Gorgeous photos of earth tweeted from the International Space Station

January 12, 2013 8:29 AM

Commander Chris Hadfield (previously!) and Thomas Marshburn are tweeting photos they are taking from the ISS.

Hadfield, in particular, is tweeting amazing shots of islands, geographic features, brushfires in Australia, and daily life on the ISS. He's got a lot of photos of his native Canada, as well as a little outer-space rooting for his favorite hockey team.

The Canadian Space Agency has a Chris Hadfield World Tour Photo Challenge

More details on some of his photos and the mission:
Astronaut Snaps Amazing Photo of Volcanoes from Space

Chris Hadfield aims to inspire 'global awareness' from space

posted by gingerbeer (22 comments total)

It's neat that people in space can so easily share photos and communicate with everyone, not just Mission Control. Less filters is great!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:49 AM on January 12, 2013 [5 favorites]

Awesome!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:01 AM on January 12, 2013

Yup, some stunning pix there!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:01 AM on January 12, 2013

Cool. That doesn't look like a soundstage at all!
posted by R. Mutt at 9:07 AM on January 12, 2013

Living in the future is pretty damn neat.
posted by rtha at 9:10 AM on January 12, 2013

I've been enjoying Hadfield's tweets immensely. He also posts great photos of the more mudane details of life in space, like repairing the toilet and hanging out in his little sleeping cubby.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 9:11 AM on January 12, 2013

... like repairing the toilet...

Ah, the glamour and adventure of being an astronaut.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:13 AM on January 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

All you need to know about plumbing in space: Shit runs downhill and Friday is payday.
posted by Brodiggitty at 9:19 AM on January 12, 2013

This tour of the ISS by Sunita Williams back in November is just incredible. It's the most thorough perspective what it must be like there I've ever seen.
posted by George_Spiggott at 9:26 AM on January 12, 2013 [2 favorites]

Makes you want to hug your neighbour! Hadfield's tweets are great!
posted by RollingGreens at 9:27 AM on January 12, 2013

This exchange between Hadfield and William Shatner alone makes the invention of Twitter worthwhile.
posted by dry white toast at 10:12 AM on January 12, 2013 [7 favorites]

In space, no one can hear you Instagram.
posted by mecran01 at 10:52 AM on January 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

That ISS tour was awesome.
posted by COD at 11:18 AM on January 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

Well, I'm glad we've started sending Leafs fans into space, I just need confirmation that we're going to leave them there too.
posted by blue_beetle at 11:48 AM on January 12, 2013

Thanks dry white toast, that made my day.
posted by arnicae at 12:01 PM on January 12, 2013

That's a pretty serious lens. Nice work Commander.
posted by GuyZero at 12:47 PM on January 12, 2013

I was inexplicably excited when he tweeted a picture of our island a few days ago. I mean, you US people might be a bit jaded by now, but for us islanders, knowing an astronaut is taking pictures of your home from up there, just - wow.
posted by helion at 1:00 PM on January 12, 2013

I was inexplicably excited when he tweeted a picture of our island a few days ago.

What's inexplicable about it? You explicated pretty well, I thought. :)
posted by George_Spiggott at 3:35 PM on January 12, 2013

These images portray the true contrast of our planet.
posted by pgswim at 5:44 PM on January 12, 2013

I was wondering how he does this, like surely he doesn't just aim a camera out the window. But it looks like that's exactly what he does.
posted by shelleycat at 2:25 AM on January 13, 2013 [1 favorite]

How does the world's most beautiful cloud form?

"I love the beautiful pictures of the world," Hadfield said, "but for me, the one that was most significant was looking at the noctilucent clouds. These are clouds that you can barely see from the surface of the Earth. They're the highest clouds that exist—tiny ice particles way up in the mesosphere. And yet from orbit, as the sun rises, the light bounces off of those clouds, directly into our eyes—and we can see a part of the Earth's atmosphere that's basically invisible to people on the surface. To me, that's both beautiful—because of the colors and textures and ripples of it—but it's also really significant. It's a way to understand the changes in our atmosphere, and a way to understand exactly how our atmosphere interacts with the universe beyond."

posted by the man of twists and turns at 2:20 PM on January 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

Awww. Puck drop.
posted by maudlin at 2:29 PM on January 22, 2013 [1 favorite]