The Earth seen from Apollo 17.
Suomi NPP, NASA’s newest Earth-watching satellite, has taken an amazing 8000×8000 pixel resolution image of the Earth and I’d say it’s one of the most beautiful such images ever created.
The satellite, named after the “father of satellite meteorology,” Verner E. Suomi, is designed to create images of Earth, monitor for natural disasters and improve weather forecasts as well as monitoring long-term climate changes.
The image is a composite, created using a number of swaths of the Earth’s surface taken on Jan. 4, 2012. It’s simialr to the very popular “Blue Marble” photograph taken by the crew of Apollo 17 on Dec, 7, 1972.
Planet Earth’s Northern Hemisphere
Related articles
- This 121-Megapixel Photo of Earth Will Make Your Jaw Drop (mashable.com)
- Blue Marble 2012 (theonlinephotographer.typepad.com)
- NASA’s Blue Marble: 50 Years Of Earth Images (informationweek.com)
- This Is the Definitive Photograph of Planet Earth
[Video] (gizmodo.com)
How NASA Creates Those Beautiful Blue Marble Photos of Earth (petapixel.com)