NASA's Blue Marble, Next Generation Project

NASA gets lots of props for taking photos of space, but they also point their lens towards our planet on a regular basis and no one seems to notice.  The first photos ever taken from space were done by NASA, in the 60's, and they were black and white.  It wasn't until the Apollo missions in the early 70's where color photos of our planet came back to us.  I can only imagine how that must have slapped mankind about the face.  I mean... the first color photos of our planet?  The first time we, as mankind, saw what the ocean looked like from above?  The continents?  My lordie.  Makes my head spin.  [If you were of that generation, post your memories in the comments section for those of us who have only known a world of photos of Earth.]

In 2000, NASA compiled a collection of satellite photos to represent the western and eastern hemispheres, the most detailed true-color images of the planet ever presented.... until 2002 when NASA pulled the two hemispheres together and released the most detailed true-color image of the planet ever presented.  They called it the Blue Marble.  The detail was unprecedented and the photos were updated regularly so changes in seasons could be studied.  So nice.

Well, in October 2005, NASA upgraded their most detailed true-color image of the planet ever presented by piecing together images from their Terra satellite that takes photos one SQUARE KILOMETER at a time.  The photos contain a year's worth of monthly updates at a resolution of 500 meters.  They call these updated series of photos Blue Marble: Next Generation.  Of course, those are downgraded resolutions from the originals, but you can still zoom in and check out some sassy detail.  Read on to see more photos and find out how you can download them with much more detail.