There were also some amazing new satellite images of the Earth released from the European Space Agency’s 3rd generation Meteosat spacecraft. Here’s a composite photograph that shows the Earth’s Western Hemisphere, and here’s a view of the Earth’s Eastern Hemisphere. If you don’t want a live view, and really just want to see a beautiful view of the Earth’s hemisphere, check out these images produced by NASA. The weather systems you’re seeing in those images are happening on the planet right now.

What is really cool about these satellite views is that they’re live. But you really can’t see any specific spot on Earth with any detail. From these images you can see major weather patterns affecting parts of the Earth. For example, NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) release images of an entire hemisphere of planet Earth every 3 hours. If you want to go way out and just see a satellite image of the entire planet, there are some solutions for you: weather satellites.

Live view from space station