What are Saturn's rings made of? In an effort to find out, the robot spacecraft Cassini that entered orbit around Saturn two weeks ago took several detailed images of the area surrounding Saturn's large A ring in ultraviolet light. In the above image, the bluer an area appears, the richer it is in water ice. Conversely, the redder an area appears, the richer it is in some sort of dirt.
This June 16, 2000 image of Istanbul, Turkey show a full 40 by 40 mile ASTER scene in the visible and infrared channels. Vegetation appears red, and urban areas blue-green. Bustling Istanbul, with its magnificent historical heritage, has spanned the divide between Europe and Asia for more than 2,500 years.
Whorls, streamers and eddies play in the banded atmosphere of a gas giant. Strong image enhancement renders unto Saturn's clouds a grainy texture not unlike sandstone. However, the loss in delicate smoothness is compensated for by an increase in discernible detail.
This simulated view shows Mars as it might have appeared during the height of a possible ice age in geologically recent time. Of all Solar System planets, Mars has the climate most like that of Earth. Both are sensitive to small changes in orbit and tilt. During a period about 2.1 million to 400,000 years ago, increased tilt of Mars' rotational axis caused increased solar heating at the poles.
Artist Pat Rawlings' concept, Mars Rover Repair, depicts the type of work and hazards future astronauts will encounter on outer worlds.
Wonderful colors in a volcanic crater named Tupan Patera on Jupiter's moon Io, as seen in this image from NASA's Galileo spacecraft, show varied results of lava interacting with sulfur-rich materials. The colorfulness of the image is only slightly enhanced from what the human eye would see on the scene. The red in the image includes a small amount of infrared energy. Tupan Patera, named after a Brazilian thunder god, was seen as an active hot spot in earlier Galileo observations, but those low -resolution views did not show details of volcanic activity.
This artist's concept depicts a Lunar Roving Vehicle Mobility Test Article on the Lunar surface. The data provided by the MTA helped in designing the LRV, developed under the direction of MSFC. The LRV was designed to allow Apollo astronauts a greater range of mobility during lunar exploration missions.
Dark-toned sand dune field located on a crater floor on Mars. These dunes are "barchan" dunes, which are also commonly found on Earth. Barchan dunes are generally crescent-shaped, with their "horns" oriented in the downwind direction.
This image mosaic taken by the panoramic camera onboard the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the rover's landing site, the Columbia Memorial Station, at Gusev Crater, Mars. This spectacular view may encapsulate Spirit's entire journey, from lander to its possible final destination toward the east hills.
In this artist's conception, a possible newfound planet spins through a clearing in a nearby star's dusty, planet-forming disc. This clearing was detected around the star CoKu Tau 4 by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers believe that an orbiting massive body, like a planet, may have swept away the star's disc material, leaving a central hole.
Airborne lasers produced a detailed map of the lost city of Mahendraparvata, including highways and previously undiscovered temples, hidden beneath dense vegetation in Cambodia.
Airborne laser technology has uncovered a network of roadways and canals, illustrating a bustling ancient city linking Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temples complex.
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