The Beauty
of Earth
from Space
New Book Highlights Geography from Space through Remote Sensing Techniques
Swirling white clouds, deep blue oceans and multicolored landscapes bring to life the pages of NASA’s new 168-page book “Earth,” a collection of dramatic images captured by Earth-observing satellites.
50 years ago, astronauts left Earth’s orbit for the first time and looked back at our “blue marble.” All of these years later, as we continue to send spacecraft and point our telescopes past the outer edges of the solar system, as we study our planetary neighbors and our Sun in exquisite detail, there remains much to see and explore at home.
We are still just getting to know Earth through the tools of science. For centuries, painters, poets, philosophers, and photographers have sought to teach us something about our home through their art.
This book stands at an intersection of science and art. From its origins, NASA has studied our planet in novel ways, using ingenious tools to study physical processes at work—from beneath the crust to the edge of the atmosphere. We chose these images because they inspire. They tell a story of a 4.5-billion-year-old planet where there is always something new to see. – Michael Carlowicz