English: This panoramic view of the south-western
United States and
Pacific Ocean was taken by an astronaut looking out at an angle from the
International Space Station (ISS). The image includes parts of
Arizona,
Nevada,
Utah, and
California, as well the coastline of
Baja California,
Mexico (image centre left). The
Las Vegas metropolitan area appears as a
gray region adjacent to the
Spring Mountains and
Sheep Range (both covered by white clouds). The
Grand Canyon, located on the
Colorado Plateau in Arizona, is visible to the east of Las Vegas, with the
blue waters of
Lake Mead in between.
The image also includes the
Mojave Desert, stretching north from the
Salton Sea to the
Sierra Nevada mountain range. The Sierra Nevada is roughly 640 km long (north-south) and forms the boundary between the Central Valley of California and the adjacent Basin and Range physiographic province. The Basin and Range is so called because of the pattern of long linear valleys separated by parallel mountain ranges. The landscape was formed by extension and thinning of the Earth’s crust.
Image acquired with a Nikon D2Xs digital camera using a 32 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center.
The NASA website hosts a large number of images from the
Soviet/
Russian space agency, and other non-American space agencies. These are not necessarily in the public domain.
The
SOHO (ESA & NASA) joint project implies that all materials created by its probe are copyrighted and require permission for commercial non-educational use.
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