Venus, Earth and Mars on November 18, 2020, as seen through the NASA-ESA Solar Orbiter (SolO). This image was captured about 250.6 million km away. This contrasts with the distance of our Sun to Earth of about 150 million km. In this image, the sun is on the right, outside the frame of the image. Image via ESA / NASA / NRL / Solar Orbiter / SolOHI.
How does the Earth look from space? And … how far from Earth can we be and still see it with our own eyes?
To find the answer to these questions, we take an imaginary journey through the solar system. The spacecraft exploring our solar system have provided us with wonderful views of the Earth. Keep reading and look at the photos on this page to see how the Earth looks from several other places in our own space neighborhood.
First, imagine that we fly and we are about 300 miles above the surface of the Earth. This is the height of the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS). From the ISS window, the Earth’s surface is hidden. During the day, large forms of relief can be clearly seen. At night, from the Earth’s orbit, the lights of the cities of the Earth are seen.
Earth in daylight, coming from the International Space Station in 2012. The American Great Lakes shine in the sun. Read more about this image.
Earth at night, from the ISS in 2012. Ireland is in the foreground and the United Kingdom behind and to the right. In the background is a bright sunrise. Greens and purples show a northern lights along the rest of the horizon.
We move away, for example, from the distance of the moon’s orbit.
As the moon passes, about 380,000 km away, the Earth looks like a bright ball in space. It’s not terribly different from the way the moon looks to us.
EarthSky lunar calendars show the phase of the moon each day in 2021. We are guaranteed to run out. Get one while you can!
The first images of the Earth from the moon came from the Apollo mission. Apollo 8 in 1968 was the first human spaceflight to leave Earth orbit. It was the first spacecraft captured and escaped from the gravitational field of another celestial body, in this case the moon.
It was the first trip in which humans visited another world and returned to return to Earth.
Earth seen from the moon by Apollo 8 astronauts in 1968. Image via NASA.
During the decades since Voyager began traveling outward, moon exploration has become more frequent. The Kaguya robotic spacecraft orbited the Earth’s moon in 2007. Launched by Japan, and officially named Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE), Kaguya studied the origin and evolution of the moon. The next frame is from Kaguya’s built-in HD TV camera.
Kaguya saw the Earth from the Moon in 2007. Image through the SELENE JAXA / NHK team.
Another image of Kaguya, who obtained images and photographs of the Earth. Remember that if you were on the moon, you would not see the Earth rise or set. But spacecraft orbiting the moon experience this scene. Image using JAXA.
We now continue to move outward until we can see the Earth and the moon together in space. The following image was stunning when it was first published. It shows an Earth and a crescent-shaped moon, the first of its kind ever taken by a spacecraft, on September 18, 1977.
This image of an Earth and a crescent-shaped moon, the first of its kind ever made by a spacecraft, was recorded on September 18, 1977 by Voyager 1 at a distance of 11.66 million km. of the Earth. The moon is at the top of the image and beyond the Earth, as Voyager sees it. Image via NASA.
Since 1977, many robotic spacecraft have ventured into our solar system. The following mosaic shows images of the Earth and the moon acquired by the multispectral image of the Rendezvous Asteroid Near Earth (NEAR) spacecraft on January 23, 1998, 19 hours after the spacecraft was rotated by the Earth in its path to the asteroid 433 Eros. Images of both were taken from a range of 400,000 miles (400,000 km), approximately the same as the distance between the two bodies.
Earth and moon seen by the NEAR spacecraft in 1998.
Quickly accessing from the Earth and lunar system, you pass through the orbits of the planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Of all these worlds, the Earth looks like a star, which becomes weaker as it moves away.
Earth and moon, as seen from Mars by NASA’s Curiosity rover on January 31, 2014. Read more about this image.
View larger. | Earth seen behind Saturn’s rings. Do you see us at the bottom right? Mars and Venus are at the top left. Image through the Cassini spacecraft, July 19, 2013.
This is the famous image known as Pale Blue Dot. It is a photograph of Earth taken on February 14, 1990 by the Voyager 1 spacecraft at a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles). The Earth is the bluish white spot approximately in the middle of the brown band on the right.
The above images come from Saturn, the sixth outer planet orbiting the sun. I have never seen any image of the Earth from Uranus or Neptune or any other body beyond the orbit of Saturn. Only five spacecraft on Earth (the two Voyager spacecraft, the two pioneers, and the New Horizons spacecraft, which passed through Pluto in 2015) have ever ventured so far. Those vessels were not designed to look back at the Earth and, to my knowledge, did not capture images of the Earth from distances beyond Saturn.
But, theoretically speaking now, could the Earth be seen from distances beyond Saturn?
Speaking only in terms of the Earth brilliance, the answer is yes. Our world does not become too weak to see with the naked eye far beyond the orbit of Neptune, about 14 billion miles from home. Now consider the orbit of Pluto. It is very elliptical, stretching from 4.4 billion km to just 7.3 billion kilometers from the sun. Pluto is at the limit distance at which, if we only consider the brightness, there are no other factors, we should be able to see the Earth only with the eye.
But there is another factor. As you go out of the Earth, our world appears closer and closer to the blazing sun. As it recedes, the glare of the sun begins to overwhelm the vision of the Earth. Of Pluto, though the Earth would be brilliant enough to see it, you probably couldn’t see it in the sunlight.
This is the answer to the question of how far you could be from Earth and still see it with your own eyes. Although no one knows for sure because no one has tried it (and because human sight varies from person to person), the Earth would be impossible to see with the eye somewhere beyond Saturn’s orbit. .
Now let’s change the game. Let’s say we I could use instruments and not just the eye. Suppose the intrepid astronautastronomers went to Pluto. Suppose they took all the instruments they needed to see the Earth in the sunlight. Could they use telescopes, darkened disks, and other techniques to take a look at the Earth? May be!
But it still wouldn’t be easy.
Read more: Wikipedia has a long essay on extraterrestrial skies
Conclusion: How does the Earth look from space? How far from space could you see the Earth with the naked eye? Taking into account not more brightness, the answer is about 14 billion kilometers away, approximately the distance of Neptune or Pluto. In practice, however, seeing it from this distance would be a challenge because the glare of the sun would overwhelm the vision of the Earth.
