North Pole Below
20.10.2000

Orbiting over the north pole of planet Earth on May 5, the MODIS instrument on-board the Terra spacecraft, recorded this view of the ice cap 700 kilometers below. A radial grid centered on the pole is shown on top of the approximately true color image where each pixel covers about one square kilometer.

Night in the Andes Ice Forest
7.09.2013

This forest of snow and ice penitentes reflects moonlight shinning across the Chajnantor plateau. The region lies in the Chilean Andes at an altitude of 5,000 meters, not far from one of planet Earth's major astronomical observatories, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array.

Saturns Iapetus: Painted Moon
9.08.2009

What has happened to Saturn's moon Iapetus? Vast sections of this strange world are dark as coal, while others are as bright as ice. The composition of the dark material is unknown, but infrared spectra indicate that it possibly contains some dark form of carbon.

Northern Mercury
1.12.2012

Innermost planet Mercury would probably not be a good location for an interplanetary winter olympics. But new results based on data from the Mercury orbiting MESSENGER spacecraft indicate that it does have substantial water ice in permanently shadowed regions within craters near its north pole.

Ice at the Lunar South Pole
3.12.1996

Ice on the Moon? The prospecting Clementine spacecraft may well have discovered it. In 1994, Clementine spent 70 days in lunar orbit mapping the Moon's surface. Shown above is a dramatically detailed composite view centered on the Lunar South Pole - constructed from 1500 Clementine images.

Lunar Prospects
18.09.1998

Launched on January 6th, NASA's Lunar Prospector spacecraft has been exploring the Moon with instruments designed to sense global properties while orbiting pole-to-pole, 63 miles above the lunar surface. Now over half...

Ice Volcanoes on Mars
29.06.2001

What causes these unusual cone-shaped features on Mars? Spanning an average of only 100 meters at the base, these small cones appear near massive Martian volcanoes such as Olympus Mons. Near the cones are also dry channels and eroded banks.

Unusual Light Patch Under Phoenix Lander on Mars
2.06.2008

Is that ice under the Phoenix spacecraft on Mars? Quite possibly. Phoenix, which landed a week ago, was expected to dig under the Martian soil to search for ice, but the lander's breaking jets may already have uncovered some during descent.

Frizion Illume
29.05.2003

Scientific images of cosmic dust clouds or even frozen water can be esthetic too. In fact, this picture of thin layers of forming ice crystals uses a scientific understanding of light's wave properties solely for artistic purposes. Titled "Illume", the picture was created by astrophysicist Peter Wasilewski.

Water Ice At The Lunar Poles
5.03.1998

After seven weeks in lunar orbit, instruments on board NASA's Lunar Prospector spacecraft have produced strong evidence for water ice on the Moon. While not in extensive sheets, this ice could be in the form of crystals, mixed in low concentrations with material in craters around the frigid North and South lunar poles.