Space

Investigating Mars: Coprates Chasma



Coprates Chasma is one of the numerous canyons that make up Valles Marineris. The chasma stretches for 960 km (600 miles) from Melas Chasma to the west and Capri Chasma to the east. Landslide deposits, layered materials and sand dunes cover a large portion of the chasma floor.

This image is located on the eastern side of Coprates Chasma, near Capri Chasma. The image shows multiple landslide features, which form lobed shaped deposits at the bottom of the canyon cliff face. Sand dunes are visible both on the landslide deposit and other parts of the canyon floor. The Odyssey spacecraft has spent over 15 years in orbit around Mars, circling the planet more than 69000 times. It holds the record for longest working spacecraft at Mars.

THEMIS, the IR/VIS camera system, has collected data for the entire mission and provides images covering all seasons and lighting conditions. Over the years many features of interest have received repeated imaging, building up a suite of images covering the entire feature. From the deepest chasma to the tallest volcano, individual dunes inside craters and dune fields that encircle the north pole, channels carved by water and lava, and a variety of other feature, THEMIS has imaged them all.

For the next several months the image of the day will focus on the Tharsis volcanoes, the various chasmata of Valles Marineris, and the major dunes fields.

95 Minutes Over Jupiter



This sequence of color-enhanced images shows how quickly the viewing geometry changes for NASA's Juno spacecraft as it swoops by Jupiter.

The images were obtained by JunoCam. Once every 53 days, Juno swings close to Jupiter, speeding over its clouds. In just two hours, the spacecraft travels from a perch over Jupiter's north pole through its closest approach (perijove), then passes over the south pole on its way back out. This sequence shows 11 color-enhanced images from Perijove 8 (Sept. 1, 2017) with the south pole on the left (11th image in the sequence) and the north pole on the right (first image in the sequence).

The first image on the right shows a half-lit globe of Jupiter, with the north pole approximately at the upper center of the image close to the terminator -- the dividing line between night and day. As the spacecraft gets closer to Jupiter, the horizon moves in and the range of visible latitudes shrinks.

The second and third images in this sequence show the north polar region rotating away from the spacecraft's field of view while the first of Jupiter's lighter-colored bands comes into view.

The fourth through the eighth images display a blue-colored vortex in the mid-southern latitudes near Points of Interest "Collision of Colours," "Sharp Edge," "Caltech, by Halka," and "Structure01."

The Points of Interest are locations in Jupiter's atmosphere that were identified and named by members of the general public. Additionally, a darker, dynamic band can be seen just south of the vortex.

In the ninth and tenth images, the south polar region rotates into view.

The final image on the left displays Jupiter's south pole in the center.

From the start of this sequence of images to the end, roughly 1 hour and 35 minutes elapsed.

Expedition 31 star trail composite

This Week in NASA History: Second Crewed Skylab Mission Splashes Down – Sept. 25, 1973



This week in 1973, the second crewed Skylab mission splashed down in the Pacific Ocean following a successful 59-day mission in the orbiting laboratory.

Earth rise as photographed by Apollo 16


View of Moon setting over an Earth limb taken by the Expedition 40 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS).



Earth-orbiting HST, airglow over Earth's horizon, and crescent moon (2-13 Dec 1993)

The Sun, which is 92 Million miles away, is so loud that if space was filled with air it would be 125db on Earth.



Three distinct active regions with towering arches above them rotated into view over a three-day period (Sept. 24-26, 2017). In extreme ultraviolet light, charged particles that are spinning along the ever-changing magnetic field lines above the active regions make the lines visible.

To give some sense of scale, the largest arches rose up many times the size of Earth.

Movies are available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22038

A Geologic Model for Eridania Basin on Ancient Mars



This diagram illustrates an interpretation for the origin of some deposits in the Eridania basin of southern Mars as resulting from seafloor hydrothermal activity more than 3 billion years ago.

The ground level depicted is an exaggerated topography of a transect about 280 miles (450 kilometers) long. Blue portions of the diagram depict water-depth estimates and the possibility of ice covering the ancient sea.

Thick, clay-rich deposits (green) formed through hydrothermal alteration of volcanic materials in deep water, by this model. Notations indicate deep-water reactions of iron and magnesium ions with silicates, sulfides and carbonates. Deep-seated structural discontinuities could have facilitated the ascent of magma from a mantle source.

Chloride deposits formed from evaporation of seawater at higher elevations in the basin.



Eridania Basin, located at the head of Maadim Vallis, has mounting geomorphic and spectral evidence that it may have been the site of an ancient inland sea. This image is from NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Hubble Finds Many Bright Clouds on Uranus



A recent NASA Hubble Space Telescope view reveals Uranus surrounded by its four major rings and by 10 of its 17 known satellites.