On Christmas Eve in 1968, a photograph was taken that literally travelled around the globe. When William Anders, one of the three Apollo 8 astronauts who successfully orbited the moon, held his camera to photograph the surface of our celestial neighbour there was a moment he and his crew mates just were not prepared for. As they looked out of their spacecraft windows they witnessed the Earth, their own home planet, rising slowly above the barren horizon of the Moon. Anders could not help but capture this view with his camera. When it was published later, the photograph was fittingly named “Earthrise”, inspiring millions of people around the globe and went down in history as one of the most remarkable photographs of the 20th century.
What the astronauts experienced back then but had no words to describe was later named by philosopher Frank White as “The Overview Effect”: a cognitive shift encountered by astronauts when they look at the Earth from space. Since then, many more astronauts went up into orbit but all seemed to have this experience in common: that the sight of Earth against the pitch-black vastness of space was simply overwhelming.
For us living on Earth, this is an experience hard to comprehend but not impossible to imagine. Mountain climbers, pilots or parachutists may have encountered a similar moment when they saw the bigger picture from above. For those in the science communication community, this perspective can help spread more awareness for this planet and its precious biosphere. This is why, every year on April 22, we celebrate International Earth Day.
Having worked on the communicative dimension of the Overview Effect throughout his BA studies, Hagen Wagner gave an online talk for the Astronomers for Planet Earth community to further explain this phenomenon and its wider implications for science communication and outreach. After all, a new understanding of this planet begins with a different perspective.
A recording of the talk is available on the Astro4Earth YouTube channel
If you want to learn more, please reach out to Hagen on slack.
