I really don't know much about this stuff. Why is that orb not round at all? Is the earth really like that? When you look at earth from space, it looks nothing like that.<p>Edit: I understand mountains and things make it not round, but the perspective of the image makes it look like it's be from space as well. So I guess that's what I'm trying to compare it too
Interesting also is the earlier American-German GRACE satellite. For more information on both see here <a href="http://www.science20.com/planetbye/grace_goce" rel="nofollow">http://www.science20.com/planetbye/grace_goce</a>