Space Pictures This Week: Martian Dunes, Titan Vortex, More

Opaque Nebula

Image courtesy T.A. Rector and H. Schweiker, University of Alaska/WIYN/NOAO/NSF

Some 1,400 light-years from Earth, the VdB 152 nebula, or gas-and-dust cloud, glows at one end of a Bok module—a dark, frigid nebula so thick with dust that it's nearly opaque, as shown in this image released July 10.

The delicate red strands to the right of the ghostly cloud are all that remain of a supernova, which may or may not collide with the nebula in years to come.

(See more nebulae pictures.)

Published July 17, 2012

Time Warp

Photograph by Babak A. Tafreshi, TWAN

Star trails—the results of a long exposure and Earth's rotation—illuminate petroglyphs in Iran's Teimareh valley in a picture recently submitted to the astronomy-education project The World at Night (TWAN).

Estimated to be at least 6,000 years old, the etchings of hunters and their prey are among some 20,000 carvings in the valley—many of them so far unstudied.

(See "Best Night-Sky Pictures of 2012 Named.")

Published July 17, 2012

Martian Dunes

Image courtesy U. Arizona/NASA

Resembling something between a Star Wars landscape and a Pac-Man screen, this northern polar dune field on Mars was captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE, camera.

Released July 11, the picture shows so-called barchan dunes, features up to 300 feet (90 meters) wide that are created by the movement of loose sand.

(See "Seven Great Mars Pictures From Record-Breaking Probe.")

Published July 17, 2012

Coming Home

Photograph courtesy NASA

Soyuz TMA-03M's docking port opens on July 1 as the Russian spacecraft separates from the International Space Station after a six-month stay.

Carrying a team of three cosmonauts, Soyuz touched down safely in Kazakhstan just hours after this photograph was taken.

(Read about early manned spaceflight.)

Published July 17, 2012

Feeling Blue

Image courtesy T.A. Rector and H. Schweiker, University of Alaska/WIYN/NOAO/NSF

Set in the Perseus constellation, the nebula VdB 24 glows blue in an image published July 10 by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory.

Nestled at the nebula's base, the star XY Per illuminates VdB 24 as the brown haze known as nebula LDN 1442 looms at left.

(See "'Soccer Ball' Nebula Discovered by Amateur Astronomer.")

Published July 17, 2012

Polar Vortex

Image courtesy SSI/Caltech/NASA

The sepia tone of this hazy photo of Saturn's moon Titan is no camera distortion. On June 27 NASA's Cassini craft captured true-color, unusually crisp imagery of the swirling gaseous mass known as Titan's south pole vortex.

The moon's south pole—currently more easily photographed than the north pole—is now shifting into darkness as Saturn's seasons slowly change.

(See "Saturn Moon Has Tropical 'Great Salt Lake,' Methane Marshes.")

Published July 17, 2012

More Space Pictures

Photograph by Bill Ingalls, NASA

Published July 17, 2012