Planetary Picture of the Day
Week of August 26, 2024

We journey from the very tiny in the form of a single molecule to the very large with clouds on Neptune and everything in between. Plus a bonus comic to round out the week!

Monday, 26 August 2024

Aurora Borealis from Space
Taken from the International Space Station, this still was part of a time-lapse video (https://buff.ly/3X41oUO ) in 2016 showing a green aurora lighting up the upper atmosphere over Norway. From there, you can see the Earth’s magnetic field in action.

Tuesday, 27 August 2024

Comet from 16 KM
Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera captured this image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on September 30, 2016, from an altitude of about 16 km above the surface during the spacecraft’s final descent. The image scale is about 30 cm/pixel and the image measures about 614 m across.

Wednesday, 28 August 2024

The Microworld
And now for something a "little" different. This is an actual picture of a molecule taken by IBM in 2009! The ringed structure is about 500,000 times thinner than a human hair – and you may recognize its shape. The molecule is pentacene, which consists of 22 carbon atoms and 14 hydrogen.

Thursday, 29 August 2024

Neptune Clouds Showing Vertical Relief
This Voyager 2 high-resolution color image, taken two hours before the spacecraft's closest approach to Neptune, provides evidence of vertical relief in Neptune's bright cloud streaks. The sides of the clouds that face the Sun are brighter than the surrounding cloud deck because they are more directly exposed to sunlight. Shadows can be seen on the side opposite the Sun. Cloud heights appear to be of the order of 50 kilometers.

Friday, 30 August 2024

Friday Funny
Enjoy some humor as we head into a holiday weekend here in the U.S.!

Text: NASA successfully hurled an object into an asteroid at 14,000 mph to see if it could be knocked off course. The James Webb telescope took a detailed image of the impact site.