Yuri Malenchenko / NASA via Twitpic

This photograph, taken on Nov. 9 from the International Space Station, shows a rugged range of Asian peaks. Initially the mountains were identified as the Himalayas, with Mount Everest in the center, but since then experts on the region have said the picture actually shows a different mountain range.

Some of the highest mountains in the world were far below Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko when he took this picture a month ago from the International Space Station. Now Malenchenko has come back down to Earth, but the picture has been getting sky-high attention from the Twitterverse — in part because of a debate over what it shows.

Peter Caltner, a.k.a. @PC0101, put the picture into his Twitpic feed on Saturday, calling it an outer-space view of Mount Everest. NASA astronaut Ron Garan — a recent space station resident known on Twitter as @Astro_Ron — picked up on the pic with a tweet of his own. "I never got a good shot of Mt. Everest from space," he wrote. In a follow-up, Garan explained to The Atlantic's Rebecca J. Rosen why he missed out on that Everest snapshot.

Since then, folks who are familiar with the area have tweeted that the picture shows a different range of mountains. "This is ... Sasan Kangari — near India, Pakistan and Tibet border," Phalano reported.

"So, definitely not Everest," Kunda Dixit wrote back. "Whew. My reputation was on the line."

This picture isn't the only gem from Malenchenko: Caltner's Twitpic gallery features more of the cosmonaut's outer-space photos — including new nighttime views of St. Louis, Tokyo and the Sea of Brightness off the coast of South Korea. Check 'em out. And while you're at it, check out these other views of our planet from above. They're part of the Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar, which features a daily look at Earth from space, every day from now until Christmas:

• 2012 Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar
• Day 1: A fantastic Chinese fan
• Day 2: Satellite shows a Grander Canyon
• Day 3: Typhoon stirs awe — and alarm
• Day 4: Glittering nighttime view of Riyadh
• Day 5: Night lights shine on 'Black Marble'
• Day 6: Holy sites seen at night
• Day 7: Blue Marble still leaves its mark
• Day 8: Satellites look into a volcano's hell
• Day 9: Jack Frost nipping at Alaska's nose
• 2011 Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar
• 2010 Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar

Correction for 6:50 p.m. ET: I've updated the original version of this item with the "Is it Everest, or isn't it?" debate. The Atlantic updated its original item with a different picture of Everest, taken in 2004.

Everest, which straddles Nepal and China, is generally thought to stand at 8,848 metres (29,029 feet) after an Indian survey in 1954, but other more recent measurements have varied by several metres.

Everest is the world's tallest peak, no question. However, its exact height has been the subject of an escalating spat between its two co-owners — China and Nepal — for decades. Now, Nepal is setting out to settle the issue once and for all, the BBC writes. 

Last year, the two countries agreed on a single height of 8,848m, recorded by an Indian survey in 1955. But each country believes the mountain should be measured in different ways. China identifies the peak by the height of its rock, while Nepal looks four meters higher, to the top of its snow cap.

Nepal's continued irritation at China's rock-height stance, particularly during border negotiations, has caused the smaller nation to remeasure the peak for itself.

"We have begun the measurement to clear this confusion. Now we have the technology and the resources, we can measure (Everest) ourselves," Gopal Giri, a Nepal government spokesperson, told an AFP news agent, as mentioned in the BBC story. "This will be the first time the Nepal government has taken the mountain's height."

Measuring the world's tallest mountain is looking like a tall order, and Nepal is gearing up to do this using GPS tracking from three locations over two years, Giri said. 

Nepal may have the final word for now, but its victory might be short lived. Some geologists believe that Everest is getting taller every day, the BBC writes, from the Indian tectonic plate sliding into and under the Asian plate, raising the height of the summit by a tiny bit every year.

More about mountains: 

• Noah's ark found? Not so fast
• Tibetan gene guards against mountain sickness

Nidhi Subbaraman writes about science and technology at msnbc.com. Find her on Twitter or Google+, and join our conversation on the Cosmic Log Facebook page.