Why do images of earth from space not contain satellites and other space junk?
In: Earth Science
As others have mentioned, the Earth is big – real big compared to a satellite. In order to get a picture of the entire Earth at once you need to be pretty far away – to the order of thousands of kilometers.
Geostationary orbit is about 35,000 kilometers or 22,000 miles away from the earth as an example.
Most satellites or “space junk” are maybe the size of a car. Imagine looking at a car from a mile away. Then ten miles, a hundred miles, a thousand miles.
You can see the Earth because it is huge, but that car floating in the void thousands of miles away? Not a chance.
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