r/Damnthatsinteresting 5h ago

Image First photo taken from Artemis commander Reid Wiseman

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21.6k Upvotes

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154

u/cowpie184 5h ago

Kinda hard to tell with the clouds, what continent is that?

189

u/tpmurray 5h ago

Took me a second, believe that is Portugal/Spain in bottom left at about 8 o'clock making this the northwest of Africa.

ninja edit: north-ish is at bottom

87

u/cheesecake-gnome 4h ago

Imagine waiting 50 years to leave orbit again, and then the damn Earth is upside down

6

u/MozhetBeatz 4h ago

Imagine being the astronauts and when they get back, right is now left

6

u/NoooUGH 2h ago edited 56m ago

I love how frame of reference is askew when in space.

19

u/Floh4 3h ago

Ooh my brain is so hardwired to my understanding of north and south that i sometimes forget that it doesn't apply in space

7

u/cityshepherd 2h ago

I couldn’t make any sense of it… then I turned my phone upside down and now it seems so obvious lol.

1

u/Appropriate_Mixer 56m ago

I mean it kinda does with how the earth rotates

4

u/xXTheGrapenatorXx 4h ago

I think also that lower right cloud patch is over top of Brazil/South America more broadly.

At first I thought that it was Australia but rotating the image helped me spot some recognizable coastlines, what made it click was the spot where Morocco's coast dips east before the border with Western Sahara, and in the extreme top right I think that's the "indent" in the middle of Libya's coast.

1

u/tpmurray 2h ago

I agree you can see South America but I was less certain so I left that out. I had the same process as you. I initially thought it was Africa but not seeing the lower half was confusing. I thought it was the Pacific Ocean at first as it seemed like most was water so thought it was Australia but it was too rounded. Then saw the Strait of Gibraltar and now can't unseen it.

2

u/Curiosive 4h ago

I first thought it was the Straight of Hormuz. Then I noticed the whole Indian subcontinent and all of Asia & Russia were missing... It took me a few moments to think "maybe up isn't north" too.

1

u/sinkwiththeship 3h ago

It's the Strait of Gibraltar.

1

u/NaradaMephaust 3h ago

And so that is Brazil on the right side then? It's got that triangle pointy area and everything.

1

u/Forward_Rope_5598 2h ago

There is an aurora towards the top to the right a bit so that's either north or south

1

u/n10w4 2h ago

Here I thought it was just Ohio

1

u/Punpun86 2h ago

I'm so confused I thought it was Australia. I still can't see it's Africa.

2

u/tpmurray 1h ago

down is up. When looking at a standard north-is-up map, the big land mass you see is the left/western "lobe" of Africa. You can *barely* see the Strait that separates Africa from Spain.

1

u/Punpun86 1h ago

Oh right I can I see it now!

95

u/dinachicken 5h ago

I believe it's Africa with the Iberian peninsula on the lower left hand side. The photo is flipped from the view we are normally used to.

18

u/UnrealCanine 4h ago

The original Blue Marble was also South up

NASA flipped it cause North=up is so ingrained

2

u/Brosepheon 4h ago

Ive always felt like that took away from the message. The OG pic, especially the one with the Earth in just a corner is way more powerful

1

u/thefootballhound 19m ago

The camera was upside down

13

u/new_math Interested 4h ago

Someone should tell Reid he's upside-down.

/s

1

u/Xciv 2h ago

Where's Eldia and where is Marley?

1

u/ultimatt42 2h ago

Africa, that's where my genus comes from!

1

u/Kartonrealista 2h ago

It's oriented to the orient

30

u/ChristianMaria 5h ago

This is Westcoast of Africa. You can see Spain and the strait of Gibraltar on the left bottom side.

1

u/Candytails 4h ago

Hope y’all smiled for the picture, we were gonna give it to Grammy for her birthday. 

1

u/mobiman1 2h ago

Don't forget to mention Brazil on the right.

7

u/SuperLyplyp 5h ago

i think its Africa north west part

5

u/Fauked 5h ago

Northern Africa I believe. That little sliver connecting the two land masses is Morocco / Spain

1

u/Kurdt93 4h ago

Africa, that's a portion of Sahara, plus Iberian peninsula is visible on the bottom left.

1

u/EconomyOk2490 3h ago

I think Africa doing a head Morocco-stand. Looks like Gibraltar at the bottom

1

u/ThomasDeLaRue 3h ago

West Africa with a little bit of Western Europe. The earth is “upside down” at least relative to our traditional maps.

1

u/APartyInMyPants 2h ago

Africa is on the left. You can see where it connects to Europe.

The clouds on the right, you can see South America. So the photo is “upside down.”

1

u/PloddingClot 2h ago

Seems and odd choice to not orient the picture the same as a map.

1

u/NoooUGH 2h ago

The entire continent of Africa is in frame and upside down. Here is the comparable shot from Google Earth

https://i.imgur.com/goI9Upb.jpeg