NASA today released a spectacular, high-resolution "Blue Marble" image of Earth that was taken by a recently launched satellite.
The photo was compiled from several images taken Jan. 4 by the Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite aboard the Earth-observation satellite Suomi NPP. The satellite was renamed Tuesday for the late Verner E. Suomi, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin. He was considered "the father of satellite meteorology."
Compare it with its iconic "Blue Marble" predecessor, taken Dec. 7, 1972, by the crew of Apollo 17, the last U.S. manned mission to the moon.
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Michael Winter has been a daily contributor to On Deadline since its debut in January 2006. His journalism career began in the prehistoric Ink Era, and he was an early adapter at the dawn of the Digital Age. His varied experience includes editing at the San Jose Mercury News and The Philadelphia Inquirer.