The most captivating pictures of Earth taken from space in 2017
Top picks of the year also include Solar Evaporation Ponds of Utah, Namibia's Namib Desert, Kazakhstan's Lake Alakol and Aurora Borealis over Canada.
Solar Evaporation Ponds - Utah: An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photograph of solar evaporation ponds outside the city of Moab, Utah. There are 23 colorful ponds spread across 400 acres. They are part of a large operation to mine potassium chloride — more commonly referred to as muriate of potash (MOP)—from ore buried underground.
NASA has released this year's top photos of the earth taken from space.
The 17 photos were chosen at the space agency's Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit.
Here are some of the pictures collected by the International Space Station, which is currently home to six astronauts.