This is a guest post from Amy Jagge, Image Data Scientist, and part of our Johnson Space Center (JSC) Image Detective Science Team

Astronaut photograph (ISS042-E-294596) of the Cascade Mountain Range and Columbia River acquired on 02/28/2015 from the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

Astronaut photographs of Earth taken from space give us an entirely new perspective of our planet. Now with CosmoQuest’s new Image Detective 2.0 tool you can become a citizen scientist as you interact with this imagery in an altogether new way.
For over fifty years, astronauts have taken photographs of the Earth from different vantage points in space. Currently, there are over two million images of the Earth dating back to the Mercury missions in the early 1960s to imagery taken today from the International Space Station.

Astronaut photograph (ISS042-E-294940) of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Columbia acquired on 02/27/2015 from the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

Astronaut photographs are both scientific data and works of art, and the astronauts that capture them require training on how to acquire imagery while orbiting approximately 4.76 miles per second (7.66 kilometers per second) above the surface of the Earth. But, astronaut photography is more than just a form of art. From mountains to glaciers and cities to lakes, NASA’s astronaut photography database is a growing record of the changes happening on our planet.
Astronaut photographs are curated and made available by the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit at NASA Johnson Space Center in a publically available database accessible through The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth website (eol.jsc.nasa.gov). The images are a valuable resource for scientists, educators, and the public worldwide to study and view Earth.

Where on Earth is this image?! Go to Image Detective to become a citizen scientist today and help locate the center point of this image. Astronaut photograph (ISS050-E-38807). Credit: NASA

However, many of these astronaut photos are lacking information that could help scientists and the public access and use them. Specifically, the geographic information that identifies where on the Earth the image was taken is not captured when the image is taken from space. CosmoQuest and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit need your help to provide and document this important information. CosmoQuest is looking for a citizen scientist like you with the ability to identify the center point location and geographical features of these images. Record your findings with CosmoQuest’s Image Detective 2.0 tool and start enhancing the usability of NASA’s astronaut photography database today!

CosmoQuest Image Detective 2.0 (https://cosmoquest.org/imagedetective)

Visit the CosmoQuest Image Detective 2.0 tool to become a citizen scientist and help build NASA’s database by finding the center point location of the astronaut photographs below and many more at https://cosmoquest.org/imagedetective.
Become an Image Detective today!