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Hudson Bay
The full moon rises over Hudson Bay, Canada on a frigid winter night. The surface of the Earth here shows icy, frozen landscapes under wrinkled clouds. The villages in this area receive 6 to 7 hours of sunlight a day in December, and further north, the sun will not rise until January.
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Detroit River
This is the Detroit River, which stretches for 30 miles and acts as an international border between Canada and the United States. Detroit sits on one side of the river while Windsor sits on the other side, with the Belle Isle situated between them in the middle of the Detroit River.
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Scottish Highlands, Scotland
This photo shows the Scottish Highlands in the area near Inverness, with the tops of the mountains dusted in snow. As Scotland is usually covered in thick clouds during winter, it is difficult to capture a photo like this. The topography of the highlands in Scotland reveal geological processes that span billions of years and contain some of the oldest rocks in Europe.
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The Sun's reflection between Newfoundland and Quebec
The morning sun reflects off the sea between Newfoundland, Labrador and Quebec. This part of the world is so often covered in clouds that there are few photos taken of it from the ISS. It took luck and chance to capture this beautiful photo.
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Moose River
This photo of Moose River in Ontario was taken while the ISS was orbiting near its northernmost latitude limits (51.6 degrees N). The mouth of the river is half frozen, and landfast ice ended up 4 miles away from the land. James Bay freezes annually from November to January. Although it looks very cold, communities like Moosonee live nearby and need below-freezing temperatures to build ice roads, which allow the people in northern Ontario to connect with each other.
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Waikoloa, Hawaii
This is Waikoloa, Hawaii, where the landscape is painted like a watercolor with historical lava flows. Many areas in the village sit on top of lava that erupted from radial vents on the northwestern side of Mauna Loa volcano. The area around Waikoloa is known for it's thriving aquaculture, particularly it's natural ponds that form inside inland lava depressions and connect to the groundwater table. Many species of invertebrates endemic to Hawaii live in these ponds.
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Betsiboka River Delta, Madagascar
This otherworldly image shows the Betsiboka River Delta in Madagascar, a braided collection of channels that intertwine between each other and flow around islands of built up sediment. The clay-rich soil around the river are red because they are rich in iron oxides, which leaves a rusty color especially after heavy downpours of rain. This is an area of high biodiversity.
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Java at night
This is the Indonesian island Java at night, with it's city light illuminating the otherwise dark landscape and surrounding Indian Ocean. With around 141 million people living on Java, it is the most highly populated island in the world.
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Snow and sand in Central Asia
This breathtaking landscape is the Tien Shan, one of the world's longest continuous mountain ranges, which stretches 1,500 miles across China, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. It is neighbored by the Taklamakan Desert in Central Asia. The Tien Shan Mountains provide fresh water to the region, which would otherwise suffer from droughts and dust storms.
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Hurricane Jose
Hurricane Jose was a powerful Category 4 hurricane that tormented the US and the Bahamas during September in 2017. It's fastest winds reached 155 mph and it came closely after Hurricane Irma tormented the area, however no people were killed. This image shows Hurricane Jose over the Lesser Antilles.
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New York's lights
This photo shows New York's lights illuminating the city in the night. The brightest groups of lights correspond with higher population density, with the most populated areas bring New York, Newark, Philadelphia, New Haven and Hartford.
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Solar evaporation ponds in Moab, Utah
This fascinating photo is showing the solar evaporation ponds outside Moab, Utah. The 23 colorful ponds are spread over 400 acres, and they are part of an operation to mine potassium chloride from ore buried underground (which is used as a plant fertilizer). The blue colors show different states of evaporation: deep blue is caused by a dye that speeds up the rate of heat absorption; aqua shows shallower water with less dye, which are further into the evaporation process. Tan colored ponds are nearly dry and ready for the salt crystals to be collected.
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Meidob Volcanic Field
This is the Meidob Volcanic Field in western Sudan. The area photographer covers nearly 2,000 square miles and vents throughout the volcanic field are believed to be around 6 million years old. There is also a significant amount of iron and magnesium in the region.
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Momotombo Volcano, Nicaragua
This colorful image shows the Momotombo Volcano in Nicaragua. It is currently active, with it's most recent eruption in 2015. The symmetrical volcano is a visual symbol for Nicaragua, which looks very different when seen from Earth.
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Priest River, Idaho
This incredible checkerboard pattern is snow on deforested ground along the Priest River in northern Idaho. The darker colored squares are patches of forest that haven't been removed. This checkerboard pattern of logging was agreed upon in the early 1800s and it seen as a way of maintaining the sustainability of forested tracks while logging companies can still harvest trees.
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Cosmoledo Atoll, Seychelles
This photo shows the Cosmoledo Atoll in the outer islands of Seychelles. The area is predominantly made up of lagoons and reef flats, making perfect conditions for scuba diving and seeing the islands' diverse marine life.
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Thunderstorms in South China Sea
Astronauts aboard the ISS captured this incredible photo of a storm forming over the South China Sea on July 29, 2016.
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Mt Fuji, Japan
Mt Fuji is Japan's most iconic volcano. This bird's eye view of the UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Site, coupled with the angle of the sun, emphasizes the conical shape of the volcano and it's circular summit crater. Most mountains look flat when photographed from above, so this is a particularly successful photograph.
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Salt Ponds, Western Australia
The quickest way for astronauts to get their bearings is to look at coastlines, and this iconic coastline is hard to confuse with anywhere else: Western Australia. These shapes are are coastal lagoons with rounded islands, which contrast the man-made rectangular ponds from the salt extraction industry. The muddy brown colors of inland water are more extreme than they usually are from recent rains mixing the darker water in with the clearer water.
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Aurora Borealis, Canada
This otherworldly photo shows the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, from a perspective we're not used to seeing: above. Canada is one of the best places in the world to view the Aurora Borealis, which is created by disturbances in the magnetosphere caused by solar wind.
Twenty Of NASA's Best Photos: Earth From Space
The astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) have got some pretty sweet views. They see Earth from a perspective that only a handful of people have seen with their own eyes: from above. Most of us won't have the chance to see Earth from space (although we're sure with time that will change), but at least we can enjoy it through photography. Here are the most incredible photos that astronauts have taken with regular ol' cameras from their vantage point on the ISS. Prepare to be amazed at how different Earth looks from above.
Interested in other science stories? Check out this self-taught dancing cockatoo that is rewriting evolution.
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