27 Breathtaking Pictures of Earth Taken from the International Space Station
The ISS has been orbiting Earth for 22 years. Its first module was launched November 20, 1998.
As soon as the first crew arrived two years later, they began taking pictures of Earth.
Astronauts have been taking breathtaking pictures from space. Over time, they've taken millions.
Under normal conditions, about six people work and live onboard the ISS, which does a full lap of the Earth every 90 minutes.
Astronauts witness 16 dawns and dusks each and every day.
Nowadays, the ISS orbits the Earth at about 400 kilometers from the surface.
The onboard astronauts don't share too many details about the spectacle they get to admire. But most have trouble relinquishing the privilege.
'I'm not sure I would bear to be in the same room with someone who could get bored with it,' commented astronaut Kathy Sullivan to National Geographic.
Some of the most colourful pictures were taken by Scott Kelly, who shared many on social media.
From 2015 to 2016, Kelly spent a grand total of 340 consecutive days onboard the space station. That makes it the longest human spaceflight ever accomplished.
When they fly over towns, astronauts are able to see many details, like these coloured salt lakes in Sfax, Tunisia.
On cloudless nights, some views are even brighter. Here, Paris shows it bears well its nickname of the City of Lights.
Sometimes, the clouds themselves may offer quite a show. From above, astronauts are privy to the best shots.
From this advantageous position, they can directly look cyclones in the eyes.
When the Caribbeans aren't stricken with cyclones, the Bahamas look like a calm and blue oasis from an astronaut's vantage point.
This frozen lake in the Himalayan mountains is an oasis of another kind.
It's not all literal sunshine and rainbows. Volcanic eruptions are also easy to capture from space.
'Few artists in this world get as creative as mother Nature,' declared ISS commander Alexander Gerst, when commenting this image.
Northern lights are some of nature's most enchanting works of art. They occur when electrically charged particles from the Sun manage to slip through Earth's magnetic field at the poles and collide with oxygen and nitrogen in our atmosphere.
The same phenomenon can be observed on the South Pole.
Even human activities can take on a certain artistic aesthetic when seen from above, like this russian spaceship launch.
Very few ever managed to enjoy these sights directly: 241 people coming from 19 different countries have visited the ISS.
The astronauts have accomplished 231 EVA (extravehicular activities) since the ISS' inauguration back in 2000.
Sometimes, it's on the outings that they manage to get the best panoramas.
Behind him, the eternal void of space.
Even this void may offer a splendid show.
'Orbiting the Earth in the spaceship, I saw for the first time how beautiful our planet is,' said Yuri Gagarin in 1961, the first man in space. 'Let us preserve and accentuate this beauty, not destroy it.'
