NASA's top-10 views of Earth

To celebrate the beauty of our planet on Earth Day, NASA released its ten favorite photos taken by astronauts on the International Space Station.

An eruption from Cleveland Volcano in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska only lasted hours but it was captured by an Expedition 13 crew member in 2006.

In this 2003 photo from Expedition 7, you can see layers of the Earth's atmosphere. The orange troposhere is the lowest and most dense section. The tropopause is the section between the troposphere and the blue atmosphere.


This Los Angeles at night photo was taken in 2003. Hollywood is at the bottom and the bright lights in the north are from the port facilities at Long Beach Naval Shipyards and Los Angeles International Airport. The brightest lights near the center are from Disneyland, of course



Aurora Borealis and lights shine over Finland, Russia, Estonia and Latvia in 2005.



The moon appears through a halo, called the limb, that covers the Earth, as seen in 2001.

The height of Mt. Everest and the Himalaya makes this 2004 photo look like it came from an airplane.

This green aurora showed up just after sunset in 2003.

The Bernese Alps, Switzerland appear in this 2006 photo. Notice the glaciers flowing from the mountains.

Nukuoro Atoll is one of 607 islands that make up the Federated States of Micronesia as shown in this 2006 photo. About 900 people live on this atoll whose lagoon is less than 4 miles wide.

This volcanic region of Saudi Arabia is known as Harrat Khaybar as seen in a 2008 photo. Volcanoes flowed in the north-south vent system over the past 5 million years although the most recent eruption was between 600 A.D. and 700 A.D.