Soaring, snow-capped peaks and ridges of the eastern Himalaya Mountains create an irregular white-on-red patchwork between major rivers in southwestern China. The Himalaya are made up of three parallel mountain ranges that together extend more than 2,900 kilometers.

This scene was acquired by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), flying aboard NASA’s Terra satellite, on February 27, 2002. This false-color composite image was created by combining near-infrared, red, and green wavelengths (ASTER bands 3, 2, and 1, respectively).