Explore Earth, our unique terrestrial planet, with this highly-detailed 6" desktop globe from Astronomy magazine. It was created by the staff of Astronomy magazine using several maps that are part of NASA's Blue Marble Collection, which are a subset of the agency's Visible Earth Catalog.

The maps used for our globe were made using months of observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Earth-orbiting Terra and Aqua satellites.  MODIS images the entire planet every one to two days in 36 different wavelengths of light.

We have chosen to call out only a few significant features on our globe to allow the beauty of the visual imagery to speak for itself.  Labels include the seven continents and five named oceans, as well as three major mountain ranges, two major ocean features, and our planet's largest desert, the Sahara.  

This highly detailed, injection-molded 6" desktop globe is made of long-lasting durable plastic with just a single seam between hemispheres and comes with a clear acrylic display base and informational flyer.