Earth - Simpson Desert, Central Australia

This color image of the Simpson Desert in Australia was obtained by the Galileo spacecraft at about 2:30 p.m. PST, Dec. 8, 1990, at a range of more than 35,000 miles. The color composite was made from images taken through the red, green and violet filters. The area shown, about 280 miles wide by about 340 miles north-to-south, is southeast of Alice Springs. At lower left is Lake Eyre, a salt lake below sea level, subject to seasonal water-level fluctuations; when this image was acquired the lake was nearly dry. At lower right is the greenish Lake Blanche. Fields of linear sand dunes stretch north and east of Lake Eyre, shaped by prevailing winds from the south and showing, in different colors, the various sources and/or ages of their sands.