Robert Simmon / NASA / GSFC / METI / ERSDAC / JAROS

The ASTER instrument on NASA's Terra satellite captured this false-color image of Moore, Okla., on June 2, two weeks after a powerful tornado swept through. The scar left by the tornado can be seen as a brownish streak slashing across the image.

The photos and videos taken on the ground after a powerful tornado tore through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore on May 20 showed the human scale of the destruction. Now a satellite image shows the full scale of the disaster, with the trail of damage the tornado left visible as a scar across the landscape.

The twister touched down at 2:56 p.m. CT, 4.4 miles (7.1 kilometers) west of the town of Newcastle, and was on the ground for about 40 minutes, barreling through Moore and finally dissipating 4.8 miles (7.7 kilometers) east of the city at 3:35 p.m. CT, according to National Weather Service surveyors. The total path of the tornado was 17 miles (27 kilometers) long and 1.3 miles (2.1 kilometers) across at its widest. The tornado started and ended its life as an EF0, the lowest rating on the Enhanced Fujita scale, but at its peak, it was a terrible EF5, the highest ranking on the scale.

The path of the tornado can be seen in the damage it left on the ground, particularly at its strongest points, in an image captured by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA's Terra satellite on June 2 — more than two weeks after the tornado hit. The ASTER image, featured by NASA's Earth Observatory, presents a false-color view, with green, red and infrared wavelengths of light combined to distinguish particular features on the ground. In the image, water is blue, vegetation is red, and buildings and paved surfaces are a blue-gray. The damage path of the tornado is the jagged beige streak running from left to right across the image; the lack of color across it is a mark of the vegetation that was lost during the storm, Earth Observatory notes.

Satellites also captured the tornado outbreak from above, tracking the supercell thunderstorms that spawn tornadoes.

The Moore tornado killed 24 people and injured 387, according to the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management. Final assessments on the damage haven't been completed, the department notes, but an estimated 1,150 homes were destroyed and the total damage is estimated at $2 billion.

The Moore tornado was followed 11 days later by another EF5 tornado near the town of El Reno, Okla., to the west of Oklahoma City. That tornado is the widest on record, measuring 2.6 miles (4.2 kilometers) across at its biggest. It was responsible for the deaths of three storm chasers.

Follow Andrea Thompson @AndreaTOAP, Pinterest and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook and Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

• Oklahoma's EF-5 Tornado Scar Seen From Space | Video
• Image Gallery: Moore, Okla., Tornado Damage - May 20, 2013
• 4 Things You Need to Know About Tornado Season

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Mike Fuentes for NBC News

Wade and Angela Coble pose for a photo for friends on top of their tornado-destroyed home in El Reno, Okla., on June 2. Her wedding veil was found hundreds of yards away in a field.

Photographer Mike Fuentes writes:

Mike Fuentes for NBC News

Members of Westgate Christian Church find Angela Coble's wedding veil and part of a wedding photo hundreds of yards from the Coble's house. Instead of holding services today, the church chose to help people impacted by the tornado.

As I walked through what was once a 3,000-square-foot farm house in El Reno that had been around for 117 years, Wade Coble said seeing the state of his home was a surreal experience.

"Some people may just look at this and think it's destroyed,” he said. “I look at it, and I see flashbacks, like ‘Titanic,’ like when they show it all destroyed, and then they show it looking good. I look at my house, and I see it the way it was."

The Cobles paid all their rent at the home by caring for their elderly landlord, his land and his animals -- horses, cows, llamas, dogs and rabbits. Fortunately no one was injured on the property, and only a few animals were lost, including a llama and a dog.

Wade and Angela seemed upbeat as friends, family members and total strangers helped them gather personal belongings from the ruins of their home, helping make the best of a terrible situation. 

The Cobles and their four children weren’t home when the storm hit, and they stayed with friends Saturday night and plan to stay for dinner again Sunday. But they do not know what their future holds for them or where they will be sleeping.

In an effort to help the Cobles get back on their feet, friends and church members plan on throwing another wedding shower for the couple, even though they’ve been married for six years. 

Mike Fuentes for NBC News

Wade Coble looks through what used to be his kitchen.

Lucas Jackson / Reuters

The evening light illuminates a stripped tree and the marks left by a rescue worker on a destroyed home in an area heavily damaged by the May 20 tornado in Moore, Okla., early on May 27. The tornado was the strongest in the U.S. in nearly two years and cut a path of destruction 17 miles long and 1.3 miles wide.

Lucas Jackson / Reuters

The evening light illuminates a bent street sign on May 26.

Lucas Jackson / Reuters

The evening light illuminates debris that was deposited high in a tree early on May 27.

Lucas Jackson / Reuters

The evening light illuminates a toy shark on top of a car, early on May 27.

Lucas Jackson / Reuters

A U.S. flag rests against a Ford pickup truck that has been bent around a tree by the wind, early on May 27.

Previously on PhotoBlog:

• From bathtubs to closets, see where Oklahoma residents sheltered from the deadly tornado
• Tornado victims continue cleanup in Moore, Okla.
• Before and after: Tornado cuts devastating path through Oklahoma

Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains

Tom Pennington / Getty Images

A monster tornado hit Moore, Okla., Monday afternoon, leaving at least 24 dead.

Launch slideshow

Dean and Melania St. Onge, who have been married for 25 years, were hiding in a closet with their dogs Pokie and Shaila as the tornado approached their house in Moore, Okla. They planned to ride out the storm, holding hands.

They left the television blasting in the next room so they could hear the local newscasters' report on the weather. When a meteorologist said, “If you’re not underground now, you will not survive,” Dean decided he and Melania — and the dogs — should make a run for it.

When they got outside, they could see the twister on the other side of the street. Melania lost her shoe, but there was no time to pick it up, nor time to get Dean’s brand new car out of the garage, so they jumped in Melania's Durango and sped off northeast, opposite the storm’s path.

“I thought, ‘This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done,’" Dean said. “They always tell you not to get in your car and drive.”

They made a loop around the storm, and 15 minutes later, were back on their street after the tornado passed. The closet where they had been hiding was punctured by wood beams and metal poles. “We don’t think we would have survived,” Dean said.

Kael Alford for NBC News

Melania St. Onge painted a sign on the family driveway. "You can take our home, but not our heart." The couple plans to rebuild outside of Moore.

The St. Onges said they won’t rebuild in Moore, after three tornadoes in 15 years touched down there. They were frustrated with how difficult it was to reach their house and protect their property from the elements or theft after the storm, due to road blocks by local police. Dean doesn't want to be caught unprepared next time. "We'll definitely build a storm shelter - one hundred percent!" he said.

Phil Tinnin and Dianna Tinnin, brother and sister, were at home a few blocks from the St. Onges when Phil decided it was time to take shelter. He had been living with his older sister Dianna since his divorce five months earlier. During that period, Dianna learned that she was gravely ill and required a liver transplant to survive. Without health insurance or the means to find the radical treatment she needed, she was resigned to home hospice care instead.

Kael Alford for NBC News

Phil Tinnin stands in the bathroom where he rode out the tornado with his sister Dianna, who is in hospice care.

Phil said Dianna got up to get a glass of water as the storm approached, but he told her there was no time. “I grabbed her and took her to the tub, and put blankets under us and on top of us both.”

Phil shielded her with his body when the storm hit, “It was ten times louder than Niagara Falls.” Dianna saw glass flying toward them, and grabbed a pillow to put over her brother’s head. “I felt the wind pulling at me,” Phil said. “I held onto the soap dish like a handle and the edge of the tub to keep it from sucking me out.” Then the roof collapsed and slammed him down on the edge of the tub, breaking some of his teeth. Bricks, wood boards and drywall landed on his back, which was already injured. When the storm passed, Phil dug himself out from the rubble and called the police with the one call he had left before his battery died. When the police arrived, they helped get Dianna out of the house by lifting her over a wall. She didn’t have a scratch.  “When I came out, I heard people screaming under the rubble,” Phil said. “It was the worst thing I ever heard.”

Kael Alford for NBC News

A room in Phil and Dianna Tinnin's house, where Dianna kept some of her angel and teddy bear collections. The house lost the entire roof.

“If Phil hasn’t been there, I wouldn’t have gotten in the tub.” Dianna said. “I would stayed in my bed,” she said. The roof of her bedroom collapsed and the wind threw her bed outside.

They had no insurance on their house. The brother and sister are sharing a hotel room that they pay from their own pocket, for now. They are interviewing with FEMA in hopes of getting help with temporary housing and their losses.  Phil, a former police officer and car salesman, is unable to work due to his previous back injury and the new injuries have compounded that. Dianna says Phil has nightmares and talks in his sleep, waking up shouting since the storm.

“Last night in his sleep he said, ‘I just hurt, my back hurts so bad. I don’t want to be a burden.' I told him, 'The main thing is that we’re both still here, and we’re still talking.'"

Hospice has been checking on Dianna at the hotel and will continue to visit her there — for now.

More tornado coverage:
Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains
Two more funerals Friday for Oklahoma schoolchildren
Tornado-ravaged city of Moore, Okla., to hold Sunday memorial

Lucas Jackson / Reuters

Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains

Scott Olson / Getty Images

A monster tornado hit Moore, Okla., Monday afternoon, leaving at least 24 dead.

Launch slideshow

Jason Owen walks past an open door, May 23, 2013, as he helps his mother salvage items from her uncle's tornado-damaged home in Moore, Okla. The tornado was the strongest in the United States in nearly two years and cut a path of destruction 17 miles long and 1.3 miles wide. Storm experts said it was remarkable that only 24 people were killed, as tornadoes of this strength can blow away a well-constructed brick or wood house.

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Astrium via AFP - Getty Images

Two satellite views show Moore, Okla., before (top) and after the passage of a powerful tornadoon May 20.

Editor's note: Updated on May 23 with before & after satellite images (above)

Bing (top); Jewel Samad / AFP -Getty Images (bottom)

Top, a look at a shopping center before Monday's devastating tornado. Bottom, a man salvages items from his tornado devastated store on May 21, in Moore, Oklahoma.

Bing (top); Tony Gutierrez / AP (bottom)

An aerial view shows a residential area before and after Monday's tornado, in Moore, Okla.

Google (top); Tannen Maury / EPA (bottom)

A residential neighborhood before and after a tornado swept through Monday.

Bing (top); AP (bottom)

Aerial photos show the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., before and after it was hit by a massive tornado on Monday, May 20.

Google (top); Tannen Maury / EPA (bottom)

A twisted street sign in a destroyed neighborhood in Moore, Okla.

Bing (top), AP (bottom)

Briarwood Elementary School, bottom right in Oklahoma City, Okla. before (top) and after (bottom) the tornado hit on May 20.

Bing (top), AP (bottom)

Moore Medical Center in Moore, Okla., as seen before (top) and after (bottom) the tornado that hit on May 20.

Explore the Bing map, or Google map of Moore, Okla.

More on the Oklahoma tornado:

• Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains
• PhotoBlog: Aerials show destructive path of Oklahoma tornado
• ‘The school started coming apart’: Trapped students had nowhere to hide
• Curse or coincidence? Scientists study Tornado Alley's past and future

This story was originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 2:27 PM EDT

Jewel Samad / AFP - Getty Images

Lightning strikes during a thunder storm as tornado survivors search for salvageable items from their devastated home on May 23, 2013, in Moore, Okla. Severe thunderstorms barreled through this Oklahoma City suburb at dawn Thursday, complicating clean-up efforts three days after a powerful tornado killed 24 people and destroyed 2,400 homes. More rain was forecast to fall on Moore, soaking the disaster zone. 

Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains

Scott Olson / Getty Images

A monster tornado hit Moore, Okla., Monday afternoon, leaving at least 24 dead.

Launch slideshow

Related content:

• PhotoBlog: Aerials show path and destructive force of the Oklahoma tornado
• Amid the rubble, laughter and tears for one family devastated by tornado

See more stories on PhotoBlog about the Oklahoma tornado

Tony Gutierrez / AP

Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., May 21, 2013 as rescue workers make their way through the structure.

Steve Gooch / AP

The remains of homes hit by a massive tornado in Moore, Okla., Monday, May 20.

Steve Gooch / AP

Homes destroyed by a massive tornado in Moore, Okla., May 20.

Steve Gooch / AP

The path of a massive tornado in Moore, Okla., May 20.

Steve Gooch / AP

Tornado destruction in Moore, Okla., May 20.

Steve Gooch / AP

Remnants of homes hit by a massive tornado in Moore, Okla., May 20.

Steve Gooch / AP

The Plaza Towers Elementary School after it was hit by a massive tornado in Moore, Okla., May 20.

Steve Gooch / AP

Homes hit by a massive tornado in Moore, Okla., Monday May 20, 2013.

Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains

Paul Hellstern / The Oklahoman, NewsOk.com

A monster tornado hit Moore, Okla., Monday afternoon, leaving scores dead as the threat of further storms continues.

Launch slideshow

Related: 

• Monster tornado kills dozens in Oklahoma
• Teacher threw herself over students, saved lives
• Video: Tornado touchdown caught by eyewitness
• How to help

Photos by Sue Ogrocki / AP

Maeghan Hadley, right, of 1 Day Ranch, a pet rescue and rehabilitation center, reaches for a kitten pulled from underneath the rubble of a mobile home destroyed by Sunday's tornado in the Steelman Estates Mobile Home Park near Shawnee, Okla., May 20, 2013.

Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage Plains

Sue Ogrocki / AP

A vast area of the central U.S. was warned to prepare for storms on Monday, after tornadoes killed one and injured 21 in Oklahoma and also hit Iowa and Kansas.

Launch slideshow

NBC News reports

On Sunday, twisters killed two men in Shawnee, Okla., ages 79 and 76, and injured 21 others. The state medical examiner confirmed the second death Monday morning.

“You can see where there’s absolutely nothing, then there are places where you have mobile home frames on top of each other, debris piled up,” Mike Booth, the sheriff of Pottawatomie County, Okla., told The Associated Press. “It looks like there’s been heavy equipment in there on a demolition tour.”

Related PhotoBlog post: Tornadoes rip through Kansas, Oklahoma

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Members of the Chickasaw Nation search and rescue group dig through debris on Monday to locate a kitten buried in the rubble of a mobile home.