Bruce Murray Space Image Library

EPIC's first view of a full Earth from the Sun-Earth L1 point

EPIC's first view of a full Earth from the Sun-Earth L1 point
EPIC's first view of a full Earth from the Sun-Earth L1 point This is the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) mission's first view of the entire sunlit side of Earth from 1.6 million kilometers away. It was taken by the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), a four-megapixel CCD camera and telescope. The image was taken July 6, 2015, and shows North and Central America. The central turquoise areas are shallow seas around the Caribbean islands. This Earth image shows the effects of sunlight scattered by air molecules, giving the image a characteristic bluish tint. For more about how this image was taken, read this blog post. NASA / GSFC