A Handpicked Collection of Ultimate Space Pictures 3
A superb collection of some remarkable space pictures, for the geek and “not-so-geek” alike.
It always gives me pleasure to go through NASA’s archives, of thousands upon thousands of remarkably beautiful Space pictures. As usual, I’ve gleaned the most striking and impressive ones to share with you. Here is my new list of Space wonders.
Triton
Triton is Neptune’s largest moon. This picture was taken in 1989 by Voyager 2, the only Spacecraft to ever pass by it. Voyager, at that time, also found evidence for ice volcanoes on the eerie surface of windy, cold Neptune.
Earth Rise
This is a remarkably rare picture, taken from deep space. It catches the earth rising above the Moon’s limb.
Europa
Beautiful Europa is one of the smallest of Jupiter’s moon. Europa is about the size of our own Moon, and also keeps one face pointed towards her home planet, Jupiter. Hers is the smoothest surface in the Solar system, and is covered with ice crystals.
The Blue Snowball
This blue snowball is a planetary nebula. This simply means that it’s a ring of dust and gas which were blown off after a large star imploded (or exploded). Some colours here were added to highlight the steady emission of ions.
Mercury
Mercury stands closest to the Sun than any other planet in our Solar System. As a result of this, it is difficult for observers from earth to photograph this particular planet. Here is a rare photo taken by Mariner 10 (after 3 “drive-bys” in 1974 and 1975).
A Star Is Born
An impressive picture of a cute, young star.
Crab Nebula
A fantastic shot of a star which exploded just under a thousand years ago.
Io’s Surface
Io is one of my favourite moons of Jupiter. I’ve saved pictures of her before, but here it is clear that her surface is filled with volcanic activity. Io is the Solar System’s most volcanically active body. Her surface is ever changing because of the constant lava flows.
*All of the images shown above have been taken from the Nasa Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive.
Other Works in This Series of Space Pictures
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16 Responses to “A Handpicked Collection of Ultimate Space Pictures 3”
On August 19, 2008 at 9:21 am
“Io is one of my favourite moons of Jupiter”
Hell it is so ugly. Looks as like a picture of a persons butt who has colon+cancer+some martian gooey stuff. No. sorry, it looks even uglier than that!
On August 19, 2008 at 11:36 am
Great collection, Anne..I enjoy it!
On August 19, 2008 at 2:06 pm
how beautiful!
On August 19, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Thank you for sharing this, Anne. They’re awesome!
On August 19, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Very nice pictures.
On August 20, 2008 at 12:20 am
Fantastic pics Anne.
On August 20, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Fantastic pictures indeed an. I think I want to write about Io. Thank you for the inspiration.
~G
On August 20, 2008 at 10:11 pm
awesome collection
On August 21, 2008 at 4:24 pm
AWESOME Anne! Thanks so much for sharing
On August 22, 2008 at 7:34 am
Beautiful pictures! I’ll quibble about the label you’ve applied to the Earth Rise photo tho… “This is a remarkably rare picture, taken from deep space. It catches the earth rising above the Moon’s limb.”
I don’t think it was taken from “deep space” – i believe it was taken from just behind the moon by the Apollo astronauts… and it was seen many times during all of the moon landing trips so i don’t think it was that ‘rare’ either… but still a beautiful foto.
On August 22, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Though each picture is amazing in its own way, i like the Europa and the exploded star one.
On August 25, 2008 at 12:17 pm
I love a atar is born, that is beautiful. Great article.
On August 29, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Great stuff1 Now, please, get me there!!
On September 11, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Great Pictures.
On November 3, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Imagine seeing the earth rise instead of the moon. I love the pics in this one.
On January 12, 2009 at 5:51 pm
The Astronomy Picture of the Day is one of my favorite web sites, too. You compile the images and data from there, quite well. Thanks again for your passion for this subject.
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