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To honor the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and the 20th anniversary of NASA’s Earth Observatory, the agency asked the public to choose our best image of all time on Earth. After five five-round tournaments and more than 56,000 votes, readers chose Ocean Sand, Bahamas as their favorite.
We have published 16 of the other main participants. You can see the full results of the tournament at the Earth Observatory.
Ocean Sand, Bahamas (2001)
through NASA
Although the image above may resemble a new era painting taken directly from an art gallery in Venice Beach, California, it is in fact a satellite image of the sands and seaweeds in the Bahamas.
The image was taken by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM +) instrument aboard the Landsat 7 satellite. Tidal and ocean currents in the Bahamas sculpted the seabed and sand bottoms in these multi-colored, ribbed patterns in the same way as winds carved the vast sand dunes in the Sahara desert.
Raikoke Erupts (2019)
through NASA
An unexpected series of explosions from a remote volcano in the Kuril Islands sent ash and volcanic gases that flowed high above the North Pacific Ocean.
“What a spectacular image. It reminds me of astronaut Sarychev Peak’s classic photograph of an eruption in the Kuriles about ten years ago, “said Simon Carn, a Michigan Tech volcanologist.” The ring of fluffy white clouds at the base of the spine could be a a sign that ambient air enters the column and condensation of water vapor. Or it could be an increasing plume due to the interaction between magma and seawater because Raikoke is a small island and the flows probably entered the water ” .
Where the dunes end (2019)
through NASA
Mountains of sand, some up to 300 meters high, stretch from the Namib desert floor of Africa into the sky. Driven by the wind, these dunes march through the desert, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean and in other directions by solid, rocky land.
The abrupt transition from sand to land is visible in these images, acquired on November 13, 2019 by Operational Land Imager (OLI) at Landsat 8. They show the northern extent of the Namib Sand Sea, a field of sand dunes encompassing plus more than 3 million hectares (over 10,000 square miles) within Namib-Naukluft Park, which was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013. The sand appears red, painted by a layer of iron oxide.
Twin Blue Marbles (2007)
through NASA
This view of Earth from space is a fusion of science and art, drawing on data from multiple satellite missions and the talents of NASA scientists and graphic artists. The twin images are a composite of multiple images taken between 1994 and 2004.
Fire in the sky and on the ground (2011)
through NASA
Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) used a digital camera to capture several hundred photographs of the southern aurora, or “southern lights,” as they passed over the Indian Ocean on September 17, 2011.
Columbia Glacier Retreat (2014)
through NASA
Scientists have long studied Alaska’s fast-moving Columbia Glacier, a tidal glacier that descends through the Chugach Mountains to Prince William Sound. However, the river of ice continues to offer new surprises.
Preliminary results show that both the west branch and the east branch (which feeds the main branch) now move between 5 and 10 meters (16 and 33 feet) per day. That is slow for Columbia, but fast compared to other glaciers.
View of Earth from Saturn (2006)
through NASA
through NASA
Seen from a billion kilometers away, through the dust and ice particles of Saturn’s rings, Earth appears as a small, bright spot. The image is a composite (layered image) made of 165 images taken by the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera for nearly three hours on September 15, 2006.
The dark side and the good side (2015)
through NASA
A NASA camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) has captured a unique view of the Moon as it passed between the spacecraft and Earth. A series of test images shows the fully illuminated “dark side” of the Moon that is not visible from Earth.
The images were taken over the course of five hours on July 16, 2015.
A traveler far from home (1977)
The crescent-shaped image of an Earth and Moon was captured on September 18, 1977, when Voyager was just 11.66 million kilometers (7.25 million miles) from Earth and directly over Mount Everest (on the night side of the planet at 25 degrees north) latitude).
On September 5, 1977, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a Titan-Centaur rocket. Thirty-five years later, the planetary probe is now an interstellar traveler, having traveled farther from Earth than any man-made object in history.
Turbulent flows in the Holuhraun lava field (2014)
through NASA
On September 6, 2014, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) in Landsat 8 captured this view of the ongoing eruption in Iceland.
Ice and the steam and sulfur dioxide plume appear cyan and bright blue, while liquid water is navy blue. The bare or rocky terrain around the Holuhraun lava field appears in shades of green or brown in this combination of bands. Fresh lava is bright orange and red.
Antarctica melts under its hottest days on record (2020)
through NASA
On February 6, 2020, weather stations recorded the highest temperature recorded in Antarctica. Thermometers at Esperanza Base in the extreme north of the Antarctic Peninsula reached 18.3 ° C (64.9 ° F), around the same temperature as Los Angeles that day. The warm spell caused widespread melting on nearby glaciers.
Warm temperatures arrived on February 5 and continued until February 13, 2020. The images above show the melting in the Eagle Island Ice Sheet and were acquired by Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 on February 4 and on February 13, 2020.
Atafu Atoll, Tokelau (2009)
through NASA
At about eight kilometers wide, Atafu Atoll is the smallest of three atolls and one island (Nukunonu and Fakaofo atolls to the southeast and Swains Island to the south shown) comprising the Tokelau group of islands located in the south from the Pacific Ocean.
Making waves in the Andaman Sea (2020)
through NASA
The Operational Land Imager (OLI) in Landsat 8 captured these images of the Andaman Sea on November 29, 2019. The reflection of the Sun in the ocean (sunglint) helps to make internal waves visible. Colors have also been slightly improved. The detailed eddies, fronts, and patterns are quite real, but certain shades and tones in the data have been separated and filtered to make the water features more visible.
Just another day in Aerosol Earth (2018)
through NASA
During an August day, tropical cyclones, dust storms, and fires spread small particles throughout the atmosphere.
The Electric Eye of Cyclone Bansi (2015)
Bansi formed in the southwestern Indian Ocean on January 11, 2015. When this photo was taken the next day, Bansi had reached the strength of the tropical cyclone, with maximum sustained winds of more than 185 kilometers (115 miles) per hour. The cyclone would reach Category 4 strength before becoming a weak extratropical system on January 19.
Breathtaking and terrifying views of Hurricane Florence (2018)
Satellites and astronauts observed the powerful storm as it headed for land in the southeastern United States.
