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If the earth is egg shaped why do they show us these digitally altered photos?
I'm just wondering what the earth really looks like and why there are only two pictures that have been released? I don't really wanna see a perfectly altered rendition but just how it really looks.
So I hear the answer given below alot, but doing some research the nasa artist Robert Simmon explains how he puts together the photos that are released and that contradicts most of the given answers. And BTW the question isn't concerning the measurements rather the reason for the absence of unadulterated photos. Another factor to include may include the way that celestial bodies and dark matter are interpreted into visual images
I wonder why no one actually addressed the question but only criticized it. Hmm.
25 Answers
- 4 months ago
How about its a spherical holographic projection of a "motherboard " or plane with information stored as to every element of earthly existence (very advanced tech, off topic i know). I'm getting into research about how images are captured in space and so far I've gathered that the " images" are actually measurements of different waves, frequencies, movements etc of certain celestial bodies which are then rendered by an artist. The guy who use to have the job has a video on YouTube explaining how he came up with the renditions of the celestial bodies that we all identify with. No one knew that?
- Anonymous6 months ago
Call it round and be done with it.
- D gLv 76 months ago
The earth is spheroid not egg shaped it is far in the center because of the rotation of the earth and the pull of gravity from sun will be greatest there
The photographs are not altered there are COMPOSITES of many images stitched together.
Since the earth is very large
- 6 months ago
Raw NASA images look something like this; https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/raw-images/raw-image-...
kind of disappointing until they are stitched together. here is another place; they seem to be very up-front about what has and hasn't been enhanced or stitched together. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/earth/galleri...
The old textbooks used to say that the Earth was very slightly "pear-shaped"; that is that it deviated away from the perfect sphere with more of a bulge pitched toward the south. (I read one explanation years and years ago, that the ocean current around Antarctica is one of the fastest on Earth, because all of the other currents feed into it, and it really doesn't have any land masses to get in its way. It whips around Antarctica in the same direction that the Earth rotates, so it bulges out something like 3 or 4 meters, that's all. I read that in the 90's in a Calypso log or a National Geographic.)
Good 'ol Wikipedia says, "...polar minimum of about 6,357 km (3,950 mi) and the equatorial maximum of about 6,378 km..." so given those and that the NBA 3-pointer line on the basketball court has a diameter of 47.5 feet, then the ratio of equatorial radius to polar radius is, 1.0033034450212364322793770646531 to 1, and that level of flattening would make the three point line 47feet, six inches along one axis and 47.656913638508730533270410571022 feet along the other axis. Now you're going to stand there and tell me with a straight face that you could see that the three point line was out of round by 1.882963662104766399244926852267 inches?!? ...especially if you're at roof level looking down at the basketball court, much less a photograph taken from that vantage point.
Oh, all right, maybe one like Jordan might look at that and say, "Man, that three point line looks almost two inches short from side to side..."
- daniel gLv 76 months ago
There are loads of un altered photos on NASA website, the big blue marble for one.
The earth is oblate spheroid, but not likely to perceive that unless you overlaid a perfect circle over it.
RESP UPDATE 2
True, images from say Hubble or Cassini are originally a number of raw images and have to be stacked and processed to see. Formats are usually converted to JPEG to reduce the size. Composite RAW images are huge.
- nineteenthlyLv 76 months ago
The deviation from spherical is something like 0.3%.
The digital manipulation you refer to doesn't amount to altering the aspect ratio of the images and so on. It's to do with clearing up visual noise and changing the dynamic range. Otherwise the photos would look too bright, overexposed, have insufficient contrast and other things.
- Ronald 7Lv 76 months ago
Actually people always ask me how really clear pictures of impossibly far Objects come around
But they are Artists Impressions after being given the best expert information
Remember the old Photos of Pluto before New Horizons ?
Distant Photographs need to use what light they receive in their Giant Telescopes
and need worked on with all kinds of filters to make the best of the picture
Remember the Pioneer Craft ?
They were the first to Photograph close up to Jupiter
Hazy Photos incurred until the camera burnt out with Jupiter's harsh Radiation
More Modern Probes have a lot more protection and they have served us well
And Pluto hasn't hatched yet
Source(s): Pluto and Charon, real image - 6 months ago
>>If the earth is egg shaped why do they show us
>>these digitally altered photos?
The photos taken from the Apollo astronauts going to and from the moon aren't altered. And, the Earth isn't actually 'egg shaped'; but it is a slightly flattened sphere...it's about 20 miles wider through it's equatorial diameter than it is through the polar diameter, and that's thought to be because of it's rotation.
When you look at the photos taken by Apollos 11 through 17, it's difficult to see that slight oblateness because of how *big* the Earth is...
If Earth is 8000 miles in diameter (more or less), and you have a picture of it that is 8000 x 8000 pixels, then it's about 20 pixels wider through it's equator than through the poles - 20 / 8000 = 0.25% difference...
But, this picture was taken by a camera on film from Apollo 17 in December, 1972:
- Anonymous6 months ago
Not egg shaped, but slightly bulged in the middle.
Around the poles, circumference is 40,007.863 km (24,859.734 mi). Measured around the equator, it is 40,075.017 km (24,901.461 mi)
It's not a large difference. Almost a globe.
Plenty of Earth images on the NASA web site.