1. Blue Marble, 2012
A ?Blue Marble? image of the Earth taken from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA?s most recently launched Earth-observing satellite ? Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth?s surface taken on January 4, 2012. The NPP satellite was renamed ?Suomi NPP? on January 24, 2012 to honor the late Verner E. Suomi.
2. Aurora Australis
The Expedition 32 crew onboard the International Space Station, flying an altitude of approximately 240 miles, recorded a series of images of Aurora Australis, also known as the Southern Lights, on July 15, 2012. NASA astronaut Joe Acaba, flight engineer, recorded the series of images from the Tranquility node. The Canadarm2 robot arm is in the foreground.
