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A Terrific Image of Earth

Jan 26, 2012; 3:55 AM ET

NASA's "Blue Marble" image is one of the most famous pictures of our planet. It is even featured as one of the default images for Apple's iPhone. Now NASA has released a brand-new "Blue Marble 2012," based on image data from the VIIRS instrument aboard a satellite named Suomi NPP, the most recently launched Earth-observing satellite in orbit.

The Suomi spacecraft was known as the NPOESS Preparatory Project, or NPP, when it was launched last October. This week it was renamed the Suomi NPP - or Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership - to honor the late Verner E. Suomi, a meteorology professor at the University of Wisconsin who was known as the father of satellite meteorology. The $1.5 billion mission is a partnership involving NASA as well as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Air Force.

Suomi NPP is the first of a new generation of satellites that will provide data for climate research as well as weather prediction. It carries five instruments on board, and the biggest and most important of the five is the Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite, or VIIRS. "Blue Marble 2012" is a composite image was built by taking numerous images of surface data collected on Jan. 4.

To learn more about Suomi, check out the mission's website. For a huge 8,000-by-8,000-pixel version of Blue Marble 2012, go to the NASA Goddard Photo and Video Flickr gallery. And for a daily dose of Earth imagery, including more pictures from VIIRS, click on over to NASA's Earth Observatory.

The new "Blue Marble 2012" image

Please join in or begin a conversation by clicking here. You can leave your comments, as well as be part of a community where discussions on any astronomy subject are taking place. We are now over 2,400 likes. Tell your friends about this site and blog, and have them weigh in on some exciting issues. We encourage open discussion and will never criticize any idea, and no negative conversation will be allowed.

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And please keep the astronomy pictures coming! They have been simply amazing!

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About This Blog

Mark Paquette
The AccuWeather.com astronomy blog, by Mark Paquette, discusses stargazing and astronomy issues and how the weather will interact with current astronomy events.