Skip to main content

This gorgeous Earth image shot from the space station shows only water

ESA / Thomas Pesquet

A space station astronaut has captured a striking photo of Earth showing only water.

Posting the image on Twitter, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet described the scene as “our blue marble,” a nod to the famous image of Earth taken by the Apollo 17 crew in 1972.

Recommended Videos

Pesquet added: “Sometimes, there’s just no land in sight, even from our 400-km [250-mile] crow’s nest. I think of all the sailors and explorers who traveled the world on solitary expeditions.”

Please enable Javascript to view this content

🌎 Our blue marble. Sometimes, there's just no land in sight, even from our 400 km crow's nest. I think of all the sailors and explorers who traveled the world on solitary expeditions ⛵️ #MissionAlpha pic.twitter.com/sQ0F33DEZm

— Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) May 26, 2021

As the French astronaut suggests, most images shot from the International Space Station Earth usually contain at least a little bit of land. But Pesquet’s impressive picture is a reminder that our planet actually comprises mostly ocean, with water covering about 70% of its surface.

ISS photography

The ISS crew is constantly changing, with most missions lasting about six months. Among each new crew, a keen photographer often emerges, with Pesquet clearly possessing an eye for an amazing shot.

We recently showcased some of his best Earth pictures snapped in the weeks since his arrival on the space station in April 2021, his second visit to date. Among the last ISS crew, Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi revealed himself as a keen Earth observer, regularly sharing his own amazing pictures of our planet.

For the best views, space station astronauts usually head to the Cupola, a seven-window module that was attached to the ISS in 2010, 10 years after the station went into operation.

Pesquet and other crew members have a wide range of advanced cameras and lenses to choose from, including top models made by the likes of Nikon and Sony.

To find out more about life on the space station, take a look at these videos recorded by astronauts who’ve visited the orbiting outpost over the years.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Check out astronaut’s stunning ‘science and art’ photo from the ISS
Earth, space, and the ISS as seen from the space station.

“So full of techno-cool and art-cool,” American astronaut Don Pettit wrote in a social media post describing his latest image from the International Space Station (ISS).

The remarkable photo is filled with light from stars and cities, with the trails created by keeping the camera shutter open for an extended period. We can also see the airglow on Earth's horizon, sunlight glinting off the SpaceX’s distant Starlink satellites, several spacecraft docked at the ISS, and parts of the station itself, too.

Read more
Space station video shows ‘cosmic fireflies’ high above Earth
Starlink satellites described as 'cosmic fireflies.'

On his fourth trip to orbit, NASA astronaut Don Pettit has been sharing some wonderful imagery captured from the International Space Station (ISS) since his arrival there in September.

His latest effort shows distant stars, city lights on Earth some 250 miles below, and what he describes as “cosmic fireflies,” but which are actually Starlink internet satellites deployed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company.

Read more
The space station just had to steer clear of more space junk
The International Space Station.

The International Space Station (ISS) had to steer clear of a piece of space junk on Monday -- the second such maneuver that the orbital outpost has had to make in a week.

“The ISS is orbiting slightly higher today after the docked Progress 89 cargo craft fired its engines for three-and-a-half minutes early Monday,” NASA said in a post on its website. “The debris avoidance maneuver positioned the orbital outpost farther away from a satellite fragment nearing the station’s flight path.”

Read more