From space, everything looks pretty, even dangerous algal blooms
There aren't many features on Earth that look bad from space.
Mountains? Pretty great. Deserts? Freaking gorgeous. How about clouds? Awesome! And don't even get me started about the Bahamas.
But perhaps one of the most beautiful features of our planet as seen from space is actually created by some of the smallest organisms on our world.
Ephemeral blooms of algae create ethereal -- and sometimes dangerous -- swirls of green and blue in bodies of water around the world.
I mean, just check it out for yourself.
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While this photo may look gorgeous, it actually depicts one of the worst toxic algal blooms to hit Lake Erie in years.
The bloom image was taken by the Landsat-5 satellite in October 2011.
"Microcystis aeruginosa produces a liver toxin, microcystin, that commonly kills dogs swimming in infected water and causes skin irritation for people," NASA said in a statement.
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Lake Erie is known for its beautiful -- and sometimes dangerous -- blooms of algae.
This photo of a 2011 bloom in the lake show off those swirls of green in an amazing way, revealing just how widespread a bloom can be.
These blooms don't always become toxic, but given the right conditions, the algae can almost seem to overtake the lake, making it dangerous for fish and even potentially contaminating drinking water.
The Landsat 8 satellite caught sight of an algal bloom in the heart-shaped Lake St. Clair and in western Lake Erie in 2015.
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The European Space Agency's Sentinel-2A spacecraft caught sight of this swirling algal bloom (above) in the Baltic Sea in 2015.
A black streak moving from the top of the photo to the middle is actually the wake of a boat that can be seen toward the center of the vortex of the bloom.
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In 2015, this seemingly safe bloom of algae off the coast of New York appeared in the Atlantic Ocean.
"The bloom was likely caused by coastal upwelling, according to Oscar Schofield, a marine scientist at Rutgers University," NASA Earth Observatory said in a statement.
"Upwelling is a process by which winds blow surface waters away from the coast, causing deeper, cooler, and often nutrient-rich waters to well up from the depths to fill the gap."
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NASA’s Aqua satellite snapped this photo of an turquoise algal bloom swirling in the Black Sea on May 29, 2017.
While it can be harmful in too much abundance, algae is a key part of the ecosystems in the Black Sea.
"Here, ample water flow from rivers like the Danube and Dnieper carries nutrients to the Black Sea," NASA said in a statement. "In general, phytoplankton support fish, shellfish, and other marine organisms."
Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
