Universe Today

Pyramids from space

If I'm looking for a free satellite image of a specific location on Earth, I usually start with Google Maps. This is a free service from Google that lets you see a satellite picture of the whole planet. You can grab onto the map with your mouse and drag it around, and zoom in and out of the map right down to the highest resolution. In some locations, this can be as high as 0.5 meters. You can even put on an overlay that lets you see the street names and other interesting spots.

If I want to print off a photo, I typically use Google Earth instead. This is very similar to Google Maps, but you have to actually install and run the application off your local computer (PC, Mac, Linux or iPhone). It gives you a 3-D version of the Earth that you can rotate around and zoom in and out. You can type in a specific address, and it'll fly you to that spot on Earth and show you the highest resolution view.

If you don't like using Google tools, you can get similar browser-based mapping services from Yahoo Maps, and through Bing Maps.

Part of NASA is dedicated to the study of the Earth and the environment. They have a whole fleet of spacecraft studying the earth, air and water; and there are some beautiful satellite images available as well. The first place to look is NASA's Earth Observatory. This has a huge archive of satellite photos, and they highlight a new image every day. You should also check out the NASA Visible Earth site. It has one of the highest resolution images ever taken of the entire Earth. Another great site is Earth from Space. These are photos of Earth taken by NASA astronauts orbiting the planet.

But you don't just need to look at satellite images of Earth. Here's a link to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is taking images of Mars. And a link to NASA's Cassini spacecraft at Saturn, and the NASA MESSENGER mission to Mercury.

Were you looking for an image of a satellite? Here's a cool gallery of satellites.

We have written many articles about satellites for Universe Today. Here's an article about two satellites that collided in space, and here's an article about how you can launch your own satellite for $8000.

We have recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast all about space junk. Listen here, Episode 82: Space Junk.

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Niagara Falls. Image credit: NASA

When I'm looking for a satellite picture of a specific location on Earth, I usually start with Google Maps. This is a free service from Google that lets you punch in the address of any location on the planet and see a satellite picture at the highest resolution they have available. With the recent launch of the Geoeye-1 satellite, that can be as high as 0.5 meter resolution. You can move the map around and zoom in with your mouse scroll wheel. There are also different overlays, so you can see the streets, or just the satellite picture.

If I want to actually print off a picture, I typically go with Google Earth. Unlike Google Maps, Google Earth is an application that you have to install on your computer (Mac, PC, Linux, or even the iPhone). It gives you a nice 3-D view of the Earth that you can rotate around, zoom in and out. Once you've got the location you want to see at the highest resolution, you can print off a nice photograph of it.

And if you don't like using Google products, there are similar services from yahoo maps">Yahoo and Microsoft.

If you're not looking for a specific spot on Earth, and you just want to see nice galleries of satellite pictures of Earth, check out some of the sites from NASA. The best one is NASA's Earth Observatory. This site has a vast archive of Earth pictures, and they highlight a new image every day. Another good one is NASA's Visible Earth. And I also like Earth From Space, which are photos captured by NASA astronauts – I guess you could call an astronaut a satellite.

And why just look at satellite pictures of Earth; why not view pictures of other planets. Here's a link to the amazing photos of Mars taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and here's a link to NASA's Cassini images of Saturn, and finally the NASA MESSENGER mission to Mercury.

We have written many articles about how you can get satellite pictures for Universe Today. Here's an article about satellite images of Australian bushfires, and here's an article about satellite pictures of fires and floods.

We've recorded an entire episode of Astronomy Cast just about the Earth. Listen here, Episode 51: Earth.

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Satellite view of the White House. Image credit: Google Maps

Probably the easiest and best way to see a satellite view of your house is to use the service from Google Maps. This is a web-based interface you can access with any web browser. You just enter the address of the location that you want to see, and it will be brought up in the interface. You need to click the satellite tab on, and turn off labels if you don't want to see all the street names and additional information.

Another free service you can use from Google is called Google Earth. Unlike Google Maps, you need to download Google Earth to your own computer; there's a version you can use for either PC or Mac. Once you've downloaded and installed the software, you have a beautiful 3-D rendered version of the Earth. You can type in an address and see a satellite image of your house; anywhere on Earth. You can even zoom right down to the street level view in some locations.

If you don't want to use Google, there's a similar browser mapping service from Microsoft. It used to be called Virtual Earth, but now it's just Bing Maps, based on their relaunched search engine service. Again, you just enter the address you want to see, and then you can see a satellite image of the house.

Remember that all of these satellite images have been taken over the last few years, so there are no services that actually capture live satellite images of houses. You can't just go outside, look up and wave to the satellite and see that on your computer… yet.

We have written many articles about satellite imagery for Universe Today. Here's an article about the satellite images of the California wildfires in 2009, and here's an article about a satellite view of Obama's inauguration.

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There are so many free sources of satellite imagery out there, it's kind of crazy to even consider paying for it. Some are services that work in your browser, while other services let you download huge images that you can print off or use as your computer desktop background.

Your best starting place for free satellite imagery is the services offered by Google. There's Google Maps, which works in your web browser, and then Google Earth, which is an application that you download and run on your computer. They have versions of Google Earth for both PC and Mac. Both services allow you to put in your address and then it will navigate you to see a satellite view of that location. Large cities have very high resolution images, and even let you zoom down and see things from the street level.

There are also similar services available from Microsoft (Bing Maps), and even NASA World Wind.

If you just want to see free satellite images, then I recommend you visit NASA again. They have a few services. The first is called Earth Images from Space. These are photographs of the Earth taken by astronauts on board the space shuttle or the International Space Station. It has a big clickable map of the whole Earth that lets you locate a specific region and then zoom down to see some pictures that have been taken.

You can also see NASA's Visible Earth. These are photographs of the Earth taken by satellites and astronauts. You can browse by geographic location, or see types of images, like volcanoes or cities.

And here's a link to NASA's Earth Observatory. Another great resource for free satellite images.

We have written many articles for Universe Today about images of Earth captured by satellites. Check out these images of the Earth… from the Moon!

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NASA satellite map of the Earth

Probably the best service available right now is Google Maps. You can access this service by going to maps.google.com, and then put in your street address. If Google can't locate your street address, you can always put in your zip/postal code, town or even state and it should be able to find it. Make sure you select the satellite overlay, so you can see an actual satellite image, and not just road maps.

Another service from Google is Google Earth. This is different from Google Maps because you have to download and install a software application to your computer. But once you do have this installed, you can look around the whole planet. It's very cool.

Another cool service is terraserver. With this application you can locate satellite images of your house and then print them off. You can also download high resolution images.

A big competitor to Google is Microsoft, and they have their Bing Maps service. Just like Google, you see satellite images of the whole Earth, and find satellite pictures of your house.

Keep in mind that none of these satellite services are live. There's nothing out there yet that lets you see the ground from space in real time. They're always images captured months or even years ago, and then stitched together into a larger image that you can scan around.

We have written many articles about using satellite images of Earth. Here's an article about Google Oceans and Google Mars, and how Google got a view of the Obama inauguration.

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