Categories: EarthEarth ObservationSpace Station

Dubai’s Island Version of the World, As Seen from Space

The Palm and The World Islands, Dubai. Credit: NASA/ESA

[/caption]

Usually astronauts have to go much farther away than low Earth orbit to see the entire world in one view, but The World Islands resorts in Dubai provides a unique — if not manufactured — view of Earth’s continents from space. The World Islands are a collection of man-made islands shaped into the continents of the world, and ultimately will consist of 300 small private artificial islands divided into four categories – private homes, estate homes, dream resorts, and community islands.

To the east is another man-made archipelago named The Palm, for obvious reasons, and another island chain is due to be built between these reclaimed lands which will be called The Universe.

Remove All Ads on Universe Today

Join our Patreon for as little as $3!

Get the ad-free experience for life

ESA astronaut André Kuipers took this image on April 10, 2012 during his long duration mission on the International Space Station. See more of his images at the ESA FLickr page.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/