Two neighboring craters in Africa had very different origins.
Published Jan 9, 2012Ephemeral lakes grow with a fresh pulse of water in December 2011.
Published Jan 2, 2012A comet rises into view from the east around the December solstice.
Published Jan 1, 2012After dark, a fiesta of lights provides the outline for Spain and Portugal.
Published Dec 26, 2011Astronauts and Santa Claus have a similar view of the planet.
Published Dec 24, 2011Lake Eyre did something in 2011 that it doesn’t do very often: it took on new water.
Published Dec 19, 2011Northwestern and central Argentina are subject to frequent dust storms, such as this one viewed in November 2011 from the ISS over South America.
Published Dec 12, 2011Astronauts on the ISS captured an unusual, airplane-like view of the Antarctic Peninsula and nearby islands.
Published Dec 5, 2011The Selenga River Delta, which stretches out into Russia’s Lake Baikal, is carved by an intricate network of channels and levees and surrounded by marshlands.
Published Nov 28, 2011The limb of the Earth is a work of awesome beauty and a gift to science.
Published Nov 26, 2011A clearly visible line marks about 50 kilometers of the international border between Egypt and Israel.
Published Nov 21, 2011Astronauts captured this view of a Progress supply ship streaking across the sky as it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere.
Published Nov 14, 2011Rowley Shoals, a series of atolls off northwestern Australia, are popular with divers and fisherman interested in the hundreds of marine species.
Published Nov 7, 2011Crepuscular rays stream through the clouds over India, providing scientific and spiritual inspiration.
Published Oct 31, 2011When viewed from the International Space Station, the night skies are illuminated with light from many sources.
Published Oct 24, 2011Volcan Parinacota is a potentially active stratovolcano located on the Altiplano, a high plateau in the Andes mountains.
Published Oct 17, 2011This astronaut photograph illustrates slash-and-burn forest clearing along the Rio Xingu (Xingu River) in the state of Matto Grasso, Brazil.
Published Oct 10, 2011Bigach Impact Crater in northeastern Kazakhstan is about five million years old—long enough to be reshaped by geologic process, erosion, and human activity.
Published Oct 3, 2011Viewed from the space station, Hurricane Katia presented an impressive cloud circulation as its center passed the northeastern coast of the United States on September 9, 2011.
Published Sep 26, 2011This photograph taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station highlights a sand dune field within the Burqin-Haba River-Jimunai Desert near the borders of China, Mongolia, Russia, and Kazakhstan.
Published Sep 19, 2011Petermann Ice Island A still behaves like the massive ice sheet it left 14 months ago.
Published Sep 17, 2011California’s Owens Lake was once part of a much larger lake and river system during the Pleistocene Epoch (about 3 million to 12,000 years ago).
Published Sep 12, 2011This panoramic view of east-central Texas highlights numerous smoke plumes caused by wildfires burning across the state.
Published Sep 8, 2011Clusters of yellow lights on the Indo-Gangetic Plain reveal numerous cities large and small, as well as a border fence.
Published Sep 5, 2011Several of the oldest cities of northwestern Europe are highlighted in this nighttime astronaut photograph from August 10, 2011.
Published Aug 29, 2011This ISS photograph captures two great lagoons to the north and south of Kaliningrad, Russia: Vistula Lagoon and Kurshsky Bay.
Published Aug 22, 2011Astronauts captured this unusual view of a Perseid meteor descending into Earth's atmosphere in August 2011.
Published Aug 17, 2011Crete is the largest and most heavily populated island of Greece.
Published Aug 15, 2011A smoke pall dominates this view of tropical southern Africa, one of the most fire-prone regions of the world.
Published Aug 8, 2011Bathed in sunlight reflecting on the water, the Massachusetts coast and islands are the focus of this astronaut photograph.
Published Aug 1, 2011