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The outstanding photographs taken in space by orbiting Space Shuttle astronauts and those aboard the International Space Station show our planet in a new light. Countries and continents are captured in hi-res clarity, with cities and natural wonders brought into sharp focus. Weather and atmospheric phenomena appear in extraordinary and sometimes alarming detail. And beyond our world, the sun and the moon are revealed in magnificent close-up. Click through the gallery to launch a spectacular collection of photographs taken out of this world.

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As wildfires raged in California in 2024, thick smoke could be seen drifting toward the ocean from space.

▲The 2016 eruption of Mount Pavlof. The stratovolcano is located on the Aleutian Range on the Alaska Peninsula, about 625 miles southwest of Anchorage.

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Smoke pours from the Chaparrastique volcano in El Salvador, 2013.

▲The Iberian Peninsula at night, showing Spain and Portugal in sparkling form.

▲A winter storm affecting the US East Coast is seen in a NASA picture taken from the International Space Station, 2016.

▲Hawaii's Big Island, anchored in a vivid blue Pacific Ocean.

▲The sun rises spectacularly over the edge of the Earth.

▲Aurora borealis, better known as the Northern Lights, are one effect of energetic particles, which can speed out from the sun both in a steady stream called the solar wind, and due to giant eruptions known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

▲Typhoon Maysak is seen as it strengthens into a Category 5 hurricane, 2015.

▲The River Nile and Sinai Peninsula revealed in breathtaking clarity.

▲A panoramic view of most of the length of the Red Sea as a dust plume surges out from Egypt towards Saudi Arabia.

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Hurricane Patricia, a Category 5 storm, is seen approaching the coast of Mexico in 2015.

▲Late summer plankton blooms across much of lake Ontario, 2013.

▲A smoke plume rises from Lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001.

▲A crescent moon rises over the cusp of the Earth's atmospshere.

▲The sun reflects off the oceans. About 71% of the Earth's surface is water-covered.

▲The aurora borealis shimmers over the US Midwest as seen from the International Space Station as it passes over Nebraska, 2012.

▲The moon lends perspective to this image of the Earth as it transitions into the orange-colored troposphere, the lowest and most dense portion of the Earth's atmosphere. The troposphere ends abruptly at the tropopause, which appears in the image as the sharp boundary between the orange and blue colored atmosphere. The silvery-blue noctilucent clouds extend far above the Earth's troposphere.

▲From this height Finger Lakes, in New York, appears like torn pieces of paper.

▲The International Space Station is seen docked with the space shuttle Endeavour, 2011.

▲The International Space Station flies past the moon in 2012.

▲A 2011 image by astronaut Ron Garan aboard the International Space Station features a shooting star.

▲Washington, D.C., with Andrews Air Force Base visible at the lower left of the image.

▲The space shuttle Discovery seen from the International Space Station with the southwestern coast of Morocco in the background, 2011.

▲The city of Shiraz, located in southwest Iran.

▲The vastness of Lake Baikal, in Siberia, can be appreciated from this lofty perspective.

▲A collection of small island cays and the prominent tidal channels cutting between them appear like abstract artwork.

▲Sunrise over Earth, as seen from the International Space Station in 2016.

▲The space shuttle Atlantis seen over the Bahamas prior to docking with the International Space Station. Also visible is part of a Russian Progress spacecraft docked to the station, 2011.

▲The International Space Station is seen in silhouette as it transits the sun at roughly five miles per second.

▲Astronaut Stephen K. Robinson, anchored to a foot restraint on the International Space Station's Canadarm2, 2005.

▲Earthrise. The famous view of the Earth appearing over the Lunar horizon as the Apollo 11 Command Module comes into view of the Moon, 1969.

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A composite image released by NASA in 2017 showing the full western hemisphere at night.

9/11 and other historical events captured from outer space

Photographs taken by orbiting Space Shuttle astronauts and those aboard the International Space Station

14/05/18 por Paul Bernhardt

LIFESTYLE Earth

The outstanding photographs taken in space by orbiting Space Shuttle astronauts and those aboard the International Space Station show our planet in a new light. Countries and continents are captured in hi-res clarity, with cities and natural wonders brought into sharp focus. Weather and atmospheric phenomena appear in extraordinary and sometimes alarming detail. And beyond our world, the sun and the moon are revealed in magnificent close-up.Click through the gallery to launch a spectacular collection of photographs taken out of this world.