Free photos (and legal)

Rare enough to be worth noting: today you're going to discover how to get exceptional photos — for free! Yes, for free, and without calling on your brother-in-law or your best friend the photographer, professionally amateur.

My introduction is a complete con: you won't be able to get photos of whatever you want, but you can use photos generously made available by NASA.

NASA's archive online

In early April — the 8th, to be exact — NASA opened the archives of its Terra spacecraft to the public. 2.95 million images of Earth were published on the dedicated portal Asterweb. They come from the Japanese ASTER sensor aboard the Terra spacecraft, launched in 1999 as part of a programme studying the evolution of Earth.

The Asterweb portal offers several categories of photos: volcanoes, glaciers, cities, archaeology, hydrology… You can also access images of the atmosphere or biosphere. You'll discover exceptionally varied images such as the Nazca Lines, the Temples of Angkor, the island of Malta, or Mount Paektu on the border between China and North Korea.

"We anticipate a dramatic increase in the number of users of our data," says Michael Abrams, head of the team in charge of the ASTER sensor. Before, it was still possible to access some ASTER data, but the site was limited — at least for users who refused to pay. That business model is now over.

NASA's images in practice

Here: on the Asterweb site — €0! $0! It's free!