Planetary Picture of the Day
Week of August 23, 2021
Dramatic images from around the planet and around the solar system that make us catch our breath.
Monday, August 23, 2021
Beauty of Planet Earth: The Namib Desert
Korea’s Kompsat-2 satellite captured this image over the sand seas of the Namib Desert on 7 January 2012. The blue and white area is the dry river bed of the Tsauchab. Black dots of vegetation are concentrated close to the river’s main route, while salt deposits appear bright white.
Tuesday, August 24, 2021
Green Flash from Sunset Cliffs in San Diego, California
As the Sun sets, the atmosphere at the horizon acts like a prism and refracts the light. When the conditions are just right, you can catch a green flash for a second or two.
Wednesday, August 25, 2021
"Approach of the Dragon"
It seems that Falkor will be visiting today! This picture is really amazing. It made us think about The Neverending Story.
Thursday, August 26, 2021
Eruption on Io
The Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on New Horizons captured this dramatic picture of Jupiter's moon Io and its volcanic plumes, 19 hours after the spacecraft's closest approach to Jupiter on Feb. 28, 2007. LORRI took this 75 millisecond exposure at 0035 Universal Time on March 1, 2007, when Io was 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from the spacecraft.
Friday, August 27, 2021
Contact: Nathalie A. Cabrol
Sand Dunes in the Atacama
In the Atacama Desert, Chile, pushed by the wind, an enormous (100s of meters) sand dune traverses over sedimentary layers of a Cretaceous sea tilted 90 degrees by the push of the Andes.
