The Antarctic ozone hole reached its annual maximum on Sept. 12, 2008, stretching over 27 million square kilometers, or 10.5 million square miles. The area is calculated using data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument on NASA's Aura satellite. This is considered a "moderately large" ozone hole, according to NASA atmospheric scientist, Paul Newman. And while this year«És ozone hole is the fifth largest on record, the amount of ozone depleting substances have decreased about 3.8% from peak levels in 2000. The largest ozone hole ever recorded occurred in 2006, at a s ize of 10.6 million square miles. NASA has been monitoring the status of the ozone layer through satellite observations since the 1970s.
The Tien Shan mountain range is one of the largest continuous mountain ranges in the world, extending approximately 1,550 miles (2,500 kilometers) roughly east-west across Central Asia. This image taken by the Expedition 27 crew aboard the International Space Station provides a view of the central Tien Shan, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of where the borders of China, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan meet. The uplift of the Tien Shan, which means celestial mountains in Chinese, like the Himalayas to the south, results from the ongoing collision between the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates. The rugged topography of the range is the result of subsequent erosion by water, wind and, in the highest parts of the range, active glaciers. Two high peaks of the central Tien Shan are identifiable in the image. Xuelian Feng has a summit of 21,414 feet (6,527 meters) above sea level. To the east, the aptly-named Peak 6231 has a summit 6,231 meters, or 20,443 feet, above sea level. Image Credit: NASA
Viewed from space, the most striking feature of our planet is the water. In both liquid and frozen form, it covers 75% of the Earth’s surface. It fills the sky with clouds. Water is practically everywhere on Earth, from inside the planet's rocky crust to inside the cells of the human body. This detailed, photo-like view of Earth is based largely on observations from MODIS, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, on NASA's Terra satellite. It is one of many images of our watery world featured in a new story examining water in all of its forms and functions. Image Credit: NASA
Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 1968. That evening, the astronauts--Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders--held a live broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and moon as seen from their spacecraft. Said Lovell, "The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth." They ended the broadcast with the crew taking turns reading from the book of Gen
esis. Visit the Apollo 8 page for audio and video of the historic mission. Image Credit: NASA
The Lena River, some 2,800 miles long, is the easternmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean and is one of the largest rivers in the world. The Lena Delta Wildlife Reserve, a protected wilderness area, provides an important refuge and breeding ground for many species of Siberian wildlife, and is also an important fish spawning site. Image Credit: NASA
The Antarctic ozone hole reached its annual maximum on Sept. 12, 2008, stretching over 27 million square kilometers, or 10.5 million square miles. The area is calculated using data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument on NASA's Aura satellite. This is considered a "moderately large" ozone hole, according to NASA atmospheric scientist, Paul Newman. And while this year«És ozone hole is the fifth largest on record, the amount of ozone depleting substances have decreased about 3.8% from peak levels in 2000. The largest ozone hole ever recorded occurred in 2006, at a s
ize of 10.6 million square miles. NASA has been monitoring the status of the ozone layer through satellite observations since the 1970s.
The first photo of Earth from a weather satellite, taken by the TIROS-1 satellite on April 1, 1960. Early photographs provided new information on cloud systems, including spiral formations associated with large storms, immediately proving their value to meteorologists.
On March 29, 2011, Operation IceBridge flew between deep canyons and over glaciers along the northwest coast of Greenland. IceBridge, now in its third year, makes annual campaigns in the Arctic and Antarctic where science flights monitor glaciers, ice sheets and sea ice. Image Credit: NASA/Michael Studinger
Most ISS images are nadir, in which the center point of the image is directly beneath the lens of the camera, but this one is not. This highly oblique image of northwestern African captures the curvature of the Earth and shows its atmosphere. The Earth's atmosphere is composed of 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen and 1 percent other constituents, and it shields us from nearly all harmful radiation coming from the sun and other stars. It also protects us from meteors, most of which burn up before they can strike the planet. Affe
cted by changes in solar activity, the upper atmosphere contributes to weather and climate on Earth. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/UCSD/JSC
This image from Apollo 17, and others like it, captured whole hemispheres of water, land and weather. This photo was the first view of the south polar ice cap. Almost the entire coastline of Africa is visible, along with the Arabian Peninsula.