Start Date: End Date: Published Date Data Date
Nardo Ring, Italy
540 x 540 JPEG
Published September 10, 2007
The Nardò Ring is a striking visual feature from space, and astronauts have photographed it several times. The Ring is a race car test track; it is 12.5 kilometers long and steeply banked to reduce the amount of active steering needed by drivers. Although it is a perfect circle, it appears oval in this photograph. This distortion is because the astronaut’s viewing angle was 35 degrees, looking back along the orbit track to the southwest from the International Space Station’s window.
Related images:
1000 x 1000 433 KB - JPEG
JPEG
Shiveluch Volcano, Russia’s Far East
540 x 334 JPEG
Published September 3, 2007
Shiveluch is one of the biggest and most active of a line of volcanoes that follow the spine of the Kamchatka Peninsula in easternmost Russia. The volcanoes and peninsula are part of the tectonically active “Ring of Fire,” a zone of active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes that nearly surrounds the Pacific Ocean.
1000 x 618 480 KB - JPEG
Ceuta, Northern Africa
540 x 405 JPEG
Published August 27, 2007
he southern tip of Spain and the northern tip of Africa come close to touching at the Strait of Gibraltar. The small Spanish enclave Ceuta occupies a narrow isthmus of land on the African side of the Strait of Gibraltar; the rest of the surrounding territory is Morocco.
1000 x 618 438 KB - JPEG
Bechar Basin, Algeria
Published August 6, 2007
The Béchar Basin of northwest Algeria formed as layers of sedimentary rocks from the Paleozoic Era (250-540 million years ago) folded and cracked during collisions of Africa and Europe during the Tertiary Period (2-65 million years ago). In this photograph of part of the basin captured by astronauts, dark brown to tan folded ridges of these Paleozoic sedimentary layers extend across the image from top to bottom.
1000 x 750 375 KB - JPEG
Brooklyn, New York Waterfront
Published July 30, 2007
his astronaut photograph captures the dense urban fabric of Brooklyn, New York City’s largest borough (population of 2.6 million), characterized by the regular pattern of highly reflective building rooftops (white). Two main arteries from Manhattan into Brooklyn—the famous Brooklyn Bridge and neighboring Manhattan Bridge—cross the East River along the left (north) side of the image.
1000 x 750 571 KB - JPEG
Upheaval Dome, Utah
Published July 23, 2007
Upheaval Dome is a striking geologic structure in the Canyonlands National Park of southern Utah. The alternating rock layers make a nearly circular, 5.5-kilometer- (3.4-mile-) diameter “bull’s-eye.” This photograph of Upheaval Dome was taken by an astronaut onboard the International Space Station. The oblique viewing angle—in other words, not looking straight down—provides a sense of the topography within and around the structure. The dome appears more like an ellipse than a circle due to the oblique viewing perspective.
1000 x 611 217 KB - JPEG
Maracaibo City and Oil Slick, Venezuela
Published July 9, 2007
This astronaut photograph depicts the narrow strait between Lake Maracaibo and the Gulf of Venezuela. The brackish lake sits on top of a vast reservoir of buried oil deposits.
1000 x 547 184 KB - JPEG
Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Maryland
Published July 2, 2007
Maryland’s Patuxent River Naval Air Station is located on a small peninsula, bordered by the Patuxent River to the north-northeast and Chesapeake Bay to the east and southeast. International Space Station crews frequently use the Patuxent River Naval Air Station as a geographic reference point and photographic training target. This astronaut photograph illustrates why—the distinctive pattern of the airfield runways and the station’s location in Chesapeake Bay make it easy to spot from orbit.
1000 x 1000 555 KB - JPEG
Southern Everglades National Park, Florida
Published June 11, 2007
Everglades National Park in southern Florida is the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States. Known as the “river of grass,” the Everglades wetlands and wooded uplands host a variety of endangered species including crocodiles, manatees, and panthers.
1000 x 750 395 KB - JPEG
Den Helder, Netherlands
Published June 4, 2007
The city and harbor of Den Helder in the northern Netherlands has been the home port of the Dutch Royal Navy for over 175 years. The location provides access to the North Sea, which has made it an important commercial and strategic port. Bright red agricultural fields to the south of Den Helder indicate another noteworthy aspect of the region—commercial farming of tulips and hyacinth.
1000 x 1000 506 KB - JPEG
Concepcion Volcano, Nicaragua
Published May 29, 2007
Concepción Volcano is one of the tallest and most active of Nicaragua’s volcanoes. The 1,610-meter (5,280-foot), cone-shaped volcano is the northern half of dumbbell-shaped Isla de Ometepe. To the northwest of the crater, a very faint plume (probably steam) creeps like fog down the mountain, blurring the sharp gullies that carve the volcano’s flanks.
1000 x 750 259 KB - JPEG
Monteregian Hills, Quebec, Canada
Published May 28, 2007
This astronaut photograph of the area to the east of Montreal, Canada, captures two striking patterns. The circular features are the central members of a group of unusual rock formations known as the Monteregian Hills: Mont St. Hilaire, Rougemont, and Mont Yamaska. The rectangular pattern blanketing the landscape in the background reveals the intensive agriculture in the fertile lowlands in southern Quebec.
1000 x 618 364 KB - JPEG