In today’s age when human beings can obtain astonishingly clear images of the universe, from high-definition planetary photos to vast deep space mosaics, there is something about the European Space Agency’s recent capture of Earth that captivates me. The image is blurry, the colors look off, the planet isn’t centered, and the whole scene is shadowed. It gives the impression of being taken using a flip phone from the early 2000s.
Part of the charm lies in the fact that the European Space Agency’s image was captured with a camera about the size of a coin’s edge aboard a satellite named TRISAT-R, which is made of three extremely small boxes. TRISAT-R’s project manager, Iztok Kramberger, noted, “This tiny camera measuring less than two cubic millimeters in size took a picture of an object measuring approximately one trillion cubic kilometers — our beautiful planet Earth — from thousands of kilometers away.”
On a personal level, this image makes our planet feel somehow more tangible. It acts as a reminder that we literally exist on an object floating in the universe – a tangible orb in the physical fabric of space-time that can be photographed. Not only does this highlight how technologically advanced our species has become, but it also emphasizes that this is, in fact, a picture. By contrast, the James Webb Space Telescope’s infrared views add a layer of distance between us and the galaxies it images.
TRISAT-R’s purpose is to study Earth’s Van Allen Radiation Belts, which are zones in our planet’s outer shell that contain numerous charged particles. The satellite is equipped with radiation-detection payloads and cameras to facilitate these studies.
The scientists also installed tiny cameras that captured a low-resolution image of Earth. With the main interest in capturing examples of the “Black Sun effect,” the research team also managed to acquire captivating images like this one.
