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Planetary Picture of the Day - Week of November 11, 2024

Planetary Picture of the Day - Week of November 11, 2024

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Planetary Picture of the Day
Week of November 11, 2024

All about the planets this week, with Mars, Neptune, Saturn, and Earth featured. Plus a bonus "world" -- a sphere of water with food coloring in microgravity.

 

Monday, 11 November 2024

Martian Monday
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Paul Byrne

Martian Monday
Today's picture is the result of two images from NASA's Perseverance rover's left Navigation Camera stuck together, with some vignetting removed and the color balanced to better match human vision. The images were taken on Monday, 4 November 2024, at a local time of 2:25 p.m.

 

Tuesday, 12 November 2024

Farewell, Neptune
Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Justin Cowart

Farewell, Neptune
Voyager 2 captured this view of Neptune and Triton as it departed the Neptune system. This image was taken around 735 UT on August 31, 1989. This OGV color image exhibits small amounts of chromatic aberration around the horns of the crescent Neptune due to the smearing of the images during the long exposures necessary to image Neptune in the low lighting of the outer Solar System.

 

Wednesday, 13 November 2024

Wallpaper Wednesday - Saturn in Infrared
Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/AndreaLuck

Wallpaper Wednesday - Saturn in Infrared
NASA's JWST captured this infrared view of Saturn and its moons Tethys (left), Enceladus (middle), and Dione (right) on 25 June 2023. The planet appears dark at this wavelength, as methane gas in its atmosphere absorbs sunlight — but its icy rings stay bright.

 

Thursday, 14 November 2024

Earth by Juno
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

Earth by Juno
This photograph of Earth was captured during a close pass by NASA's Juno spacecraft on October 9, 2013. Taken at 19:12 UT from an altitude of 3,197 kilometers, the image was snapped just 10 minutes before Juno's nearest approach to Earth. The photograph is a blend of red, green, and blue spectral channels from the JunoCam instrument, approximating true color. It is a mosaic composed of 82 separate frames taken as the spacecraft rotated. These individual images were assembled and reprocessed by Juno scientists Mike Caplinger and Mike Ravine of Malin Space Science Systems, who designed and manage the JunoCam instrument for NASA.

The image showcases the Argentine coast at the top left, with reflective highlights off the Rio Negro, situated north of Golfo San Matias. Meanwhile, much of Antarctica is shrouded in clouds at the bottom of the picture.

 

Friday, 15 November 2024

An Opportunity to Study Water
Credit: NASA/Don Pettit

An Opportunity to Study Water
NASA astronaut Don Pettit fills a sphere of water with food coloring in this image from Oct. 20, 2024. Pettit calls experiments like these “science of opportunity” – moments of scientific exploration that spontaneously come to mind because of the unique experience of being on the International Space Station. During his previous missions, Pettit has contributed to advancements for human space exploration aboard the International Space Station resulting in several published scientific papers and breakthroughs.

 

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