This Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on where you live, sky-watchers around the world were able to see a cosmic spectacle known as a transit of Venus. The events are so rare that only six Venus transits have been observed since the invention of the telescope more than 400 years ago.
Transits happen when a planet crosses between Earth and the sun. Only Mercury and Venus, which are closer to the sun than Earth, can undergo this unusual alignment.
The last Venus transit was in 2004—above, the planet glides across the rising sun in a picture taken during the event from the North Carolina coastline. After 2012, we won’t see another transit of Venus until 2117.
I am not an astronomer nor have I studied astronomy but I have done a lot of thinking lately about our Mother Earth as a beautiful creation of the cosmos. Recently I came upon some photos taken from space and I share them with you to help you get the “perspective” of our “relative position” in life.
Rather than from the ground up, image us looking at ourselves from a space satellite or an inhabitant of the Space Station looking in on our daily activities.
Iceberg Nursery
Photograph courtesy EO-1/NASA and NASA Earth Observatory
In a 2010 satellite picture, the Matusevich Glacier calves new icebergs into an Antarctic channel, which cuts between the Lazarev Mountains and the Wilson Hills.
Desert’s End
Photograph courtesy NASA via NASA Earth Observatory
In Eastern Algeria’s stretch of the Sahara, the Tifernine Dune Field—a section of the Grand Erg Oriental dune sea (see map)—meets the Tinrhert Plateau, as seen in a 2008 astronaut photograph.
Cloud Vortices
Photograph courtesy Terra/MODIS/NASA
Cloud vortices, or von Kármán vortices, create patterns in the sky near the Cape Verde Islands off northwestern Africa (see map). The vortices are caused by wind rushing over the islands. (Pictures: “New Cloud Type Discovered?”)
Fresh Flows
Image courtesy IKONOS/NASA
Fresh, dark lava flows cover the Hawaiian volcano Kilauea, on the Big Island (map), as seen in a 2003 satellite picture. Kilauea is said to be home to the Hawaiian volcano goddess Pele. (Kilauea volcano pictures: “Hawaii Eruption Spurts Lava.”)
Published April 22, 2011
Sea Snakes
Photograph courtesy CNES/Spot Image/ESA
Gullies slithering through sandbanks are seen in the Wadden Sea, near the Netherlands, in a 2006 satellite image.
Published April 22, 2011
March to the Sea
Photograph courtesy EO-1/NASA and NASA Earth Observatory
The Neumayer Glacier on South Georgia Island, east of the southern tip of South America (map), creeps ever closer to the ocean in a 2009 satellite image. (Video: Glacier Melt.)
Published April 22, 2011
In my ordinary life, it seems to me that a sunrise or sunset view toward the highlighted horizon is a wondrous sight to behold. Or the endless sea stretching as far as the eye can see brings awe to my being. Far-reaching landscapes that beg a painter’s hand to canvass take my breath away. And I love to experience all of these.
Yet, as the astronauts have all testified, it is a total life-changing moment to experience our Mother Earth by looking upon her from Space. I, for one, am willing to help keep her “lookin’ good.’
Napkinwriter 