This soon-to-be historic image, released today, shows a glint of sunlight reflecting off the surface of a lake on Titan. Taken by the Cassini spacecraft’s Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) in July 2009, the image has been extensively researched by scientists to make sure it was in fact a reflection off of a liquid…
Back in Action
“I know everything hasn’t been quite right with me. But I can assure you now, very confidently, that it’s going to be all right again.” This mesmerizing video montage showing beautiful high-resolution views of Martian landscapes opens with the fortunate foreshadowing of today’s news that the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has resumed full operations since being…
Off to Marquette
The rover Opportunity took this false-color photo of another possible stony meteorite dubbed “Marquette Island” on Monday December 7. These objects stand out on the barren sandy plain that Opportunity is currently traveling across on its way to Endeavour Crater and provide interesting targets for investigation. The rover has already used its Rock Abrasion Tool…
Fear and Dread
The European Space Agency’s Mars Express has captured footage of Mars’ two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos, passing each other in what is known as a “mutual event”. Although the moons themselves are in no special positions the images are noteworthy, being the first time the moons have been photographed passing each other. Mars Express’…
Details of Rembrandt
Within the 440-mile-wide Rembrandt impact basin on Mercury we find radiating fractures extending across a central plain and a younger sharp-edged crater, the tip of its central peak peeking into the sunlight. This impact basin was discovered by the MESSENGER spacecraft in October of 2008. It is one of the youngest impact basins on Mercury,…
Senkyo Very Much
This is a close-up image of Senkyo, a large region on Titan made up of dark dune fields. Regions like this are called “low albedo” , or low reflectivity, areas and they wrap around the moon’s equatorial region. The dunes may be made up of material that falls from Titan’s thick smoglike atmosphere. When weather…
In the Stream of Stars
Titan floats in front of a streaked backdrop of stars in this photo from Cassini, taken on November 30. The Cassini orbiter was nearly a million and a half miles away from Titan when it took this image. Typically images aren’t exposed to capture both moons and stars…when they are, the results can be fascinating….
If Earth Had Rings
Ever feel a little jealous of Saturn? I know I do. This 3DS Max animation by Ray Prol shows what the Earth would look like if it had rings like Saturn and what kind of views of the sky one might see from various places around the world. A somber “Ave Maria” comprises the only…
Dug In
Since November 17 the Mars Exploration Rover team has been attempting to carefully get Spirit out of the sand trap she’s been stuck in since summer….unfortunately there’s no sign of freedom for the rover yet. The photo above, taken on November 28 with Spirit’s Forward HAZCAM camera, shows one of the major difficulties facing the…
Eye on Iapetus
Saturn’s moon Iapetus shows its bright (and lumpy!) side in this image from Cassini, taken on November 29. Like many people I know, 914-mile-wide Iapetus has a dark side and a bright side, its bright surface composed of water ice and rock and its dark half a coating of material, most likely from the newly-discovered…
Southern Dunes
Here’s an exceptionally beautiful image taken by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showing rippling dunes within a crater on Mars’ southern hemisphere. The way the dunes are lit reminds me of a Salvador Dali painting, the central area reminiscent of the lower part of a human face. The brightest areas are…
Rising from the Haze
No, it’s not the Enterprise emerging from Titan’s clouds, it’s Tethys, seen in the distance through the larger moon’s outer layer of hydrocarbon haze. Tethys’ giant Odysseus crater is easily visible adorning its north pole and slicing into its terminator. This image was taken on November 26, 2009 by the Cassini spacecraft at a…
Lights in the Dark 