Michael Benson’s Awe-Inspiring Views of the Solar System

The photographer’s 40 large-scale photographs, on display in the AAAS Art Gallery, are remarkably crisp views of the rings of Saturn, moons in transit, a sunset on Mars and volcanic eruptions on Jupiter’s moon, Io (pictured above). Each image is in “true color,” as Benson puts it.

To make his photographs, Benson starts by perusing through thousands of raw image data collected on missions led by NASA—Cassini, Galileo, MESSENGER, Viking and Voyager, among others—and the European Space Agency. He has compared this process to panning for gold—the precious gold nuggets being beautiful sequences of images, rarely seen by the public, that he can piece together into one seamless photograph. It can take anywhere from tens to hundreds of raw frames to arrange, like a mosaic, one legible composite image. Then rendering the photograph in realistic colors adds another layer of complexity. See more photos and continue reading at Smithsonian.com.

Photo: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/Michael Benson, Kinetikon Pictures

What is an Analemma?

An analemma is the figure “8″ loop that results when one observes the position of the sun at the same time during the day over the course of a year. Due to the earth’s tilt about its axis (23.45°) and its elliptical orbit about the sun, the location of the sun is not constant from day to day when observed at the same time on each day over the course of a full year. Furthermore, this loop will be inclined at different angles depending on one’s geographical latitude.

via itfeelsfeynman

(via n-a-s-a)

smithsonian:

102 years ago, the world was wowed by a meteorite that crashed in Egypt, supposedly landing on a dog. Two pieces of that meteorite are now stored at our National Museum of Natural History. In 1983, scientists discovered the rock was originally a piece of Mars. More about its story

The ULTIMATE Mars Curiosity Descent Video

Working frame-by-frame, it took me four weeks to produce this video. It was a labor of love. Ultra-resolution, smooth-motion, detail-enhanced, color-corrected, interpolated from the original 4 frames per second to 30 frames per second. This video plays real-time at the real speed that Curiosity descended to the surface of Mars on August 6, 2012.

Produced by Bard Canning

Ed note: Is a dirty drill bit causing Curiosity to seed Mars with earthly Bacteria?

The First High-Res Photo of Curiosity’s Descent to Mars

A few days ago we posted a leaked photo of NASA’s Curiosity rover landing on Mars but it left a lot to the imagination due to the quality. Today, NASA has released multiple thumbnails taken by the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) of the descent showing the heat shield falling to the surface of the planet. Emily Lakdawalla of Planetary Society explains how she took the thumbnails to create the high-resolution image you’re looking at now.

Photo: NASA / JPL / MSSS / Emily Lakdawalla

Ed note: Want to follow every second of the Curiosity Mars Mission? Here’s how to do it.

Inspirational Look at Curiosity’s Journey to Mars

NASA’s Curiosity rover traveled 154 million miles and will now begin the search for the ingredients of life on the red planet.

Video: The Film Artist

Ed note: Put your headphones on and watch in full-screen mode. Then read this article on why Curiosity is NASA’s most advanced rover yet.

Leaked Photograph of Curiosity Landing on Mars!

A photo of the rover, which landed safely on Mars at 6:14 am BST, has been leaked. io9 has confirmed that this is an actual photograph of the rover and not an artist’s rendering or simulation.

Photo: NASA

Ed note: Landing Curiosity on Mars was harder and less expensive than the Olympics. Just saying.

h/t io9

thedailyfeed:

Touchdown confirmed! NASA’s Curiosity rover is safe on Mars — and here are the first pictures it sent back. 

discoverynews:

It looks a lot more complicated than Lunar Lander on my Commodore 64…

popmech:

We posted this back in spring, but in case you missed it then: How Curiosity will land on Mars, in 11 easy steps. 

Plus: The Anatomy of Curiosity.

I found lunar lander online!!

read more about Mars…

There’s a Hole in Mars That Leads to an Underground Cavern

The hole was discovered by chance on images of the dusty slopes of Mars’ Pavonis Mons volcano taken by the HiRISE instrument aboard the robotic Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter currently circling Mars. The hole appears to be an opening to an underground cavern, partly illuminated on the image right.

Photo: NASA, JPL, University of Arizona

Ed note: Will this hole let out all of the water scientists recently discovered inside the planet?