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Secrets of Space
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Flood of gases in distant galaxies

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Galaxies NGC 3226 and NGC 3227 captured by advanced scientific equipment
Galaxies NGC 3226 and NGC 3227 captured by advanced scientific equipment

It is amazing to think that we are able to study the demise of a galaxy and the subsequent interaction of gases with two adjacent galaxies. And oh yeah, these galaxies are located about 49+ million light-years away. The two galaxies are NGC 3226 (top) and NGC 3227 (bottom) with the areas in blue representing warm gas that is moving into the former.  This picture and the related data comes from the European Space Agency’s Herschel space observatory, NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes (including Spitzer’s infrared camera). The blue coloured areas represents cool hydrogen gas ‘seen’ via radio waves and the redder areas are warmer gas and dust captured via their infrared emissions.

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Pictures

Buttes from Mount Sharp

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The Mastcam took this picture of buttes and surface layers on Mars
The Mastcam took this picture of buttes and surface layers on Mars

Curiosity Rover was traveling from Yellowknife Bay towards Mount Sharp last September and took this picture of the buttes and layers of the martian surface using its Mastcam. The picture has been adjusted to reflect colours of the rocks that are similar to what we would see on Earth. And even with some dusty conditions, this is an awe inspiring shot from Mars as Curiosity approaches Mount Sharp.

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Tethys and Rhea lined up

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Cassini captures Tethys and Rhea aligned
Cassini captures Tethys and Rhea aligned

We start off a new year, 2015, with an interesting cosmic alignment. Here we see two of Saturn’s moons; Tethys and Rhea nicely lined up with about a quarter of each in shadow. This picture was taken by the Cassini probe’s narrow-angle camera in red light at a distance of about 1.8 million kilometers from Rhea. The lit side of the moons is the one facing away from Saturn.

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Second stage rocket separates from Falcon 9

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SpaceX Falcon 9 second stage separation with the Dragon supply craft on its way to ISS
SpaceX Falcon 9 second stage separation with the Dragon supply craft on its way to ISS

There has been a recent renaissance of private space companies, bringing with it many successes and a few failures. Elon Musk’s SpaceX is one of the new players with its Falcon 9 rocket. This picture shows the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on its way to resupply the International Space Station, just after the second stage separation of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Dragon was carrying the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) communication being managed by JPL. The OPALS components can be seen in the bay and were deployed as part of this April 2014 ISS supply mission.

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Pictures

Dark abyss – edge of crater on Mercury

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MDIS spots a dark abyss in a crater on Mercury
MDIS spots a dark abyss at a crater’s edge on Mercury

This picture from the volcanic Mendelssohn basin on Mercury provides a good representation of the planet’s pockmarked surface which is full of impact craters of all sizes. In addition to that we can see a dark abyss from the rim and shadowed wall of a 25 kilometer wide crater that was photographed by the Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) on the Messenger probe.

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