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Heroes

The breathtaking last sunrise Scott Kelly just snapped from space.

For astronaut Scott Kelly, the stars look very different today.

On March 27, 2015, astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko climbed inside a Soyuz rocket to travel to the International Space Station, in orbit 248 miles above Earth.

This morning, as Kelly got ready to make the journey back to Earth, he posted a photo of his last sunrise from space.

Astronaut Scott Kelly's last space sunrise before returning to Earth. Photo by Scott Kelly/NASA.

Carrying on a tradition started by his astronaut predecessor Cmdr. Chris Hadfield, Kelly has posted more than 1,000 photos of Earth to his Twitter account, all tagged with #yearinspace.

They show our planet at its scariest.

Its most vulnerable.

And its most beautiful.

With this voyage aboard the ISS and his three previous spaceflights, Kelly has spent 520 days in space — more than any other American before.

That's great news for NASA researchers. From seeing how Kelly's body reacts to long-duration spaceflight, NASA will be better prepared for future missions that travel even farther into space — like a round-trip mission to Mars (Matt Damon not included).

You'll get 'em next time, Matt. GIF from "The Martian."

Twin powers activate!

That's not the only mission Kelly has been a part of this year. Together with his identical twin brother — who is also an astronaut — Scott has participated in 10 investigations as part of NASA's Twin Study.

Mark (left) and Scott Kelly. Photo via Robert Markowitz/NASA.

Because Scott and Mark share the same genetics but are spending the year in two very different places, NASA is able to test how environmental effects like gravity and sunlight affect their bodies differently.

AMAZING, right?

Mind = blown.

By the time you read this, Kelly will have started his journey home.

He and Kornienko are expected to land on Earth in Kazakhstan at around 10:45 p.m. Houston time (Central) on Wednesday, March 2 (based on current weather).

The Soyuz capsule containing astronauts from NASA's Expedition 42 returns to Earth. Image by Bill Ingalls/NASA.

About 24 hours later, he'll be back in Houston to spend the next few months in intensive rehab. Spending a year in space takes a lot out of a guy — namely in the form of bone density — so Kelly will need a few months of rest and recuperation to strengthen his bones for life on Earth.

If you're a space-keener like me, you can watch a live-stream of Kelly's arrival in Houston on Thursday, March 3 online at NASA's website.

Safe travels, Cmdr. Kelly!

popular

12 absolutely stunning photos of Earth taken from space.

I'm just gonna go ahead and say that the ISS might just be the greatest photography vantage point ever.

Astronaut Tim Peake just posted an incredible time-lapse video of what a lightning storm over Earth looks like from space.

GIF via Tim Peake/Facebook.

Captured by the International Space Station (ISS) as it passed over Turkey on its way to Russia, the video offers a breathtaking portrait of what it looks like to live in space — in fact, it makes "Interstellar" look like a middle-school science project gone awry.

"Amazing how much lightning can strike our planet in a short time," Peake wrote on Facebook.

Peake's video is just the latest in an extraordinary series of images the ISS has given us over the years. In fact, there are many more pictures of our Earth from space, too. Check 'em out:

1. London at night.

All photos via NASA.

Speaking of Peake, the British astronaut first headed to space in December 2015 and has been regularly posting brilliant images and videos to his Instagram ever since. A former British Army Air Corps officer and the first British European Space Agency astronaut, Peake uploaded this photo of his native London at night on Jan. 31, 2016. Kind of the defeats the notion that England is all gray clouds and fog, doesn't it?

2. The aurora borealis.

Believe it or not, some astronauts are actually trained in photography as part of their preparation for traveling into outer space. Among them is current ISS Commander Scott Kelly, who took this photo with Peake on Jan. 20, 2016.

"Getting a photo masterclass from @StationCDRKelly – magical," Peake wrote on Twitter.

Sign me up.

3. Earth art from Australia.

Not to be outdone, Commander Kelly posted this photo during a flyover of Australia back in October 2015 as part of a 17 photo series. G'day, indeed.

4. Fan art from Australia.

Of course, you don't have to be a professional photographer — or even an astronaut, apparently — to take some stunning space photos. This image of the northwest corner of Australia "was snapped by a student on Earth after remotely controlling the Sally Ride EarthKAM aboard the International Space Station," according to NASA.

5. Fingerprints of water on the sand.

Photographs taken from the ISS serve a much greater purpose beyond simply being gorgeous to look at. In rain-deprived areas like Oman, where this photo was snapped by NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, there are thousands of people who lack access to clean water on a daily basis. By teaming with local aid organizations, NASA is able to discover previously untapped water sources and provide these at-risk areas with water purification technology used onboard the ISS.

6. The eye of the storm.

Another benefit of space photography: incredibly precise storm-tracking. Kelly took this photo of Hurricane Danny as the ISS orbited over the central Atlantic Ocean. So again, there's more than just a bunch of pretty views going on here, people...

7. Those views, though.

...which is not to say that ISS astronauts aren't able to capture some remarkable images, like this shot of British Columbia's Coast Mountains taken by Tim Peake on Jan. 5, 2016.

8. The ultimate skybox.

Kelly snapped This photo of Levi's Stadium on the evening of Super Bowl 50. Think of it as the ultimate skybox, if you will. I can only imagine how Eli Manning would've reacted to this.

9. Starry night.

Here's a photo of England, the Baltic Sea, and the Persian Gulf captured by Samantha Cristoforetti. I'd guess this one would have given Vincent Van Gogh a heart attack (ack-ack-ack).

10. Sunrise.

Can't ... look ... away ... too ... awesome...

11. America, the beautiful.

I don't know if it's even possible, but I want this picture on my gravestone. SOMEONE FIGURE OUT THE LOGISTICS FOR ME.

12. EPIC space selfies.

The commander himself, Scott Kelly.

Your move, Ellen DeGeneres.

Aside from doing some of the world's most prestigious whisky-aging, the ISS might just be the greatest photography vantage point ever as well.

Peake's video has already been viewed almost 1 million times on Facebook since being posted on Tuesday, and thousands of eager parents have flooded their social media pages to thank both Peake and Kelly for inspiring their children, too.

This is just another reason to reach for the stars, kids. Because one day, you might actually get to touch them.

Check out the full video here:

Heroes

Why NASA is celebrating this photo of a seemingly ordinary zinnia.

Astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren accomplished something that had never been done before in 55 years of space travel.

The vacuum of space.

Photo by ogunhe/Deviant Art.

A cold, forbidding place where nothing grows.

Photo by Lunar and Planetary Institute/Flickr.

Too many of our best fictional characters have died there.

GIF from "Gravity"/Warner Bros.

GIF from "Star Wars"/20th Century Fox.

GIF from "Armageddon"/Buena Vista Pictures.

But space may have just taken an important first step to rehabilitate its reputation as a stone-cold extinguisher of being.

In a long-overdue public relations move, the infinite void decided to take a break from asphyxiating George Clooney to not only just create, but straight-up foster some life for once.

Specifically, this really awesome-looking zinnia, a type of sunflower.

Photo by Scott Kelly/NASA.

The zinnia was grown by astronauts aboard the International Space Station. It is the first flower ever successfully grown in 55 years of manned space travel.

According to a NASA press release, astronaut Kjell Lindgren initiated the zinnia-growing project back in November.

The crew of the International Space Station has been stepping up its botany game since May of 2014 when the Veggie plant growth facility was installed. The largely automated setup includes clay pods to anchor the plants and facilitate water distribution in the limited gravity environment and artificial light to simulate conditions on Earth. The team started and were eventually successful growing lettuce before turning their attention to the more difficult zinnias.

When Kelly noticed a month into the project that the flowers, "weren't looking too good," he radioed ground control for help.

Together, they decided that, rather than depend on the automated system, Kelly would simply take care of the flowers himself, as if he were gardening in his backyard. A team of veggie specialists (NASA, apparently, has a team of veggie specialists) sent Kelly a one-page guide to tell him what problems to look for and how to adjust his watering schedule to correct them, which he used to nurse the plants back to health.

Scott Kelly, artist's rendering. GIF from "The Martian"/20th Century Fox.

It may seem like a small thing, but successfully growing a flower in space actually helps pave the way for bigger, better space travel in the future.

"The challenging process of growing the zinnias provided an exceptional opportunity for scientists back on Earth to better understand how plants grow in microgravity, and for astronauts to practice doing what they’ll be tasked with on a deep space mission: autonomous gardening," NASA wrote in a blog post about Kelly and Lindgren's botanical breakthrough.

In other words, thanks to the tireless efforts of our astronauts, we are one step closer to the ultimate goal of any forward-looking, post-industrial society: landing Matt Damon on Mars.

GIF from "The Martian"/20th Century Fox.

Let's go for it, world.