This image shows the view from Spirit looking east from its position at the base of a low plateau called “Home Plate” (rising to the right). Loose soil and the loss of one of its six wheels has been posing a difficulty for the rover, and it has spent the past several days trying to…
Feature: Interview With Mars Mission Control
I recently had the chance to ask some questions to the people at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories in Pasadena, CA who are in charge of the Mars rover missions. Behind each of the photos I post here has an entire team of engineers, administrators and talented individuals without whom we would never have seen any…
Sheer Elegance
Viewed from the unlit side, the delicate transparency of Saturn’s innermost “C” Ring becomes apparent in this photo. Saturn’s upper atmospheric haze can be seen through the dark material of the rings. This photo shows a natural color view. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
The Dark Side
The dark side of Tethys is illuminated by reflected light from Saturn in this image from the Cassini orbiter. On the sunlit side, the giant Odysseus crater can be seen straddling the western edge. The crater is 280 miles across in its entirety, taking up a large portion of the 660-mile-wide moon’s icy surface….
The Pull of Prometheus
Prometheus’ effect on Saturn’s ropy F ring is evident in this photo from Cassini, taken March 7, 2009. As the irregularly-shaped shepherd moon approaches the ring material in its looping orbit around Saturn, it draws material from the ring in towards itself, warping and stretching the ring particles into waving streamers that eventually settle and…
Making Waves
Little Daphnis sends waves curling in its wake as it courses along the Keeler Gap in Saturn’s A-ring in this photo from Cassini’s narrow-angle camera. The image was taken on January 31, 2009, approximately 532,000 miles from Daphnis and the rings. Daphnis is about 5 miles in diameter. The Keeler Gap is 26 miles…
Deimos Rising
Released today, this photo from the HiRISE camera aboard the MRO shows the smooth face of Deimos, Mars’ smaller moon. (Its larger brother is Phobos, also photographed by the HiRISE in 2008.) Its surface is covered by a fine layer of rocky soil, called regolith, which gives it its smooth texture. Deimos is only…
A Cratered Crescent
The pocked and pitted surface of Mercury comes into view in this image from the Messenger spacecraft, taken during its approach on October 6, 2008. Messenger has one more flyby of Mercury to complete in September of this year before it finally maneuvers into orbit in 2011. It will be the first spacecraft to…
Dark Dunes
Dark-colored sand dunes mark the terrain on Chasma Boreale, a trough that cuts into the north polar ice fields of Mars. These are known as barchan dunes…like their counterparts on Earth, they have steep edges with “horns” that point in the direction of the wind. The dune material could either be dark sand or…
Rings Upon Rings
The stately geometry of Saturn’s rings is showcased here in this photo taken by Cassini on January 14. This image spans a distance of about 2,028 miles. Saturn’s rings are composed of particles of ice, rock and dust extending hundreds of thousands of miles into orbit, but only about 30 feet thick. Their age…
News Post: Kepler on its Way
The Delta II rocket carrying the Kepler spacecraft lifted off tonight at 10:49 PM EST from Cape Canaveral. Everything has so far been going as planned. At the time of this writing (10:52 PM CST) the solid fuel has been used up and the rocket will soon detach, leaving the observatory on its own…
Evening Shadows
A high mesa in the Ganges Chasma region of Mars casts long shadows in the evening sunlight. Actually part of a larger mesa structure rising out of the chasm, itself part of the giant Mariner Valley that slices across Mars, this marbled plateau (seen in contrast-enhancing false color) was photographed by the HiRISE camera…
Lights in the Dark 