Earth selfie: Winter looms as North America tilts

This week's Earth selfie shows North America at top center with South America in the middle right of the image.

As the days grow shorter in Minnesota, we see North America leaning farther away from the Deep Space Climate Observatory, but never quite disappearing.

Only the far north of the arctic will completely drop out of sight when the area endures times without direct sunlight as South America comes into full view for summer's returns to the southern continent.

The annotated image shows what is left of Hurricane Patricia as it continued its curve northeast, eventually contributing to storm systems that brought heavy rains to the southern United States.

• View last week's Earth selfie