Voyage

January 15, 2007

Ncesseearth

Referred by: Jeff Goldstein, National Center for Earth and Space Science Education
Summary authors & editors: Jeff Goldstein

From space, Earth’s swirling white clouds reveal an often-turbulent atmosphere. The browns are landmasses, but mostly we see the blue of a planet covered with oceans of water. As nightfall sweeps westward across its face, the land begins to glow with lights—we can see ourselves.

This image and text is from the Earth storyboard of the Voyage Scale Model Solar System exhibition permanently installed on the National Mall in Washington, DC. The image is a computer-generated composite with day and night views of the Continental U.S. superimposed using GOES-8 imagery, created for the exhibition and copyright by ARC Science Simulations. Voyage portrays the Sun, planets, and largest moons at one ten-billionth actual size. The exhibition is contained on 13 stanchions along the sidewalk from the National Air and Space Museum to the Smithsonian Castle, spanning a distance of 600 meters (2,000 ft). Porcelain enamel storyboards with full color imagery and compelling text provide up-close views of the planets and moons.

The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education is making replicas of the exhibition available for permanent installation in communities world-wide, along with extensive resources and programming. Voyage takes an entire community to the frontiers of exploration.

Image copyright ARC Science Simulations, 2000.

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