'Black Marble' Goes Interactive: Explore the Earth in Darkness

 By 
Stan Schroeder
 on 
'Black Marble' Goes Interactive: Explore the Earth in Darkness

Remember that stunning "Black Marble" image of the Earth in darkness NASA released last week? Thanks to a collaboration between NASA and Google Maps, it has gone from a still image to an interactive experience.

The new map is a composite assembled from data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite, acquired over nine days in April and 13 days in October.

The satellite captured the nighttime views with a special on-board technology called the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS). According to Google, it took 312 orbits to get a clear shot of Earth's entire surface.

The new map doesn't seem to be an official feature of Google Maps, but it's available here.

BONUS: Black Marble in HD Video

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