NASA 'Blue Marble' Series: The Best Images Of The Earth To Date (PHOTOS)

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center has recently uploaded a stunning series of high-resolution photos to its Flickr account. The series, called 'Blue Marble,' features satellite-based composite photographs taken from June to September 2001. According to NASA, the 'Blue Marble' images are the 'most detailed true-color images of the entire Earth to date.'

Unlike single-frame images taken of Earth from above, the 'Blue Marble' series is a 'mosaic' of photographs. Land surface, deep oceans and seas, shallow coastlines, ice, and clouds were compiled and 'stitched together' by scientists and visualizers to create a 'seamless' portrait of our planet.

See the newest stunning, detailed 'Blue Marble' images below, then compare them to the original 'Blue Marble' photograph, taken by Apollo 17 in 1968.

Quick Poll

The new 'Blue Marble' images are...

Breathtaking!

Average.

Not nearly as cool as I'd hoped.

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Comments

[ObamaSheeple]

02:40 AM on 03/22/2010

I haven't read it nor watched the video but the I'd bet the other part of his finger is stuck in his sas.

[BlueZoo]

07:33 PM on 03/03/2010

Whenever you're feeling self-important, take a gander at one of these pictures of the "blue marble." That should put you in your place straightaway! (Are you listening Wall Street bankers and D.C. Senators?)

[digitaljedi]

11:18 AM on 03/03/2010

NASA has airbrushed out all the UFO's as usual.

[So-called-bob]

05:40 PM on 03/02/2010

earth: mostly harmless

[Cooltoad]

03:05 PM on 04/15/2010

except for religious nuts, from all religions.

[disgustedwithall]

02:45 PM on 03/02/2010

They are faked by out government as we all know the earth is only 6,000 years old, flat and we are taxed to much.

[James Ballard]

10:02 AM on 03/02/2010

9:00 AM CST

These are incredible images. Thank you NASA.

J.B.
3/2/10

[BarackDaVote]

08:55 AM on 03/02/2010

Mother Earth is so Gorgeous, wink wink !

[Cooltoad]

03:06 PM on 04/15/2010

haah, did you watch "men who stare at goats"? They have a cooky prayer to earth, you should listen to it.

[WindySailor]

08:52 AM on 03/02/2010

Earth would have been better off with no human race. Then the aliens could vacation here without being shot at.

[enoughofrr]

07:02 PM on 03/03/2010

yeah, right

[Atra]

08:40 AM on 03/02/2010

Where's the freaking stars?

[James Ballard]

09:47 AM on 03/02/2010

@ "Atra"
8:45 AM CST

Quote :

..."Where's the freaking stars?"...

...OMG !!...You just proved all these images are fake !!....Either "paint by numbers"...or....or... "picture puzzles !!...

...Uh...maybe you can't see the stars because....because... of the reflectivity of Mother Earth...If NASA were to expose for the much dimmer light of the stars, the earth would be overexposed and washed out....I said "maybe"...you're on your own now....

J.B.
3/2/10

[Hirnlego]

05:00 PM on 03/03/2010

Heard of light pollution? The suns light is highly reflected from the earth and which no stars can match...

[James Ballard]

05:52 PM on 03/03/2010

@ "Hirnlego"

...You better stop calling light a form of "pollution", or feel the rath of Saucer Chief's Photon-Rogon-Laser-Beam-Dematerializer !!...

Saucer Chief

[Jymac]

08:16 AM on 03/02/2010

We actually live on that?

[popart]

05:28 AM on 03/02/2010

so litle land that is usuable...so much ice ocean desert mountains....so thin an atmosphere....so little space for billionsof us clever monkeys....isnt it time to get serious about over population issues.

[restoretheconstitution2]

06:32 AM on 03/02/2010

As in eugenics? Great idea, glad you thought of it!

[JohnFromCensornati]

06:48 AM on 03/02/2010

Blessed are they who oppose birth control for they shall inherit the earth and swarm it like locusts and teabaggers.

[gal416]

08:29 AM on 03/02/2010

soylent green

[NelsonBig]

03:39 AM on 03/02/2010

Where are the border lines.....oh wait....forgot those are fake.

[theiccemann]

08:36 AM on 03/02/2010

... in our minds. You have to add "intelligence" to the photos.

We fight and destroy each other over land boundaries, natural resources, foods, religions, color of skin, texture of hair, preference of soda, whether or not to help the sick, ...

... and all of this divides the planet like an insanely made jigsaw puzzle. We do this on a planet that is almost irrelevant, when it is placed into it's reality context with the universe. We should be obsessed with not each other and meaningless material, but with what we could find out ... there.

As with the orbit of our planet, we are just going around in circles. ... drowning in arrogance and pestilence.

[PresidentRobertBooth]

03:39 AM on 03/02/2010

Images like that are stunning.


They also make a mockery of the pettiness involved in human civilisation.

[Cheapthrills]

08:44 AM on 03/02/2010

You are so right...

[Nominal]

09:23 AM on 03/02/2010

Faved.

[Ganapati]

12:25 AM on 03/02/2010

Does the Southern Hemisphere exist for the people who publish these photos?
Also, the photos don't seem BREATHTAKING, maybe if we could see true high res, otherwise...

[dontpanic1]

08:21 AM on 03/02/2010

I was just asking that question... I guess not.

[wadenelson1]

09:53 AM on 03/02/2010

Co-sign. Internet pictures should have a link to the original, hi-res whenever possible.

Especially AP & other news stories. It's so disappointing to continually get stuck with tiny low-res images.

[Rangerguy2000]

12:20 AM on 03/02/2010

sometimes these pics make me think if they are real :)

[victorsays]

02:04 AM on 03/02/2010

Yeah, when I look at space photo it looks so amazing, I second guessed myself. Since so few people have actually gone into space, it is really is unknown.

[Johndinca]

04:14 AM on 03/02/2010

It sure is convenient that the north pole is always at the top of these photos.

Have you ever seen a map where North America is at the bottom? It really makes you think.