Posted: January 11, 2009 Archived article >>	Photo ID: ISS018-E-11127 Earth Observatory archive >>
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The International Polar Year (IPY) is an international effort to collect relevant scientific data of the Earth's polar regions. These data are crucial to understand how processes at the high latitudes influence global climate and climate changes. For more information on our collaboration with IPY 2007-2008, click here.

To visit NASA’s IPY website, click here.

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The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth hosts the best and most complete online collection of astronaut photographs of the Earth.

Beginning with the Mercury missions in the early 1960s, astronauts have taken photographs of the Earth. Our database tracks the locations, supporting data, and digital images for these photographs. We process images coming down from the International Space Station on a daily basis and add them to the 783,446 views of the Earth already made accessible on our website. These images include 337,591 from the International Space Station. These numbers were determined 1/1/2009. See database content summary for more details.

British astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle stated, "Once a photograph of the Earth, taken from outside, is available - once the sheer isolation of the Earth becomes known - a new idea as powerful as any in history will be let loose."