A recently-launched NASA satellite has sent back the Earth’s spectacular, high-resolution, 8000x8000 pixel "Blue Marble" picture which, according to the space agency, is far more stunning than any of the earlier images of the planet.

The new “Blue Marble 2012” image is essentially a compilation of a number of photos which the Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) captured on January 4. The high-tech VIIRS is on board the Earth-observation satellite Suomi NPP, which was rechristened on Tuesday in honor of "the father of satellite meteorology" - the late Verner E. Suomi, who was a University of Wisconsin meteorologist.

The VIIRS – which is the largest and the most important of the five instruments aboard the Suomi NPP satellite – is chiefly a scanning radiometer, capable of collecting visible and infrared imagery as well as gathering information about the measurements of the land, atmosphere and oceans.

While the latest “Blue Marble” picture is being described as the "most amazing high definition image," stunning “Blue Marble” images of the Earth have been released by NASA almost every year, after the first such image was clicked way back in 1972 by the Apollo 17 crew.

The first-ever “Blue Marble” image – which still remains one of the most well-recognized pictures ever - featured the Arabian Peninsula and Africa; while the “Blue Marble 2012” chiefly centers on North and Central America.