‘Solar System’ Archives
Geminid Meteor Shower 2011
The Geminid meteor shower returns every December, thanks to the Earth’s plowing through debris left by a boiled asteroid. The best time to watch is between 10 p.m. local time Tuesday, Dec. 13 and sunrise on Wednesday, Dec. 14. "Observers with clear skies could see as many as 40 Geminids per hour," predicts Bill Cooke of the NASA [...]
Supermoon
The next full moon will be the largest in about 20years but it can be hard to tell the difference without a point of reference. Try to catch it near the horizon and don't listen to any nonsense about it creating floods or volcano's.
Flythrough the Saturn System
outside in is a ground-breaking giant screen film animated from hundreds of thousands of still photographs and supported as a non-profit project funded by individual supporters. Using Cassini images this is a fly through the Saturn system which is truly amazing. 5.6k Saturn Cassini Photographic Animation from stephen v2 on Vimeo.
Images of Jupiter
Jupiter, the most massive planet in our solar system -- with dozens of moons and an enormous magnetic field -- forms a kind of miniature solar system. Jupiter does resemble a star in composition, but it did not grow big enough to ignite. The planet's swirling cloud stripes are punctuated by massive storms such as the Great Red Spot, which has [...]
The Solar System is older than we previously thought
The usual method for defining the age of the Solar System is to determine the time of the formation of the first solid grains in the disc surrounding the proto-Sun. Currently we date calcium-aluminium-rich inclusions in meteorites. A recently published study in Nature Geoscience has revised the current age of the Solar System to be .3 to 1.9 [...]
Map of Magnetic Field Lines of the Sun
Source: Universe Today: "The Solar Dynamic Observatory shows this new image of the Sun's magnetic field lines. This map is from data taken on August 20, 2010 by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager instrument (HMI). White lines show fields that are closed, not releasing solar wind, and gold lines show open fields, letting solar wind escape. [...]
Crescent ENCELADUS
A great way to see new images from NASA is to review the RAW images released. These are RAW images in the sense that they have not been processed to remove camera defects and other artifacts. You can see them on the CICLOPS site. This raw, unprocessed image of Enceladus was taken on August 13, 2010 and received on Earth August 14, 2010, so [...]
Images of Earth
Here are 5 amazing photos of the Earth. This photo of a total solar eclipse was taken from the International Space Station on March 29, 2006. The photo was taken by a crew member of the Expedition 12 mission. The island of Cyprus and the coast of Turkey can be seen from the image. STS-29 Onboard photo - External Tank [...]
Active Volcanoes on Venus?
Idunn Mons, a mountain on Venus was radar mapped by the Magellan space probe. The color overlay is a new thermal map using an infrared detector on the European Venus Express probe, currently orbiting Venus. Red is warmer, and as you can see, Idunn Mons is certainly hotter than expected. Venus is a lot like the Earth with almost the same [...]
Saturn’s Rings – Up close
There are a number of sources of fantastic images these days, Hubble, HiRISE and Cassini. Here is another gorgeous natural color view of gradations in the transparency of Saturn's inner rings taken by the Cassini spacecraft. We can see the myriad of dark shadows of the rings separate Saturn's southern hemisphere in the bottom of the image [...]
Stunning Saturn
Saturn is truly more beautiful that we could have ever imagined. Here we see Saturn cast its shadow on the rings in this Cassini image that shows how the rings reflect sunlight onto the dark side of the planet. Saturn appears dimly illuminated by the ringshine. This view looks toward the southern, unilluminated side of the rings from about 10 [...]
Tethys and Saturnian Rings
While browsing some images online I came across a site that reworks images from space and produces visually stunning and vibrate results. The integrity of the images remain. Take a look at this one. You can see more on wanderingspace.net