An instrument called the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer — or ASTER, for short — has been taking pictures of the Earth since it launched into space in 1999.
In that time, it has photographed an incredible 99% of the planet's surface.
Although it's aboard NASA's Terra spacecraft, ASTER is a Japanese instrument and most of its data and images weren't free to the public — until now.
NASA announced April 1 that ASTER's 2.95 million scenes of our planet are now ready-to-download and analyze for free.
With 16 years' worth of images, there are a lot to sort through.
Here are our 21 favorites.
Many ASTER images look like they were colored in by a little kid, including this one of the Andes Mountains. But that's because it has an infrared camera that can detect changes in surface temperatures, materials, and elevation.
This shot of Manaus, Brazil, is the most popular image in the ASTER gallery.
The volcanoes of the Galapagos Islands pushed them out of the Pacific Ocean.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider