Monday, July 3, 2023

Saturn in Infrared from JWST
On June 25, 2023, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope turned to famed ringed world Saturn for its first near-infrared observations of the planet. The initial imagery from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) is already fascinating researchers.

Saturn itself appears extremely dark at this infrared wavelength observed by the telescope, as methane gas absorbs almost all of the sunlight falling on the atmosphere. However, the icy rings stay relatively bright, leading to the unusual appearance of Saturn in the Webb image.

This image was taken as part of Webb Guaranteed Time Observation program 1247. The program included several very deep exposures of Saturn, which were designed to test the telescope’s capacity to detect faint moons around the planet and its bright rings. Any newly discovered moons could garner important clues about the flow of material in the current Saturn system, as well as its past history.

Tuesday, July 4, 2023

Deimos Stereogram
On 10 March 2023, the EXI camera system onboard the Hope Mars Mission spacecraft acquired 27 images of Mars' moon Deimos over the course of the 25-minute duration of this flyby. These images are “calibrated” products where many of the artefacts introduced by the camera system have been removed. The contrast and brightness of the images have been adjusted to enhance the overall visibility of the surface of Deimos.

During the period of closest approach to Deimos, images obtained less than 10 seconds apart have been combined into 3D stereo pairs. This image is a “cross-eyed stereogram” (created as side-by-side pairs of images). This type of stereogram requires looking cross-eyed at the left/right image pair. The stereo effect with this technique can be more pronounced than a comparable anaglyph presentation.

Wednesday, July 5, 2023

Full Moon Rising
Taken August 18, 2016 by Commander Jeff Williams of NASA during Expedition 48 on the International Space Station.

Thursday, July 6, 2023

Tuesday Morning, Mars
This scene is a composite of two Left Navigation Camera (Navcam) photos from NASA's Perseverance rover, taken Tuesday, 27 June 2023 at a local solar time of around 2:20 pm.

Some minor tweaking was done to remove vignetting and balance colors.

Friday, July 7, 2023

ISS Under Construction
Backdropped by a colorful Earth, astronaut Robert L. Curbeam, Jr. (left) and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Christer Fuglesang, both STS-116 mission specialists, participated in the mission's first of three planned sessions of extravehicular activity (EVA) as construction resumed on the International Space Station back in December 2006. The landmasses depicted are the South Island (left) and North Island (right) of New Zealand.