Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona
Information: Io, the innermost of the large Galilean satellites of Jupiter, is the size of our moon. Voyager discovered in early March, 1979 that Io is the most volcanically active planetary body known in the solar system, with continuous eruptions much larger than any that take place on the Earth. The red, orange, and yellow colors of Io are thought to be deposits of sulfur and sulfur compounds produced in these eruptions. Io's dynamic activity is a result of an orbital resonance with the nearby moon Europa that forces it into an irregular orbit. Under ordinary circumstances, Jupiter's strong gravitational pull would keep one hemisphere of the moon facing the planet at all times, but the forced irregularity causes Io to move at different velocities along its orbit, and the side facing Jupiter "rocks" back and forth. Tidal forces develop inside Io that generate heat through friction, and most of the interior remains partially molten as a result.
File: SP052 Pele Eruption, Io
Title: Pele Eruption 2
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona
Information: Io, the innermost of the large Galilean satellites of Jupiter, is the size of our moon. Voyager discovered in early March, 1979 that Io is the most volcanically active planetary body known in the solar system, with continuous eruptions much larger than any that take place on the Earth. The red, orange, and yellow colors of Io are thought to be deposits of sulfur and sulfur compounds produced in these eruptions. Io's dynamic activity is a result of an orbital resonance with the nearby moon Europa that forces it into an irregular orbit. Under ordinary circumstances, Jupiter's strong gravitational pull would keep one hemisphere of the moon facing the planet at all times, but the forced irregularity causes Io to move at different velocities along its orbit, and the side facing Jupiter "rocks" back and forth. Tidal forces develop inside Io that generate heat through friction, and most of the interior remains partially molten as a result.
File: SP053 Europa
Title: Europa
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona
Information: When Europa was first observed by Voyager 2 from a distance of 241,000 km, the maze of dark streaks and markings were thought to be large filled in cracks. However, despite their superficial resemblance to cracks, the markings have very little height or depth. They are primarily albedo markings, thought to be the result of underlying fracture patterns in the crust.
File: SP054 Europa
Title: Europa
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona
Information: When Europa was first observed by Voyager 2 from a distance of 241,000 km, the maze of dark streaks and markings were thought to be large filled in cracks. However, despite their superficial resemblance to cracks, the markings have very little height or depth. They are primarily albedo markings, thought to be the result of underlying fracture patterns in the crust.
File: SP055 Full Europa
Title: Europa
Source: Voyager 1
Information: View of Europa taken from a range of 2,869,252 kilometers (1.6 million miles) on March 2 at 2:00 p.m. The color composite is made from three black and white images taken through the orange, green and violet filters. The 170-degree longitude is at the center of the picture; this is the face away from Jupiter. Irregular dark and bright patches on the surface are different from the patterns on the other satellites of Jupiter and those on the Moon, Mars and Mercury. Dark intersecting lines may be faults that break the crust.
File: SP056 Ganymede
Title: Ganymede
Source: Voyager 1
Information: This color picture of Ganymede, Jupiter's largest satellite, was taken on the afternoon of March 2, 1979, by Voyager 1 from a distance of about 3.4 million kilometers (2.1 million miles). This photograph was assembled from three black-and-white pictures in the Image Processing Laboratory at JPL. This face of Ganymede is centered on the 260-degree meridian. Ganymede is slightly larger than the planet Mercury but has a density almost three times less than Mercury. Therefore, Ganymede probably consists in large part of ice. At this resolution the surface shows light and dark markings interspersed with bright spots. The large darkish area near the center of the satellite is crossed by irregular light streaks somewhat similar to rays seen on the Moon. The bright patch in the southern hemisphere is reminiscent of some of the larger rayed craters on the Moon caused by meteorite impacts.
File: SP057 Jove
Title: Jove
Source: Voyager 2
Information: This color composite made from Voyager 2 narrow-angle camera frames shows the Great Red Spot during the late Jovian afternoon. North of the Red Spot lies a curious darker section of the South Equatorial Belt (SEB), the belt in which the Red Spot is located. A bright eruption of material passing from the SEB northward into the diffuse equatorial clouds has been observed on all occasions when this feature passes north of the Red Spot. The remnants of one such eruption are apparent in this photograph. To the lower left of the Red Spot lies one of the three long-lived White Ovals. This photograph was taken on June 29, 1979, when Voyager 2 was over 9 million kilometers (nearly 6 million miles) from Jupiter. The smallest features visible are over 170 kilometers (106 miles) across.
File: SP058 Jupiter
Title: Jupiter
Source: Voyager 1
Information: This photo of Jupiter was taken by Voyager 1 on March 1, 1979 from a distance of 2.7 million miles (4.3 million kilometers). The region shown is just to the southeast of the Great Red Spot. A small section of the spot can be seen at upper left. One of the 40-year old white ovals in Jupiter's atmosphere can also be seen at middle left, as well as a wealth of other atmospheric features, including the flow lines in and around the ovals. The smallest details that can be seen in this photo are about 45 miles (80 kilometers) across.
File: SP059 Red Spot, Jupiter
Title: Great Red Spot
Source: Voyager 2
Information: This mosaic of the Great Red Spot shows that the region has changed significantly since the Voyager 1 encounter three months earlier. Around the northern boundary a white cloud is seen, which extend to east of the region. The presence of this cloud prevents small cloud vertices from circling the spot in the manner seen in the Voyager 1 encounter. Another white oval cloud (different from the one present in this position three months ago) is seen south of the Great Red Spot. The internal structure of these spots is identical. Since they both rotate in an anticyclonic manner these observations indicate that they are meteorologically similar. This image was taken on July 6 1979 from a range of 2,633,003 kilometers.
File: SP060 Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
Title: Shoemaker-Levy 9 Comet
Source: Hubble Space Telescope
Information: The Shoemaker-Levy 9 Comet collided with Jupiter in the third week of July, 1994. The comet was torn into pieces as a result of a close approach to Jupiter in July 1992. Analysis of high resolution images of the comet taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in July 1993 suggests that the major cometary fragments range in size from one to a few kilometers. The large fragments are embedded in a cloud of debris with material ranging in size from boulder-sized to microscopic particles. Although comet-like outgassing of the fragments has not been observed, the fragile nature of the object suggests that it is indeed a comet rather than a more compact asteroid. Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was the ninth short periodic comet discovered by Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy. It was first detected on a photograph taken on the night of March 24, 1993 with the 0.4 meter Schmidt telescope located on Palomar mountain in California. Subsequent observations were forthcoming from observers at the University of Hawaii, the Spacewatch telescope on Kitt Peak in Arizona, and McDonald Observatory in Texas. These observations were used to demonstrate that the comet was in orbit about Jupiter, and had made a very close approach (within 1.4 Jupiter radii from Jupiter's center) on July 7, 1992. During this close approach, the unequal Jupiter gravitational attractions on the comet's near and far side broke apart the fragile object. The disruption of a comet into multiple fragments is an unusual event, the capture of a comet into an orbit about Jupiter is even more unusual, and the collision of a large comet with a planet is extraordinary, millennial event.
File: SP061 Saturn & Moons
Title: Saturn & Moons
Source: Voyager 1
Information: This montage of images of the Saturnian system was prepared from an assemblage of images taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft during its Saturn encounter in November 1908. This artist's view shows Dione in the forefront, Saturn rising behind, Tethys and Mimas fading in the distance to the right, Enciladus and Rhea off Saturn's rings to the left, and Titan in its distant orbit at the top.
File: SP062 Saturn, False Color
Title: Saturn
Source: Voyager 1
Information: This image of Saturn, taken by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft on Oct. 18, 1980, was color-enhanced to increase the visibility of large, bright features in Saturn's North Temperate Belt. It is believed that these spots might closely resemble gigantic convective storms (similar to, but mush larger than thunderstorms in Earth's atmosphere) with upwelling from deep within Saturn's atmosphere. The nature of the dark spots like the one visible on the northern edge of the belt is not yet clearly understood, though they seem to resemble equally mysterious features seen on Jupiter. The largest violet-colored cloud belt (its true color is brownish) is Saturn's North Equatorial Belt. The distinct color difference between this and other belts and zones may be due to a thicker haze layer covering the northern portion of the belt. The Southern Hemisphere of the planet (below the rings) appears bluer than the Northern Hemisphere because of increased scattering of sunlight upon that area due to the spacecraft's point of view. Three separate images taken through ultraviolet, green and violet filters were used to construct this composite. The lower edge of the rings were "clipped" due to a slight drift of the spacecraft. Color spots in the rings are an artifact of image processing.
File: SP063 Saturn
Title: Saturn
Source: Voyager 1
Information: NASA's Voyager 1 took this photograph of Saturn on October 18, 1980, 34 million kilometers (21.1 million miles) from the planet. The photograph was taken on the last day that Saturn and its rings could be captured within a single narrow-angle camera frame as the spacecraft closed in on the planet for its nearest approach on November 12. Dione, one of Saturn's inner satellites, appears as three color spots just below the planet's south pole. An abundance of previously unseen detail is apparent in the rings. For example, a gap in the dark, innermost ring, called the C-ring or crepe ring, is clearly shown. Material is seen within the relatively wide Cassini Division, separating the middle, B-ring from the outermost ring, the A-ring. The Encke Division is shown near the outer edge of the A-ring. The detail in the rings' shadows cast on the planet is of particular interest: The broad, dark band near the equator is the shadow of the B-ring; the thinner, brighter line just to the south is the shadow of the less dense A-ring.
File: SP064 Saturn's C-Ring
Title: Saturn's C-Ring
Source: Voyager 2
Information: This view focusing on Saturn's C-ring (and to a lesser extent, the B-ring at top left) is a false color image made from three pictures taken through separate filters: ultraviolet, clear (a blue filter) and green. Voyager 2 obtained this visual data August 23, 1981 from a range of 2,7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles). More than 60 bright and dark ringlets are evident here; the small, bland squares are caused by the removal of Reseau (reference) marks during processing. Note the color difference between the C-ring (blue in this picture) and the B-ring, an indication of differing surface compositions for the material composing these two complex structures. This image also reveals three ringlet within the C-ring with the same pale yellow color of dirty ice. The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
File: SP065 Saturn, False Color
Title: False Color Saturn
Source: Voyager 1
Information: This image of Saturn, taken by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft on Oct. 18, 1980, was color enhanced to increase the visibility of large, bright features in Saturn's North Temperate Belt. It is believed that these spots might closely resemble gigantic convective storms (similar to, but mush larger than thunderstorms in Earth's atmosphere) with upwelling from deep within Saturn's atmosphere. The nature of the dark spots like the one visible on the northern edge of the belt is not yet clearly understood, though they seem to resemble equally mysterious features seen on Jupiter. The largest violet-colored cloud belt (its true color is brownish) is Saturn's North Equatorial Belt. The distinct color difference between this and other belts and zones may be due to a thicker haze layer covering the northern portion of the belt. The Southern Hemisphere of the planet (below the rings) appears bluer than the Northern Hemisphere because of increased scattering of sunlight upon that area due to the spacecraft's point of view.
File: SP066 Saturn, Far Side
Title: Looking back on Saturn
Source: Voyager 1
Information: This image was taken four days after Voyager 1's encounter with Saturn. This view, showing the planet in crecent, is unobtainable from the Earth. Note the lower limb of the planet, showing the transparency of its rings. Relative to the size of the planet, Saturn's Rings are as thin as tissue paper spread over a 100 meter field.
File: SP067 Uranus
Title: Uranus
Source: Voyager 2
Information: This picture of Uranus is a composite of four images returned November 27, 1985 by the narrow-angle camera of Voyager 2. The spacecraft was about 74 million kilometers (46 million miles) from Uranus, inbound toward a January 24, 1986, closest approach to the planet. At this range, Voyager 2 could detect clouds or other features in the atmosphere as small as 1,370 km (851 miles) across. This view is toward the illuminated south pole of Uranus. The predominant blue color is the result of atmospheric methane, which absorbs the red wavelengths from incoming sunlight, thus rendering the planet bluish-green in hue. The spot at the upper left edge of the planet's disk resulted from the removal of a reseau mark used in making measurements on the photograph. Three of Uranus' five known satellites are visible: Miranda (at far right, closest to the planet), Ariel (next out, at top) and Umbriel (lower left). Titania and Oberon are now outside the narrow-angle camera's field of view when it is centered on the planet. This color composite was made from images shuttered through blue, green, orange and clear filters.
File: SP068 Uranus
Title: Uranus
Source: Voyager 2
Information: These two pictures of Uranus -- one in true color (left) and the other in false color -- were compiled from images returned January 17, 1986, by the narrow-angle camera of Voyager 2. The spacecraft was 9.1 million kilometers (5.7 million miles) from the planet, seven days from closest approach. The picture at left has been processed to show Uranus as human eyes would see it from the vantage point of the spacecraft. The picture is a composite of images taken through blue, green and orange filters. The darker shadings at the upper right of the disk correspond to the day-night boundary on the planet. Beyond this boundary lies the hidden northern hemisphere of Uranus, which currently remains in total darkness as the planet rotates. The blue-green color results from the absorption of red light by methane gas in Uranus' deep, cold and remarkably clear atmosphere. the picture at right uses false color and extreme contrast enhancement to bring out subtle details in the polar region of Uranus. Images obtained through ultraviolet, violet and orange filters were respectively converted to the same blue, green and red colors used to produce the picture at left. The very slight contrasts visible in true color are greatly exaggerated here. In this false-color picture, Uranus reveals a dark polar hood surrounded by a series of progressively lighter concentric bands. One possible explanation is that a brownish haze or smog, concentrated over the pole, is arranged into bands by zonal motions of the upper atmosphere. Several artifacts of the optics and processing are visible. The occasional donut shapes are shadows cast by dust in the camera optics; the processing necessary to bring out faint features also brings out these camera blemishes. In addition, the bright pink strip at the lower edge of the planet's limb is an artifact of the image enhancement. In fact, the limb is dark and uniform in color around the planet.
File: SP069 Ariel
Title: Ariel
Source: Voyager 2
Information: The complex terrain of Ariel is viewed in this image, the best Voyager 2 color picture of the Uranian moon. The individual photos used to construct this composite were taken January 24, 1986, from a distance of 170,000 kilometers (105,000 miles). Voyager captured this view of Ariel's southern hemisphere through the green, blue and violet filters of the narrow-angle camera; the resolution is about 3 km (2 mi). Most of the visible surface consists of relatively intensely cratered terrain transected by fault scarps and fault-bounded valleys (graben). Some of the largest valleys, which can be seen near the terminator (at right), are partly filled with younger deposits that are less heavily cratered. Bright spots near the limb and toward the left are chiefly the rims of small craters. Most of the brightly rimmed craters are too small to be resolved here, although one about 30 km (20 mi) in diameter can be easily distinguished near the center. These bright-rim craters, though the youngest features on Ariel, probably have formed over a long span of geological time. Although Ariel has a diameter of only about 1,200 km (750 mi), it has clearly experienced a great deal of geological activity in the past.
File: SP070 Miranda
Title: Miranda
Source: Voyager 2
Information: This color composite of the Uranian satellite Miranda was taken by Voyager 2 on January 24, 1986, from a distance of 147,000 kilometers (91,000 miles). This picture was constructed from images taken through the narrow-angle camera's green, violet and ultraviolet filters. It is the best color view of Miranda returned by Voyager. Miranda, just 480 km (300 mi) across, is the smallest of Uranus's five major satellites. Miranda's regional geologic provinces show very well in this view of the southern hemisphere, imaged at a resolution of 2.7 km (1.7 mi). The dark- and bright-banded region with its curvilinear traces covers about half of the image. Higher-resolution pictures taken later show many fault valleys and ridges parallel to these bands. Near the terminator (at right), another system of ridges and valleys abuts the banded terrain; many impact craters pockmark the surface in this region. The largest of these are about 30 km (20 mi) in diameter; many more lie in the range of 5 to 10 km (3 to 6 mi) in diameter.
File: SP071 Uranus & Miranda
Title: Uranus & Miranda
Source: Voyager 2
Information: A future visitor preparing to land on the icy surface of Uranus' moon Miranda might witness this stunning view toward the planet's cloudtops, some 105,000 kilometers (65,000 miles) away. This montage of Voyager 2 images obtained in January 1986 shows the blue-green Uranus overlaid with an artist's conception of the planet's dark rings as they might appear to our lucky tourist. A portion of a Voyager close-approach image of Miranda is arranged in the foreground to show the view along one of the huge canyons that the spacecraft has revealed on the moon's surface.
File: SP072 Neptune, False Color
Title: Neptune
Source: Voyager 2
Information: In this false-color image of Neptune, objects that are deep in the atmosphere are blue, while those at higher altitudes are white. The image was taken by Voyager 2's wide angle camera through an orange filter and two different methane filters. Light at methane wavelengths is mostly absorbed in the deeper atmosphere. The bright, white feature is a high altitude cloud just south o the Great Dark Spot. The hard, sharp inner boundary within the bright cloud is an artifact of computer processing on Earth. Other, smaller clouds associated with the Great Dark Spot are white or pink, and are also at high altitudes. Neptune's limb looks reddish because Voyager 2 is viewing it tangentially, and the sunlight is scattered back to space before it can be absorbed by the methane. A long, narrow band of high-altitude clouds near the top of the image is located at 25 degrees north latitude, and faint hazes mark the equator and polar regions.
File: SP073 Neptune
Title: Neptune
Source: Voyager 2
Information: During August 16 and 17, 1989, the Voyager 2 narrow-angle camera was used to photograph Neptune almost continuously, recording approximately two and one half rotations of the planet. This picture from the sequence shows two of the four cloud features which have been tracked by the Voyager cameras during the past two months. The large dark oval near the western limb (the left edge) is at a latitude of 22 degrees south and circuits Neptune every 18.3 hours. The bright clouds immediately to the south and east of this oval are seen to substantially change their appearances in periods as short as four hours. The second dark spot, at 54 degrees south latitude near the terminator (lower right edge), circuits Neptune every 16.1 hours. This image has been processed to enhance the visibility of small features, at some sacrifice of color fidelity.
File: SP074 Dark Spot, Neptune
Title: Neptune Southern Hemisphere
Source: Voyager 2
Information: This photograph of Neptune's southern hemisphere was taken by the narrow-angle camera on NASA's Voyager 2 when the spacecraft was 4.2 million km (2.6 million miles) from the planet. The smallest features that can be seen are 38 km (24 miles) across. The almond-shaped structure at the left is a large cloud system that has been seen for several weeks. Systems with similar shapes in Jupiter's atmosphere rotate about their centers, rolling in the local winds that increase toward the south. However, the wispy nature of the white central clouds in this Neptunian feature make confirmation of the system's rotation difficult.
File: SP075 Neptune Cloud
Title: Neptune
Source: Voyager 2
Information: This image of Neptune was taken by Voyager 2's wide-angle camera when the spacecraft was 590,000 km (370,000 miles) from the planet. The image has been processed to obtain true color balance. Additional processing was used to suppress surface brightness of the white clouds. The processing allows both the clouds' structure in the dark regions near the pole and the bright clouds east of the Great Dark Spot to be reproduced in this color photograph. Small trails of similar clouds trending east to west and large-scale structure east of the Great Dark Spot all suggest that waves are present in the atmosphere and play a large role in the type of clouds that are visible.
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[File: SP001 Solar System
Title: Solar System Mosaic
Source: Mariner 10, Pioneer, Voyager
Information: This is a composite of images of all the planets in our solar system except Pluto. From the top are Mercury, taken by the Mariner 10 spacecraft; Venus, taken by the Pioneer Venus probe; the Moon and Mars, captured from ground-based telescopes; and Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, as seen by the Voyager spacecraft.
File: SP002 the Sun
Title: Solar Flare
Source: Skylab
Information: This photograph of the Sun, taken December 19, 1974 by NASA's Skylab 4, shows one of the most spectacular solar flares (upper left) ever recorded, spanning more than 588,000 kilometers (367,000 miles) across the solar surface. A previous picture, taken some 17 hours earlier, showed this feature as a large quiescent prominence on the eastern side of the Sun. The flare gives the distinct impression of a twisted sheet of gas in the process of unwinding itself. Skylab photographs such as these may provide clues to the mechanism by which such quiescent features erupt from the Sun. In this photograph, the solar poles are distinguished by a relative absence of supergranulation network, and a much darker tone than the central portions of the disk. Several active regions are seen on the eastern side of the disk. The photo was taken in the light of ionized helium by the extreme ultraviolet spectroheliograph instrument of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.
File: SP003 Mercury
Title: Mercury
Source: Mariner 10
Information: The Mariner 10 spacecraft obtained this view of Mercury during its out-going pass on March 29, 1974. This photomosaic has been tinted to approximate the visual appearance of Mercury. The Sun's innermost planet is barren and only slightly larger than the Earth's Moon. Although Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, Venus is far hotter, due to the greenhouse effect in it's atmosphere. Mercury has no significant atmosphere.
File: SP004 Venus
Title: Venus
Source: Galileo
Information: This colorized picture of Venus was taken February 14, 1990, from a distance of almost 1.7 million miles, about 6 days after Galileo's closest approach to the planet. It has been colorized to a bluish hue to emphasize subtle contrasts in the cloud markings and to indicate that it was taken through a violet filter. Features in the sulfuric acid clouds near the top of the planet's atmosphere are most prominent in violet and ultraviolet light. This image shows the east-to-west trending cloud banding and the brighter polar hoods familiar from past studies of Venus. The features are embedded in winds that flow from east to west at about 230 mph. The smallest features visible are about 4.5 miles across. An intriguing filamentary dark pattern is seen immediately left of the bright region at the subsolar pole (equatorial "noon"). North is at the top and the evening terminator is to the left.
File: SP005 Eistla Regio, Venus
Title: Eistla Regio, Venus
Source: Magellan
Information: A portion of Western Eistla Regio is displayed in this three-dimensional perspective view of the surface of Venus. The viewpoint is located 1,310 kilometers (812 miles) southwest of Gula Mons at an elevation of 0.78 kilometers (0.48 mile). the view is to the northeast with Gula Mons appearing on the horizon. Gula Mons, a 3 kilometer (1.86 mile) high volcano, is located at approximately 22 degrees north latitude, 359 degrees east longitude. The impact crater Cunitz, named for the astronomer and mathematician Maria Cunitz, is visible in the center of the image. The crater 48.5 kilometers (30 miles) in diameter and is 215 kilometers 133 miles from the viewer's position. Magellan synthetic aperture radar data is combined with radar altimetry to develop a three-dimensional map of the surface. Rays cast in a computer intersect the surface to create a three dimensional perspective view. Simulated color and a digital elevation map developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, are used to enhance small-scale structure. The simulated hues are based on color images recorded by the Soviet Venera 13 and 14 spacecraft. The image was produced at the JPL Multimission Image Processing Laboratory and is a single frame from a video released at the March 5, 1991 JPL news conference.
File: SP006 Sif Mons, Venus
Title: Sif Mons, Venus
Source: Magellan
Information: Sif Mons is displayed in this computer-simulated view of the surface of Venus. The viewpoint is located 360 kilometers (223 miles) north of Sif Mons at a height of 7.5 kilometers (4.7 miles) above the lava floes. Lava floes extend for hundreds of kilometers across the fractured plains shown in the foreground to the base of Sif Mons. The view is to the south. Sif Mons, a volcano with a diameter of 300 kilometers (186 miles) and a height of 2 kilometers (1.2 miles), appears in the upper half of the image. Magellan synthetic aperture radar data is combined with radar altimetry to produce a three-dimensional map of the surface. Rays, cast in a computer, intersect the surface to create a three-dimensional perspective view. Simulated color and a digital elevation map developed by the U.S. Geological Survey, are used to enhance small-scale structure. The simulated hues are based on color images recorded by the Soviet Venera 13 and 14 spacecraft. The image was produced at the JPL Multimission Image Processing Laboratory and is a single frame from a video released at the March 5, 1991 JPL news conference.
File: SP007 Phoebe Regio, Venus
Title: Phoebe Regio, Venus
Source: Magellan
Information: This Magellan mosaic centered at 12.5 degrees south latitude, 261 degrees east longitude, shows an unnamed volcano that straddles a narrow, angular fracture system extending southeastward from Phoebe Regio, a highland tessera, or tile-appearing, region of Venus. The image, which shows an area approximately 587 kilometers (364 miles) on a side, is a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) backscatter image combined with a color radio-thermal emission (emissivity) image. The red corresponds to a high emissivity, blue to a low emissivity. The emissivity, which is a measure of the electrical properties of surface materials, is an important clue for understanding surface composition. While many Magellan images display just the radar backscatter in order to obtain information about the shape and roughness of features, there are other important data sets including the surface topography obtained from the Magellan altimeter and the emissivity. Information to derive emissivity is recorded when Magellan's radar antenna ceases to send signals to the surface and instead listens to the radio waves naturally emitted from the surface. This volcano exhibits what scientists have noted to be a widespread phenomenon on Venus -- the occurrence of lower emissivities at higher altitudes. The summit of the volcano, which is about 2 kilometers (1.2) miles in height, displays the lowest emissivity, while the emissivity becomes progressively greater toward the lower elevations. The presence of minerals such a pyrrohite or pyrite may explain the low emissivities in some cases because of their electrical properties and their stability at the temperatures and pressures found at high altitudes on Venus. This image was produced at the JPL Multimission Image Processing Laboratory.
File: SP008 Alpha Regio, Venus
Title: Alpha Regio, Venus
Source: Magellan
Information: A portion of the eastern edge of Alpha Regio is displayed in this three-dimensional perspective view of the surface of Venus. The viewpoint is located at approximately 30 degrees south latitude, 11.8 degrees east longitude at an elevation of 2.4 kilometers (3.8 miles). The view is to the northeast at the center of an area containing seven circular dome-like hills. The average diameter of the hills is 25 kilometers (15 miles) with maximum heights of 750 meters (2,475 feet). Three of the hills are visible in the center of the image. Fractures on the surrounding plains are both older and younger than the domes. The hills may be the result of viscous or thick eruptions of lava coming from a vent on the relatively level ground, allowing the lava to flow in an even lateral pattern. The concentric and radial fracture patterns on their surfaces suggests that a chilled outer layer formed, then further intrusion in the interior stretched the surface. An alternative interpretation is that domes are the result of shallow intrusions of molten lava, causing the surface to rise, If they are intrusive, then magma withdrawal near the end of the eruptions produced the fractures. The bright margins possibly indicate the presence of rock debris or talus at the slopes of the domes. Resolution of the Magellan data is about 120 meters (400 feet). Magellan's synthetic aperture radar is combined with radar altimetry to develop a three-dimensional map of the surface. A perspective view is then generated from the map. Simulated color and a process called radar-clinometry are used to enhance small-scale structures. The simulated hues are based on color images recorded by the Soviet Venera 13 and 14 spacecraft. The image was produced at the JPL Multimission Image Processing Laboratory by Eric De Jong, Jeff Hall, and Myche McAuley, and is a single frame of a video released at a March 5, 1991, JPL news conference.
File: SP009 Venus Surface
Title: Western Eistla Regio
Source: Magellan
Information: A portion of Western Eistla Regio is displayed in this three-dimensional perspective view of the surface of Venus. The viewpoint is located 1,100 kilometers (682 miles) northeast of Gula Mons at an elevation of 7.5 kilometers (4.6 miles). Lava floes extend for hundreds of kilometers across the fractured plains shown in the foreground, to the base of Gula Mons. We are looking to the southwest with Gula Mons appearing at the left just below the horizon. Gula Mons, a 3 kilometer (1.86 mile) high volcano, is located at approximately 22 degrees north latitude, 359 degrees east longitude. Sif Mons, a volcano with a diameter of 300 kilometers (180 miles) and a height of 2 kilometers (1.2 miles), appears to the right of Gula Mons. The distance between Sif Mons and Gula Mons is approximately 730 kilometers (453 miles). Magellan synthetic aperture radar data is combined with radar altimetry to develop a three dimensional map of the surface. Ray tracing -- rays as if from a light source are cast in a computer to intersect the surface -- simulate a perspective view. Simulated color and a digital elevation map developed by Randy Kirk of the U.S. Geological Survey, are used to enhance small scale structure. The simulated hues are based on color images recorded by the Soviet Venera 13 and 14 spacecraft. The image was produced at the JPL Multimission Image Processing Laboratory by Eric De Jong, Jeff Hall, and Myche McAuley, and is a single frame of a video released at a March 5, 1991, JPL news conference.
File: SP010 Earth & Moon
Title: Crescent Earth & Moon
Source: Voyager 1
Information: This picture of a crescent-shaped Earth and Moon -- the first of its kind ever taken by a spacecraft -- was recorded September 18, 1977, by NASA's Voyager 1 when it was 7.25 million miles from Earth. The Moon is at the top of the picture and beyond the Earth as viewed by Voyager. In the picture are eastern Asia, the western Pacific Ocean and part of the Arctic. Voyager 1 was directly above Mt. Everest (on the night side of the planet at 25 degrees north latitude) when the picture was taken. The photo was made from three images taken through color filters, then processed by the Image Processing Lab at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Because the Earth is many times brighter then the Moon, the Moon was artificially brightened by a factor of three relative to the Earth by computer enhancement so that both bodies would show clearly in the prints.
File: SP011 Earth & Moon
Title: Earth & Moon
Source: Galileo
Information: Eight days after its encounter with the Earth, the Galileo spacecraft was able to look back and capture this remarkable view about 6.2 million kilometers (3.9 million miles), on December 16, 1992. The picture was constructed from images taken through the violet, red, and 1.0 micron infrared filters. The Moon is in the foreground, moving from left to right. The brightly colored Earth contrasts strongly with the Moon, which reflects only about one-third as much sunlight as Earth. Contrast and color have been computer-enhanced for both objects to improve visibility. Antarctica is visible through clouds (bottom). The Moon's far side is seen; the shadowy indentation in the dawn terminator is the South-Pole/Aitken Basin, one of the largest and oldest lunar impact features, extensively studied from Galileo during the first Earth flyby in December 1990.
File: SP012 Full Earth
Title: Earth
Source: Galileo
Information: This color image of the Earth was obtained by the Galileo spacecraft at about 6:10 a.m. PST on Dec. 11, 1990, when the spacecraft was about 1.3 million miles from the Earth. The color composite used images taken through the red, green and violet filters. South America is near the center of the picture, and the white, sunlit continent of Antarctica is below. Picturesque weather fronts are visible in the South Atlantic, lower right. This is the first frame of the Galileo Earth spin movie, a 500-frame time-lapse motion picture showing a 25-hour period of Earth's rotation and atmospheric dynamics.
File: SP013 Western Hemisphere
Title: Earth - Full Disk
Source: Apollo 8
Information: A striking view from the Apollo 8 spacecraft showing nearly the entire Western Hemisphere from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River including nearby Newfoundland, extending to Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America. Central America is clearly outlined. Nearly all of South America is covered by clouds, except the high Andes Mountain chain along the west coast. A small portion of the bulge of west Africa shows along the sunset terminator at the right.
File: SP014 Antarctica
Title: Antarctica
Source: Galileo
Information: This image was taken by Galileo as it was using the Earth as a gravitational slingshot to propel it to the Jupiter system. There are very few images of the southern continent taken from space because few spacecraft are put in high polar orbit. Southern hemisphere summer storm patterns are clearly visible in this shot. Australia, South America and Southern Africa can also be seen.
File: SP015 Ross Ice Shelf
Title: Antarctica
Source: Galileo
Information: This color picture of Antarctica is one part of a mosaic of pictures covering the entire polar continent taken during the hours following Galileo's historic first encounter with its home planet. The view shows the Ross Ice Shelf to the right and its border with the sea. An occasional mountain can be seen poking through the ice near the McMurdo Station. This picture was taken at about 6:20 p.m. PST on December 8, 1990. From top to bottom, the frame looks across about half of Antarctica.
File: SP016 Australia
Title: Simpson Desert
Source: Galileo
Information: This color image of the Simpson Desert in Australia was obtained by the Galileo Spacecraft at about 2:30 p.m. PST, December 8, 1990, at a range of more than 35,000 miles. The color composite was made from images taken through the red, green and violet filters. The area shown , about 280 miles wide by about 340 miles north to south, is southeast of Alice Springs. At lower left is Lake Eyre, a salt lake below sea level, subject to seasonal water level fluctuations; when this image was acquired the lake was nearly dry. At lower right is the greenish Lake Blanche. Fields of linear sand dunes stretch north and east of Lake Eyre, shaped by prevailing winds from the south and showing, in different colors, the various sources and/or ages of their sands.
File: SP017 Oman, Earth
Title: Oman
Source: Landsat
Information: This enhanced Landsat Thematic Mapper image shows an area roughly 140 kilometers wide situated on the edge of the Empty Quarter in the country of Oman. This satellite data shows the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The northwestern part of the image is dominated by sand dunes. There are two major wadis (dry river beds) flowing northward into the dunes. The desert floor, mostly rocky gravel plain and exposed limestone bedrock, dominates the southern and eastern portions of the image. The obvious light colored roads are modern gravel roads. There is a triangular intersection of modern roads just east of the longer wadi. The triangle of roads goes around the modern village of Shisr, which is located at the probable site of the ancient city of Ubar. Careful examination of the area east of shisr will show several converging faint tracks. While still occasionally used, archaeological investigation indicates these roads are in fact ancient caravan trails.
File: SP018 Arabian Peninsula
Title: North-East Africa and Arabia
Source: Galileo
Information: This color image of North East Africa and Arabia was taken from an altitude of about 500,000 kilometers (300,000 miles) by the Galileo spacecraft on December 9, 1992, as it left the Earth en route to Jupiter. Mot of Egypt (center left) including the Nile Valley, the Red Sea (slightly above center), Israel, Jordan and the Arabian peninsula are cloud-free. In the center, below the cloud on the coast, is Khartoum, at the confluence of the Blue Nile and the White Nile. Somalia (lower right) is partly cloud covered.
File: SP019 Full Moon
Title: Moon
Source: Galileo
Information: This color image of the Moon was taken by the Galileo spacecraft at 9:35 a.m. PST Dec. 9, 1990, at a range of about 350,000 miles. The color composite uses monochrome images taken through violet, red and near-infrared filters. The concentric, circular Orientale basin, 600 miles across, is near the center; the near side is to the right, the far side to the left. At the upper right is the large, dark Oceanus Procellarum; below it is the smaller Mare Humorum. These, like the small dark Mare Orientale in the center of the basin, formed over 3 billion years ago as basaltic lava flows. At the lower left, among the southern cratered highlands of the far side, is the South-Pole-Aitken basin, similar to Orientale but twice as great in diameter and much older and more degraded by cratering and weathering. The cratered highlands of the near and far sides and the Maria are covered with scattered bright, young ray craters.
File: SP020 False Color Moon
Title: Moon Mosaic
Source: Galileo
Information: This false-color mosaic was constructed from a series of 53 images taken through three spectral filters by Galileo's imaging system as the spacecraft flew over the northern regions of the Moon on December 7, 1992. The part of the Moon visible from Earth is on the left side in this view. The color mosaic shows compositional variations in parts of the Moon's northern hemisphere. Bright pinkish areas are highlands materials, such as those surrounding the oval lava-filled Crisium impact basin toward the bottom of the picture. Blue to orange shades indicate volcanic lava flows. To the left of Crisium, the dark blue Mare Tranquillitatis is richer in titanium than the green and orange maria above it. This mineral rich soils associated with relatively recent impacts are represented by light blue colors; the youngest craters have prominent blue rays extending from them.
File: SP021 Galileo Moon
Title: Moon
Source: Galileo
Information: This false-color image of part of the Moon was constructed from four images taken by Galileo's imaging system as the spacecraft flew past the Moon on December 7, 1992. The images were processed to exaggerate the colors of the lunar surface for analytical purposes. Titanium rich soils, typical of the Apollo 11 landing site, appear blue, as seen in Mare Tranquillitatis, left side; soils lower in titanium appear orange, as seen in Mare Serenitatis, lower right. Dark purple patches, left center, mark the Apollo 17 landing site and are ancient explosive volcanic deposits. Most of the lunar highlands appear red, indicating their low titanium and iron content.
File: SP022 Moon
Title: False Color Moon
Source: Galileo
Information: This false-color image of part of the Moon was constructed from images taken by Galileo's imaging system as the spacecraft flew past the Moon on December 7, 1992. The images were processed to exaggerate the colors of the lunar surface for analytical purposes. Titanium rich soils, typical of the Apollo 11 landing site, appear blue, soils lower in titanium appear orange, and dark purple patches mark ancient explosive volcanic deposits. Most of the lunar highlands appear red, indicating their low titanium and iron content.
File: SP023 Crecent Mars
Title: Mars
Source: Viking Orbiter 2
Information: Taken by Viking Orbiter 2 as it approached the dawn side of Mars, in early August 1976, this photo shows the results of computer enhancement. At the top, with water ice cloud plumes on its western flank, is Ascreaus Mons, one of the giant Martian Volcanoes. In the middle is the great rift canyon called Valles Marineris, and near the bottom is the large, frosty, crater basin called Argyre. The south pole is at the bottom.
File: SP024 Syrtis Major, Mars
Title: Syrtis Major, Mars
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona
Information: Mosaic of the Syrtis Major Hemisphere of Mars projected into a point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 2,000 kilometers from the surface of the planet, with the scale being 0.6 kilometers per pixel. This mosaic is composed of about 100 red and violet filter Viking Orbiter images. The images were acquired in 1980, during early northern summer on Mars. The center of the image is near latitude -2, longitude -55. The color variations have been enhanced by a factor of two, and the large-scale brightness variations (mostly due to sun-angle variations) have been normalized by large-scale filtering. The large, brightly colored area located in the upper left corner of the image is known as Arabia. The dark area to the right of Arabia, called Syrtis Major Planus, is a low-relief volcanic shield of probably basaltic composition. Bright white areas to the south, including the Hellas impact basin at lower right, are covered by carbon dioxide frost.
File: SP025 Mars
Title: Mars
Source: Viking 1 Orbiter
Information: Mars shows a distinct hemispheric asymmetry in the distribution of surface features. The often densely cratered southern hemisphere is about 1 to 3 km above the topographic sea level, while the northern hemisphere is sparsely cratered and generally lies below that level. The south, for example, has two basic types of terrain: an ancient crust saturated with large craters and small channels; and younger plains that have been modified less. The higher terrain of the south contains numerous channels, hundreds of miles long, that are reminiscent of those Earth bound channels caused by glacial activity and flooding. In the northern hemisphere, the terrain is largely featureless, save the volcanic flows surrounding the large volcanoes. There is much evidence on the surface of Mars that its climate was once drastically different. Certain craters have odd ejecta patterns that suggest a layer of ice or water existed in the upper crust when they were created.
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xfxFile: SP076 Neptune
Title: Neptune
Source: Voyager 2
Information: This Voyager 2 high resolution color image, taken 2 hours before closest approach, provides obvious evidence of vertical relief in Neptune's bright cloud streaks. These clouds were observed at a latitude of 29 degrees north near Neptune's east terminator. The linear cloud forms are stretched approximately along lines of constant latitude and the sun is toward the lower left. The bright sides of the clouds which face the sun are brighter than the surrounding cloud deck because they are more directly exposed to the sun. Shadows can be seen on the side opposite the sun. These shadows are less distinct at short wavelengths (violet filter) and more distinct at long wavelengths (orange filter). This can be understood if the underlying cloud deck on which the shadow is cast is at a relatively great depth, in which the scattering by molecules in the overlying atmosphere will diffuse light into the shadow. Because molecules scatter blue light much more efficiently than red light, the shadows will be darkest at the longest (reddest) wavelengths, and will appear blue under white light illumination. The resolution of this image is 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) per pixel and the range is only 157, 000 kilometers (98,000 miles). The width of the cloud streaks range from 50 to 200 kilometers (31 to 124 miles), and their shadow widths range from 30 to 50 kilometers (18 to 31 miles). Cloud heights appear to be of the order of 50 kilometers (31 miles).
File: SP077 Neptune & Triton
Title: Neptune & Triton
Source: Voyager 2
Information: During August 16 and 17, 1989, the Voyager 2 narrow-angle camera was used to photograph Neptune almost continuously, recording approximately two and one half rotations of the planet. This image has been processed to enhance the visibility of small features, at some sacrifice of color fidelity.
File: SP078 Triton
Title: Triton
Source: Voyager 2
Information: Voyager 2 obtained this high-resolution color image of Neptune's large satellite Triton during its close flyby on August 25, 1989. Approximately a dozen individual images were combined to produce this comprehensive view of the Neptune-facing hemisphere of Triton. Fine detail is provided by high-resolution, clear filter images, with color information added from lower-resolution frames. The large south polar cap at the bottom of the image is highly reflective and slightly pink in color; it may consist of a slowly evaporating layer of nitrogen ice deposited during the previous winter. From the ragged edge of the polar cap northward the satellite's face is generally darker and redder in color. This coloring may be produced by the action of ultraviolet light and magnetospheric radiation upon methane in the atmosphere and surface. Running across this darker region, approximately parallel to the edge of the polar cap, is a band of brighter white material that is almost bluish in color. The underlying topography in this bright band is similar, however to that in the darker, redder regions surrounding it.
File: SP079 Crecent Neptune
Title: Neptune South Pole
Source: Voyager 2
Information: This post-encounter view of the south pole of Neptune was obtained after Voyager 2 passed the planet and sped away on a southward-trending trajectory. Looking back from 900,000 km (560,000 miles) Voyager's wide-angle camera saw features as small as 120 km (75 miles) in diameter. The angle between the Sun, the center of the planet, and the spacecraft is 137 degrees, so the entire south polar region is illuminated. Near the bright limb, clouds located at 71 and 42 degrees south latitude rotate eastward onto Neptune's night side. A bright cloud (bottom center) lies within 1.5 degrees of Neptune's south pole, which has been determined from the orbits of the planet's rings and satellites. The feature is believed to be created by an organized circulation around the pole that forms a clear "eye" at the center of the system.
File: SP080 Neptune & Triton
Title: Neptune & Triton
Source: Voyager 2
Information: This dramatic view of the crescents of Neptune and Triton was acquired by Voyager 2 approximately 3 days, 6 and one-half hours after its closest approach to Neptune. The spacecraft is now plunging southward at an angle of 48 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic. This direction, combined with the current season of southern summer in the Neptune system, gives this picture its unique geometry. The spacecraft was at a distance of 4.86 million kilometers (3 million miles) from Neptune when these images were shuttered so the smallest detail discernible is approximately 90 kilometers (56 miles). Color was produced using images taken through the narrow-angle camera's clear, orange and green filters. Neptune does not appear as blue from this viewpoint because the forward scattering nature of its atmosphere is more important than its absorption of red light at this high phase angle (134 degrees).
File: SP081 Pluto & Charon
Title: Pluto & Charon
Source: Hubble Space Telescope
Information: Pluto - the "Double Planet" NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has obtained the clearest pictures ever of our solar system's most distant and enigmatic object; the planet Pluto, using the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera. A recent Faint Object Camera image of Pluto and Charon is shown in the upper right hand frame of the photograph. This image is the first long duration HST exposure ever taken of a moving target. In order to avoid smearing of the images, ground controllers had to pre-program the Hubble Telescope spacecraft to track Pluto extremely accurately and compensate exactly for the "parallax" introduced by the combined motions of Pluto, the Earth, and the Hubble Telescope in their respective orbits. Pluto is currently near its closest approach to the Earth in its 249 year journey around the Sun, and is approximately four and a half billion kilometers away. The bright object at the center of the frame is Pluto while Charon is the fainter object in the lower left. Charon is fainter than Pluto because it is smaller and, probably, because its surface is covered by water and ice whereas Pluto is thought to be covered mainly by the more reflective methane frost or snow. As indicated in the diagram at the bottom of the photo, Charon's orbit around Pluto is a circle seen nearly edge on from the Earth, with a radius of almost twenty thousand kilometers - distance equal to approximately one and a half times the diameter of the Earth. At the time of observation, Charon was near its maximum apparent distance from Pluto, so that its angular separation was about nine tenths of an arc second. Because of the peculiar orientation of the Pluto-Charon orbit with respect to our line of sight, Charon approaches to within less than one tenth of an arc second of Pluto every three days.
File: SP082 The Pleiades
Title: The Pleiades
Source: NASA
Information: M45, The Pleiades cluster, in the constellation Taurus, is one of the best known deep sky objects. Often historically associated with the harvest and memorial ceremonies. It is also associated with Halloween in our culture, which historically marked the midnight culmination of the cluster. This cluster of young stars, some of which are still undergoing gravitational contraction, is also associated with a faint nebulosity, which can be seen in the photo. In winter in an area with minimal light pollution, even a small reflecting telescope will reveal these cirrus like wisps. The constellation can be found by lining up the belt-stars in Orion and following their line to the right until you see a tight cluster of seven stars.
File: SP083 M8, Lagoon Nebula
Title: M8, the Lagoon Nebula
Source: USNO
Information: The Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius is so named because of the dark channel that runs through its middle. It is in a region of objects that include the Triffid Nebula and the globular cluster M21. It is located about 3,000 light years from our sun.
File: SP084 M20, Triffid Nebula
Title: M20, the Triffid Nebula
Source: NASA
Information: M20, the Triffid Nebula, so named because of the trisecting dark nebulosity in its center, is located in the constellation Sagittarius. It is located near M8, the Lagoon Nebula.
File: SP085 M16, Star Queen Nebula
Title: M16, the Star-Queen Nebula.
Source: NASA
Information: The Star-Queen, or Eagle Nebula, in the constellation Serpens, is one of the more striking deep sky objects visible from the solar system. The nebula contains many very young stars, their average age being about 800,000 years old, with some stars as young as 50,000 years old. Most of the stars in this nebulous cluster are still undergoing gravitational contraction. The Star Queen Nebula was named by Robert Burnham, Jr. in his excellent and recommended Celestial Handbook.
File: SP086 M1, Crab Nebula
Title: M1, the Crab Nebula
Source: NASA
Information: M1, the Crab Nebula in the constellation Taurus is a remnant of a supernova that is thought to have occurred on the dates of July 4-5, in 1054 A.D., according to Chinese records. This nebula is roughly 6300 light years away. The small central star, CM Tauri, is a pulsar that is only a few miles in diameter, yet emits 30,000 times the energy of the sun. It rotates around its axis at a rate of 60 times a second. This pulsar is a neutron star, which is created when gravity contracts a solar core to the point that the elements in the sun are reduced to neutrons that are pressed up against each other. CM Tauri is only a couple of miles in diameter, but it is visible to the Earth.
File: SP087 Veil Nebula
Title: Veil Nebula
Source: NASA
Information: NGC 6992, the Veil or Bridalveil Nebula is an expanding gas cloud remnant of a supernova. The supernova happened about 30 to 40,000 years ago and is roughly 70 light years in diameter. This nebula is a radio source, but not as strong as the much younger Crab Nebula. It is thought that the gas in the Crab Nebula will eventually spread out and resemble the Veil Nebula in 20,000 years or so.
File: SP088 M57, Ring Nebula
Title: M57, the Ring Nebula
Source: NASA
Information: M57, the Ring Nebula in the constellation Lyra is the most famous planetary nebula. Planetary nebulae are not so named because of an association with planets but because, in a telescope, their round shape resembles a planet. The nebula is lit by fluorescence caused by the large amount of ultraviolet radiation emitted by the central star. The rate of expansion in the ring indicates that the nebula initially formed about 20,000 years ago. Planetary nebulae are not associated with novae, but are their own discreet phenomenon in the universe. It is estimated that there are over ten thousand planetary nebulae in our galaxy at this time.
File: SP089 Eta Carinae
Title: Eta Carinae
Source: Hubble Space Telescope
Information: An "almost true color" image of the material surrounding the star Eta Carinne. The picture was obtained with the second generation Wide-Field and Planetary Camera-II, designed and built at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The new camera was installed during the Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, STS-61, in December 1993. WFPC-II incorporates optics that correct for the aberration of the telescope's primary mirror, restoring the optical quality of images obtained with the telescope to the level that the telescope was originally designed to provide. Eta Carinae is one of the best studied and most fascinating objects in the sky. The star has a mass of approximately 150 times that of the sun, and is about 4 million times brighter than our local star, making it one of the most massive and most luminous stars known. Unlike the benevolent and quiescent center of our solar system, Eta Carinae is highly unstable and prone to violent outbursts. The last of these occurred in 1841, when despite its distance (more than 10,000 light years away), Eta Carinne briefly became the second brightest star in the sky. Since that time the star has grown over 600 times fainter in visible light, so that today, Eta Carinae is only barely visible to the naked eye. The rapidly expanding shell of material ejected during the last century's outburst (named the "homunculus" or the "little man" in 1950 by the Italian astronomer Gaviola) was the target of pre-servicing mission Hubble Space Telescope observations taken with JPL's original Wide-Field and Planetary Camera-I. This observation demonstrated the potential for discovery which has always been one of the strongest motivations for a mission such as HST. However, the WFPC-I image of Eta Carinae suffered from the effects of HST's spherical aberration. In particular, the structure of the material very near Eta Carinae itself -- a question of great scientific interest -- was totally obscured in the original images by the spherical aberration "skirt" around the bright star. How the clear view of Eta Carinae provided by WFPC-II dramatically demonstrates the ability of HST to reliably study faint structure near bright objects -- a demonstration of the capability that will allow the HST to carry out many of the high priority scientific programs (e.g. imaging of disk systems surrounding stars) which were most hampered by spherical aberration. On the other hand, the observations of Eta Carinae also demonstrates how pre-servicing mission HST science complements work to be done with the restored capabilities of the telescope. By comparing the WFPC-I and WFPC-II images, astronomers are watching the nebula grow and change with time. The picture shown is actually a combination of three different images taken in red, green, and blue light. The ghostly red outer glow surrounding the star is composed of the very fastest moving of the material which was ejected during the last century's outburst. This material, much of which is moving in excess of 2 million miles per hour, is largely composed of nitrogen and other elements formed in the interior of the massive star, and subsequently ejected into interstellar space. Massive stars convert the hydrogen and helium which were present in the early universe into heavier elements, then disperse this enriched material into space, where it can be incorporated into other stars and solar systems (and eventually people). Thus, by looking at Eta Carinae, we are looking at one way that the universe conspired to make our own existence possible. The bright blue-white nebulosity closer in to the star also consists of ejected stellar material. Unlike the outer nebulosity, this material is very dusty and is seen in reflected starlight. The new data show that this structure consists of two lobes of material, one of which (lower left) is moving toward us and the other of which (upper right) is moving away. This is called a "bipolar flow." The knots of ejected material have sizes comparable to that of our solar system. Astronomers study bipolar flows in a number of contexts: the principal feature of most models of bipolar flows is a dense disk surrounding the star which funnels the ejected material out of the poles of the system. Such disks are used to explain almost all directional outflows from stars, and are also thought to be linked to the formation of solar systems. In Eta Carinae, however, high velocity material is seen to be spraying out in the same plane as the disk which is supposed to be channeling the flow. This is quite unexpected: bullets don't normally shoot out of the sides of a gun. How can it be that the same disk that keeps material from the star flowing into the two lobes also lets other material through, actually concentrating it in the very direction which should be the hardest for it to go? Does the disk exist at all, or is there something fundamentally wrong with our understanding of how bipolar flows are formed. As with all good scientific experiments, the WFPC-II observations of Eta Carinae raise as many questions as they answer.
File: SP090 Rosette Nebula
Title: Rosette Nebula
Source: NASA
Information: The Rosette Nebula, NGC 2237 (the nebula) and NGC 2244 (the star cluster in the center of the nebula), in the constellation Monoceros is one of the largest nebulae known. It is about 55 light years across. The clear area in the center of the nebula, which contains the cluster, is probably darker due to the exhaustion of the nebula material by stars forming in the cluster.
File: SP091 M42, Orion Nebula
Title: Orion Nebula, M42
Source: U.S. Naval Observatory
Information: M42, the Orion Nebula, is visible to observers with binoculars in the middle of the region known as the sword of Orion. This nebula is like a gigantic womb, where new stars are born. The gas in the nebula is illuminated by the light of new solar systems. Recently, scientists have discovered dust rings surrounding many of the young suns--dust that will eventually form into planets. The stars in M42 are only about a million years old, in contrast to our solar system, which is several billion years old.
File: SP092 M42, Orion Nebula
Title: M42, the Orion Nebula
Source: NASA
Information: M42, the Orion Nebula, is visible to observers with binoculars in the middle of the region known as the sword of Orion. This nebula is like a gigantic womb, where new stars are born. The gas in the nebula is illuminated by the light of new solar systems. Recently, scientists have discovered dust rings surrounding many of the young suns--dust that will eventually form into planets. The stars in M42 are only about a million years old, in contrast to our solar system, which is several billion years old. This photo is exposed to reveal the wispy outer clouds of the nebula
File: SP093 Hubble Orion Nebula 1
Title: Orion Nebula
Source: Hubble Space Telescope
Information: A Rice University astronomer using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) uncovered the strongest evidence yet that the process which may form planets is common in the Milky Way galaxy, of which Earth is a part, and in the universe beyond. Dr. C. Robert O'Dell said observations with the newly repaired telescope clearly reveal that great disks of dust -- the raw material for planet formation -- are swirling around at least half and probably many more of the stars in the Orion Nebula, a region only 1,500 light years from Earth where new stars are being born. O'Dell and a colleague, Zheng Wen, formerly of Rice and now at the University of Kentucky, surveyed 110 stars and found disks around 56 of them. "Since it is easier to detect the star than the disk, it is likely that far more stars are being orbited by protoplanetary material," O'Dell said.
O'Dell first discovered these disks, which he dubbed "proplyds," in HST images taken in 1992. However, the new images bolster his theory by distinguishing clearly that the objects are indeed pancake-shaped disks of dust, not shells of dust as some astronomers have maintained.
HST clearly resolves a young star at the center of each disk. O'Dell also has been able to measure at least a portion of the mass of a dust disk and found that the disk contains enough material to make an Earth-like planet.
The theory that the Earth and other planets of the solar system were formed out of just such a disk some 4.5 billion years ago by the coalescing of matter caused by gravitational attraction is widely accepted. O'Dell said the disks in the Orion Nebula presumably contain the same materials that constitute the planets of Earth's solar system, carbon, silicates and other base constituents.
The only confirmed planetary system to date, consists of three Earth-sized bodies orbiting a neutron star 1,000 light-years away. Since the neutron star is the burned-out remnant from a stellar explosion, these planets might have formed at the end of the star's life, and so, are not a good indicator of the abundance of planetary systems like our own.
O'Dell's findings of an abundance of protoplanetary disks in a cluster of young stars reinforces the assumption that planetary systems are common in the universe.
Since planets are necessary for life as it is known on Earth to become established and flourish, the likelihood that planets are common in the universe raises the likelihood of the existence of life beyond Earth.
The only place where life is known to exist is Earth. Finding life, or fossils of life, elsewhere in our solar system -- the major object of the exploration of Mars -- would be the first evidence of life beyond Earth. For life to arise independently on two planets in the same solar system would mean that life likely is not accidental and is abundant in the universe.
The HST images clearly distinguish the central star from the disk and show that stars in Orion that are the mass of our Sun and lower are likely to possess disks. Stars hotter than our Sun might destroy the dusty disks before they can agglomerate into planets, according to O'Dell.
HST can see the disks because they are illuminated by the hottest stars in the Orion Nebula, and some of them are seen in silhouette against the bright nebula. However, some of these proplyds are bright enough to have been seen previously by ground-based optical and radio telescopes as stars. Their true nature was not recognized until the HST observations.
One striking HST image shows a dark elliptical disk silhouetted against the bright background of the Orion nebula. "This object represents the most direct evidence uncovered to date for protoplanetary disks," says O'Dell.
Hubble's resolution has allowed O'Dell to determine accurately the mass of the outer rim of the disk. It turns out to be at least several times the mass of our Earth. The entire disk is 53 billion miles across, or 7.5 times the diameter of our solar system. The central, reddish star is about one fifth the mass of our Sun.
The disks identified in the HST survey are a missing link in the understanding of how planets like those in our planetary system form. Their abundance in a young star cluster shows that the basic material of planets exists around a large fraction of stars. This reinforces the probability that many stars have planetary systems.
Since the Orion star cluster is less than a million years of age, there has not been enough time for planets to agglomerate from the dust within the disks. Many of the stars are still contracting towards the mature status that they will then retain for billions of years. The most massive stars in the cluster have already reached their adult stage of maximum hydrogen fuel burning and their surfaces have become so hot that their radiation heats up the gas left over after star formation. This is visible to observers with binoculars as the Orion nebula which is in the middle of the region known as the sword of Orion.
File: SP094 Hubble Orion Nebula 2
Title: Hubble Orion Nebula
Source: Hubble Space Telescope
Information: HST's detailed images confirm more than a century of speculation, conjecture, and theory about the genesis of a solar system.
According to current theories, the dust contained within the disks eventually agglomerates to make planets. HST's images provide direct evidence that dust surrounding a newborn star has too much spin to be drawn into the collapsing star. Instead, the material spreads out into a broad, flattened disk.
Before the HST discovery, remnant dust disks had been confirmed around only four stars: Beta Pictoris, Alpha Lyrae, Alpha Piscis Austrini, and Epsilon Eridani. They are a fraction of the mass of the proplyds in Orion, and might be leftover material from the planet formation process. Less direct detections of circumstellar material around stars in nearby star forming regions have been made by radio and infrared telescopes.
Unlike these previous observations, HST has observed newly formed stars less than a million years old which are still contracting out of primordial gas.
Planets are considered a fundamental prerequisite for the existence of life as we know it. A planet provides a storehouse of chemicals for manufacturing the complex molecules of biology; gravitationally holds an atmosphere of gasses that are used by life; and receives heat and light from the central star to power photosynthesis and other chemical reactions required by life forms.
File: SP095 Hubble Orion Nebula 3
Title: Hubble Orion Nebula
Source: Hubble Space Telescope
Information: These HST images clearly distinguish the central star from the disk and show that stars in Orion that are the mass of our Sun and lower are likely to possess disks. Stars hotter than our Sun might destroy the dusty disks before they can agglomerate into planets, according to O'Dell.
HST can see the disks because they are illuminated by the hottest stars in the Orion Nebula, and some of them are seen in silhouette against the bright nebula. However, some of these proplyds are bright enough to have been seen previously by ground-based optical and radio telescopes as stars. Their true nature was not recognized until the HST observations.
One striking HST image shows a dark elliptical disk silhouetted against the bright background of the Orion nebula. "This object represents the most direct evidence uncovered to date for protoplanetary disks," says O'Dell.
Hubble's resolution has allowed O'Dell to determine accurately the mass of the outer rim of the disk. It turns out to be at least several times the mass of our Earth. The entire disk is 53 billion miles across, or 7.5 times the diameter of our solar system. The central, reddish star is about one fifth the mass of our Sun.
(Note: This image is pixellated because it is an extreme closeup of the best image of this subject available from the HST.)
File: SP096 Milky Way
Title: Milky Way in Sagittarius
Source: NASA
Information: Generally the most spectacular portions of the Milky Way Galaxy lie in the constellations Cygnus, Scutum, and Sagittarius. The very brightest portion is located just north of the star Gamma Sagittarii, and is referred to as the Great Sagittarius Star Cloud. Within the cloud is an enormous and highly concentrated conglomeration of stars thought to be a portion of the actual core of the Milky Way. Cosmic dust and dark light absorbing matter is so dense in the area of the Great Cloud that the actual nucleus of the galaxy is completely obscured and will probably never be seen. Our sun, travelling within the galaxy, moves at a rate of about 250 km/sec., and makes a complete revolution around the core approximately every 200 million years, a period of time referred to as a "cosmic year."
File: SP097 M31, Andromeda Galaxy
Title: M31, the Andromeda Galaxy
Source: NASA
Information: The Andromeda Galaxy is the largest, and closest spiral in the local group of Galaxies. It is about 180,000 light years across, making it substantially larger than our own Milky Way, which is 100,000 light years across. M31 is about 2.2 million light years from the Milky Way. In the night sky, with a pair of binoculars, it appears to be a faint glowing cloud that is about four widths of the moon long by one wide. The true nature of this galaxy is not apparent until it is photographed with a long exposure. M31 appears to have a cigar shape, which is due to the angle at which it is inclined toward us. It is actually a regularly shaped round spiral. The Andromeda Galaxy is close enough to our own galaxy that telescopes on Earth can resolve individual stars. By observing phenomenon such as novae in the Andromeda, astronomers can learn about the mechanics of such events in our own galaxy.
File: SP098 the Pinwheel Galaxy
Title: M33, the Pinwheel Galaxy
Source: NASA
Information: The Pinwheel Galaxy in the constellation Triangulum, a member of the local group of galaxies, is probably the second-closest galaxy to the Milky Way after M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. The portion of the galaxy visible in this image is about 42,000 light years in diameter. There is no red-shift in the spectra of the stars in the Pinwheel, indicating that it is almost stationary in relation to our Milky Way.
File: SP099 M74, Galaxy
Title: M74, Galaxy in Pisces
Source: Kitt Peak, NOAO/T.A. Boroson
Information: The nearby face-on galaxy NGC 628 (M74) is about 33 million light years (10 megaparsecs) away. It has multiple-arm spiral structure, much like M101. Although its optical appearance is relatively normal, NGC 628 is remarkable in having a huge flat halo of neutral hydrogen, extending over a region more than three times the diameter of this image. The structure of this halo is thought to be a warped disk, based on velocity measurements of the hydrogen by radio telescopes. This image was made using a 2048 x 2048 pixel CCD detector on the Kitt Peak 0.9-meter telescope. Exposures were taken through red, green and blue filters independently, and then combined using a film recording device. The exposure time was about 100 minutes in total. The field of view shown in this image is about 12 arc minutes on an edge.
File: SP100 Galaxy M100
Title: Galaxy M-100
Source: Hubble Space Telescope
Information: This comparison image of the core of the galaxy M100 shows the dramatic improvement in Hubble Space Telescope's view of the universe. The new image, taken with Jet Propulsion Laboratory's second generation Wide-Field and Planetary Camera-II after it was installed during the STS-61 Hubble servicing mission, beautifully demonstrates the camera's ability to compensate fully for the optical aberration in Hubble's primary mirror with corrective optics. With the new camera, the Hubble Space Telescope will probe the universe with unprecedented clarity and sensitivity, and fulfill the most important scientific objectives for which it was built. The core of the "grand design" spiral galaxy M100, as imaged by WFPC-II in its high resolution channel. WFPC-II's modified optics correct for Hubble's previously blurry vision, allowing the telescope for the first time to cleanly resolve faint structures as small as 30 light years across in a galaxy tens of millions of light years away. The image was taken on December 31, 1993. This Hubble images is "raw", or unprocessed; it has not been processed using computer image reconstruction techniques that improved aberrated images made before the servicing mission. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory designed and built both the original Wide-Field and Planetary Camera-I and the second generation Wide-Field and Planetary Camera-II for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.
request "There are no compatible motion video drivers installed on your system. You will not be able to play any movies from this program." & crlf & crlf& "Click ""Help"" for troubleshooting tips. Otherwise, click ""Continue.""" with vReply1 or vReply2
request "Your current Windows video driver cannot display 256 colors simultaneously. The pictures in this program will appear off-color." & crlf & crlf& "Click ""Help"" to find out how to install a 256-color driver. Otherwise, click ""Continue.""" with vReply1 or vReply2
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request "Can't run Help." & crlf & crlf & "Make sure that the file WINHELP.EXE is in your Windows directory."
request "Can't link to file """ & fDLL & ".""" & crlf & crlf & "Make sure it is either on the hard disk directory where this program resides, or in any directory on the DOS path." & crlf & crlf & "If you're sure that the file is where it should be, and you still get this message, you may be running low on memory. To remedy this situation, try turning on Virtual Memory (see the Windows Control Panel Help or your Windows manual for directions)." with vReply1
request "The Multimedia Extensions to Windows are not installed, or not installed properly." & crlf & crlf & quote & caption of this book & quote && "can't run without them." with vReply1
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request "The """ & caption of this book & """ CD is not in your CD-ROM drive." & crlf & crlf & "Put the CD into your drive and click ""Retry,"" or click ""Exit"""& " to leave this program." with vReply1 or vReply2
request "An older version of the file" && vFilename && "is in directory " & uppercase(svBookPath) & ", or elsewhere in your path." & crlf & crlf & "When you are finished using """ & caption of this book & ","" replace your old" && vFilename && "file with the newer one on the """ & caption of this book & """ CD."
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set vMsg to "You are missing the line ""wav=waveaudio"""&& "in the ""[mci extensions]"" section of your WIN.INI file."
request vMsg & crlf & crlf & "You will not be able to play any wave audio sounds from this program." & crlf & crlf& "Click ""Help"" for troubleshooting tips. Otherwise, click ""Continue.""" with vReply1 or vReply2
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request "Your system is not capable of displaying the movies on this CD in full-screen mode. All movies will play in a small window." & crlf & crlf& "Click ""Help"" for troubleshooting tips. Otherwise, click ""Continue.""" with vReply1 or vReply2
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File: SP095 Hubble Orion Nebula 3
Title: Hubble Orion Nebula
Source: Hubble Space Telescope
Information: These HST images clearly distinguish the central star from the disk and show that stars in Orion that are the mass of our Sun and lower are likely to possess disks. Stars hotter than our Sun might destroy the dusty disks before they can agglomerate into planets, according to O'Dell.
HST can see the disks because they are illuminated by the hottest stars in the Orion Nebula, and some of them are seen in silhouette against the bright nebula. However, some of these proplyds are bright enough to have been seen previously by ground-based optical and radio telescopes as stars. Their true nature was not recognized until the HST observations.
One striking HST image shows a dark elliptical disk silhouetted against the bright background of the Orion nebula. "This object represents the most direct evidence uncovered to date for protoplanetary disks," says O'Dell.
Hubble's resolution has allowed O'Dell to determine accurately the mass of the outer rim of the disk. It turns out to be at least several times the mass of our Earth. The entire disk is 53 billion miles across, or 7.5 times the diameter of our solar system. The central, reddish star is about one fifth the mass of our Sun.
(Note: This image is pixellated because it is an extreme closeup of the best image of this subject available from the HST.)
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File: SP095 Hubble Orion Nebula 3
Title: Hubble Orion Nebula
Source: Hubble Space Telescope
Information: These HST images clearly distinguish the central star from the disk and show that stars in Orion that are the mass of our Sun and lower are likely to possess disks. Stars hotter than our Sun might destroy the dusty disks before they can agglomerate into planets, according to O'Dell.
HST can see the disks because they are illuminated by the hottest stars in the Orion Nebula, and some of them are seen in silhouette against the bright nebula. However, some of these proplyds are bright enough to have been seen previously by ground-based optical and radio telescopes as stars. Their true nature was not recognized until the HST observations.
One striking HST image shows a dark elliptical disk silhouetted against the bright background of the Orion nebula. "This object represents the most direct evidence uncovered to date for protoplanetary disks," says O'Dell.
Hubble's resolution has allowed O'Dell to determine accurately the mass of the outer rim of the disk. It turns out to be at least several times the mass of our Earth. The entire disk is 53 billion miles across, or 7.5 times the diameter of our solar system. The central, reddish star is about one fifth the mass of our Sun.
(Note: This image is pixellated because it is an extreme closeup of the best image of this subject available from the HST.)
star to power photosynthesis and other chemical reactions required by life forms.
ystem were formed out of just such a disk some 4.5 billion years ago by the coalescing of matter caused by gravitational attraction is widely accepted. O'Dell said the disks in the Orion Nebula presumably contain the same materials that constitute the planets of Earth's solar system, carbon, silicates and other base constituents.
The only confirmed planetary system to date, consists of three Earth-sized bodies orbiting a neutron star 1,000 light-years away. Since the neutron star is the burned-out remnant from a stellar explosion, these planets might have formed at the end of the star's life, and so, are not a good indicator of the abundance of planetary systems like our own.
O'Dell's findings of an abundance of protoplanetary disks in a cluster of young stars reinforces the assumption that planetary systems are common in the universe.
Since planets are necessary for life as it is known on Earth to become established and flourish, the likelihood that planets are common in the universe raises the likelihood of the existence of life beyond Earth.
The only place where life is known to exist is Earth. Finding life, or fossils of life, elsewhere in our solar system -- the major object of the exploration of Mars -- would be the first evidence of life beyond Earth. For life to arise independently on two planets in the same solar system would mean that life likely is not accidental and is abundant in the universe.
The HST images clearly distinguish the central star from the disk and show that stars in Orion that are the mass of our Sun and lower are likely to possess disks. Stars hotter than our Sun might destroy the dusty disks before they can agglomerate into planets, according to O'Dell.
HST can see the disks because they are illuminated by the hottest stars in the Orion Nebula, and some of them are seen in silhouette against the bright nebula. However, some of these proplyds are bright enough to have been seen previously by ground-based optical and radio telescopes as stars. Their true nature was not recognized until the HST observations.
One striking HST image shows a dark elliptical disk silhouetted against the bright background of the Orion nebula. "This object represents the most direct evidence uncovered to date for protoplanetary disks," says O'Dell.
Hubble's resolution has allowed O'Dell to determine accurately the mass of the outer rim of the disk. It turns out to be at least several times the mass of our Earth. The entire disk is 53 billion miles across, or 7.5 times the diameter of our solar system. The central, reddish star is about one fifth the mass of our Sun.
The disks identified in the HST survey are a missing link in the understanding of how planets like those in our planetary system form. Their abundance in a young star cluster shows that the basic material of planets exists around a large fraction of stars. This reinforces the probability that many stars have planetary systems.
Since the Orion star cluster is less than a million years of age, there has not been enough time for planets to agglomerate from the dust within the disks. Many of the stars are still contracting towards the mature status that they will then retain for billions of years. The most massive stars in the cluster have already reached their adult stage of maximum hydrogen fuel burning and their surfaces have become so hot that their radiation heats up the gas left over after star formation. This is visible to observers with binoculars as the Orion nebula which is in the middle of the region known as the sword of Orion.
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nFile: SP026 Valles Marineris
Title: Valles Marineris, Mars
Source: Viking Orbiter 2
Information: Mars shows a distinct hemispheric asymmetry in the distribution of surface features. The often densely cratered southern hemisphere is about 1 to 3 km above the topographic sea level, while the northern hemisphere is sparsely cratered and generally lies below that level. The south, for example, has two basic types of terrain: an ancient crust saturated with large craters and small channels; and younger plains that have been modified less. The higher terrain of the south contains numerous channels, hundreds of miles long, that are reminiscent of those Earth bound channels caused by glacial activity and flooding. In the northern hemisphere, the terrain is largely featureless, save the volcanic flows surrounding the large volcanoes. There is much evidence on the surface of Mars that its climate was once drastically different. Certain craters have odd ejecta patterns that suggest a layer of ice or water existed in the upper crust when they were created.
File: SP027 Valles Marineris
Title: Valles Marineris, Mars
Source: Viking Lander
Information: Mars shows a distinct hemispheric asymmetry in the distribution of surface features. The often densely cratered southern hemisphere is about 1 to 3 km above the topographic sea level, while the northern hemisphere is sparsely cratered and generally lies below that level. The south, for example, has two basic types of terrain: an ancient crust saturated with large craters and small channels; and younger plains that have been modified less. The higher terrain of the south contains numerous channels, hundreds of miles long, that are reminiscent of those Earth bound channels caused by glacial activity and flooding. In the northern hemisphere, the terrain is largely featureless, save the volcanic flows surrounding the large volcanoes. There is much evidence on the surface of Mars that its climate was once drastically different. Certain craters have odd ejecta patterns that suggest a layer of ice or water existed in the upper crust when they were created.
File: SP028 Valles Marineris
Title: Valles Marineris Hemisphere, Mars
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona
Information: Mosaic of the Valles Marineris Hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 2,500 kilometers from the surface of the planet, with the scale being 0.6 kilometers per pixel. The mosaic is composed of 102 Viking Orbiter images of Mars. The center of the scene (latitude -8, longitude 78) shows the entire Valles Marineris canyon system, more than 2,000 kilometers long and up to 8 kilometers deep, extending from Noctis Labyrinthus, the arc-like system of graben to the west, to the chaotic terrain in the east. Many huge, ancient river channels begin from the chaotic terrain and from north-central canyons running north. Many of the channels flowed into a basin called Acidalia Planitia, which is the dark area in the extreme north of this picture. The three Tharsis volcanoes (dark red spots), each about 25 kilometers high, are visible to the west. South of Valles Marineris is very ancient terrain covered by many impact craters.
File: SP029 Olympus Mons
Title: Olympus Mons, Mars
Source: Viking 1 Orbiter
Information: The great Martian volcano, Olympus Mons, was photographed by the Viking 1 Orbiter on July 31 from a distance of 8000 kilometers, (5000 miles). The 24 kilometer high (15 miles) mountain is seen in mid-morning, wreathed in clouds that extend up the flanks to an altitude of about 19 kilometers (12 miles). The multi-ringed caldera (volcanic crater), some 80 kilometers (50 miles) across, pushes up into the stratosphere and appears cloud-free at this time. The cloud cover is most intense on the far western side of the mountain. A well defined wave cloud train extends several hundred miles beyond the mountain (upper left). The planet's limb can be seen at upper left corner. It also shows extensive stratified hazes. The clouds are thought to be composed principally of water ice condensed from the atmosphere as it cools while moving up the slopes of the volcano. In the Martian afternoon, the clouds develop sufficiently to be seen from Earth, and it is known that they are a seasonal phenomenon largely limited to spring and summer in the northern hemisphere. Olympus Mons is about 600 kilometers (375 miles) across at the base and would extend from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
File: SP030 Olympus Mons
Title: Olympus Mons, Mars
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona
Information: Shown here is a digital mosaic of Olympus Mons, the largest known volcano in the solar system. It is 27 kilometers high, more than 600 kilometers at the base, and is surrounded by a well-defined scarp that is up to 6 kilometers high. Lava floes drape over the scarp in places. Much of the plains surrounding the volcano are covered by the ridged and grooved "aureole" of Olympus Mons. The origin of the aureole is controversial, but may be related to gravity sliding off the flanks of an ancestral volcano. The summit caldera (central depression) is almost 3 kilometers deep and 25 kilometers across. It was probably formed from recurrent collapses following drainage of magma resulting from flank eruptions. This image was produced by merging the Mars medium resolution Digital Image Model with low-resolution color observations at the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona.
File: SP031 Mars, Surface
Title: Mars Surface
Source: Viking Lander
Information: Mars shows a distinct hemispheric asymmetry in the distribution of surface features. The often densely cratered southern hemisphere is about 1 to 3 km above the topographic sea level, while the northern hemisphere is sparsely cratered and generally lies below that level. The south, for example, has two basic types of terrain: an ancient crust saturated with large craters and small channels; and younger plains that have been modified less. The higher terrain of the south contains numerous channels, hundreds of miles long, that are reminiscent of those Earth-bound channels caused by glacial activity and flooding. In the northern hemisphere, the terrain is largely featureless, save the volcanic flows surrounding the large volcanoes. There is much evidence on the surface of Mars that its climate was once drastically different. Certain craters have odd ejecta patterns that suggest a layer of ice or water existed in the upper crust when they were created.
File: SP032 Viking
Title: Utopian Plain, Mars
Source: Viking Lander 2
Information: The boulder-strewn field of red rocks reaches to the horizon nearly two miles from Viking 2 on Mars' Utopian Plain. Scientists believe the colors of the Martian surface and sky in this photo represent their true colors. Fine particles of red dust have settled on spacecraft surfaces. The salmon color of the sky is caused by dust particles suspended in the atmosphere. Color calibration charts for the cameras are mounted at three locations on the spacecraft. Note the blue starfield and red stripes of the flag. The circular structure at top is the high-gain antenna, pointed toward Earth. Viking 2 landed September 3, 1976, some 4600 miles from its twin, Viking 1, which touched down on July 20, 1976.
File: SP033 Schiaparelli Hemisphere
Title: Schiaparelli Hemisphere, Mars
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona
Information: Mosaic of the Schiaparelli Hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 2,500 kilometers from the surface of the planet, with the scale being a 0.6 kilometer per pixel. This mosaic is composed of about 100 red and violet filter Viking Orbiter images. The images were acquired in 1980 during mid-northern summer on Mars (aerocentric solar longitude 89 degrees). The center of this image is near the impact crater Schiaparelli (latitude - 5 degrees, longitude 20 degrees). The color variations have been enhanced by a factor of two, and the large-scale brightness variations (mostly due to sun-angle variations) have been normalized by large-scale filtering. The dark streaks with bright margins emanating from craters in the Oxia Palus region are caused by erosion and/or deposition by the wind. Bright white areas to the south, including the Hellas impact basin at lower right, are covered by carbon dioxide frost.
File: SP034 Elvis on Mars
Title: Mars Face
Source: Viking Orbiter 1
Information: NASA's Viking 1 Orbiter spacecraft photographed this region in the northern latitudes of Mars on July 25, 1976 while searching for a landing site for the Viking 2 Lander. The speckled appearance of the image is due to missing data, called bit errors, caused by problems in transmission of the photographic data from Mars to Earth. Bit errors comprise part of one of the "eyes" and "nostrils" on the eroded rock that resembles a human face near the center of the image. Shadows in the rock formation give the illusion of a nose and mouth. Planetary geologists attribute the origin of the formation to purely natural processes. The feature is 1.5 kilometers (one mile) across, with the sun angle at approximately 20 degrees. The picture was taken from a range of 1,873 kilometers (1,162 miles).
File: SP035 Surface Ice, Mars
Title: Surface Ice, Mars
Source: Viking Lander 2
Information: This high-resolution color photo of the surface of Mars was taken by Viking Lander 2 at its Utopia Planitia landing site on May 18, 1979 and relayed to Earth by Orbiter 1 on June 7. It shows a thin coating of water ice on the rocks and soil. The time the frost appeared corresponds almost exactly with the buildup of frost one Martian year (23 Earth months) ago. then it remained on the surface for about 100 days. Scientists believe dust particles in the atmosphere pick up bits of solid water. That combination is not heavy enough to settle to the ground. But carbon dioxide, which makes up 95 percent of the Martian atmosphere, freezes and adheres to the particles and they become heavy enough to sink. Warmed by the Sun, the surface evaporates the carbon dioxide and returns it to the atmosphere, leaving behind the water and dust. The ice seen in this picture is extremely thin, perhaps no more than one-thousandth of an inch thick.
File: SP036 Surface
Title: Mars Surface
Source: Viking Lander
Information: Mars shows a distinct hemispheric asymmetry in the distribution of surface features. The often densely cratered southern hemisphere is about 1 to 3 km above the topographic sea level, while the northern hemisphere is sparsely cratered and generally lies below that level. The south, for example, has two basic types of terrain: an ancient crust saturated with large craters and small channels; and younger plains that have been modified less. The higher terrain of the south contains numerous channels, hundreds of miles long, that are reminiscent of those Earth bound channels caused by glacial activity and flooding. In the northern hemisphere, the terrain is largely featureless, save the volcanic flows surrounding the large volcanoes. There is much evidence on the surface of Mars that its climate was once drastically different. Certain craters have odd ejecta patterns that suggest a layer of ice or water existed in the upper crust when they were created.
File: SP037 Blue Mars
Title: Schiaparelli Hemisphere, Mars
Source: Viking Orbiters 1 & 2
Information: This mosaic is composed of about 100 red and violet filter Viking Orbiter images, digitally mosaicked in an orthographic projection at a scale of 1 kilometer per pixel. The images were acquired in 1980 during mid-northern summer on Mars. The center of this image is near the impact crater Schiaparelli (latitude -3 degrees, longitude 343 degrees). The limits of this mosaic are approximately latitude -60 degrees to 60 degrees and longitude 280 degrees by 30 degrees. The color variations have been enhanced by a factor of two, and the large-scale brightness variations (mostly due to sun-angle variations) have been normalized by large-scale filtering. The large circular area with a bright yellow color (in this rendition) is know as Arabia. The boundary between the ancient, heavily cratered southern highlands and the younger northern plains occurs far to the north (latitude 40 degrees) on this side of the planet, just north of Arabia. The dark streaks with bright margins emanating from craters in the Oxia Palus region (to the left of Arabia) are caused by erosion and/or deposition by the wind. The dark blue area on the far right, called Syrtis Major Planum, is a low-relief volcanic shield of probable basaltic composition. Bright white areas to the south, including the Hellas impact basin at the lower right, are covered by carbon dioxide frost. This image was produced by Jody Swann using the Planetary Image Cartography System (PICS) image-processing system developed at the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona.
File: SP038 Cerberus Hemisphere, Mars
Title: Cerberus Hemisphere, Mars
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona
Information: Mosaic of the Cerberus Hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that seen from a spacecraft. The distance is 2,000 kilometers from the surface of the planet, with the scale being a 0.6 kilometer per pixel. The mosaic is composed of 104 Viking Orbiter images. The images were acquired on February 11, 1980, during revolution 1,323 of Viking Orbiter 1. At that time, it was early northern summer on Mars (aerocentric solar longitude 65 degrees) and the sub-solar declination was 22.6 degrees N. The center of this image is at latitude 12 degrees and longitude - 171 degrees. There are thin white clouds dispersed over the Northern Hemisphere. In this mosaic, color variations have been enhanced by a factor of two, and the global brightness variation due to sun angle reduced by a factor of several. Other prominent features in this image include the large Cerberus dark area left of the image center, the Elysium volcanic construct which shows as a bright yellow area north of Cerberus, with several well-defined channels radiating from the flanks of this volcano. Just to the right of the center of the image is the crater Tettit, with its peculiar dark "tail" extending to the southwest. The crescent-like markings on the upper right of the image are in the southwest Amazinis plains and are thought to be extended sand drifts.
File: SP039 Mars Observer
Title: Mars Observer
Source: Mars Observer
Information: Photograph of the planet Mars taken at 8:52 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on July 26, 1993 by the high resolution, narrow angle telescope of the Mars Observer Camera. At that time, the Mars Observer spacecraft was 5.8 million kilometers (3.6 million miles) and 28 days from its encounter with Mars. The resolution in this image is approximately 21.5 km (13.4 mi) per picture element and Mars, roughly 6800 km (4200 miles) in diameter, is about 315 picture elements across. North is to the top of the image; the south pole is near the bottom but in shadow. The sunrise line (terminator) stretches across the morning hemisphere from lower right to upper left. At this distance from Mars, only bright and dark markings resulting from variations in the amount and thickness of dust and sand are visible. Toward the bottom of the picture is a bright, roughly circular area called Hellas, an impact basin 2000 km (1250 mi) across. The dark area in the center of the frame is Syrtis Major, a region of volcanic plains and dark sand dunes. At the top of the photograph is Nilosyrtis, an area of buttes, mesas and box canyons reminiscent of the deserts of the southwest United States. The Mars Observer Camera was developed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory by an industry/university team led by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, California.
File: SP040 Ida and Moon
Title: Ida Asteroid
Source: Galileo
Information: This image is the first full picture showing both asteroid 243 Ida and its moon, to be transmitted to Earth from NASA's Galileo spacecraft -- the first conclusive evidence that natural satellites of asteroids exist. Ida is the large object to the left, about 56 kilometers (35 miles) long. Ida's natural satellite is the small object to the right. This portrait was taken by Galileo's charge-coupled device (CCD) camera on August 28, 1993, about 14 minutes before the spacecraft's closest approach to the asteroid, from a range of 10,870 kilometers (6,755 miles). Ida is a heavily cratered, irregularly shaped asteroid in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter -- the 243rd asteroid to be discovered since the first one was found at the beginning of the 19th century. It is a member of a group of asteroids called the Koronis family. The small satellite is about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) across in this view. Although the satellite appears to be "next" to Ida it is actually slightly in the foreground, closer to the spacecraft than Ida. Combining this image with data from Galileo's near-infrared mapping spectrometer, the science team estimates that the object is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) away from the center of Ida. This image is one of a six-frame series taken through different color filters, this one in green. The spatial resolution in this image is about 100 meters (330 feet) per pixel. The Galileo spacecraft flew past Ida en route to its final destination, Jupiter.
File: SP041 Gaspra
Title: Gaspra
Source: Galileo
Information: This picture of asteroid 951 Gaspra is a combination of the highest-resolution morphology and color information obtained by the Galileo spacecraft during its approach to the asteroid on October 29, 1991. The Sun is shining from the right; phase angle is 50 degrees. The base image is the best black-and-white view of Gaspra (resolution 54 meters/pixel) on which are superimposed the subtle color variations constructed from violet, green, and near infrared (1000 nanometers) images taken in an earlier sequence at a resolution about 164 meters/pixel. The very subtle color variations on Gaspra's surface have been artificially exaggerated here; to first order Gaspra's color is fairly homogeneous over the surface. However, subtle albedo and color variations do occur and are correlated with surface topography in a significant way. In this false-color view, the bluish areas represent regions of slightly higher albedo, which are also regions of slightly stronger spectral absorption near 1000 nanometers, probably due to the mineral olivine. These bluish areas tend to be associated with some of the crisper craters and with ridges. The slightly reddish areas, apparently concentrated in topographic lows, represent regions of somewhat lower albedo and weaker absorption near 1000 nanometers. In general, such patterns can be explained in terms of greater exposure of fresher rock in the brighter bluish areas and the accumulation of some regolith materials in the darker reddish areas. Gaspra is an irregular body with dimensions about 19 x 12 x 11 kilometers (12 x 7.5 x 7 miles). The portion illuminated in this view is about 18 kilometers (11 miles) from lower left to upper right. This color picture results from a joint effort by image processing groups at the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona, Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and JPL.
File: SP042 Gaspra
Title: Gaspra Asteroid
Source: Galileo
Information: These two color views of the asteroid Gaspra were produced by combining three images taken through violet, green, and infrared filters by the Galileo spacecraft on October 29, 1992, from a distance of about 16,000 kilometers (10,000 miles). The view on the left shows Gaspra in approximately true color; the surface is covered with rocks that are somewhat less grey than those on Earth's moon. In the version on the right, the colors were enhanced to bring out the muted color variations on the asteroid and to increase the ability to discriminate between surface features. The subtle variations in color may be due to slight differences in rock composition or to differences in the texture of the surface layer. Gaspra is about 19 by 12 by 11 kilometers (12 by 7.4 by 7 miles) and irregular in shape. The illuminated portion seen in these views is about 16 by 12 kilometers. These color images were produced for the Galileo project by the U.S. geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona.
File: SP043 Jupiter System
Title: Jupiter System
Source: Voyager 1
Information: Jupiter and its four planet-size moons, called the Galilean satellites, were photographed in early March by Voyager 1 and assembled into this collage. They are not to scale but are in their relative positions. Reddish Io (upper left) is nearest Jupiter; then Europa (center), Ganymede and Callisto (lower right). Not visible is Jupiter's faint ring of particles, seen for the first time by Voyager 1.
File: SP044 Jupiter
Title: Jupiter
Source: Voyager 1
Information: Voyager 1 took this photo of the planet Jupiter on January 24, 1979, while still more than 25 million miles (40 million kilometers) away. The Great Red Spot shows prominently below center, surrounded by what scientists call a remarkably complex region of the giant planet's atmosphere. An elongated yellow could within the Great Red Spot is swirling around the spot's interior boundary in a counterclockwise direction with a period of a little less than six days, confirming the whirlpool-like circulation that astronomers had suspected from ground based photographs. Ganymede, Jupiter's largest satellite, can be seen to the lower left of the planet. Ganymede is a planet sized body larger than Mercury. This color photo was assembled at Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Image Processing Lab from three black and white images taken through filters.
File: SP045 Jupiter & Io
Title: Jupiter & Io
Source: Voyager 2
Information: This photograph of the southern hemisphere of Jupiter was obtained by Voyager 2 on June 25, 1979, at a distance of 12 million kilometers (8 million miles). The Voyager spacecraft reached its closest approach to the giant planet at 4:23 p.m. PDT on July 9, 1979. Seen in front of the turbulent clouds of the planet is Io, the innermost of the large Galilean satellites of Jupiter. Io is the size of our moon. Voyager discovered in early March, 1979 that Io is the most volcanically active planetary body known in the solar system, with continuous eruptions much larger than any that take place on the Earth. The red, orange, and yellow colors of Io are thought to be deposits of sulfur and sulfur compounds produced in these eruptions. The smallest features in either Jupiter or Io that can be distinguished in this picture are about 200 kilometers (125 miles) across; in this resolution, it is not yet possible to identify individual volcanic eruptions.
File: SP046 Loki Patera, Io
Title: Loki Patera, Io
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona
Information: Io, the innermost of the large Galilean satellites of Jupiter, is the size of our moon. Voyager discovered in early March, 1979 that Io is the most volcanically active planetary body known in the solar system, with continuous eruptions much larger than any that take place on the Earth. The red, orange, and yellow colors of Io are thought to be deposits of sulfur and sulfur compounds produced in these eruptions. Io's dynamic activity is a result of an orbital resonance with the nearby moon Europa that forces it into an irregular orbit. Under ordinary circumstances, Jupiter's strong gravitational pull would keep one hemisphere of the moon facing the planet at all times, but the forced irregularity causes Io to move at different velocities along its orbit, and the side facing Jupiter "rocks" back and forth. Tidal forces develop inside Io that generate heat through friction, and most of the interior remains partially molten as a result.
File: SP047 Loki Eruption, Io
Title: Pele Eruption
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona
Information: Io, the innermost of the large Galilean satellites of Jupiter, is the size of our moon. Voyager discovered in early March, 1979 that Io is the most volcanically active planetary body known in the solar system, with continuous eruptions much larger than any that take place on the Earth. The red, orange, and yellow colors of Io are thought to be deposits of sulfur and sulfur compounds produced in these eruptions. Io's dynamic activity is a result of an orbital resonance with the nearby moon Europa that forces it into an irregular orbit. Under ordinary circumstances, Jupiter's strong gravitational pull would keep one hemisphere of the moon facing the planet at all times, but the forced irregularity causes Io to move at different velocities along its orbit, and the side facing Jupiter "rocks" back and forth. Tidal forces develop inside Io that generate heat through friction, and most of the interior remains partially molten as a result.
File: SP048 Io
Title: Io
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona
Information: Io, the innermost of the large Galilean satellites of Jupiter, is the size of our moon. Voyager discovered in early March, 1979 that Io is the most volcanically active planetary body known in the solar system, with continuous eruptions much larger than any that take place on the Earth. The red, orange, and yellow colors of Io are thought to be deposits of sulfur and sulfur compounds produced in these eruptions. Io's dynamic activity is a result of an orbital resonance with the nearby moon Europa that forces it into an irregular orbit. Under ordinary circumstances, Jupiter's strong gravitational pull would keep one hemisphere of the moon facing the planet at all times, but the forced irregularity causes Io to move at different velocities along its orbit, and the side facing Jupiter "rocks" back and forth. Tidal forces develop inside Io that generate heat through friction, and most of the interior remains partially molten as a result.
File: SP049 Babbar Patera, Io
Title: Babbar Patera, Io
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona
Information: Io, the innermost of the large Galilean satellites of Jupiter, is the size of our moon. Voyager discovered in early March, 1979 that Io is the most volcanically active planetary body known in the solar system, with continuous eruptions much larger than any that take place on the Earth. The red, orange, and yellow colors of Io are thought to be deposits of sulfur and sulfur compounds produced in these eruptions. Io's dynamic activity is a result of an orbital resonance with the nearby moon Europa that forces it into an irregular orbit. Under ordinary circumstances, Jupiter's strong gravitational pull would keep one hemisphere of the moon facing the planet at all times, but the forced irregularity causes Io to move at different velocities along its orbit, and the side facing Jupiter "rocks" back and forth. Tidal forces develop inside Io that generate heat through friction, and most of the interior remains partially molten as a result.
File: SP050 South Pole, Io
Title: South Pole, Io
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona
Information: Io, the innermost of the large Galilean satellites of Jupiter, is the size of our moon. Voyager discovered in early March, 1979 that Io is the most volcanically active planetary body known in the solar system, with continuous eruptions much larger than any that take place on the Earth. The red, orange, and yellow colors of Io are thought to be deposits of sulfur and sulfur compounds produced in these eruptions. Io's dynamic activity is a result of an orbital resonance with the nearby moon Europa that forces it into an irregular orbit. Under ordinary circumstances, Jupiter's strong gravitational pull would keep one hemisphere of the moon facing the planet at all times, but the forced irregularity causes Io to move at different velocities along its orbit, and the side facing Jupiter "rocks" back and forth. Tidal forces develop inside Io that generate heat through friction, and most of the interior remains partially molten as a result.
051 South Pole, Io
Title: South Pole, Io
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona
Information: Io, the innermost of the large Galilean satellites of Jupiter, is the size of our moon. Voyager discovered in early March, 1979 that Io is the most volcanically active planetary body known in the solar system, with continuous eruptions much larger than any that take place on the Earth. The red, orange, and yellow colors of Io are thought to be deposits of sulfur and sulfur compounds produced in these eruptions. Io's dynamic activity is a result of an orbital resonance with the nearby moon Europa that forces it into an irregular orbit. Under ordinary circumstances, Jupiter's strong gravitational pull would keep one hemisphere of the moon facing the planet at all times, but the forced irregularity causes Io to move at different velocities along its orbit, and the side facing Jupiter "rocks" back and forth. Tidal forces develop inside Io that generate heat through friction, and most of the interior remains partially molten as a result.
File: SP052 Pele Eruption, Io
Title: Pele Eruption 2
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona
Information: Io, the innermost of the large Galilean satellites of Jupiter, is the size of our moon. Voyager discovered in early March, 1979 that Io is the most volcanically active planetary body known in the solar system, with continuous eruptions much larger than any that take place on the Earth. The red, orange, and yellow colors of Io are thought to be deposits of sulfur and sulfur compounds produced in these eruptions. Io's dynamic activity is a result of an orbital resonance with the nearby moon Europa that forces it into an irregular orbit. Under ordinary circumstances, Jupiter's strong gravitational pull would keep one hemisphere of the moon facing the planet at all times, but the forced irregularity causes Io to move at different velocities along its orbit, and the side facing Jupiter "rocks" back and forth. Tidal forces develop inside Io that generate heat through friction, and most of the interior remains partially molten as a result.
File: SP053 Europa
Title: Europa
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona
Information: When Europa was first observed by Voyager 2 from a distance of 241,000 km, the maze of dark streaks and markings were thought to be large filled in cracks. However, despite their superficial resemblence cracks, the markings have very little height or depth. They are primarily albedo markings, thought to be the result of underlying fracture patterns in the crust.
File: SP054 Europa
Title: Europa
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Arizona
Information: When Europa was first observed by Voyager 2 from a distance of 241,000 km, the maze of dark streaks and markings were thought to be large filled in cracks. However, despite their superficial resemblence cracks, the markings have very little height or depth. They are primarily albedo markings, thought to be the result of underlying fracture patterns in the crust.
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