Indeed, the planet did look like some visions of hell.
One planet looks so much like another when you're up here.
The planet looming up on the screen looked too good to be true.
Our planet looks dramatically different than it did millions of years ago.
They notice that the planet looks orange on the surface.
They know that from outer space our planet looks even more beautiful.
The planet has almost always looked and behaved as it does now.
The effect always made planets look more cheerful than they actually were.
However, the planet does not look like the Earth that the crew have seen in recordings.
The planet looked, at least from orbit, basically the same.