In Pictures: Meteors
In Pictures: Exploring Mars with Curiosity
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Dancing with the Stars
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Black Holes
In Pictures: Space Photos of the Day: Asteroids
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Visions of the future
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Massive Storms
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Gas giants
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Heavenly Rings
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Female Astronauts
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: The Moon
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: A Blue Planet
Though the above image may resemble a painting straight out of an art gallery in Venice Beach, California, it is in fact a satellite image of the sands and seaweed in the Bahamas. Tides and ocean currents in the Bahamas sculpted the sand and seaweed beds into these multicolored, fluted patterns in much the same way that winds sculpted the vast sand dunes in the Sahara Desert.
This Landsat 7 image of Guinea-Bissau, a small country in West Africa, shows the complex patterns of the country's shallow coastal waters, where silt carried by the Geba and other rivers washes out into the Atlantic Ocean. This is a false-color composite image made using infrared, red and blue wavelengths to bring out details in the silt.
The vivid blues of the Bahamas stand out from space. Long Island and Great Exuma Island, which extends from the west north west into the photo, is on the eastern side of the Great Bahama Bank and form the borders of Exuma Sound. This photograph provides a rare opportunity to observe a natural chemical laboratory at work. Limestone of quite a different sort from that forming the Great Barrier Reef is actually in the process of formation.
The junctions of the Amazon and the Rio Negro Rivers are seen at Manaus, Brazil. The Rio Negro gets its color from the high tannin content in the water. The Amazon is sediment-laden, appearing brown in this simulated natural color image.
Wave sets and tidal currents in the Gulf of California are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 13 crewmember on the International Space Station. In this image, sunglint off the Gulf of California gives the water a silver-gray appearance rather than the usual azure blue color.
Marias Islands, Mexico is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition Six crewmember on the International Space Station. The islands are a manifestation of intersecting plate boundaries – the East Pacific Rise spreading center that traces south from the Gulf of California, and the subduction zone that consumes the Cocos plate beneath southern Mexico.
Scattered fires in Australia’s northern Western Australia state and Northern Territories send smoke streaming off in the northwestward-blowing wind. The smoke plumes appear as streaks of gray moving away from the fires, which are marked in red. In the lower center of the image, right on the border between the two states, sits man-made Lake Argyle, the largest freshwater body in the Southern Hemisphere.
Off the east coast of Argentina, the South Atlantic Ocean is blooming with color. This true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image from the Terra satellite on February 10, 2003, shows the waters off southern Argentina swirling with the blues and greens that indicate massive amounts of microscopic marine plants called phytoplankton.
Off the east coast of New Zealand, cold rivers of water that have branched off from the Antarctic Circumpolar Current flow north past the South Island and converge with warmer waters flowing south past the North Island. The surface waters of this meeting place are New Zealand's most biologically productive.
This image of a Patagonian glacier was aqcuired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on May 2, 2000. Patagonia is a mountainous region spanning the border between Chile and Argentina near the southern tip of South America. Vegetation appears red in the image. This large glacier is riddled with crevasses – deep cracks in the ice.
This image shows two large ocean circulation features, called eddies, at the northernmost edge of the sea ice pack in the Weddell Sea, off Antarctica. The eddy processes in this region play an important role in the circulation of the global ocean and the transportation of heat toward the pole. The large image was the first wide-swath, multi-frequency, multi-polarization radar image ever processed.
Traces of duckweed still form green swirls atop Lake Maracaibo in northern Venezuela. The weed, more formally called Lemna obscura, began to grow on the lake sometime between January and March 2004. With an outlet to the Caribbean Sea, Lake Maracaibo is usually too salty to support duckweed and other similar aquatic plants. The lake’s fresh water sits on top of a dense layer of salty water.
Portions of Oman, The United Arab Emirates, and Iran are seen at the Strait of Hormuz. Sunglint in the Gulf of Oman, to the south of the strait accentuates the complex currents and oil slicks, seen as light toned blue streaks on the surface. Qeshm Island, just off the coast of Iran, can be seen on the edge of the photo.
The Atlantic coast of Western Sahara in Africa was photographed by one of the STS-108 crewmembers using a handheld 70mm camera. Red lines in the photo are sand dunes aligned parallel to the dominant offshore northeasterly winds.
The northeast coast of Hokkaido and Kunashir Island, Japan are seen bordered by drifting sea ice. The sea ice has formed a complex pattern of eddies in response to surface water currents and winds. Photos of this kind aid researchers in describing local ocean current patterns and the effects of wind speed and direction on the drift of surface material, such as ice floes or oil.
Vibrant reds, emerald greens, brilliant whites, and pastel blues adorn this view of the area surrounding the Jakobshavn Glacier on the western coast of Greenland. The brightness of vegetation in the near-infrared contributes to the reddish hues; glacial silt gives rise to the green color of the water; and blue-colored melt ponds are visible in the bright white ice.
Photos of the Day: Photos of the Day 04/28
Photos of the Day: Photos of the day 04/27
Photos of the Day: Photos of the day 04/26
Photos of the Day: Photos of the Day 04/25
In Pictures: Where Your Clothes Come From
In Pictures: Millenium Development Goals: GLOBAL PROGRESS REPORT
Photos of the Day: Photos of the Day 04/24
In Pictures: Mexico's Economy
Many hundreds have been rescued so far. But a fire broke out today amid the rubble of the collapsed building, ending hopes of saving a known survivor named Shahinur.
She was the last person located and known to still be alive inside a garment factory building that collapsed last week in Bangladesh. But before rescuers could save Shahinur, who went by only one name, a fire broke out in the rubble today and the woman who captured the attention of the nation perished. The death toll now stands at 378.
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