M81 or Bode’s galaxy
Alf Jacob Nilsen/Alamy
There is something about seeing our home from a distance that is special – whether it’s spotting your neighbourhood from an aeroplane or looking at pictures of Earth taken from space, it lends a sense of perspective. Astronauts call this the overview effect: a feeling of awe and connection to the communities and world around us, and the beauty of our little green planet. It has always seemed a bit sad to me that we couldn’t get an even broader perspective, a picture of our whole solar system or galaxy from afar,…