This image came from NASA's Visible Earth site. This famous image was the result of piecing together thousands of individual satellite photos of the earth. Colors were simulated to represent the type of terrain and vegetation in the area, and topographical data was used to add shading to mountains and canyons. The result is a massive image, 43,200×21,600 pixels, or one pixel for every square kilometer of the planet. The image was downloaded as two LZW-compressed TIFF files which join to form a single 900 megapixel image of the entire earth.

For more information or to download various resolutions of this image, visit the Visible Earth website.

	The reefs of the Bahamas. Cuba and the Florida keys are also visible.
	Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America (half resolution)
	The Colorado River and the Grand Canyon. Lake Mead is visible on the right and Lake Powell on the left.
	The Himalayas of Tibet and Nepal. The exact center of this image is Mount Everest.
	Mount Kilimanjaro, between Nairobi and Kenya.
	The canal region of Panama. (double resolution)
	Sahara desert. This area overlaps Algeria, Niger, and Libya. (half resolution).
	Topography of South Africa and Lesotho.
	Unidentified patterns in the jungles of South America (I'll try to find out what these are).
	Southern California and the San Fernando Valley.
	The Strait of Gibraltar, gateway to the Mediterranean Sea.
	Taklimakan Desert in western China. Sand dunes are visible in this section of the map.
	The Zagros Mountains of Iran giving way to the Persian Gulf.