Skeudenn:The Earth seen from Apollo 17.jpg

The Blue Marble: This photo is of Africa, Antarctica, and the Arabian Peninsula as taken en route to the Moon by Apollo 17's Harrison Schmitt or Ron Evans[1] on December 7, 1972. The flight marked the last time that humans left low Earth orbit and the first and only time a geologist, Harrison Schmitt, travelled to the moon.

This photo is upside-down; in the original photo the south pole is at the top.[2]

The original caption:

View of the Earth as seen by the Apollo 17 crew traveling toward the moon. This translunar coast photograph extends from the Mediterranean Sea area to the Antarctica south polar ice cap. This is the first time the Apollo trajectory made it possible to photograph the south polar ice cap. Note the heavy cloud cover in the Southern Hemisphere. Almost the entire coastline of Africa is clearly visible. The Arabian Peninsula can be seen at the northeastern edge of Africa. The large island off the coast of Africa is the Malagasy Republic. The Asian mainland is on the horizon toward the northeast.

This image is a low compression JPEG version of The Earth seen from Apollo 17.png, which itself was taken from NASA [3].

December 7, 1972.

Image courtesy of Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center. File Name AS17-148-22727