Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡
Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week.
By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
At ground level the Sahara desert often seems somewhat monochromatic, but from above that picture changes completely. The Tibesti Miountains, captured above by the European Space Agency’s Envisat, are a mostly inactive volcanic range in the central Sahara, covering some 62,000 square miles of Chad and parts of southern Libya. They’re also really, really pretty when photographed from space.
ESA
2025 PopSci Best of What’s New
The 50 most important innovations of the year