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If you want to

see a satellite image of the entire planet, there are

weather satellites

NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) release images of an entire hemisphere of planet Earth every 3 hours

you can see major weather patterns affecting parts of the Earth. But you really can’t see any specific spot on Earth with any detail

these satellite views is that they’re live.

The weather systems

are happening on the planet right now

If you don’t want a live view

check out

images produced by NASA. Here’s a composite photograph that shows the Earth’s Western Hemisphere, and here’s a view of the Earth’s Eastern Hemisphere.

There were also some amazing new satellite images of the Earth released from the European Space Agency’s 3rd generation Meteosat spacecraft

zoom in, and see some pictures of houses from space

Google Maps and the other internet mapping services are really just customers for the satellite services that actually take these photographs from space

There are a few major services on the market, including GeoEye

DigitalGlobe and Spot Image.

Each company has a fleet of Earth observation satellites, with a capability of resolving features on the surface of the Earth as small as about 45 cm (18 inches). In other words, an object 45 centimeters across would appear as a single pixel in their photographs

GeoEye – 5 satellites: IKONOS, OrbView-2, OrbView-3, GeoEye-1, GeoEye-2 (in 2013).

DigitalGlobe – 4 satellites: Early Bird 1, Quickbird, WorldView-1, Worldview-2

Spot Image – 2 satellites: Spot 4, Spot 5

Each of these services allow customers to purchase satellite imagery directly

the prices are

hundreds or even thousands of dollars for satellite imagery

typically can’t buy directly from the satellite company itself

All of the free satellite images you’re accessing were captured by various spacecraft over the last couple of years

. A live satellite view of your house, is still a few years off.

you can access a live broadcast from NASA’s International Space Station. About 40% of the time, if you follow this link you can see a live view of Earth from the space station.

Another service called Urthecast will be attaching a high definition camera to the International Space Station in 2013 to broadcast a live view of Earth from space.

Ceres is classified as a dwarf planet, a solar system body bigger than an asteroid and smaller than a planet.

"This is the first time water vapor has been unequivocally detected on Ceres or any other object in the asteroid belt and provides proof that Ceres has an icy surface and an atmosphere,"

Michael Küppers of ESA in Spain

NASA's Dawn mission, which is on its way to Ceres now after spending more than a year orbiting the large asteroid Vesta

Dawn is scheduled to arrive at Ceres in the spring of 2015, where it will take the closest look ever at its surface.

will map the geology and chemistry of the surface in high resolution

International Astronomical Union, the governing organization responsible for naming planetary objects

Ceres was known as the largest asteroid in our solar system

reclassified Ceres as a dwarf planet because of its large size. It is roughly 590 miles (950 kilometers) in diameter

When it first was spotted in 1801, astronomers thought it was a planet orbiting between Mars and Jupiter

Scientists believe Ceres contains rock in its interior with a thick mantle of ice that, if melted, would amount to more fresh water than is present on all of Earth

The materials making up Ceres likely date from the first few million years of our solar system's existence and accumulated before the planets formed.

Until now, ice had been theorized to exist on Ceres but had not been detected conclusively

far-infrared vision to see, finally, a clear spectral signature of the water vapor. But

did not see water vapor every time it looked

spied water vapor four different times, on one occasion there was no signature.

what scientists think is happening

when Ceres swings through the part of its orbit that is closer to the sun, a portion of its icy surface becomes warm enough to cause water vapor to escape in plumes

a rate of about 6 kilograms (13 pounds) per second

When Ceres is in the colder part of its orbit, no water escapes

The strength of the signal also varied over hours, weeks and months

water vapor plumes rotating in and out of Herschel's views as the object spun on its axis

This enabled the scientists to localize the source of water to two darker spots on the surface of Ceres

previously seen by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes. The dark spots might be more likely to outgas because dark material warms faster than light material.

"The lines are becoming more and more blurred between comets and asteroids," said Seungwon Lee of JPL

Paul von Allmen, also of JPL. "We knew before about main belt asteroids that show comet-like activity, but this is the first detection of water vapor in an asteroid-like object."

Gaia launched into space on Dec. 19 and it will spend five years studying the precise positions, motions and properties of 1 billion stars in the Milky Way

goal of creating the most accurate 3D map to date of our home galaxy

Gaia has two telescopes that can stare out at two different patches of the sky simultaneously

Gaia's camera,

is the highest-resolution image sensor ever flown in space with about 1 billion pixels.

it will measure an average of 2 million stars per hour,

about 50 gigabytes of data each day.

Gaia will eventually compile more than million gigabytes of data

about 200,000 fully loaded DVDs

it will be able to capture all one billion of its targets during its first six months in operation

the spacecraft will measure each of its stars an average of 70 times throughout the course of its five-year mission

will measure physical characteristics of the stars, including their brightness, temperature and chemical makeup

In September 2032, the European spacecraft will arrive at Ganymede, becoming the first probe to enter orbit around the moon of another planet

Equipped with radar, a mapping camera and other instruments, JUICE will measure the thickness of global ice sheets covering Jupiter's moons and produce terrain and mineral maps of Ganymede

Russia's plan is to implement a Ganymede Lander

Russian mission planners initially proposed the lander to target Europa, another of Jupiter's moons with a frozen crust thinner than the ice cap covering Ganymede

After a NASA mission to orbit Europa never materialized, Russia retooled the project to focus on Ganymede, falling in line with the goals of Europe's Jupiter mission

advantages of landing on Ganymede as opposed to Europa

The radiation environment at Ganymede is less severe than at Europa, which lies closer to Jupiter

this is one of the reasons ESA picked Ganymede as the destination for JUICE

Russian scientists say mapping and reconnaissance of Ganymede are required before any attempted landing

If Russia becomes a full partner in Europe's JUICE mission, the development of the lander will need to be accelerated to launch in 2022, if managers want the Russian craft to ride to Jupiter as a piggyback payload.

The mission required the spacecraft to leave the Earth/moon system and orbit around the sun instead

After encounters with comet Giacobini-Zinner in 1985 and the famous Halley’s comet in 1986 and the study of CME’s from the sun in 1991, the “plug” was pulled in the spacecraft on 5 May 1997