NASA's Blue Marble Pictures. America and the West Indies, left, parts of Europe, Africa and the Atlantic Ocean, right, these views are part of two NASA's datasets, "the Blue Marble", left, and the "Blue Marble next generation", right respectively. "the Blue Marble" dataset of global views of the Earth at a 1 kilometer per pixel resolution was created by digitally processing data coming from the MODIS (MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instrument working aboard NASA's TERRA satellite, launched in 1999. "Blue Marble" is how Earth is affectionately named. This year, in October, NASA released a further series. Using data from the same instrument, they elaborated a "Blue Marble Next Generation" dataset, with an improved resolution of 500 meters per pixel (instead of 1 km previously) and data spanning over a year (instead of 4 months). Both series of views of our home planet are allowing, for example, useful documents, like the one of city lights at night at Earth, a view of the four seasons or of Earth's general topography. Check at the "the Blue Marble" and "Blue Marble next generation" sites. Pictures are available free of charge to educators, scientists, museums, businesses, and the public. picture site 'Amateur Astronomy', based on pictures NASA’s Earth Observatory