Astronauts Reveal Top 10 Photos of Earth
NASA astronauts have shared their top ten photographs of Earth as taken from space.
The photos have been taken as part of the Crew Earth Observations (CEO) experiment. The CEO experiment is an ongoing mission to provide people on Earth with data about our ever changing planet.
Astronauts have been taking photos of Earth since the early 1960s. Nowadays, the CEO experiment continues on the International Space Station (ISS), which hovers around 220 miles (354 kilometers) above Earth.
The photos to the right are included in the top ten Earth observations. The top photo was taken when Mt Cleveland erupted for about two hours in 2006.
The second photo shows what the Himalayas look like from the International Space Station. This photo includes Mount Everest (the world’s highest mountain) and Mount Makalu (world’s fifth highest mountain).
The astronauts on the International Space Station spend between 10 and 20 minutes per day taking photos of Earth. They use hand held cameras, which include 35 and 70 mm cameras.
Areas to be photographed are both pre-determined, and decided by the crew. The pre-determined areas are generally regions of Earth that have undergone change or are indicators of global change.
Many of the pre-determined sites include major deltas in south and east Asia; coral reefs; smog-prone urban regions; areas experiencing major floods or droughts triggered by El Niño cycles; high altitude glaciers, which reflect longer-term climate changes; faults associated with major tectonic plate boundaries; and unusual features on Earth, like impact craters comparable to structures on other planet.
Tags: earth, earth photos, nasa
June 6th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
[...] recently wrote about the Crew Earth Observations experiment, where crew of the International Space Station photograph the [...]