Moonrise, Planet Earth
During the Astro-1 astronomy mission
of December, 1990,
Space Shuttle astronauts photographed this
stunning view of the full moon
rising above the Earth's limb.
In the foreground, towering clouds of condensing
water vapor
mark the extent of the troposphere,
the lowest layer of the planet's life-sustaining
atmosphere.
Strongly scattering blue sunlight, the upper atmospheric layer,
the stratosphere, fades dramatically to the black background of space.
Moon and
clouds are
strong visual elements of many well known
portraits of Planet Earth,
including Ansel Adams' famous
"Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico",
photographed in November of 1941.