Chris Hadfield / CSA via Twitter

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield passed along this picture of Boston at night, as seen from the International Space Station, in recognition of the city's tragedy.

Monday's Boston Marathon bombing prompted expressions of sympathy from humanity's farthest-flung outpost: the International Space Station.

"Our crew just heard about the horrible events at the Boston Marathon," the space station's commander, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, wrote in a Twitter update. "We all pass along our condolences and thoughts to everyone affected."

Later, Hadfield tweeted a picture of the city at night in recognition of "a somber spring night in Boston."

Even though the space station wheels around our planet at a height of 230 miles (370 kilometers) or so, the crew stays in touch with earthly news through official NASA communications as well as Internet links that make use of the space agency's TDRS satellite network. For example, the space station has been receiving a digital version of NBC Nightly News for years.

All that altitude gives the station's crew a unique perspective on Earth's tragedies. On Sept. 11, 2001, NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson looked down on the smoke streaming from the wreckage of New York's World Trade Center. "It was like seeing a wound in the side of your country, of your family, your friends," he said years later. Last October, astronauts watched as Superstorm Sandy blasted its way toward the East Coast.

The horrible events in Boston may not have been visible from space — but Hadfield's tweets demonstrate how we connect during times of tragedy, even when we're off the planet.

More perspectives from space:

• A space memorial for Newtown
• Last shuttle descent seen from orbit
• Awesome space views of typhoon

GeoEye

A satellite picture of Pearl Harbor, acquired by the GeoEye-1 satellite on Sept. 24, shows the USS Missouri docked at Battleship Row as a museum ship, with its bow pointing toward the USS Arizona memorial at lower right. The wreck of the Arizona can be seen below the white memorial, barely visible beneath the water's surface.

Seventy years after a "date which will live in infamy," this satellite image of Pearl Harbor shows the symbols of a war's beginning and end.

The symbol of the end is more evident: The USS Missouri sits at its dock at Ford Island in the Hawaiian harbor, serving as a museum ship. In 1945, the "Mighty Mo" was the stage for the formal Japanese surrender at the end of World War II. After almost a half-century of service, the battleship was decommissioned for good in 1992 and took its place on Pearl Harbor's Battleship Row in 1998.

The Missouri wasn't even afloat on Dec. 7, 1941, when Japanese airplanes bombed the harbor and drew the United States into the war. But the battleship Arizona was. In the picture above, snapped by the GeoEye-1 satellite, the outlines of the Arizona are barely visible at upper right, beneath the surface of the water. The USS Arizona Memorial is the white structure sitting above the ship.

GeoEye-1, a polar-orbiting satellite operated by the GeoEye commercial venture, focused on Pearl Harbor on Sept. 24 from a height of 423 miles as it sped over the scene at 17,000 mph.

The scene was quite different in 1941, on what President Franklin Roosevelt dubbed a day of infamy. The aerial photograph you see below, taken from U.S. Navy archives, shows the wreckage in the harbor on Dec. 10, 1941, three days after the attack. Dark trails of oil stream from the dead and damaged ships. From this altitude, you get a sense of the attack's toll on the U.S. fleet, but not of the human cost: 2,390 Americans killed, 1,178 wounded.   

U.S. Navy

This aerial photograph of Pearl Harbor's Battleship Row was captured on Dec. 10, 1941, after the Japanese attack. The sunken USS California is at upper left. The capsized Oklahoma and the Maryland are at left center, the sunken West Virginia and the lightly damaged Tennessee are at lower center, The sunken Arizona is at lower right, in the same position where it lies today. Dark streaks of oil stream from the damaged vessels.

Today, veterans, family members and dignitaries are gathering at Pearl Harbor to commemorate the 70th anniversary. Flags are flying at half-staff. And Americans are looking back at the events of 1941 from a remote perspective, as if from a great height.

These views of Pearl Harbor serve as a somber entry in the Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar, which puts a spotlight on views of Earth from outer space every day from now until Christmas. Click on the links below for more about Pearl Harbor Day, as well as other images from the calendar:

Pearl Harbor coverage:

• Last witnesses: Memories of Pearl Harbor
• A historical look back at the Day of Infamy
• Pearl Harbor veteran recalls bewilderment of attack
• After death, Pearl Harbor survivor returns to his ship
• How Pearl Harbor Day is being commemorated
• Pearl Harbor memories live on in New Orleans exhibit
• Video: Survivors gather to recall Pearl Harbor attacks
• Search msnbc.com for articles about 'Pearl Harbor'
• Pearl Harbor pictures from the Naval History and Heritage Command

More space views from the calendar:

• Dec. 6: Streaking for home
• Dec. 5: Antarctica stripped naked
• Dec. 4: The monster of Madagascar
• Dec. 3: Santa's shrinking domain
• Dec. 2: The masses in Mecca
• Dec. 1: An ornament in outer space
• The full Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar
• Hubble calendar, from The Atlantic's In Focus
• 2011 Zooniverse Advent calendar