Space

Earth as a System
The first time people got a glimpse of the whole [|Earth] was December 1968. Apollo 8 astronauts took pictures of the Earth as they traveled to and from the [|Moon]. In their photographs, the Earth looks like a small blue and white marble in a sea of black space. Looking at the planet from that far away makes it easy to see that all its parts – the [|living things], the [|air] , the [|water] , the [|ice] , and the [|rocks] - are connected. Everything on Earth is in the same boat floating through space - a system. Since the 1980s, NASA scientists have been studying the [|Earth] as they study other planets – mainly from above with satellites. Based on this way of looking at Earth, they developed the idea of **Earth system science**. “From space we can view the Earth as a whole system, observe the net results of complex interactions, and begin to understand how the planet is changing in response to natural and human influences,” NASA explained in a 2003 report.
 * || [[image:http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/images/apollo8_earth_sm.jpg link="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/images/apollo8_earth_lg_jpg_image.html"]] =====The Earth as viewed from the Moon during the Apollo 8 mission. Click on image for full size //NASA// ===== ||
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