During the Astro-1 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] astronomy mission of December, 1990, Space Shuttle [ http://spaceflight.…] astronauts photographed this stunning [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] view of the setting full moon poised above the Earth's limb. In the foreground, towering clouds of condensing water vapor [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] mark the extent of the troposphere, the lowest layer of the planet's life-sustaining atmosphere [ http://liftoff.msfc…atmosphere.html ]. Strongly scattering blue sunlight, the upper atmospheric layer, the stratosphere, fades dramatically to the black background of space. Moon [ http://cass.jsc.nas…] and clouds are [ http://climate.gsfc…Types/Types.htmd/TXT .html ] strong visual elements of many well known portraits of planet Earth [ http://earthobserva…], including Ansel Adams' famous "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico" [ http://www.geh.org/…m197400820001_ful.ht ml#topofimage ], photographed in 1941.
