NASA Releases "EPIC" New Image of Earth And It's Awesome

NASA's Deep Space Climate Observatory just released its first-ever recorded image of Earth from one million miles away, and it's absolutely E.P.I.C.

The satellite image, taken by a CCD camera and telescope appropriately called the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera, or EPIC for short, shows the entire sunlit terrestrial and oceanic surfaces of our planet.

The image was released Monday afternoon on NASA's website:

The image, taken of North and Central America on July 6, is actually comprised of three separate photos taken by the satellite, each revealing its own unique set of scientific properties that help form the complete photograph of Earth from a million miles away. 

DSCOVR is a joint partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the United States Air Force. NASA reports the main objective of DSCOVR is to, "maintain the nation's real-time solar wind monitoring capabilities, which are critical to the accuracy and lead time of space weather alerts and forecasts from NOAA."

The compiled image of Earth can be used to examine the effect of sunlight separated by air molecules on the planet. As the satellite begins to regularly photograph the Earth from its location in deep space, researchers will be able to begin different studies and explore various images from across the world.