These Stunning Satellite Images Turn Earth Into Art

These images illustrate the brutal beauty geologic processes carve into our planet.

Featured on smithsonianmag.com

Nearly 500 miles above our heads, a series of satellites continues a silent vigil recording the changes that nature and people impose on planet Earth. Landsat 8 is the latest satellite specifically used to study the status of large swaths of vegetation, how urban development changes the landscape and how much influence natural disasters have on the surrounding area. Scientists display their data using a combination of natural color and infrared images.

While the images tell researchers what they need to know about how Earth changes over time, they also reveal the beauty of our planet. The lush vegetation along mighty rivers, farmland crowded into mountain valleys and windswept ice sheets look like dabs of paint or streaks of color from a satellite's point of view in space.  

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