In email today, Chuck asked for links to these two images, which I've been meaning to blog for ages. I first heard of the night shot in an email forward from Aunt Jacky a while back, and learned of its daytime counterpart from a Dutch backpacker at TripInn back in July. I have them alternating as desktop backgrounds on my laptop. So here ya go: beautiful, full-color, cloudless satellite photos of the entire Earth, in both day and nighttime.
In the night shot, note how bright the US, Europe and Japan are. Then look at Africa and Australia. See the Trans-Siberian Railway winding its way through eastern Russia? India is pretty well-lit too, but Afghanistan is almost entirely dark. Fascinating stuff.