The Cassini imaging team must have been reading my mind. I was thinking over the last week that it’s been a while since we’ve seen a gorgeous color image from CICLOPS illustrating the beauty of our distant, ringed planetary neighbor. This latest release was definitely worth the wait.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute. (Click to enlarge)
Dreamy […]

New imagery was released today by the Hubble Space Telescope showing Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3’s continuing disintegration. These spectacular views captured from orbit, without the burden of having to peer through our atmosphere, reveal some magnificent details previously unseen from ground-based instruments.

Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys image of Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 fragment B on […]

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
To celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope’s 16 years of success, the two space agencies involved in the project, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), are releasing this image of the magnificent starburst galaxy, Messier 82 (M82). This mosaic image is the sharpest wide-angle view ever […]

How’s your weather forecast looking for early Saturday morning? If you have clear skies and are in the mood for skywatching, the annual Lyrid meteor shower peaks early tomorrow, as Earth passes through dust and debris left behind by Comet Thatcher (C/1861 G1). In the pre-dawn hours (and from dark-sky locations), you may be able […]

Our species really intrigues me. At our best, we’re capable of truly remarkable achievements. On the flip side, we commonly display a propensity for dangerous and destructive (or self-destructive) behavior. Humans tend to be creatures driven by emotion and well-suited for survival in our environment rather than objective, critical analysis of the world around […]

Immediately on the heels of a successful orbital insertion two days ago, the European Space Agency today released the spacecraft’s first views of Venus. While I was eagerly anticipating the first Venus Express release from ESA, I was not expecting we’d receive imagery, data, and scientists’ first impressions so quickly (VE should begin its full […]

As the Mars Exploration Rovers continue their respective journeys - now beyond eleven times that of their original mission design - the findings keep accumulating. In reviewing the latest MER press release, I was totally captivated by this layered section of Erebus returned by Opportunity:

Image Credit: NASA /JPL / Cornell (click to enlarge)
The stack […]