Published 09:09 IST, December 6th 2020
'Be on beach or gawk at it from space?’: NASA asks sharing pic of Andros Island from ISS
"Would you rather be on the beach or would you rather gawk at it from space? For some, it’s a tough choice", NASA wrote, as it shared the stunning image.
On December 5, NASA shared stunning satellite imagery of a deep oceanic trench in the Bahamas and the islands of Andros and nearby New Providence. Captured by Astronaut Soichi Noguchi, NASA's breathtaking imagery featured the largest island in the Bahamas, the historic archipelago, that consisted of hundreds of small islets and three major islands: North Andros, Mangrove Cay, and South Andros. Taking to its official Instagram handle, the space administration wrote, "Would you rather be on the beach or would you rather gawk at it from space? For some, it’s a tough choice," as it shared the rare image of the island form astronauts' perspective who is currently living and working aboard the International Space Station.
"Every 90 minutes, the space station completes one orbit around Earth. Because Earth rotates below them while they orbit, the crew get to see most of their beautiful blue marble of a planet from the unique vantage point of space," NASA explained. "By photographing Earth from about 250 miles above the surface, astronauts can record phenomena such as storms in real-time, and even provide input to ground teams," it added. Located within the Bahamas, the island is politically considered a single piece of land. However, the island has an area greater than all the other 700 Bahamian islands combined. Large fluffy clouds were seen sailing above the deep blue mangrove estuaries and tidal swamplands, which was captured by NASA from space.
'Out of this world' photograph
Mesmerised at the beauty of the island, the internet could not help but admire the picture. "Would be pretty cool to watch Miami’s beautiful beaches from space," one suggested. "This photo is out of this world," another opined. "How you can take pictures like that," another asked, awestruck at the image."Space. I always dreamed of standing in the Moon so that I could look back at the Earth and admire its beauty," on eother said. Internet users expressed astonisment at the appearance of the estuaries on the archaepalago in the space.
Updated 09:09 IST, December 6th 2020