In 1968, Apollo 8 photographed the famous Earthrise during its fourth lunar orbit; decades later, NASA used time-lapse images and LRO maps to reconstruct when and where it happened

For decades, no one could say where Apollo 8 was orbiting when Earth rose over the Moon on December 24, 1968. Astronaut William Anders captured it on the spacecraft's orbit, almost by accident, and that moment became one of the most reproduced photographs in history. According to NASA's Earth Observatory, the precise second and location remained unknown for 45 years, until the answer was found hiding in plain sight, buried in a second camera nobody on board was paying attention to.

Why an unplanned glance changed spaceflight history