Space Pictures This Week: Mercury's Marks, Miracle Delta

Night Light

Photograph by Dennis Mammana, TWAN    

Like a celestial pipe organ in a grand cathedral, the skies above Fairbanks, Alaska, come alive with a curtain of green auroras in this image snapped in March. (Learn how a stunning aurora video was made.)

"'Normal' photos tend to blur [auroras] and don't capture the true detail of these marvelous curtains, so to freeze the action as much as possible, I kept my exposure time to only a second," said photographer Dennis Mammana on The World At Night website.

Published June 21, 2013

Galactic Penguin

Image courtesy STScI/AURA/ESA/NASA    

The Hubble Space Telescope snapped this uncanny image, released June 20, of two interacting galaxies that look like a penguin guarding her egg.

Known collectively as Arp 142, the galactic pair lie some 326 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra.

Over a period of millions of years, the celestial bird-shaped galaxy has lost its distinct pinwheel structure. Its red, spiral arms have become distorted by the pull of gravity from the neighboring elliptical, egg-shaped galaxy.

Above the pair is a lone, unrelated bluish galaxy located about 230 million light-years from Earth.

Published June 21, 2013

Miracle Delta

Image courtesy ESA    

This radar satellite image, released June 7, shows where southwestern Africa's Okavango River (bright yellow) empties into the Okavango Delta in northern Botswana. (Read about "Africa's Miracle Delta" in National Geographic magazine.)

This portrait of one of the most popular safari destinations on the continent is a composite based on images taken by the European ENVISAT orbiter between September 2009 and October 2010.

The Moremi Game Reserve appears in purple at the center of the image, while in the lower right corner a cluster of reflections marks the town of Maun.

Published June 21, 2013

Mercury's Marks

Image courtesy JHUAPL/NASA    

This high-resolution image of the craggy surface of Mercury, released June 20, was taken by the cameras aboard NASA's MESSENGER orbiter. Multiple impact craters with fresh ray patterns appear scattered across an ancient lava basin.

Slightly larger than Earth's moon, Mercury lacks a meaningful atmosphere, so there is nothing to stop impacts from occurring and covering its sun-scorched surface with craters.

Published June 21, 2013

Where There's Smoke

Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS/NASA    

The root cause of the record-setting pollution levels that have besieged Singapore this past week is clearly seen in this orbital photo from NASA's Aqua satellite taken on June 19.

Thick clouds of smoke originating from illegal wildfires on Sumatra (below, left) appear to blow straight toward southern Malaysia, where a choking haze of pollutants has blanketed Singapore. (Related: "Pollution in Singapore Hits Record Level.")

Published June 21, 2013

See More of Our Favorite Space Pictures

Photograph courtesy NASA

Published June 21, 2013