'The Thin Blue Line': Astronaut Captures View Of Earth's Horizon At Sunset (PHOTO)

The International Space Station has an angle on Earth unlike any other in the history of mankind.

That's why it keeps producing so many incredible images and videos of the planet we thought we knew.

This shot was taken moments before the sun hides behind the Earth, and at the exact moment its light illuminates the outer atmosphere. The result is an iconic blend of blue, pink and purple in the airglow that artists have often portrayed, but is rarely photographed.

The ISS Expedition Three crew captured this shot on September 16, 2001, but NASA featured it as their "Image Of The Day" on September 19, 2011. It's so stunning that it could make you sad that the program's days are numbered. Hopefully, whatever replaces the ISS after Russia takes it down in 2020 will give us the same exciting views and even better images of space.

Want more ISS images? Click here to view a time-lapse of images. Scroll down for video of the Aurora Australis or Southern Lights over Earth's Southern Hemisphere.

Comments

[morenord]

11:25 AM on 09/21/2011

Amazing...I recall one Astronaut saying as he was walking on the moon how he had never seen such blackness..kind of a velvety blackness.

[rkeeeballs]

09:52 AM on 09/21/2011

do you know what it cost for that picture??? directly and indirectly BILLIONS and $$$$$$$..nice view ...if ya can get it...lol.....the sun was going down because mother nature hate's the tea party !

[p8q2b8ng]

11:02 AM on 09/21/2011

Billions of dollars for more than just pictures, spread across many years.

If you just want the pictures it takes, that would cost less than 100 million (including satellite, workers, etc).

[DasistDilly]

06:07 AM on 09/21/2011

Wow! that is truly awe-inspiring. The view is always better outside looking in. Even though I probably don't share the same views as most regarding the space program, or the end of it in the US, I certainly this that it is such a blow. Such a huge blow for humanity!
http://idilly.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/nasa-blow/

[mike711l]

04:34 AM on 09/21/2011

I wonder how they get any work done? I would spend all my time looking out the windows.

[BayConnect]

02:31 AM on 09/21/2011

Go! USA! Go NASA!

[Joseph Furtenbacher]

03:06 AM on 09/21/2011

No need to send the entire show on the road - Georgia will do. Anyone got any spare fertilizer?

[Joaquin Grech]

03:48 AM on 09/21/2011

erm... do you realize this is the ISS? INTERNATIONAL space station...
just wondering, i don't quite get the patriotic thing for one of the few things that should make us proud as a whole planet.

[mike711l]

04:36 AM on 09/21/2011

Yes, one of the few things that much of the world has been able to cooperate on and it's science not religion. surprise, surprise!

[fishnetdiver]

02:14 AM on 09/21/2011

"Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power."

[eastadam]

01:26 AM on 09/21/2011

Once again a "reporter' for Huff Post does not do their full homework & no one fact checks before posting. Dean Praetorius, the author of this piece writes: The ISS Expedition Three crew captured this shot on September 16, 2001.
But if you look at the very bottom left of the photo you will see (& he would have also): ISS003e6857 2003/09/16 09:17:03
Seems to me the photo was snapped in 2003, not 2001. Huff Post needs to get proof readers & editors.

[Stacy Fisher]

02:16 AM on 09/21/2011

Hmmmm, but NASA said it was on Sep. 16, 2011. (Click on the "Image of the Day" in the article.

[IglooUsher]

09:56 AM on 09/21/2011

It's the "Image of the Day." It isn't necessarily an image from the exact day it is released. Wow, some people (Republicans) are soooo thick!

[Maggot451]

01:20 AM on 09/21/2011

That is so beautiful. Has anybody seen this from an airplane flying west. It lasts a long time the gets a beautiful shade of dark blue.

[IR0N TIGER]

12:45 AM on 09/21/2011

Absolutely beautiful!

[Ricardo Martin]

11:25 PM on 09/20/2011

Awesome! Mass Effect gamer-gasm here!

[RespectMyAuthoritah]

11:17 PM on 09/20/2011

That's just breathtaking. How can one look at that picture and not be taken aback by it's awesome beauty?

That's the true meaning of an event horizon! (I know, I know, it really means something else)

[rfburley]

09:40 PM on 09/20/2011

Wow! the Glory of God.

[trumphent]

09:33 AM on 09/21/2011

Incorrect!

[p8q2b8ng]

11:07 AM on 09/21/2011

Wow! the Glory (not sure why we are capitalizing "glory", but not "the") of Science.

[joannevlavender]

09:02 PM on 09/20/2011

Every time I see one of these photos, I am reminded again that this a lovely planet, deserving of our nurturing and protection. Car Sagan called it a heaven juxtaposed against the hell of Venus, a planet where runaway greenhouse effect precludes life.

[shylove2]

08:59 PM on 09/20/2011

It is a bit of atmosphere we should be wanted to protect from harm lest our jewel of lfie called Earth could become a place where life can no longer exist.

[Adam Hose]

08:57 PM on 09/20/2011

That's cool. While not nearly as cool as this Astronaut's picture, I've got a whole album of incredible images in my mind from my years of driving that I wish I could turn into pictures and share with everybody. Again, cool picture.....must of been simply amazing to be there in person to see that.