I am trying to make a high detail earth in blender using NASA Blue Marble images. The image i am trying to use is almost 9000 pixels wide and 44MB. However, when i render the image, nothing appears. Is there a tesxture size limit in blender, or is this my computer?
never mind, wrong file type.
You realize, of course, that there is no benefit to using such a large map unless you are rendering a 9000x9000 pixel image? You are just increasing your render time at that point. You should match your texture map size, roughly, to the size of your final output.
Good point, unless you are making a planet! 
you still keep detail when moving the camera closer to the object though, right?
@Friar: Yep, if the scene requires a zoom-in.