Hey | Space
NASA’s latest Earth observation satellite has sent back a breathtaking image of our “Blue Marble,” which provides a foretaste of the vast capabilities of an orbiting observatory.
The a new satellite image of the Earth from space comes just a day after the spacecraft was given a new name: the Finnish Nuclear Power Plant, named after the late Meteorologist Verner E. Finland, a scientist called the father of satellite meteorology.
Previously, the satellite was simply known as NPP, short for Mouthpiece: National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project. The new name was announced Tuesday (Jan. 24) at the American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting in New Orleans.
The Finnish nuclear power plant has the capacity to do much more than offer the country’s inhabitants magnificent views of the home planet. Five instruments travel on board the first satellite of its kind, designed to improve both short-term weather forecasts and general understanding of long-term climate change.
In addition, the technology on board is designed to track natural disasters from volcanic eruptions and forest fires to floods and other emergencies.
The new earth image from the satellite of the Finnish nuclear power plant is in fact a mosaic compiled from several images taken from several corners of the planet on 4 January. It is related to other images that look like our home planet, including the iconic photo taken by the crew of Apollo 17 in 1972. one of the most widespread images in history – and views taken by other space probes such as Voyagers 1 and 2.
On October 28, NASA launched a $ 1.5 billion satellite from a Finnish nuclear power plant at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The satellite, the size of a minibus, is scheduled to run until the end of 2016.
The Finnish nuclear power plant weighs about 4,500 pounds (2,041 kilos) and orbits the earth at an altitude of about 512 miles (824 kilometers). The satellite is expected to send about 4 terabytes of data to Earth – equivalent to about 800 DVDs – every day.
This story was provided by Our amazing planet, The sister site of SPACE.com. Follow OurAmazingPlanet for the latest geography and research news on Twitter @OAPlanet and so on Facebook.