Same planet, same view, so why do these Russian satellite images of Earth look so different to Nasa's? - 1st Apr 2011

They are some of the most revealing and fascinating images yet taken of Earth.

Clearly showing various land colours according to terrain and finely detailing the height contours of mountains, they are incredibly beautiful to look at.

But they are also unique and quite different to the images of our planet captured by numerous Nasa missions over the years.

For these images were not taken by Nasa, but by an orbiting Russian spacecraft, and the reason for the difference in Earth's appearance can be attributed to a different method of interpreting data being beamed back.

The weather satellite Elektro-L sends images to ground control every 30 minutes, but is capable of mailing images every ten minutes.

Launched in January aboard a Zenit rocket, it is currently 36,000km above the equator.

But while the Elektro-L's revealing shots of Earth may appear more accurate than Nasa images, the U.S. space agency claims they are not. Read More