I don’t care how commonplace images like these have become over the past decade…it still fascinates me to look at photos of the rocky Martian landscape. Rugged, barren and empty as it is, it’s another planet. Every hill, every rock, every sand dune has never been touched by a person, or perhaps even any living…
Tag: space
A Featureless Face
This photo taken by the Messenger spacecraft in June of last year shows the ghostly pale and nearly featureless face of Venus, our sister planet. Shot in visible light and RGB-calibrated by Gordan Ugarkovic, the global shroud of Venus’ oppressive (and corrosive) atmosphere lacks the swirling detail seen in most photos of the planet, which…
Clementine: Lost and Gone Forever, But Never Forgotten!
One of my all-time favorite space images is this little gem from the Clementine mission to the Moon, launched in January of 1994. It features a view from beyond the far side of the Moon, illuminated by reflected light off the Earth off frame to the left, blocking the disc of the Sun with the solar corona…
Ice Volcanoes on Titan?
This infrared image, taken by Cassini during a March 27, 2009 flyby of Titan, shows a bright area of topography called “Hotei Arcus” that is believed to be active with volcanoes that ooze slushy ice rather than molten rock. Over the past four years, this area has undergone variations in brightness that indicate resurfacing activity of…
Saturn’s Southern Cyclone
A great spiraling whirlpool of wind-whipped clouds wraps around Saturn’s southern pole, photographed here in polarized infrared light by Cassini on July 15, 2008. Towering white clouds mark areas of rising heat from deep within the atmosphere. The winds around the vortex have been measured at over 300mph (480 km/h). This photo shows an area…
What Is Space?
This is a reprint of an earlier article of mine from March 8, 2008. I thought it would have a good home here. Hope you enjoy it. Are We There Yet? We’ve all seen the grade-school models of the solar system. Maybe you made one in science class. Out of painted styrofoam balls or colored construction…
Small Steps
It’s important to remember that, even with all of the incredible images and data coming in from the robotic missions at work around our solar system every day, humans have yet to venture further than our own Moon. Which is no mean feat in itself…traveling the 240,000-mile journey there and then back is not for…
Portrait of Home
It’s important to know where you came from. When it was on its way to the red planet in the summer of 2003, Europe’s Mars Express turned its camera and got a photo of the Earth and Moon. This is what we all look like from 5 million miles away. By the time it reaches Mars,…
Welcome!
They are our family, and these are their portraits.
Lights in the Dark 