Crescent Moon and Venus
6.03.2009

Last Friday, the Moon and Venus shared the early evening sky in a beautiful conjunction. Separated by only about 2 degrees, they also were both in a crescent phase. Just like our Moon, Venus can appear as a full disk or a thin crescent.

Endurance Crater on Mars
10.05.2004

Scroll right to see the inside of Endurance Crater, the large impact feature now being investigated by the Opportunity rover rolling across Mars. The crater's walls show areas of light rock that might hold clues about the ancient watery past of this Martian region.

Globular Cluster M3
19.07.1998

This huge ball of stars predates our Sun. Long before mankind evolved, before dinosaurs roamed, and even before our Earth existed, ancient globs of stars condensed and orbited a young Milky Way Galaxy.

The Spider and The Fly
27.10.2006

Star clusters and nebulae abound in the ancient northern constellation Auriga - a region that includes the interesting pair NGC 1931 (lower left) and IC 417. In this gorgeous color image, an imaginative eye toward the expansive IC 417 and diminutive NGC 1931 suggests a cosmic spider and fly.

Uranus' Moon Ariel: Valley World
3.03.1996

What formed Ariel's valleys? This question presented itself when Voyager 2 passed this satellite of Uranus in January 1986. Speculation includes that heating caused by the ancient tides of Uranus caused moonquakes and massive shifting of the moon's surface.

Yogi Rock
11.07.1997

This portrait of Yogi Rock, a now famous boulder on Mars, was recorded on Sol 3 by the Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP). Big and friendly looking like its Earth cartoon namesake Yogi Bear, Yogi Rock is a prominent visible feature at the Pathfinder landing site.

Globular Cluster M3
15.09.2003

This huge ball of stars predates our Sun. Long before humankind evolved, before dinosaurs roamed, and even before our Earth existed, ancient globs of stars condensed and orbited a young Milky Way Galaxy.

The Unusual Blueberries at Bylot Rock
17.08.2004

Why aren't these Martian rocks round? Small rocks dubbed blueberries have been found by the Opportunity rover all over Meridiani Planum on Mars, but the ones perched on Bylot rock have unusually non-spherical shapes. The strangely shaped blueberry rocks are shown above in an image taken by Opportunity's microscopic imager on August 9.

A Sun Halo Over Cambodia
8.02.2010

Have you ever seen a halo around the Sun? This fairly common sight occurs when high thin clouds containing millions of tiny ice crystals cover much of the sky. Each ice crystal acts like a miniature lens.

M7: Open Star Cluster in Scorpius
12.09.2012

M7 is one of the most prominent open clusters of stars on the sky. The cluster, dominated by bright blue stars, can be seen with the naked eye in a dark sky in the tail of the constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius).