Assembled from 29 raw images taken by the Cassini orbiter on Monday, April 25, this animation brings us along an orbital ride with Rhea as it crosses Saturn’s nighttime face, the planet’s shadow cast across the ringplane. Sister moons Dione and Tethys travel the opposite lane in the background, eventually appearing to sink into Saturn’s…
Tag: planet
Yes, They’re Real
The craters Spitteler and Holberg are prominently featured in this new image from the MESSENGER spacecraft, in orbit around Mercury. (Spitteler, about 42 miles wide, is the one on the left.) These two craters were previously observed by the Mariner 10 spacecraft in 1974 but MESSENGER’s close polar orbit gives scientists a new look. The craters…
A Varying Venusian Vortex
Our neighboring planet Venus really is a world of extremes; searing surface temperatures, crushing air pressure, sulfuric acid clouds…Venus pretty much pushes the envelope on every aspect of rocky-planet existence. And now here’s one more thing that made scientists do a double-take: a shape-shifting vortex swirling around Venus’ south pole! The presence of a cyclonic…
A New Look at Neptune
Ok, ok… it’s not “new” (it’s from a HubbleNews article released in 2005) but since I just came across it myself, it’s new to me! So maybe it’s new to you too. 🙂 The video above was created from images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, showing distant Neptune (we’re talking four and a half…
The Colors of Mercury
Another new wide-angle image from MESSENGER in orbit, this is a color image of Mercury made from data taken in red, green and blue visible light wavelengths. Variations in surface textures and colorations can be seen, as well as long bright streaks running horizontally  – these are the ejecta rays extending from Hokusai Crater, off-frame…
Catchin’ Some Rays
One of the newest images from MESSENGER, now nice and comfy in orbit around Mercury, is of the bright Debussy crater and part of its extensive system of surrounding ejecta rays. The crater’s jagged central peak can be seen in this top-down view from the spacecraft’s narrow-angle camera (NAC). Also, here’s a new image of…
From the LITD Archives: But What About Venus?
Originally posted on April 7, 2009, only two months after Lights in the Dark launched: I haven’t posted anything yet about our other neighboring planet, Venus, mostly because the currently active mission exploring it, the European Space Agency’s Venus Express orbiter, hasn’t been updating much with new images since I’ve begun this site. Still, Venus…
Slicing Saturn
In this beautiful image from Cassini we see a dramatically-lit Saturn, its rings slicing across its equator as a thin bright line and casting shadows onto its atmosphere below. A great example of how Saturn’s gigantic ring system is hundreds of thousands of miles wide but only about 30 feet thick! This image was captured…
Saturn’s Skyline
A raw image from Cassini taken on January 9, 2011, this minimally-composed image is actually quite fascinating (IMO): it’s a look at the upper levels of Saturn’s atmosphere in methane wavelength! Yes, Saturn is a gas giant and most of its volume is made up of hydrogen and helium, but there are layers of its…
Lines of Light
The line of Saturn’s edge – or “limb” – glows brightly with backlit sunlight, as do its rings, in this wonderful image from Cassini, color-calibrated by Gordan Ugarkovic. Beige and blue colors can be seen in the layers of Saturn’s upper atmosphere, and the distant arc of the rings seem to sink into this before…
A Saturn-Sized Storm
Earlier this week the Cassini spacecraft captured this image of an eddying storm in Saturn’s northern hemisphere. Nearly as large as the Earth, the bright clouds have been visible to amateur astronomers for several weeks and on December 27 Cassini was able to get a nice view of its own from orbit! Fantastic. See more…
Fear a-Flying
Part of a bulk data release from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter (available at ftp://psa.esac.esa.int/pub/mirror/MARS-EXPRESS/HRSC, posted on unmannedspaceflight.com by user peter59) this wonderful image shows Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two moons, in orbit against the backdrop of the planet’s limb. The dark, irregularly-shaped moon is shown in amazing clarity, giving a very nice…
Lights in the Dark 