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Data acquired September 7, 2014 720 x 480 JPEG
Data acquired September 7, 2014 2128 x 1416 3 MB - JPEG
Data acquired September 7, 2014 JPEG
The cradle of three major religions—and of much of modern civilization—was captured in this photograph by an astronaut on the International Space Station.
Astronaut photograph ISS040-E-133306 was acquired on September 7, 2014, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 20 millimeter lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by the Expedition 40 crew. It has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by Mike Carlowicz.
Published December 24, 2014 Data acquired September 7, 2014