Javi1d ago
Ailantd Sikowsky🔻

Nasa just published this amazing picture.

This is a very high exposure picture of the nigh side of the world. City lights, auroras, starts and Venus can be seen.

Also, do you realize how thin our atmosphere really is? We’re all living in a small fish tank. Everything we release into that thin layer of air matters.

Apr 3 at 2:57pmWeb
Show threadAilantd Sikowsky🔻1d ago
It’s terrifying to think that this razor‑thin boundary is the only place in the entire universe where we can breathe and live.
Show threadCurt1d ago
@Ailantd and to think we are destroying it from the inside even with all those external threats (solar radiation, high energy particles).
Show threadInternational Astro Artists1d ago

@Ailantd

I often think this when I visit mountainous areas, like Switzerland.

If you go up, even if only a couple of kilometres, the number of living things drops so very fast.

By the time you reach the snow line, the vast majority of living things cannot survive.

Show threadTedFallenger🔞14h ago
@Ailantd To be fair we've done a real bad job of checking other places so far.
Show threadOlga Lovick (she/her)1d ago
@Ailantd For those of us going nuts trying to figure out what we're looking at: the big landmass is (northwestern) Africa, you can see Gibraltar and Spain/Portugal in the low left area.
Show threadAilantd Sikowsky🔻1d ago
@transitionalaspect
That's right.
Show threadKevin Russell1d ago

@Ailantd

No tank.
Gossamer thin coating on a mass of boiling rock. All the life in the universe is a coating, thinner than blue paint on a basketball.

The ornament without a tree hanging in space.

Show threadAilantd Sikowsky🔻1d ago
@kevinrns Yep.
Show threadalster1d ago
@Ailantd High Resolution here:
https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/fd02_for-pao/

And yes, we need to protect this thin layer!
Hello, World - NASA

NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman took this picture of Earth from the Orion spacecraft's window on April 2, 2026, after completing the translunar injection burn.

NASA
Show threadAilantd Sikowsky🔻1d ago
@alsternerd Thanks!
Show threadAdam Collins1d ago
@Ailantd Always fun to see the small, faint crowns of the aurorae
Show threadAilantd Sikowsky🔻1d ago
@m104 Indeed.
Show threadRealGene ☣️1d ago
@Ailantd
We survive thanks to the skin of an onion.
Show threadQuantium 401d ago
@Ailantd I guess such an image worked well, because we currently have a full moon? Even with high exposure, the light for such a photo has to come from somewhere.
Show threadAilantd Sikowsky🔻1d ago
@Quantium40 Yes, I guess most of the light comes from the Moon in this picture.
Show threadJeff Mitchell1d ago
@Ailantd Group photo! Say cheese!
Show threadMomo17h ago
@squared99
At least everyone in Africa. 😅
@Ailantd
Show threadCris1d ago
@Ailantd that is an absolutely incredible image
Show threadJessie Kirk • 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇬🇱 🇵🇸 🇺🇦19h ago
@Ailantd I love how you can see Venus in the bottom centre-right as well.
Show threadMomo17h ago

@Ailantd
Fascinating how noisy the picture is. When I zoomed on the clouds I thought "Well, could be smaller clouds below the resolution of the cameras sensor" but when I zoom on the darkest parts of space in the upper left corner, opposite from where the sun is hidden behind the earth, I see the same noise artefacts in what should be black.

And my guess is that this is caused by the summed up cosmic radiation due to the long exposure.

This, too, tells a story about perspective and what the Van Allen-radiation belt does for us by protecting us from cosmic radiation.

Show threadAilantd Sikowsky🔻17h ago
@momo I think the grain is produced by a high ISO configuration, to reduce the time of the exposure.
Show threadSeth of the Fediverse13h ago
@Ailantd So amazing!