Planetary Picture of the Day
Week of August 2, 2021
Let your imagination soar with these images from Iceland, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn’s moon, Mimas!
Monday, August 2, 2021
Green and Gorgeous
When Iceland has an air of Middle Earth!
Tuesday, August 3, 2021
Jupiter
Taken with JunoCam on board NASA's Juno spacecraft during perijove 26.
Wednesday, August 4, 2021
Article here: https://buff.ly/3ftXK1C
Banded terrains in Hellas Basin, Mars
Their origin remains mysterious but the hypothesis that checks most observations on Earth remains that of an ancient ice shelf scenario. Here is an extract from an article by Dr. Hannes Bernhardt (see link below): "Various adjacent landforms of likely glaciofluvial origin (potential eskers and sandur plains) might indicate that the banded terrain has formed in a glacial scenario, possibly as subglacial, wet sediments (i.e., viscous till) that were deformed by an interplay of ice overburden pressure and the local topography (e.g., Boulton et al., 1974). As no terrestrial analog exists for such a scenario at this scale, it remains a tentative hypothesis, though, meriting further investigation, ideally – one day – including in situ observations. These formations occur over 30,000 km²". The image here is only a few kilometers across.
Thursday, August 5, 2021
Lightning from Space
This amazing video shows a blue jet (reverse lightning) zipping up from a thundercloud into the stratosphere, captured by the ISS. Mesmerizing and beautiful.
Friday, August 6, 2021
Planetary golf ball
Mosaic and composite image of Saturn's moon Mimas (396.4 km diameter) bathed in Saturn's light. The mosaic was captured near the Cassini spacecraft's final close approach on January 30, 2017.
