Space pictures
From this view, one may think they were looking at a rock or an organism under a microscope. But in fact this is a picture of Hyperion, one of Saturn’s moons. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft took this picture (from 38,000 km) of the odd shaped moon using its narrow angle camera.
The Sloan Digital Survey used data from NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), to map out several parts of the universe where dead stars once exploded. Six of the galaxies that experienced these type Ia supernovae are shown above. From left to right (and top to bottom) these galaxies are NGC 6038 (SN 1999cc), UGC 5234 (SN 2003W), A112539+2249 (SN 2004as), A225942-0000 (SN 2005ku), M+05-54-41 (SN 2006en), UGC 14 (SN 2006sr), UGC 8162 (SN 2007F) and IC 807 (SN 2007cp).
Mars Opportunity Rover is seen here examining the “Athens” rock on the red planet. This picture was taken on March 25, 2015 by Opportunity’s wide angle Hazcam and shows the robotic arm extended as it explores the lighter coloured Athens rock formation.
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft took a series of photographs of the dwarf planet Ceres this past month from a distance of 13,600 kilometers. This analglyph – which is the name given to the stereoscopic 3D image – was part of the set of photos. The 3D image of Ceres was taken by Dawn’s framing camera using red and cyan filters (one for each eye) can truly be appreciated by anyone that has a pair of basic 3D glasses, to see the stereoscopic image of Ceres with its craters and other surface features.
An ancient river on the golden crater of Mars? That is what this looks like as NASA scientists examine the crater floor with what appear to be inverted channels, rounded lobe-like landforms, and light-toned layered deposits. These fluvial channels were captured in this enhanced colour image by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter using its HiRISE camera.
