On 25 January 2012, NASA released a composite image of the western hemisphere of Earth entitled Blue Marble 2012. The picture was widely viewed, logging over 3.1 million views on the Flickr image hosting website within the first week of release. On 2 February 2012, NASA released a companion to this new Blue Marble, showing a composite image of the eastern hemisphere from data obtained on 23 January 2012.
The picture is composed of data obtained by the Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on-board the Suomi NPP satellite on 4 January 2012. The data was obtained from six orbits of the Earth by the Suomi NPP over an eight hour period.
Read more about this topic: The Blue Marble
Famous quotes containing the words blue and/or marble:
“One way to do it might be by making the scenery penetrate the automobile. A polished black sedan was a good subject, especially if parked at the intersection of a tree-bordered street and one of those heavyish spring skies whose bloated gray clouds and amoeba-shaped blotches of blue seem more physical than the reticent elms and effusive pavement. Now break the body of the car into separate curves and panels; then put it together in terms of reflections.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“where the Statue stood
Of Newton, with his Prism and silent Face
The marble index of a Mind for ever
Voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone.”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)