Long Shadows of Mongolian Mountains, Mongolia - 27 May 2024
Mongolia - While orbiting over central Mongolia, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) captured this image of the snow-covered Gobi Altai Mountains and neighboring plains. Late-afternoon sunlight casts long shadows of mountain peaks onto the plains below. Numerous steep gullies cut into the massif, or mass of mountains, whose rugged appearance contrasts with the flat plains stretching along the top of the image. The plains are a semidesert grassland, or steppe, which provides pasture for livestock herders in the region. Part of a small dry lake appears in the top left of the image. In wetter years, water from this lake feeds Orog Lake (also photographed by astronauts), out of frame to the upper right. This and other nearby lakes are part of the Valley of Lakes waterfowl conservation habitat, protected as a Ramsar site.