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Showing posts with label photos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photos. Show all posts

Picture of the moon

In this photograph can be seen lunar craters on the moon, and seas of the moon, the darker and flat areas of the Moon. The seas of the moon can be seen with the naked eye, especially when the moon is full and that has the name of seas such as the famous "sea of tanquilo" in which the astronaut Neil A. Armstrong landed on the moon in 1969, never have hosted water inside, are actually lava fields that have been formed at the origin of the Moon. At the bottom left of the picture, you can see these seas. At the top of the picture we can observe craters more clearly.

Note: photo of the Moon property of the author obtained from Madrid with a Newtonian reflector telescope 114 mm.

Image Credits: Astrofotos

Messenger Flies By Venus

The MESSENGER spacecraft snapped a series of images as it approached Venus on June 5. The planet is enshrouded by a global layer of clouds that obscures its surface to the MESSENGER Dual Imaging System (MDIS) cameras.

This single frame is part of a color sequence taken to help the MESSENGER team calibrate the camera in preparation for the spacecraft’s first flyby of Mercury on January 14, 2008. Over the next several months the camera team will pore over the 614 images taken during this Venus encounter to ascertain color sensitivity and other optical properties of the instrument. These tasks address two key goals for the camera at Mercury: understanding surface color variations and their relation to compositional variations in the crust, and ensuring accurate cartographic placement of features on Mercury’s surface.

Preliminary analysis of the Venus flyby images indicates that the cameras are healthy and will be ready for next January’s close encounter with Mercury.

After acquiring hundreds of high-resolution images during close approach to Venus, MESSENGER turned its wide-angle camera back to the planet and acquired a departure sequence. These images provide a spectacular good-bye to the cloud-shrouded planet while also providing valuable data to the camera calibration team.

The first image was taken June 6 at 12:58 UTC (8:58 p.m. EDT on June 5), and the final image on June 7 at 02:18 UTC (10:18 p.m. EDT on June 6). During this 25 hour, 20 minute period the spacecraft traveled 833,234 kilometers (517,748 miles—more than twice the distance from the Earth to the moon) with respect to Venus at an average speed of 9.13 kilometers per second (5.67 miles per second).

Credit: NASA

Source: NASA

Mars photos by HiRISE

The first image shows gullies in a crater in Terra Sirenum in the southern hemisphere of Mars. This image was acquired during the winter, which explains the abundant frost (the bright material) seen throughout the image. The frost is likely water frost, as opposed to carbon dioxide, because temperatures at this latitude probably do not get cold enough for carbon dioxide to condense.

The formation mechanism of gullies is much debated. Several theories support erosion by liquid water, while others favor dry debris flows or carbon dioxide. A major unknown is, if the gullies are formed by liquid water, does the water originate from the surface or subsurface? Dendritic structures, such as those seen in the alcove displayed in the subimage (approximately 1.3 km across; 2560 x 3000, 7MB), form from surface runoff on Earth. Water originating in the subsurface would not produce a structure like this. This alcove is evidence for a surface source for the water possibly required to form gullies.

Also interesting about this scene is the fact that the gullies occur at multiple elevations along the same crater wall. This is uncommon on Mars. Gullies, whether or not they are found in conjunction with an obvious horizontal layer, usually form at the same elevation on a given slope. It is unknown what caused these gullies to form at multiple elevations. Their locations are suggestive of a distributed water source, which also favors a surface, rather than a confined subsurface origin of water, such as an aquifer.

The second image shows the formation of the approximately 150 km diameter Holden Crater interrupted the northward flowing Uzboi Vallis channel system. Relief associated with the rim of Holden effectively blocked the channel.

HiRISE image PSP_003710_1530 covers the portion of Holden Crater's rim where it was overtopped by water that had backed up in Uzboi Vallis to the south. Water flowing over the rim in multiple locations eventually focused on a single channel that then cut deeply into the rim. After the impounded water drained into the crater, the steep wall on the east side of the main channel collapsed in a landslide that remains visible along the floor. Several outcroppings of variably bright material are visible in the scar produced by the slide.

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Source: HiRISE

 
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