We've discussed the subject of what can be seen from satellites when photographing the earth and these make into online aerial views, but this wasn't very subject, and inevitably ran into mythology.

Providing some real numbers to work with, Google is currently processing imagery from GeoEye-1, which is capable of collecting hundreds of thousands of square kilometres of imagery every, but this takes time to complete, and only a small subset has appeared so far.

To highlight some of these GeoEye-1 images before they can be fully integrated into Maps and Earth, Google has announced the new 'GeoEye Featured Imagery' layer in Google Earth. Included within this layer are 20-30 Featured Imagery placemarks, including a thumbnail of the image, a link to view the image in full-resolution, and a range of information about the scene, including resolution, collection date, and a descriptive narrative.

To view this imagery, select the 'GeoEye Featured Imagery' button located in the Google Earth 'More' folder (in the sidebar on the left):