The Week's Coolest Space Photos
Every day satellites are zooming through space, snapping incredible pictures of Earth, the solar system and outer space. Here are the highlights from this week.
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This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is reminiscent of the rugged and open terrain of a stark shore-line.
The reality is that the surface of Mars is much dryer than our imaginations might want to suggest. This is only a tiny part of a much larger structure; an inverted crater — a crater that has been infilled by material that is more resistant to erosion than the rocks around it — surrounded by bluish basaltic dunes.
A Global Map Of Saturn's Moon Mimas
This global map of Saturn's moon Mimas was created using images taken during Cassini spacecraft flybys. The moon's large, distinguishing crater, Herschel, is seen on the map at left.
The map is an equidistant (simple cylindrical) projection and has a scale of 710 feet (216 meters) per pixel at the equator.
Three Nebulae Captured In One Glorious Image
On the right lies the faint, glowing cloud of gas called Sharpless 2-54, the iconic Eagle Nebula (Messier 16) is in the centre, and the Omega Nebula (Messier 17) to the left. This cosmic trio makes up just a portion of a vast complex of gas and dust within which new stars are springing to life and illuminating their surroundings.
A Northern Summer On Titan
NASA's Cassini spacecraft sees bright methane clouds drifting in the summer skies of Saturn's moon Titan, along with dark hydrocarbon lakes and seas clustered around the north pole.
Compared to earlier in Cassini's mission, most of the surface in the moon's northern high latitudes is now illuminated by the sun.
The Colorful Storms Of Jupiter
This image was processed to enhance color differences, showing the amazing variety in Jupiter's stormy atmosphere. The result is a surreal world of vibrant color, clarity and contrast. Four of the white oval storms known as the "String of Pearls" are visible near the top of the image. Interestingly, one orange-colored storm can be seen at the belt-zone boundary, while other storms are more of a cream color.
If Jupiter's storms and Mars's dunes are your kind of thing, you'd want to check out our collection of the coolest space photos from last week.