Above a sea of lights ✨ The Nile Delta sets the scene as the International Space Station (@ISS) floats 250 miles (402 km) above Earth. After living on the orbiting lab for 197 days, on Nov. 8, 2021, the four astronauts of #Crew2 boarded the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour to return to Earth. Before closing out their expedition they took a rendezvous around the ISS. NASA commander @Astro_Kimbrough and pilot @Astro.Megan monitored data as @EuropeanSpaceAgency mission specialist @Thom_Astro captured photos of the International Space Station during the first ever “fly around” of the complex from inside a commercial Crew Dragon. Joined by @JAXAjp astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, the crew successfully splashed down at 10:33 p.m. ET, breaking the record for the longest spaceflight by a U.S.-crewed spacecraft and marked the end of the second crew rotation mission. Credit: NASA/European Space Agency/Thomas Pesquet #NASA #InternationalSpaceStation #ISS #Egypt #Space #Photography

🟥🟧🟨🟩🟦🟪 Gorgeous gorgeous swirls love tropical rivers. This color-enhanced view of an estuary in Western Australia shows rich sediment and vibrant nutrient patterns. Taken by Earth-observing satellite Landsat 8, portions of the image were separately enhanced and reassembled to show contrast. Spanning nearly 50 years, the joint [email protected] Landsat program provides the longest continuous space-based record of Earth's surface. These observations help people manage vital natural resources and understand our changing planet. The newest satellite, Landsat 9, launched Sept. 27, 2021, will provide essential information about crop health, irrigation use, water quality, urban expansion, and more. Credit: NASA/USGS Landsat; Geoscience Australia #Landsat #Earth #Australia #Colors #EarthViews #Nature #Contrast #Views #TheColorsDukeTheColors #NASA

We need to talk climate. With records as early as 1880, we have been working together with @NOAA to track Earth’s global temperature as part of our work monitoring climate change. This year contributed to an unprecedented, but well-understood trend in which the last eight years have been the warmest ever recorded. 2021 was tied for the sixth warmest year since our records began. This can be correlated to human activities, like burning fossil fuels which adds to greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide to the atmosphere where they trap more heat. Since about 1850, humans have raised atmospheric CO2 by nearly 50%. Our climate is driven by heat and the energy it carries, influencing our weather, droughts, intense tropical cyclones and more. In 2021, Earth saw several extreme examples of how excess heat in the ocean and atmosphere can influence often devastating, sometimes unexpected, disasters in different parts of the world. Normal temperatures are shown in white. Higher than normal temperatures are shown in red and lower than normal temperatures are shown in blue. Normal temperatures are calculated over the 30 year baseline period 1951-1980. Credit: NASA/Lori Perkins #NASA #NASAEarth #Climate #ClimateChange #Earth #EarthScience #Temperature #Science