Awesome Space Shuttle Image

Europe terminator from Space Shuttle Columbia
aspiration posted this awesome image taken from the Space Shuttle Columbia during its last mission on an unusually cloudless period over most of Europe:

Note that the lights are already on in Holland , Paris , and Barcelona, and that’s it’s still daylight in Dublin, London, Lisbon, and Madrid.

The sun is still shining on the Strait of Gibraltar. The Mediterranean Sea is already in darkness.

In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean you can see the Azores Islands; below them to the right are the Madeira Islands; a bit below are the Canary Islands; and further South, close to the farthest western point of Africa , are the Cape Verde Islands.

Note that the Sahara is huge and can be seen clearly both during day time and night time.

To the left, on top, is Greenland , totally frozen.

Very nice…

Update: Upon doing some further research, it appears that this image has been circulating for some time with improper captioning. Snopes.com reports that it is most likely a digital composite of several satellite photos, which frankly makes more sense considering how unlikely it would be for almost all of Europe and some of Africa to be cloudless at once. Oh well, that’s what I get for trusting a post without a source…

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