NASA Releases Second Super High-Resolution ‘Blue Marble’ Photograph

Last month NASA released the highest resolution “Blue Marble” image of Earth to date and now the US Space Agency has updated its image repository with the flip side photograph of our planet.

The first image (shown below) featured the western hemisphere while the new image (above) shows the flip side on the eastern hemisphere.

You’re actually staring at at composite image which was created by Nasa Goddard oceanographer Norman Kuring who required six different orbit images from the satellite that took the photos over an eight-hour period on Jan. 23, 2012. The photos were then combined to create the effect you see at the start of this post.

Here’s the Western Hemisphere ‘Blue Marble’ Photo in case you missed it the first time around:

If Blue Marble imagery looks familiar to you that might be because the photograph taken in 2002 is a default background on Apple’s iPhone. The original Blue Marble photograph was taken on Dec. 7, 1972.

Do you think NASA is getting better at showing us clear representations of Earth through Blue Marble imagery which continues to inspire better renditions each time a new image is released?