24 September 2011
NASA recently published, as its Image of the Day, satellite images of our beautiful home planet. The picture gallery below features three pictures, acquired by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Earth’s largest artificial satellite, orbiting at an altitude of about 350 km.
Sunrise
On 27 August 2011, astronaut Ron Garan, working aboard the ISS, used a high definition camera, to record sunrise. During this sunrise, the ISS was flying between Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Buenos Aires, Argentina. The ISS orbits Earth every 91 minutes, completing 16 orbits every 24 hours. Therefore, ISS astronauts can view about 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets, each day.
Credit: NASA
Hurricane Katia
On 31 August 2011, Hurricane Katia was still a tropical storm, developing over the Atlantic Ocean, when an ISS astronaut took this wonderful photo, at 14:09:01 GMT. Later in the day, Katia reached hurricane status. Two Russian spacecrafts, a Progress and a Soyuz, docked at the ISS, are visible on the left of image.
Credit: NASA
Hurricane Irene
From the ISS, astronaut Ron Garan obtained this image of Hurricane Irene, swirling over the Caribbean, on 22 August 2011.
Irene was a large and powerful hurricane that left extensive flood and wind damage, along its path through the Caribbean, the United States East Coast and the Atlantic coasts of Canada.
Credit: NASA
References
NASA
www.nasa.gov/
Wikipedia
Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem
Senior Astronomy Specialist