On this Earth Day, NASA wants you to take a global selfie

This is shaping up to be a great year for science -- and social media -- and NASA is asking for everyone's help in celebrating the 44th anniversary of Earth Day, by taking a selfie.

Marking the five NASA missions planned to take place this year, and as part of its "Earth Right Now" campaign, the space agency is encouraging everyone to step outside today and take a picture of themselves, wherever they are on Earth and post it to social media using the hashtag #GlobalSelfie.

Encouraging participants to be creative, photos must be a selfie that gives an indication as to where they are -- whether it be through a street sign, the Hollywood sign or the #GlobalSelfie template, which is available in a variety of languages.

Similar to the "Wave at Saturn" campaign last year, NASA is trying to create an image of Earth from the ground up, while showing off a collection of environmental self portraits. Once those pictures from around the world begin streaming in, the photos -- tagged #GlobalSelfie -- will be used to create a mosaic image of earth.

The final #GlobalSelfie mosaic, as well as a video using the images, will be released in May, according to NASA.

At last count, there were over 12,000 images on Instagram, a slew of tweets on Twitter, a gaggle of photos on Google+ and a seemingly never-ending stream of photos on Facebook.

People from all over the country and around the world have participated in the event so far -- with social media posts as far away as India, Qatar and Rome. Some were taking photos with their families, friends, coworkers or even while jumping from an airplane.

"While NASA satellites constantly look at Earth from space, on Earth Day we're asking you to step outside and take a picture of yourself wherever you are on Earth," the agency wrote on the event page.