Space Pictures This Week: Fiery Aurora, Surreal Venus, More

Surreal Sunrise
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Photograph-David Kaplan

Clouds flow like a river over the lights of Swiss villages as the rising sun crowns the Alps with morning gold in a January 30 picture. To the right, a crescent moon and the bright dot of Venus decorate the paling sky. Venus is closer to the sun than Earth, so—like a car going around a racetrack—Venus periodically overtakes Earth as it orbits. This means Venus changes from the evening star, visible after sunset, to the morning star, visible before sunrise, every 584 days

Star-Struck Aurora
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Photograph by P-M Heden, TWAN

Stars wheeling across the sky seem to cut through a fiery aurora in a recently released long-exposure picture taken in western Sweden. Auroras can appear in different colors depending on the types of gases in the atmosphere and where these gases are. Auroras happen when energized particles form the sun interact with air molecules and give them extra charge. These "excited" molecules then emit light. Oxygen, for example, can create auroras in yellow-green to red, while nitrogen emits light in blues and purples.

Have a Nice Day?
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NASA/University of Arizona

The south pole of Mars: Seasonal carbon dioxide frost has given rise to a pit that bears an eerie resemblance to a deranged clown face. Scientists compared this newly released picture from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter with another taken in 2007 to see how the pit has changed over time. The team saw signs of growth inside the "happy face," which they think is caused by frost that sublimates—turns directly from solid to gas—from the pit walls and then recondenses on its surfaces

Source: news.nationalgeographic.com... 4-00:01#/space130-moon-venus-switzerland-alps_32002_600x450.jpg

And I just saw this one tonight:

NASA Releases First 360-Degree View of Entire Sun
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The photo comes courtesy of NASA's twin STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) spacecraft, which aligned exactly opposite each other on opposite sides of the sun to capture the image. The ability to see the whole sun, front to back, will allow scientists to better understand complicated solar weather patterns and plan for future robotic or crewed spacecraft missions throughout the solar system

www.foxnews.com...

Video:


Not much to say other than absolutely stunning and breath taking. We are so fortunate to be alive to witness these events and being able to document the events for future beings.

With all that is going on out there, in Space. why in the heck would any aliens come to Earth? Unless they had a connetion to the Human Race. IMO>

Enjoy and let me know what you think/favorite etc.

I think I am going to start writing down something like....

Don't leave your thoughts, no matter what you do. I could care less of what you have to say about anything....

And folks would probably leave a boat load of comments.

I think my new favorite one is the first pic-after looking at it more.

"I think I am going to start writing down something like....

Don't leave your thoughts, no matter what you do. I could care less of what you have to say about anything....

And folks would probably leave a boat load of comments."


/no breakfast ??

reply to post by heineken


Joking...

People leave flags (thank you) but they don't leave any thoughts.

No biggie. I just like reading folks post.

Sorry, poor attempt at humor.

Good Morning!!!

reply to post by anon72


As per usual you bring some very nice encouraging content...

Just wanted to say always enjoy your finds and thank you for posting them.

beautiful pictures.. i think we can all agree that every soo often we all need to just stop and embrace the beauty of the world and things out of this world... i know its sounds a bit cliche but still

reply to post by anon72


Nice pics. The third one reminds me more of a cell cross section than a clown though. S+F



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reply to post by JMech


I gotta hand it to ya, you are more acurate with you pic and description.

Star for that one.

I like it.

error. wrong post reply.

Sorry

I love the long-exposure Aurora. Those so regular star lines caught give us perfect idea of what it means to be moving on an orbital plane...