Planetary Picture of the Day
Week of March 25, 2024
We work our way out this week, starting at Earth, moving to the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and even a distant galaxy.
Monday, March 25, 2024
Mud Volcano Watching
This is actually a mud volcano in eastern Russia, named Pugachevskiy. It is located on the Sakhalin island. The mud volcanoes are formations generated by the release of gases and liquids. The mud is pushed to the surface as the pressure builds up beneath the Earth, creating an unusual pattern. Mother Nature is really amazing. We could not find a precise measurement of its size, but judging from other photographs, it is likely around 100 m in diameter.
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Earth From the Moon
Earth hangs above a large boulder examined by Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Jack Schmidt in December 1972. A recent analysis of freshly opened samples from Apollo 17 found that the Moon is at least 4.46 billion years old, or roughly 40 million years older than revealed by other samples.
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
Martian Lava Tube
A collapsed lava tube in Hephaestus Fossae on Mars was imaged by HiRISE, the high-resolution camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Note: Full high-resolution frames are usually about 1 km across; however, this image was cropped. This skylight is still probably several hundred meters across.
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Jovian System
Io and Jupiter as photographed by the approaching Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1979.
Friday, March 29, 2024
Hubble Views a Galaxy Under Pressure
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows LEDA 42160, a galaxy about 52 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. The dwarf galaxy is one of many forcing its way through the comparatively dense gas in the massive Virgo cluster of galaxies. The pressure exerted by this intergalactic gas, known as ram pressure, has dramatic effects on star formation in LEDA 42160.
