot temperatures and an atmosphere that we
can't breathe in, and barely see through at times. Yet that doesn't stop it from being
beautiful at times when the situation works out.
Take a look at this picture. This is a shot of Venus as it orbits the sun, and this shot
is truly stunning. You can see the surface of the sun and all the little details that
the heat and gasses render upon it, and then to see the planet Venus just completely shrouded
in darkness as it circles is visually very beautiful. And if you look at the top left
part of the planet you'll see a yellow outline no doubt imposed by the sun blasting its rays
upon the planet. These are the kinds of pics that show that
timing, even in something as large as the solar system, is everything.
4. Our First Look At Earth From Space We've already shown you a view of the Earth
from the moon, but you want to go and see the first picture of Earth from space, you
have to look 23 years previous: "The first photo of Earth from above came
from a jerry-rigged rocket. On October 24, 1946, scientists strapped a 33mm motion-picture
camera to a captured German V-2 rocket and launched the whole thing into space."
First of all, wow, I can't believe that worked, and the series of events that went into trying
to make this happen. Anyway, after launching the V2 rocket into space, the rocket reached
a max altitude of 65 miles, then it crashed back down to Earth. Yet despite the rocket
itself being destroyed in the impact, the film survived. It was the first picture taken
of Earth from space, and it confirmed a lot of things about our planet, all the while
building up the desire to go into space to get better pictures, bigger pictures, and
see exactly the Earth had to show us visually.
3. Jupiter Moving Personally? I just think this image looks
cool. It was taken by Voyager 1 in 1979, and over the course of 70 days it approached the
planet and showed it moving. Look at those different rotations! Very cool.
2. Pluto I just miss Pluto being a planet, how about
you? Anyway, this picture shows in great detail why many felt that Pluto was a planet for
many years. Look at its surface, the way that it looks like a truly rocky planet.
Will Pluto ever be a planet again in the eyes of the world? Do you want it to be a planet
again? Let me know...let the WORLD know...
1. That's One Small Step For Man... When it comes to our solar system, there are
many things that we have taken pictures of. But, in terms of importance, few are as important
as this shot right here of Buzz Aldrin on the moon. Aldrin and Armstrong were the first
two men on the moon, and they were the ones who helped solidify that we could make it
there, that space was a place we could travel to, and that we just had to push for it.
This picture, among others taken during the missions, were the definitive point of the
Space Race, cementing the United States as the victor. But what's more, it inspired a
whole generation of people who wanted to work to be the next person onto the moon, into
space, and for those training right now, to be the first people on Mars.
Boldly go young astronauts, boldly go...
Thanks for watching everyone! What do you think of these amazing pictures of the solar
system? Do any of them change your outlook on the planets, stars, and other objects that
are within our space? Do you know of any other pictures that really help show off the beauty
of the universe? Let me know in the comments below, be sure to subscribe, and I'll see
you next time on the channel!