On Dec. 21, 1968, Apollo 8 launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Fla. The astronaut crew — Frank Borman, Bill Anders and James Lovell — were the first humans to escape Earth’s orbit, venturing about 240,000 miles farther than anyone before them. Their mission was to orbit the moon, testing the viability of a future moon landing. NASA was focused on getting to the moon and beating the Soviet Union in the space race; everything else, including photography, was secondary. Yet during their lunar orbit, the crew emerged from the dark side of the moon to see the Earth rising before them over the lunar horizon. They scrambled to capture the image, producing the first color photograph taken of the Earth from the moon. It became known as “Earthrise” and has become one of the most well-known photographs in history.
COPENHAGEN — Outside Denmark’s Louisiana Museum of Modern Art on a recent late-summer morning, a few sunstruck visitors were sprawling on the turf of the sculpture garden, between monumental outdoor works by Alexander Calder and Richard Serra. Beyond them, facing east toward Sweden, the waters of the Oresund strait were a serene blue, lightly scalloped with wind. The scent of freshly cut grass was in the air.
(PRINCETON, NJ) -- D&R Greenway Land Trust invites the public to a unique bus excursion to the regional premier performance of Sam Guarnaccia’s Emergent Universe Oratorio. Performed by the Main Line Symphony Orchestra, with choral singers from Pennsylvania and Vermont, it will take place at Villanova University Church, on Saturday, July 28 at 7:30pm. The bus will depart at 5:30pm from D&R Greenway Land Trust’s Johnson Education Center, returning by 11:30pm. Wine and hors d’oeuvres will be provided.
A Yale-led research group has created the most detailed maps yet of a vast seedbed of stars similar to Earth’s Sun.
The featured conversations on this page are from the Journey of the Universe Conversation Series, formerly titled "Education Series." The twenty-part series is available for purchase in a 4-DVD set.