Towering glaciers stream down the Himalayas’ northern slopes like icy giants cascading onto China’s Tibetan Plateau.
What’s it?
Again in Might, from aboard the Worldwide House Station 259 miles (417 kilometers) above Earth, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir peered out the station’s home windows together with her digicam and captured a wide ranging sight.
In that fleeting second from house, she captured the northern slopes of the Himalaya mountains stretching into China. And atop the mountains, slow-moving rivers of glacial ice carve their manner downhill.
This view exhibits the enormity of this mountain vary, which separates Nepal from China’s Tibetan Plateau. The Himalayas have the very best mountains on the planet, together with Mount Everest, with over 110 mountain peaks surpassing 24,000 ft (7,300 meters) of elevation above sea degree. Ranging throughout 5 international locations (Nepal, India, China, Bhutan and Pakistan) the mountain vary is about 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) extensive.
Why is it unbelievable?
With the vary being so extremely expansive, this view from house gives a singular vantage level from which we are able to see a big swath of the mountains in movement. Even in a helicopter, you’d get a reasonably localized view of particular person mountains within the Himalayas. This view gives a placing scene that you simply can not see from the floor of our planet.
This view can also be a reminder of how essential house is in our evolving understanding of local weather change. As our planet continues to alter and sea ranges rise with warming temperatures, we are able to see glacial motion from house. This is a vital useful resource to researchers preventing to higher perceive local weather change so we are able to higher combat it. With entry to details about glaciers and the way they soften, transfer and stream internationally, we might be higher ready to guard our planet and its inhabitants.
