This image of the El Paso-Juárez area on the U.S.-Mexico border is the 100,000th photograph of Earth that astronauts have taken from the International Space Station. It was taken on January 26, 2004, by Expedition 8 crewmembers.
The Rio Grande can be seen meandering through the area, forming the boundary between the sister cities of El Paso, Texas and Juárez, Chihuahua. North is to the right in this image, and the setting sun has cast the east side of the Sierra Juárez and Franklin Mountains into shadow.
Photographs of Earth are a concrete way for astronauts to share their observations and experience in orbit with the public. Scientists integrate them with a variety of other remote sensing data in their Earth science research. The record of astronaut photography of Earth starts over 40 years ago with the first human spaceflights and represents the longest continuous record of the state of the planet as observed from orbit.
References & Resources
Astronaut photograph ISS008-E-13212 was taken on January 26, 2004, using a Kodak digital camera with a 400 mm lens, and was provided by Julie Robinson, Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory (Lockheed Martin), Johnson Space Center. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth.
