Fourteen mountain peaks stand taller than 8,000 meters (26,247 feet). There could have been many more of these “eight-thousanders” if, in 1793, the French commission that established the length of the meter had made it just a bit shorter. Yet the decision to make a meter equivalent to one ten-millionth of the distance between the equator and the North Pole left the world with only this handful. All of them are found in either the Karakoram or Himalayan mountain ranges of central Asia. Ground photography of the towering peaks is ubiquitous, but images captured by NASA’s EO-1 satellite offer a less familiar perspective. The sensor on EO-1 looked directly down on the mountains, providing a view of the very tip of each summit. Check out the images to see the world's five highest peaks from orbit.
Please give credit for this item to: NASA's Earth Observatory Cover image courtesy of NASA/JSC Satellite images courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory/Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon
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