121-megapixel photo the largest ever shot of Earth.
Taken by a Russian weather satellite, a zoomable version of this photograph is available online.

This post was originally published on Mashable.

Need something to put things into perspective this morning? Suggestion: the largest single-shot photo of Earth ever taken.

Eclipsing NASA's updated "Blue Marble" shot, which is a composite of many satellite images, this image is a single-shot taken from 22,369 miles (36,000km) away by Russian weather satellite Elektro-L No.1.
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The colours on the 121-megapixel photo are quite different from the ones on NASA's photos of Earth. To capture the image, the satellite combines visible and infrared wavelengths of light. Infrared light is used to see plants, which is why the parts of the Earth that would normally be green are seen as rusty brown.

Check out a time-lapse video of Earth's northern hemisphere taken by Elektro-L below.

You can explore the zoomable version of the image here.


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