Monday, August 16, 2021

Avalanche on Mars!
Serendipitous capture of a dust cloud following an avalanche on a 600-meter high cliff in the north polar region of Mars on January 2010.

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Io Transit
The Cassini spacecraft captured this image at the turn of the millennium on January 1, 2001, two days after Cassini's closest approach to Jupiter. Io, Galilean satellite, and most volcanically active body in the solar system, is seen seemingly floating above Jupiter's banded clouds. Io is close in size to our own Moon, and Jupiter is 350,000 kilometers away from its moon (about 2.5 Jupiter’s in diameter).

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

A Viking View of Mars
Remember when everything we knew about Mars were the Viking orbiter images? Then came the landers and more orbiters, then the rovers and the helicopter. Today, we are searching for life on Mars, and we stand on the shoulders of giants. Mars' Argyre Basin, an 1800-km wide impact crater in the southern hemisphere. This crater is probably the best-preserved large impact basin in the solar system. This oblique image, taken looking northeast across the crater, was taken by Viking Orbiter 1 on July 25, 1976.

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Tethys
Saturn's moon Tethys (660 miles / 1060 km across) illuminated by direct sunlight as well as reflected sunlight from Saturn. Taken with the Cassini spacecraft on Aug. 3, 2005.

Friday, August 20, 2021

Of ash deposits and lava flows
The first encounter of the rocky kind for the Perseverance rover is of the volcanic kind. What an incredible landscape. It speaks of volcanic eruptions and lava deposits. Perseverance will now move on to continue her quest of lacustrine deposits and, maybe, biosignatures...