This image shows a small portion of the Sahara Desert in southwestern Libya. The dark area is rocky desert, the light blue areas are rock with a thin covering of sand, and the gold areas are deeper layers of sand that have been shaped into large star dunes by the wind. This has produced intricate patterns in the dunes that are constantly changing over time. The Sahara rarely sees rain, but over time, these infrequent rains have carved channels in the rock that are visible in the image.

The area covered by this image is approximately 36x48 miles. A full-resolution crop of the image file is available here that shows the detail present in the full image print.