Looking like sand on a beach after a hard rain, the surface of Rhea is literally coated with craters of all sizes, to the point where it’s hard to tell where one ends and another begins. These raw images are fresh in from Cassini’s flyby of Saturn’s second-largest moon, which occurred yesterday. The spacecraft passed…
Tag: astronomy
Slices of Light
While waiting for images from Cassini’s flyby of Rhea I saw this raw image, showing the stark crescent of Enceladus above the bands of Saturn’s rings, seen edge-on. A beautiful composition that deserved sharing. Where’s the moon’s geysers, you say? Don’t worry. They’re there. They just need the right lighting. Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute UPDATE: And…
Deep Impacts
This just in, a late straggler from Cassini’s recent flyby of Mimas. It shows the northern region of the “other side” of Mimas opposite the moon’s signature Herschel crater. The sheer walls of some of the craters near the top left are 2-3 miles high – or deep, depending on how you look at it…
Slope Streaks
This image from the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows streaks of dark-colored material lining the walls of a trough (left side) and tapering out onto its floor. One of the few currently active geologic processes on Mars, this streaking may be caused by finely-grained soil moving downhill in much the same…
This Week in Space
Get informed with the latest space-related news on This Week in Space from SpaceflightNow!
Groovy Rock
Another image from Opportunity showing some of the heavily-textured rocks ringing Concepción crater in fascinating detail, color-calibrated by Stuart Atkinson for an approximation of Martian natural lighting. You can clearly see here the layered structure of the rocks, their angular shapes, the interesting “crust” that coats their sides as well as the small stone “berries”…
This Week in Space
The ISS gets a room with a view, Obama gives a shoutout to the Station astronauts while former NASA administrator Michael Griffin contemplates NASA’a future. Also Spirit’s new status, Hubble images, private sector spaceflight, blimp tourism and much more news and discoveries in the latest episode of This Week in Space. Enjoy! This Week in…
Seeing Spots
A gorgeous photo of our Sun by Alan Friedman, taken from his location in Buffalo, NY and uploaded to his site on February 7, shows a huge string of sunspots and an energetic region of prominences, as well as the granules and spicules that create the Sun’s surface texture. Sunspot 1045, the string seen here,…
The Trailing Trojan
In a bit of more flyby goodness here’s a photo of Calypso, taken in ultraviolet light, showing nice shading on its surface and some interesting streak patterns that seem to follow the contours of the potato-shaped moon. This image was taken on Saturday, February 13, at a distance of about 14,000 miles. 19-mile-long Calypso is…
That’s No Moon…
…it’s a space sta– oh nevermind. It is a moon. 😉 Photos are in from Cassini’s flyby of Mimas on Saturday and they don’t disappoint! The 250-mile wide inner moon of Saturn performed very well in front of Cassini’s cameras, displaying its heavily-cratered surface and showing off its trademark Herschel crater; at 88 miles wide…
A Traveler’s Guide to the Planets on National Geographic Channel
This is a great series airing over the next few nights on the National Geographic Channel…the above is a segment recapping Cassini’s approach to Saturn in 2004. Revisit the excitement of the mission team as they successfully establish orbit and see some of the amazing first images sent back by Cassini. The shows are well-made…
Inside a Black Hole
Unlike the typical artist’s portrayal of a black hole as being surrounded by a massive glowing accretion disk of inwardly-swirling matter, like some sort of galactic bathtub drain, this scenario shows a rather naked-looking black hole exerting a lensing effect on the background field of stars. This is a result of a new simulator application…
Lights in the Dark 