Earth Day, marked annually on April 22, exists primarily to inspire the global population to work together to protect our planet from environmental harm. But it’s also a chance to celebrate everything that’s special about this unique and wonderful “blue marble.” With that in mind, take a moment to lose yourself in this collection of awe-inspiring Earth images, all of them shot from space.
Hubble images our ghostly neighborhood galaxy NGC 6684
Scientists working with the Hubble Space Telescope release an image each week that the telescope has taken recently, and this week's image shows a lenticular galaxy located 44 million light-years away. Known as NGC 6684, this galaxy in the constellation of Pavo, which can be seen from the Southern Hemisphere.
Lenticular galaxies are different from spiral galaxies such as our Milky Way. Instead of distinct spiral arms reaching out from a center, lenticular galaxies are more amorphous and diffuse, but with a central disk. This type of galaxy is halfway between a spiral galaxy and an elliptical galaxy, which is smooth and almost featureless. Lenticular galaxies don't have much interstellar matter, or dust and gas floating between stars, so there isn't much material for the creation of new stars and the rate of star formation within these galaxies is low. The lack of structure in this type of galaxy is emphasized by its absence of dust lanes, making it look even more "ghostly," as Hubble scientists dub it.
For a brief time on Tuesday, there were more people in Earth orbit than ever before.
With 11 people aboard the International Space Station (ISS) until just a few hours ago, and three Chinese taikonauts arriving at the Chinese space station on Tuesday to join three other crewmembers already there, the number of people in Earth orbit reached 17.
See the first image of Earth from a new weather-monitoring satellite
A recently launched weather satellite has sent back its first image of Earth, showing our planet in gorgeous detail. The European Meteosat Third Generation Imager-1 was launched in December of last year with the aim of monitoring weather conditions across Europe and Africa, and it took this image from its location 22,000 miles above the Earth's surface.
The image was taken using the high-resolution Flexible Combined Imager instrument in March 2023, showing the areas of cloud and clear skies that can be seen over the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the European and African land masses.