The Solar System
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| Battered Moon (November 12, 2009) |
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Mimas, one of the largest moons of Saturn, shows the scars of billions of years of impacts by rocky debris in this close-up view from the Cassini spacecraft, with Saturn's rings in the background. The largest impact crater, which is on the other side of the moon, inspired researchers to nickname Mimas the "Death Star Moon," because it resembles the giant space stations of Star Wars fame. The surface of Mimas is one of the most thoroughly battered in all the solar system, which tells geologists that nothing has happened on the moon itself, such as melting or volcanic eruptions, to erase the craters. [NASA/JPL/SSL] For more information, see our November 12 program. |
| Martian Tattoo (November 2, 2009) |
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What looks like a bizarre tattoo or graffiti is actually a pattern of trails left by dust devils on the surface of Mars. The small "twisters," which are common in arid regions of Earth, lift small, light-colored grains of sand, exposing darker material below. They can serpentine their way across many miles of the Martian surface. This image was snapped by a camera aboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is mapping the Martian surface in greater detail than ever before. [NASA/LPL (Univ. Arizona)] |
| Protean Moon (August 22, 2009) |
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Proteus, the second-largest moon of Neptune, is a bare chunk of dark rock orbiting close to the giant planet. Proteus was discovered in August 1989 by the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which beamed back this picture. [NASA/JPL] For more information, see our August 22 program. |
| Changing Map (August 6, 2009) |
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This map of Jupiter shows belts and zones of different colors, giant storm systems, and other features in the planet's turbulent atmosphere. The problem with mapping Jupiter, though, is that it has no solid surface, so its features change over scales of days, months, and years. The most prominent feature in this map, compiled from images by the Cassini spacecraft in 2000, is the Great Red Spot, an oval-shaped storm at left center. It is wide enough to swallow Earth. [NASA/JPL/SSI] For more information, see our August 6 program. |
| Jovian Smash-up (July 27, 2009) |
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A dark scar shows where a small comet or asteroid slammed into Jupiter around July 19. The scar, which was photographed with a new camera aboard Hubble Space Telescope, is almost as wide as Earth. It is similar to the scars created when Comet Shoemaker/Levy 9 hit the planet in 1994. It may take weeks for the atmosphere to return to normal and the dark scar to disappear. [NASA/ESA/H. Hammel(STScI)/Jupiter Impact Team] |
| Wide Slice (June 27, 2009) |
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A wide slice of Saturn's rings circles the giant planet in this image from the Cassini spacecraft. Only Cassini can see the rings from this angle right now because the rings are turned almost edge-on as seen from Earth. Saturn itself is in the upper left corner of the image. [NASA/JPL/SSI] For more information, see our June 27 program. |
| Stellar Hide-and-Seek (June 5, 2009) |
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Antares, the brightest star of Scorpius, peeks through a gap in the rings of Saturn in this view from the Cassini spacecraft. Scientists watch stars through the rings to help map the structure of the rings. From here on Earth, Antares appears near the almost-full Moon on the nights of June 5 and 5. It shines bright orange, so it is hard to miss even through the Moon's glare. [NASA/JPL/SSI] For more information, see our June 5 program. |
| Deadly Moon (April 18, 2009) |
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Patches of hot lava and sulfur-rich minerals fill a volcano known as Tupan Patera on Io, one of the moons of Jupiter. This and hundreds of other volcanoes belch gas far above Io's surface. Jupiter's powerful magnetic field sweeps up some of the gas and gives it an electric charge, adding to the giant planet's deadly radiation belts. This volcano, which was photographed by the Galileo spacecraft, is about 50 miles wide. The dark patches are actually warm molten rock, while the red and yellow contain various mixtures of sulfur, which may condense as volcanic ash and gas falls back to the surface. [NASA/JP/Univ. Arizona] For more information, see our April 18 program. |
| Making Tracks (April 2, 2009) |
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A stuck wheel on the Spirit rover dug a deep furrow in the Columbia Hills of Mars, revealing a white material just below the surface. The material may be rich in silica, indicating that it formed in a warm, wet environment in the distant past. Spirit has discovered that the Columbia Hills were once much like Yellowstone National Park, with geysers, hot springs, and explosions of steam from below the surface. The landscape looks distorted because this is an extreme wide-angle view from the rover's rear navigation camera. One of the rover's six wheels died months ago, so the rover now moves backwards, dragging the dead wheel through the soil. [NASA/JPL/Caltech] |
| Spotty Planet (March 15, 2009) |
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Three red storms, each as big as a planet, spin through the atmosphere of Jupiter in this 2008 image from Hubble Space Telescope. The largest, at right, is the Great Red Spot, and may have been raging for at least four centuries. Red Spot Junior, at lower left, formed a few years ago when several smaller white storms merged. And the smallest red spot, at far left, formed just two years ago. The spots may get their color from a reaction between sunlight and chemicals dredged from deep within Jupiter's atmosphere. [NASA/ESA/M. Wong, I. de Pater (UC Berkeley), et al.] For more information, see our March 15 program. |
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