The Cassini spacecraft captured a couple of awesome sights at once. We can clearly see Saturn’s north polar vortex with its very intriguing and vast hexagonal shape (this area on Saturn is believed to be wider than two Earths!) and the planet’s expansive rings. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 2.2 million kilometers from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-Cassini spacecraft angle of 43 degrees.
This magnificent galactic pyrotechnics light show involves a giant black hole, shock waves, and vast reservoirs of gas doing their magic in this spiral galaxy similar to our Milky Way, but some 23 million light years away from Earth in NGC 4258 (also known as M106). The large “arms” of this spiral galaxy are believed to be shock waves, generated by large black hole at the center, heating large amounts of gas equivalent to about 10 million suns. In this composite image of NGC 4258;
The polar region of the planet Mercury is home to the Egonu crater, named after the late Nigerian artist, Uzo Egonu. This image was acquired as a high-resolution targeted observation by NASA’s Messenger spacecraft, using its Narrow Angle Camera (NAC). Messenger (Mercury Surface, Space, Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging) is a collaboration between NASA, Johns Hopkins University and the Carnegie Institute for Science to do an orbital study of the planet in our solar system which is closest to the Sun.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s (MRO) high resolution imaging camera (HiRISE) photographed these gullies on Mars to compare them to previous instances. Scientists from NASA and the University of Arizona have been studying this data and have found changes in many gullies on Mars showing the constant evolution of the various Martian landforms. Changes often occur in winter or early spring, suggesting that they may be caused by the carbon dioxide frost that forms in and around most of these Martian gullies every year.
This RT report is about a NASA event which occurred in Washington this week, discussing the time and technology needed to find life outside of Earth. Among the group of top NASA scientists presenting to the American space agency’s head, Charles Bolden, were Sara Seager, Kevin Hand, John Grunsfeld, Matt Mountain and Ellen Stofan. What makes these scientists so confident is the upcoming generation of space telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope, which are greatly increasing our ability to explore the universe and answer the age old question of “Are we alone?“
