20 Stunning Photos Of The Earth Taken From Space, Like You’ve Never Seen Before

By YKA Staff:

On March 27 2015, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko set out on a mission to spend 342 days or almost one year in space to help researchers better understand how the human body reacts and adapts to long-duration spaceflight. Now done with three-fourths of the journey, the astronauts are set to arrive on Earth on March 6, 2016.

Over the last 8 months, Kelly has carefully documented the expedition on social media using the hashtag #YearInSpace and shared breathtaking images of Earth from space. He has even initiated various Tweet chats (from space, beat that!), and shared some important information and learnings. Like how they experience day and night every 92 minutes, how being in a place you can’t leave makes you value your freedom more, or how the lessons from the #YearInSpace could help us with the proposed journey to Mars.

Here are 20 stunning photos shared by Kelly on Twitter. You’ll never look at the Earth the same way again!

1. An aerial view of the Earth.

2. The River Nile at night is “like a jewel”.

3. The majestic Andes mountain range.

4. When clouds over the Earth look like sheep.

5. The Himalayas like you’ve never even imagined.

6. The Suez Canal, actually 193 km in length!

7. The coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean.

8. Anyone else think of ‘The Creation Of Adam’?

9. A river literally cutting across the Earth.

10. The Alps in a never-seen-before light.

11. The Bahamas, almost like a painting.

12. Some hard truths as seen from space.

13. A glimpse of France and London, at once!

14. What a morning!

15. If you needed any more proof about the rapid industrialisation in China…

16. The Sahara desert.

17. Night-time in the southern part of India.

18. The Canadian Rockies, like a sheet of ice.

19. Festive feels over New Zealand!

20. The New Year from space!