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Secrets of Space
Pictures

Three of Saturn’s many moons

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Cassini photographed three of Saturn's moons and its rings
Cassini photographed three of Saturn’s moons and its rings

It is not often that you would see this gathering of three of Saturn’s many moons in one picture. The Cassini spacecraft was able to capture Pandora, Prometheus, and Pan (from right to left) in this picture using its narrow angle camera. It is also believed that these moons play a role in keeping Saturn’s F-ring narrow. This picture was taken from a distance of approximately 1.6 million miles (2.6 million kilometers) on January 2, 2015 using the visible light spectrum. This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings.

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Videos

Rosetta: the gift that keeps on giving

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European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko with the spacecraft and its Philae robotic lander has been a great success. It continues to provide us with new scientific data about the small comet and our solar system. Starting at about the 1:11 mark, this report by EuroNews delves into some more detail about the scientific discoveries that the Rosetta mission is enabling. As the Rosetta space probe circles the comet, it is looking for signs of its Philae lander and waiting for it to ‘wake up’ so that even more can be learned about 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

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Pictures

Mars rover’s drill

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Curiosity rover's drill
Curiosity rover’s drill

On its 908th day on Mars, the Curiosity rover used this drill to bore into a rock called “Telegraph Peak“.  A glitch in the system triggered by an irregularity in electrical current lead to several troubleshooting tests and delays in transferring the drilled samples for analysis. This picture was taken by the Mast Camera mounted on Curiosity.

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Pictures

Young protostar in Orion

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NASA captured this picture of HOPS 383, a young protostar
NASA captured this picture of HOPS 383, a young protostar

Infrared images from instruments at Kitt Peak National Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope show us the beginnings of a new star. HOPS 383 is young protostar in the Orion star-formation complex.

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Pictures

Extreme temperatures on Mercury

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Temperature on Mercury's north pole can be at extremes
Temperature on Mercury’s north pole can be at extremes

This view of Mercury’s north polar region shows the drastic range of temperatures that are seen at the Solar System’s innermost planet. The red areas are greater than 400 K (127° Celsius) while the purple areas are about 50 k (-223° Celsius). While the extremely hot areas seem easy to fathom, the craters near Mercury’s poles have regions that remain permanently in shadow, and in these regions even the maximum temperatures can be extremely low. This picture was taken by the MESSENGER spacecraft using its Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS). The Prokofiev crater is the largest one in this picture and can be seen near the top center of the image. It has a diameter of 112 km and can have temperatures below 100 K (-173° clesius) with stable water ice.

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