08 April 2012
Fig. 1
This image, acquired by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station, shows a volcanic eruption in Pagan Island.
Credit: NASA-JSC
NASA recently published an interesting image (Fig. 1) of a volcanic eruption in Pagan Island. The image was acquired by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Earth’s largest artificial satellite orbiting at an altitude of about 350 km.
Fig. 1 shows a plume of volcanic gases emanating from the peak of Pagan Island’s northernmost volcano. Pagan is part of an island chain of volcanoes that form the boundary between the Pacific Ocean (to the east) and the Philippine Sea (to the west). It is made up of two volcanoes separated by an isthmus. In 1981, a major eruption forced a complete evacuation of the island’s small population. The last eruption in Pagan occurred in 2010.
The ISS was located over the Pacific Ocean approximately 480 km to the southeast of Pagan Island when the image was taken.
References
NASA Earth Observatory
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=77503
Wikipedia
Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem
Senior Astronomy Specialist