In July last year, NASA relayed the very first image taken by its Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (ironically, EPIC for short).
The image marked the first of its kind to show the sunlit side of the Earth. A year later, NASA has gifted us dwelling here on the big spinning rock with vision of what a year on Earth looks like from a million miles away. Mind blown.
EPIC is a component of the satellite Deep Space Climate Observatory (DISCOVR), which is balanced between the gravity of the planet we call home and the sun. It captures a photo every two hours that depicts just how the human eye would see its home from the outside -- from its atmospheric changes to its drifting of clouds and stirring of storm systems.
Aside from its ability to make you feel infinitesimal in an ever-expanding universe, the camera's primary purpose is to maintain U.S. real time wind-monitoring capabilities, which are a vital component when forecasting space weather alerts.
