What is the ‘overview effect’? We may be watching it play out right now in space | CNN

As the Artemis II astronauts hurtled around the moon during their historic flyby, basking in unprecedented views of the illuminated lunar far side, pilot Victor Glover described the visuals as “sci-fi.” “You can actually see a majority of the moon,” he gushed as the crew watched meteors strike the moon’s surface. “It is the strangest looking thing that you can see so much on the surface.” That experience — viewing such an alien terrain at close range as the sun gleamed over the horizon, highlighting the troughs and peaks of a foreign land — brought home for the crew how unique our home planet is. As the crew regained contact with Earth and locked on with the glowing blue marble once again, Christina Koch marveled at lunar flyby experience but paid special homage to the comforts awaiting back home. “We will explore. We will build ships. We will visit again. We will construct science outposts,” Koch said. “We will inspire — but ultimately, we will always choose Earth. We will always choose each other.” The astronauts’ expressions of admiration and longing for Earth echo a long history of space explorers gaining new appreciation for their home planet. Itâ