Apollo 17 at Shorty Crater
24.06.2012

In December of 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent about 75 hours on the Moon in the Taurus-Littrow valley, while colleague Ronald Evans orbited overhead. This sharp image was taken by Cernan as he and Schmitt roamed the valley floor.

Electric Night
4.12.2019

It may appear, at first, like the Galaxy is producing the lightning, but really it's the Earth. The featured nighttime landscape was taken from a southern tip of the Italian Island of Sardinia in early June.

Asteroid 253 Mathilde's Large Craters
1.07.1997

You're zipping through the Solar System when you pass ... asteroid 253 Mathilde. This actually happened to NASA's NEAR spacecraft just last Friday. The above picture of the previously unresolved asteroid was released just yesterday.

Infrared Mars
3.03.1999

Was Mars wetter and more Earth-like in its distant past? This false-color composite image of Mars is part of the mounting evidence that liquid water once did play a significant role in Martian surface geology.

The Surface of Titan
4.08.1999

If sailing the hydrocarbon seas of Titan, beware of gasoline rain. Such might be a travel advisory issued next millennium for adventurers visiting Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. Images of Titan's surface were released last week from the Keck 10-meter telescope featuring the finest details yet resolved.

Meteor by Moonlight
15.08.2009

Dark skies are favored for viewing meteor showers. But the annual Perseid Meteor Shower still entertained skygazers around the world this week even though the Moon brightened the night. At its last quarter phase...

Uranus' Ring System
30.04.1996

The rings of Uranus are thin, narrow, and dark compared to other planetary ring systems. Brightened artificially by computer, the ring particles reflect as little light as charcoal, although they are really made of ice chucks darkened by rock.

The Surface of Titan
20.08.2000

If sailing the hydrocarbon seas of Titan, beware of gasoline rain. Such might be a travel advisory issued one future day for adventurers visiting Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. New images of Titan's surface were released last week from the Canada-France Hawaii Telescope featuring the finest details yet resolved.

Mercury: A Cratered Inferno
12.09.1996

Mercury's surface looks similar to our Moon's. Each is heavily cratered and made of rock. Mercury's diameter is about 4800 km, while the Moon's is slightly less at about 3500 km (compared with about 12,700 km for the Earth). But Mercury is unique in many ways.

A Chicago Meteorite Fall
6.05.2003

If you wait long enough, a piece of outer space itself will come right to you. As Colby Navarro worked innocently on the computer, a rock from space crashed through the roof, struck the printer, banged off the wall, and came to rest near the filing cabinet.