Picture of the Week—Open-pit Copper Mine

20110520102302208281main_morenci.jpg
Feedloader (Clickability)

Splatter of colors

Seen high up from outer space

Pretty like a rainbow

--Natalie, age 8, Illinois

Mining doesn't generally result in a prettier landscape, but it seems when you view the landscape through NASA's ASTER instrument on the satellite Terra, beauty easily emerges. The image above is the Morenci open-pit copper mine in southeast Arizona. The mine is the largest producer of copper in North America. (The author of the poem is a Girl Scout; NASA partnered with some scouts last year and challenged them to write poems based on the agency's images.) NASA highlights this and other images from its vast library in the NASA Images blog, which was begun earlier this year.

Check out the entire collection of Pictures of the Week on our Facebook fan page.

Get the latest Science stories in your inbox.