When Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders snapped the iconic Earthrise image, it captured the imagination of the people on Earth and helped inspire the first Earth Day. It’s a beautiful image and reminds us how fragile our home planet is.
Earthrise also showed us Earth like we’d never really seen it before, as a far-off world rising in the night sky – the way the Moon usually does. Seen from the Moon, Earth goes through the same phases the Moon does here, from crescent to full, illuminated by the Sun.
In honor of Earth Day, we’ve created downloadable posters that show Earth’s phases as seen from the Moon, including the big day on April 22, 2020. We also have a poster showing the layers of Earth and Earth’s atmosphere.