The first-ever picture of Earth from space was grainy, black and white — and it changed how we see our planet.

On October 24, 1946, a captured German V-2 rocket, its warhead swapped for scientific instruments, launched from White Sands, New Mexico. On board was a 35mm motion-picture camera snapping a frame roughly every 1.5 seconds.

The rocket climbed to about 105 km (65 miles) before crashing back to the desert. The film, protected inside a steel canister, survived — revealing Earth's curve against the blackness of space for the first time.

Why it still matters: that experiment led directly to weather satellites, GPS imagery and every photo of Earth we take for granted today.

What's the most amazing image of Earth you've ever seen?

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