[custom_adv] The competition is fierce in this public-vote photography contest - because all the entries are out of this world. NASA's Earth Observatory has opened up an archive of pictures of Earth taken from space and is asking the public to vote for the winner in a knock-out-style competition. [custom_adv] This awe-inspiring image was captured by an astronaut onboard the International Space Station in December 2013. It shows the eruption of the Klyuchevskoy volcano - one of a chain of volcanoes on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. [custom_adv] Captured in January 2001, this satellite image shows sand and seaweed beds in the Bahamas, which have been sculpted by tides and currents. The contest is called "Tournament Earth" and has been set up to mark the 20th anniversary of the Earth Observatory, as well as the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. [custom_adv] An astronaut on the International Space Station snapped this image showing flashes of lightning above Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in December 2013. NASA says that across the atmosphere of Earth, lightning flashes about 50 times per second. [custom_adv] A jaw-dropping image of planet Earth's Western Hemisphere, which was created using a composite of several pictures captured by satellites between 1994 and 2004. [custom_adv] In July 2012, an infra-red camera on the Suomi NPP satellite snapped this view of the Aurora Australis, or the Southern Lights, across Antarctica's Queen Maud Land and the Princess Ragnhild Coast. [custom_adv] Astronauts aboard the International Space Station took this spectacular aerial image of Paris in April 2015, around midnight local time. Street lights mark out the road grid system and the River Seine can be seen snaking around the city. [custom_adv] This incredible black-and-white photo taken by the crew of Apollo 8 shows a view of the Earth from the moon on Christmas Eve 1968. An initial set of 32 incredible images were chosen for the contest and the first round of voting has already taken place. [custom_adv] Taken by the Deep Space Climate Observatory in March 2016, this fascinating image was one of a series taken during a solar eclipse. Voting in the second round is currently underway with the polls closing on April 6. Click through to see a selection of the photos that NASA put up for a public reckoning. [custom_adv] Astronauts on the International Space Station shot this dramatic image of the Southern Lights while passing over the Indian Ocean in September 2011. [custom_adv] This fascinating image shows the abrupt transition of sand dunes giving way to land in Africa's Namib Desert. It was taken in November 2019 by the Operational Land Imager on the Landsat 8 satellite. . [custom_adv] The North Caspian Sea is pictured in this image from April 2016. Scientists believe that the crisscrossing lines may have been created by trawlers. [custom_adv] Taken in February, this satellite image shows the view across the melting ice cap of Eagle Island in Antarctica, when the region was experiencing record-breaking temperatures of 18 degrees. [custom_adv] Dissolved organic matter from the forest and wetlands can be seen flowing into Rupert Bay in Quebec, Canada, in this image taken by a satellite in July 2016. [custom_adv] This image, captured on the morning of June 22, 2019, shows a rare eruption of the Raikoke Volcano on the Kuril Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The picture was taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station.
