A Picture is Worth... Europe by Night

by Jeremy Elton Jacquot, Los Angeles on 11.26.07
Science & Technology

europe by night

Stunning shot of Earth taken by Rosetta's Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System (OSIRIS) Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) on November 15. The image, a color composite of the NAC orange, green and blue filters, was taken during OSIRIS's swing-by as it was heading out to the outer solar system.

Check out the European Space Agency's (ESA) website for more shots taken by Rosetta's OSIRIS.

Via ::Science Centric: Rosetta: The true colours of the Earth (news website)

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Comments (5)

Falsehood! T'aint gonna look like that cause the lights are not bright enough to see with the naked eye. That is a highly sensitive instrument. Also, calling that "Europpe" is a little paltry since most of that image is obviously the middle east. The most prominent feature there is the Nile River and Delta. THINK!!!

jump to top Rocklee says:

Europe is there. And all space images are false colored and edited.

jump to top Anonymous says:

...satellites have all sorts of instruments for these things.

http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/9780521828703_files/The_Great_Transformation_Pa.jpg

Here's one from a book of satellite images (Our Changing Planet, Cambridge, 2007), a composite of course. *Disclaimer* - I work for Cambridge! I immediately thought of that image in the link above.

Still - the instrument is an Optical one (Optical Linear Scan), we're seeing real light.

I can't make heads or tails of it.

jump to top Anonymous says:

There is no denial of the presence of Europe. That which is denied is the concept that the image actually represents "Europe at night".

Here is the scenario which obviously unfolded: Author visualized the map. The original author mentioned "Europe" and "night". The TreeHugger author is not skilled enough to identify the geographic elements in the photo so assumes it is a picture of Europe. Ignorance and simplicity is thus manifest.

jump to top Rocklee says:

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