NASA's Other Side of the Amazing 11500x11500 Blue Marble

The other side of our Blue Planet.

Last week, NASA released the latest image in its iconic Blue Marble series of photographs of the Earth. This week, due to popular demand, the space agency released another version of the Blue Marble 2012 image. This one shows the Eastern Hemisphere.

"Responding to public demand, NASA scientists created a companion image to the wildly popular 'Blue Marble' released last week (January 25, 2012)," NASA said. "The new image is a composite of six separate orbits taken on January 23, 2012 by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite. Both of these new 'Blue Marble' images are images taken by a new instrument flying aboard Suomi NPP, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS)."

In case you were wondering, NASA said that the four vertical lines of haze you see in the photo are a reflection of sunlight off the ocean, or 'glint,' that VIIRS captured as it orbited the globe.

The Western Hemisphere Blue Marble 2012 image, released January 25, has clocked up 3.1 million views making it one of the most viewed images on Flickr after just one week.

Hit up the NASA Flickr to get full-size Eastern Hemisphere Blue Marble 2012. For more on the Blue Marble series click here.

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