Photo Of Cape Cod From Space Among NASA's Top Images Of 2015
HOUSTON (CBS) -- A spectacular photograph of the Cape Cod coastline taken from space has been selected by NASA as one of the top Earth images of 2015.
NASA choose their favorite images of Earth taken from the @Space_Station in 2015: https://t.co/uxcT1qaebh pic.twitter.com/0hVlAlyuuI
— NASA 360 (@NASA360) December 29, 2015
NASA picked 15 of the best Earth pictures captured by astronauts on board the International Space Station this year. Coming in at No. 10 was the image showing an 8.5-mile stretch of the northern tip of Cape Cod in June.
Astronauts used a very long lens to snap the incredible photo, according to NASA.
"The cream-colored features are symmetrically shaped dunes built mainly by northwesterly winter winds (image upper center) blowing beach sands inland," NASA said.
The space agency notes that Cape Cod is "one of the biggest barrier islands in the world," and shields much of Massachusetts from the Atlantic Ocean's storm waves.
The only other image of the United States to get recognized was a shot of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano.
The top picture in the list was of Lake Chad and a Saharan dust plume in the middle of the African continent.