Most iconic images of Earth ever taken from space (Part 1)

Apollo 11 astronauts took this photo of Earth on July 20, 1969.

When people and robots launch into space on far-off missions, it's a quiet tradition to briefly turn back toward Earth and take a photo.

These rare views of our home planet — recorded from hundreds, thousands, millions, or even billions of miles away, often with outdated cameras — are rarely as crisp or colorful as the smartphone images we snap today on terra firma.

But the exceptional perspective they afford more than compensates for any visual shortcomings.

Photos of Earth from space not only help scientists understand how a habitable world looks from afar, aiding the search to find more cozy planets, but also remind us of a humbling and chilling truth: We live on a tiny, fragile rock that is hopelessly lost in the cosmic void.

Here are 25 of the most arresting images of Earth and the moon from space that humankind has ever captured. (We recommend viewing this post on a desktop computer.)

A few rare satellites launched by humanity enjoy a full view of Earth from thousands or even a million miles away.

Taken by: Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) spacecraft

Date: April 9, 2015

NASA and NOAA created this composite image using photos taken by Suomi NPP, a weather satellite that orbits Earth 14 times a day. You can see the Joalane tropical cyclone in the Indian Ocean (top right).

But it's when we venture deeper into space that Earth comes into spellbinding focus.

Taken by: Rosetta

Date: November 12, 2009

To rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2007 — which it will crash into (on September 30, 2016) — the Rosetta spacecraft needed a speed boost with the help of Earth's gravity. This photo it took of Earth shows the South Pole and Antarctica illuminated by the sun.

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