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First HD Image of the Earth from 236,000 Miles Away
Posted by Addy Dugdale at 12:39 AM on November 15, 2007
If you ever wondered what our planet looked like in hi-def from a quarter of a million miles away, now you know. Thanks to an HDTV camera with 1920 x 1080 resolution onboard the lunar explorer Kaguya (but you can call her Serene), images of the Earth rising and setting on November 7 were beamed back to JAXA's Usuda space station (JAXA is Japan's space agency). The southern hemisphere is toppermost, so that is an upside-down Australia you can see, but that's just normal for those of us who are British. Oh, and we know that 286 lines of Flash vid doesn't constitute "HD," but this is the best we can deliver. (There's no sound on the vid, either, but that's because it's in space.) [Jaxa]

Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
LoganSix
Posted 1:36 PM 14/11/07
@nightsky: Didn't the flag fall down after the lunar space craft left? Maybe that's the bet, whether or not the flag is still there.
And I agree with the first post, looks like an animation.
LoganSix
Andham
Posted 12:30 PM 14/11/07
@NZRUSS: OMFG
HOW?
Andham
nosaturn1
Posted 12:01 PM 14/11/07
no mic?.... further proving that
In space, no one can hear you scream
nosaturn1
nightsky
Posted 11:57 AM 14/11/07
Most people just don't understand how things work in micro gravity without an atmosphere. We are used to things working a certain way on earth, and have no real experience of how things work out of our atmosphere and on another "planet". You cannot compare what you see in a video on another world and what you expect to happen based on your visual experience on earth. Just does not work that way.
nightsky
nightsky
Posted 11:54 AM 14/11/07
@x23: What multiple light sources? I see one. The sun behind the craft and to the left of camera.
nightsky
nightsky
Posted 11:53 AM 14/11/07
@lowmax: Would that be the "filmed in studio bet"? The flag "waves" because of oscillation not wind. There is no atmosphere to slow to oscillation. Gravity has to do it, and, as we all know there is only about 25% of that on the moon as compared to the earth.
nightsky
uclabruin2
Posted 11:48 AM 14/11/07
@BostonK: Kent Brockman right?
uclabruin2
nightsky
Posted 11:38 AM 14/11/07
@weatherman: A microphone would be useless on the moon since a microphone works by air pressure waves, and there is none of that on the moon. You would hear... nothing.
nightsky
finnigan16
Posted 11:38 AM 14/11/07
Everyone knows the moon is made of cheese, but if it were made of spare ribs, would you eat it? I know I would.
finnigan16
nightsky
Posted 11:37 AM 14/11/07
@filmtex: No S**T. Did you read the caption? I too want to see the HD. It is probably coming from JAXA on their site.
nightsky
weatherman
Posted 11:36 AM 14/11/07
They can put an HD camera on the moon but they can't attach microphone? C'mon!
weatherman
desimal
Posted 11:34 AM 14/11/07
@BobbyMills: either fart noises, or the sound of yen being flushed down the bidet!
desimal
filmtex
Posted 11:28 AM 14/11/07
It's not HD, it's a flashvideo movie. HD is HD is HD. Nothing to see here. move along.
filmtex
dcartist
Posted 10:59 AM 14/11/07
Oooh, I can see myself... and there's my car... and my apartment...
dcartist
soldstatic
Posted 10:12 AM 14/11/07
@itchytooth: I LIKE CHOCOLATE MILK!
Tinkle tinkle in a car, you should really use a jar. I HAVE GINGIVITIS!
Since nerds aren't necessarily up on the children's cartoons, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, greatest character ever is Cheese. And if this was already one of those jokes that was brought up in a previous post, well, i must have missed that day.
NOW WE'RE BROTHER LADIES!
soldstatic
Nintenboy01
Posted 10:07 AM 14/11/07
How was your vacation Addy? You and Jesus were greatly missed.
Nintenboy01
superdave
Posted 9:58 AM 14/11/07
@dearhaw: I agree. I want to see it in HD, dammit!
superdave
dragonphyre
Posted 9:57 AM 14/11/07
This is HD.
This... is... NOT HD!!!
MOONINITES! TONIGHT, WE DINE AT CARL'S HOUSE!
dragonphyre
dearhaw
Posted 9:45 AM 14/11/07
@BobbyMills:
You'd hear like this high screeching kind of singing voices, then you will hear "Also sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss. Quite amazing, really.
dearhaw
twoback
Posted 9:36 AM 14/11/07
@twoback: uggh its [www.theflatearthsociety.org]
twoback
twoback
Posted 9:30 AM 14/11/07
so what has the [www.flatearthsociety.org] said about this?
twoback
x23
Posted 9:30 AM 14/11/07
@Saad Rabia: yeah. the shadows are all wrong. multiple light sources as if made by studio lighting mannnnnn!
x23
Saad Rabia
Posted 9:26 AM 14/11/07
This was shot inside a studio. Lame and Useless.
Saad Rabia
itchytooth
Posted 9:24 AM 14/11/07
@BobbyMills: You would hear cheese.
itchytooth
flyboy
Posted 9:23 AM 14/11/07
Its sad to think the blue planet might end up looking like the grey one in the foreground...
it really is.
flyboy
BobbyMills
Posted 9:21 AM 14/11/07
wait, if there was sound, what exactly would we hear?
BobbyMills
dearhaw
Posted 9:21 AM 14/11/07
@beneditor:
Yeah, I'm slightly miffed by that, too. What's the use of touting HD when they only make available something that's only slightly better than SD?
Then again, with somebody like NHK (kinda like BBC) behind the HD technology, I can understand why: they want to keep the HD content exclusive to their TV shows. Still miffed to think that it's my tax Yen that went into the spacecraft :p
dearhaw
lowmax
Posted 9:20 AM 14/11/07
Any hope for some HD footage of the waving American flag... Someone wants to win a 5 year old bet.
lowmax
wig
Posted 9:18 AM 14/11/07
"And then they squeezed the thing down to a miserable 480 x 270 pixels; heavily compressed etc..."
Sigh. Where is the "HD" in that?
wig
beneditor
Posted 9:12 AM 14/11/07
"Now you know"? I know what it looks like in a crappy little box on a computer screen. I would LOVE to know what it looks like in HD. The link only has a lower res vid too...
beneditor
NZRUSS
Posted 9:10 AM 14/11/07
I've seen that planet up close.
NZRUSS
BostonK
Posted 9:01 AM 14/11/07
I for one welcome our Earthling overlords.
BostonK
LillieDesigns
Posted 8:59 AM 14/11/07
this looked cool with some as i lay dying playing on my itunes.
LillieDesigns
PRO7
Posted 8:53 AM 14/11/07
Looks animated...
PRO7
Robert Isbell
Posted 5:31 PM 14/11/07
I am so glad to see a new photo of our home, to illustrate just how small our wars are in the big picture. I keep hoping the people that think fighting, violence, and conflict means anything needs to be stuck on the moon and have them look back at the earth.
Robert Isbell
tekmiester
Posted 5:01 PM 14/11/07
so is it on Blu-Ray or HD DVD?
tekmiester
Aristotlean
Posted 10:07 AM 14/11/07
I wonder if the camera is zooming or moving.
Look at the crater that appears with 1:41 left. Did the Kaguya/Serene monster truck over it without shaking the camera at all?
I don't think it is a zoom, because watch how the horizon disappears as if the moon is rotating, and the rover is moving away from the rotation.
All in all, without further proof, I have doubts of the source of this video.
Aristotlean
chevronexxon
Posted 6:09 PM 14/11/07
If you fart in space after eating nothing but tang and freeze dried ice cream, in zero gravity, will the fart eventually dissipate or can you come back fifteen minutes into the same corner you were in and smell it. The space Buttercup!
chevronexxon
pashdown
Posted 5:46 PM 14/11/07
Why no HD? Fire up the torrents JAXA!
pashdown