Landsat Photos: Most Beautiful 'Earth as Art' Images

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5th Place: Lake Eyre Landsat 5 Acquired August 5, 2006

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/USGS

The scary face in this image is actually inundated patches of shallow Lake Eyre (pronounced "air") in the desert country of northern South Australia.

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4th Place: Algerian Abstract Landsat 5 Acquired April 8, 1985

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/USGS

Ridges of wind-blown sand make up Erg Iguidi, an area of ever-shifting sand dunes extending from Algeria into Mauritania in northwestern Africa.

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3rd Place: Meandering Mississippi Landsat 7 Acquired May 28, 2003

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/USGS

Small, blocky shapes of towns, fields, and pastures surround the graceful swirls and whorls of the Mississippi River, the largest river system in North America.

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2nd Place: Yukon Delta Landsat 7 Acquired September 22, 2002

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/USGS

Countless lakes, sloughs, and ponds are scattered throughout this scene of the Yukon Delta in southwest Alaska.

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1st Place: Van Gogh from Space Landsat 7 Acquired July 13, 2005

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/USGS

Swirls of yellow streak a deep blue sea around a long island In the style of Van Gogh's painting "Starry Night," massive congregations of greenish phytoplankton swirl in the dark water around Gotland, a Swedish island in the Baltic Sea.

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Landsat's Mission Continues

Credit: NASA

An artist's rendition of the next Landsat satellite, the Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) that will launch in Feb. 2013

Landsat Photos: Most Beautiful 'Earth as Art' Images

5th Place: Lake Eyre Landsat 5 Acquired August 5, 2006

4th Place: Algerian Abstract Landsat 5 Acquired April 8, 1985

3rd Place: Meandering Mississippi Landsat 7 Acquired May 28, 2003

2nd Place: Yukon Delta Landsat 7 Acquired September 22, 2002

1st Place: Van Gogh from Space Landsat 7 Acquired July 13, 2005

Landsat's Mission Continues

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