13 Most Iconic Science Pictures Ever Taken

3. Earthrise

When the first manned mission to the moon, Apollo 8, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, 1968, it beamed a Christmas broadcast back to Earth like no other.

Among the images sent back home was this one, showing the Earth in a way that many had never seen it before. A blue marble suspended in nothingness. Lovell observed "The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth."

Seeing Earth from this fragile perspective for the first time is credited with beginning the environmental movements of the following decades and it was features in LIFE's 100 Photographs that Changed the World as "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken."