Looking at the photos the Artemis II astronauts take of Earth while traveling to the moon, I was wondering how we imagined Earth to look like from space before we went there.
The earliest photos we have of Earth from space are from 1946, taken from a captured German V-2 taking off from New Mexico. Before that, we had to rely on artist’s imaginations. They got some things right, but missed others. They didn’t anticipate how much of the planet would be covered by clouds, but they did understand that those clouds would appear white. More importantly, their imaginations didn’t foresee how intricate and polished Earth would look.
Here is one article on the subject, and here is another.
Nehaveigur 