This EREP color infrared photograph of the Uncompahgre Plateau area of Colorado was taken in June of 1973 by the Earth Terrain Camera (Skylab EREP Experiment S190B) of the Skylab's Multi-spectral Photographic Facility during the Skylab-2 mission. Skylab stereoscopic data provided the best identification of vegetation complexes and delineation of vegetation boundaries, particularly in areas where changes in relief were related to changes in vegetation type (a common occurrence in wild-land vegetation communities).

This mosaic of images from the Mast Camera Mastcam on NASA Mars rover Curiosity shows Mount Sharp in a white-balanced color adjustment that makes the sky look overly blue but shows the terrain as if under Earth-like lighting.

S65-34661 (3-7 June 1965) --- Among the photographs of Earth's terrain taken from the Gemini-4 spacecraft during its orbital mission was this view of the southeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula with the Gulf of Oman at upper right. Seif dunes (sand) at lower left. This picture was taken with a modified 70mm Hasselblad camera, using Eastman color film, ASA 64 at a setting of 250th of a second at f/11. Dr. Paul Lowman Jr., NASA geologist, was in charge of the Synoptic Terrain Photography.

S73-32840 (10 Sept. 1973) --- Scientist-astronaut Edward G. Gibson, Skylab 4 science pilot, turns on a switch on the control box of the S190B camera, one of the components of the Earth Resources Experiments Package (EREP). The single lens Earth Terrain Camera takes five-inch photographs. Behind Gibson is the stowed suit of astronaut Gerald P. Carr, commander for the third manned mission. The crew's other member is astronaut William R. Pogue, pilot. The training exercise took place in the Orbital Workshop one-G trainer at Johnson Space Center. Photo credit: NASA

S39-84-29AE (28 April-6 May 1991) --- In the center of this 70mm frame, surrounded by mountainous terrain, is Gora Konder crater in the USSR. The 57-degree inclination of Discovery's orbit allowed photographs of seldom observed areas of Earth such as this. The picture was exposed with a 70mm handheld camera from overhead windows on Discovery's aft flight deck.

SL3-86-272 (July-September 1973) --- A near vertical view of northeastern Italy including the Venice (Venezia) area is seen in this Skylab 3 Earth Resources Experiments Package S190-B (five-inch earth terrain camera) infrared photograph taken from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. The mountainous area is the Dolomite Alps. The most conspicuous stream northeast of Venice is the Piave River. The city near the center of the picture on the Brenta River is Bassano del Grappa. The large city of Padua (Padova) is on the western bank of the Grenta near the clock. Photo credit: NASA

This computer animation shows a replay of telemetry from NASA's Perseverance Mars rover as it carried out its first drive using AutoNav, it's auto-navigation feature, which allows it to avoid rocks and other hazards without input from engineers back on Earth. The rover's progress here has been sped up by 50 times. The entire drive was roughly 102 feet (31 meters) and took 45 minutes. The terrain is created from height maps, which is how the rover navigates surrounding terrain. The map is created incrementally from stereo imagery taken from the rover's navigation cameras. Auto-navigation software uses a height map to evaluate possible drive paths for safety. The paths are represented by arcs emanating from the front of the rover. Different-colored arcs denote different results of the hazard evaluation. Blue arcs represent arcs that failed due to "wheel drop," where the terrain could allow for a wheel to fall more than a certain height. Pink arcs fail the belly-pan clearance check, where the terrain is at risk of high-centering the rover. Yellow arcs fail by driving onto unknown terrain. Gray arcs are safe. The white arc is the actual path selected by auto-navigation. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Animation available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24723

This view southeastward from Curiosity's Mast Camera (Mastcam) shows terrain judged difficult for traversing between the rover and an outcrop in the middle distance where a pale rock unit meets a darker rock unit above it. The Mastcam's left-eye camera captured the component images on May 10, 2015, during the 981st Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. This observation helped the rover team evaluate routes for driving to that geological contact area where the two rock units meet. The outcrop exposing the contact is in the eastern portion of the "Logan Pass" area. The windblown ripples and the steep ground where ripples are lacking are both poor terrain for the rover to cross. The team subsequently chose to approach a different site where the pale and darker rock units are in contact with each other. That alternative site is in the northern portion of the Logan Pass area, outside of this scene. This panorama spans from east, at left, to south-southwest. The color has been approximately white-balanced to resemble how the scene would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19662

This annotated image of Mars' Jezero Crater depicts the ground track and waypoints of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter's planned tenth flight, scheduled to take place no earlier than Saturday, July 24. The image was generated using terrain imaged by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The goal of Flight 10 is to obtain 3D imagery of geologic features that are of interest to the agency's Perseverance rover science team. The pale-blue dots indicate mission waypoints. The first and last waypoints provide takeoff and landing locations. Waypoints 2 through 9 indicate where Ingenuity's color Return to Earth (RTE) camera will take pictures that could be made into stereo images. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24687

SL4-93-153 (February 1974) --- A vertical view of the Birmingham and central Alabama area is seen in this Skylab 4 Earth Resources Experiments Package S190-B (five-inch earth terrain camera) infrared photographed taken from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. Illustrated here is the utility of color infrared film in depicting distribution of living vegetation in the 3,600 square mile Birmingham region. The Birmingham industrial complex, with a population of nearly 850,000, is the light gray area nestled in the valley between the northeast-trending ridges that are prominent topographic features in the southern Appalachian Mountains. The narrow ridges and adjacent valleys reflect folded and faulted sedimentary rocks, indicating the complex geological history of the region. Two major rivers and several reservoirs are easily distinguished in this photograph. Bankhand Lake, formed by a dam on the Black Warrior River, appears as bright blue west of Birmingham. Two lakes are formed by dams on the Goosa River east of Birmingham. Federal and state highways appear as thin white lines and are easily identified. Interstate 65 to Montgomery is the prominent white line extending southward from Birmingham. Power line clearings are visible in the center of the picture along the Goosa River, and can be traced northwestward to northern parts of Birmingham. The predominant deep red color of the picture is due to the reflections from living vegetation. In contrast are the light tan areas that commonly occur as rectangular patterns in the east part of the photograph and represent mature agricultural crops or grazing lands. Analysis of the photographic data from the earth terrain camera will be conducted by Dr. H. Jayroe of the Marshall Space Flight Center in developing analytical techniques. All EREP photography is available to the public through the Department of Interior's Earth Resources Observations Systems Data Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 57198. Photo credit: NASA

Earth Observation taken by the Apollo 9 crew. View is of Galveston and Freeport in Texas. Latitude was 28.42 N by Longitude 94.54 W, Overlap was 80%, Altitude miles were 105 and cloud cover was 5%. This imagery taken as part of the NASA S0-65 Experiment "Multispectral Terrain Photography". The experiment provides simultaneous satellite photography of the Earth's surface in three distinct spectral bands. The photography consists of four almost spatially identical photographs. The images of ground objects appear in the same coordinate positions on all four photos in the multispectral set within the opto-mechanical tolerances of the Hasselblad cameras in the Apollo 9 spacecraft. Band designation for this frame is A. Film and filter is Ektachrome SO-368,Infrared Color Wratten 15. Mean Wavelength of Sensitivity is green,red and infrared. The Nominal Bandpass is total sensitivity of all dye layers 510-900nm.

Earth Observation taken by the Apollo 9 crew. View is of Salton Sea and Imperial Valley in California. Latitude was 33.09 N by Longitude 116.14 W, Overlap was 50%, Altitude miles were 103 and cloud cover was 35%. This imagery taken as part of the NASA S0-65 Experiment "Multispectral Terrain Photography". The experiment provides simultaneous satellite photography of the Earth's surface in three distinct spectral bands. The photography consists of four almost spatially identical photographs. The images of ground objects appear in the same coordinate positions on all four photos in the multispectral set within the opto-mechanical tolerances of the Hasselblad cameras in the Apollo 9 spacecraft. Band designation for this frame is A. Film and filter is Ektachrome SO-368,Infrared Color Wratten 15. Mean Wavelength of Sensitivity is green,red and infrared. The Nominal Bandpass is total sensitivity of all dye layers 510-900nm.

Earth Observation taken by the Apollo 9 crew. View is of Carrizozo in New Mexico and includes lava flow and snow. Latitude was 33.42 N by Longitude 106.10 W, Overlap was 7.5%, Altitude miles were 121 and cloud cover was 0%. This imagery taken as part of the NASA S0-65 Experiment "Multispectral Terrain Photography". The experiment provides simultaneous satellite photography of the Earth's surface in three distinct spectral bands. The photography consists of four almost spatially identical photographs. The images of ground objects appear in the same coordinate positions on all four photos in the multispectral set within the opto-mechanical tolerances of the Hasselblad cameras in the Apollo 9 spacecraft. Band designation for this frame is A. Film and filter is Ektachrome SO-368,Infrared Color Wratten 15. Mean Wavelength of Sensitivity is green,red and infrared. The Nominal Bandpass is total sensitivity of all dye layers 510-900nm.

AS16-120-19187 (19 April 1972) --- Apollo 16 astronauts captured this Earth rise scene with a handheld Hasselblad camera during the second revolution of the moon. Identifiable craters seen on the moon include Saha, Wyld, and Saenger. Much of the terrain seen here is never visible from Earth, as the Command Module (CM) was just passing onto what is known as the dark side or far side of the moon. Crewmen aboard the CM at the time the photo was made were astronauts John W. Young, Thomas K. Mattingly II and Charles M. Duke Jr. Mattingly remained later with the CM in lunar orbit while Young and Duke descended in the lunar module (LM) to explore the surface of the moon.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this view using its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, while heading west away from Gediz Vallis channel on Nov. 2, 2024, the 4,352nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. This panorama is made up of two mosaics: one consisting of 171 individual images taken at 12:16 p.m. local Mars time; and another consisting of 169 at 12:46 p.m. local Mars time. The color has been adjusted to match lighting conditions as the human eye would see them on Earth. Rover tracks can be seen trailing behind Curiosity at right. The difficult, rocky terrain made for slow going. The butte on the left side of the scene is nicknamed "Texoli"; the butte dominating the right side of the scene is nicknamed "Kukenán." https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26471

STS089-703-007 (22-32 Jan. 1998) --- This picture of southern Australia was photographed with a 70mm handheld camera from the Earth-orbiting space shuttle Endeavour. The Nullarbor Plain (behind the boom of Russia’s Mir Space Station) has been one of the least photographed features of the continents. The coastal escarpment rises abruptly to 500 feet above sea level. The limestone bedrock has been dissolved away along fractures and joints. In this photo of the western Australian Bight, solution grooves can be seen to have localized sand deposits in long bands. Both inland and along the coast, rounded sinkholes and depressions attest to solution of the surficial limestone’s; "karst" is the term for this kind of terrain. Caves such as Cocklebiddy and Weebubbie are common along the coast and linear passages, formed by dissolution of joints, commonly connect rooms. Photo credit: NASA

This view of Jupiter's icy moon Europa was captured by JunoCam, the public engagement camera aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft, during the mission's close flyby on Sept. 29, 2022. The picture is a composite of JunoCam's second, third, and fourth images taken during the flyby, as seen from the perspective of the fourth image. North is to the left. The images have a resolution of just over 0.5 to 2.5 miles per pixel (1 to 4 kilometers per pixel). As with our Moon and Earth, one side of Europa always faces Jupiter, and that is the side of Europa visible here. Europa's surface is crisscrossed by fractures, ridges, and bands, which have erased terrain older than about 90 million years. Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill processed the images to enhance the color and contrast. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25695

SL3-87-299 (July-September 1973) --- A vertical view of southeastern New York State is seen in this Skylab 3 Earth Resources Experiments Package S190-B (five-inch Earth terrain camera) infrared photograph taken from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. An 18-inch, 450mm lens and type 2443 infrared Ektachrome film was used. This picture covers the northern part of New Jersey, a part of northwestern Pennsylvania, and the western tip of Connecticut. The body of water is Long Island Sound. The wide Hudson River flows southward across a corner of the photograph. The New York City metropolitan area occupies part of the picture. Federal agencies participating with NASA on the EREP project are the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Corps of Engineers. All EREP photography is available to the public through the Department of Interior?s Earth Resources Observations Systems Data Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 57198. Photo credit: NASA

This annotated image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and the topographic map below it, provide a look at the altitude of surface features standing between the agency's Perseverance Mars rover and Ingenuity helicopter at the conclusion of the rotorcraft's 17th flight at Mars on Dec. 5, 2021. In the image of the surface – taken by MRO's High Resolution Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera – Ingenuity's flight path is depicted in yellow. Perseverance's location is indicated in the upper left, with the blue line delineating its line of sight to the helicopter's landing spot. The location of the tallest point on Mars' surface between rover and helicopter during its final descent is the hill near the center of image that the Perseverance science team has nicknamed "Bras," after a city in France. The topographic map below the orbital image provides the elevation of surface features along the blue line, or Perseverance's line of sight to helicopter. The height measurements to the left of the map are derived by comparing local elevations to the areoid (a model for an equipotential surface of Mars, analogous to "sea level" on Earth). The Ingenuity team believes the 13-foot (4-meter) height difference between the Perseverance rover and the top of Bras contributed to the loss of communications when the helicopter descended toward the surface at the end of its flight. The image's background terrain was generated using data collected by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24980

S73-35078 (July-Sept. 1973) --- A nearly vertical view of the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area is seen in this Skylab 3 (second manning) Earth Resources Experiments Package S190-B (five-inch Earth terrain camera) photograph taken from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. Also in the picture are Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Tempe, Mesa, Komatke, Salt River Indian Reservation and part of the Gila River Indian Reservation. Features which can be delineated from the photograph include: cultural patterns defined by commercial, industrial, agricultural and residential areas; transportation networks consisting of major corridors, primary, secondary and feeder streets; major urban developments in the area such as airports, Squaw Peak City Park, Turf Paradise Race Track and the State Fairgrounds. Phoenix is one of the 27 census cities of interest under study by the U.S. Geological Survey and is the center of the Arizona Regional Ecological Test Site. A large number of investigators will be using the Skylab data. This photo will be compared to earlier ones to document changes in the urban area with time. The landscape is well defined in terms of mountains, alluvial fans and river flood plains. Several different types of natural vegetation and irrigated crop lands can be mapped. Geological features are not well displayed but mining activities are readily identified. Photo credit: NASA

SL3-84-202 (July-September 1973) --- A vertical view of the Montevideo, Uruguay area of South America is seen in this Skylab 3 Earth Resources Experiments Package S190-B (five-inch Earth terrain camera) photograph taken from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. The large body of water is Rio de la Plata which flows into the South Atlantic Ocean at the bottom of the picture. The red plum in the Rio de la Plata is probably sediment moving seaward. The Santa Lucia River enters the Rio de la Plata west of Montevideo and is the major drainage for the region. Note the small Isla del Tigre at the mouth of the Santa Lucia. The white beach and sand dune areas are plainly visible along the coast. A major airport can be seen immediately east of downtown Montevideo. Major thoroughfares and residential areas, such as the bright one in the suburbs, are clearly visible, also. Farm tracts in green and grey rectangular patterns indicate agricultural regions. Photo credit: NASA

SL4-93-067 (16 Nov. 1973-8 Feb. 1974) --- A spectacular winter view of the Flagstaff, Arizona area is seen in this Skylab 4 Earth Resources Experiments package S190-B (five-inch earth terrain camera) infrared photograph taken from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. Included in the scene are the San Francisco Mountains, Oak Creek Canyon, Painted Desert and Meteor Crater. The infrared picture depicts in red living vegetation, in white the snow, and in bright blue the water. Major features identified in this photograph are Humphrey's peak, top center, Flagstaff at foot of the peak, Sunset Crater volcanic field with numerous vents and craters right of Flagstaff and Meteor Crater (right center). Within the mountainous areas several clear areas generally rectangular are visible and represent the areas where lumbering has removed the forest. The thin white line extending from left corner to Sunset Crater fields is the power transmission line cleared area. Roads are subdued and are not easily visible. Photo credit: NASA

This half-lit view of Enceladus bears a passing resemblance to similar views of Earth's own natural satellite, but the similarities end there. Earth's rocky moon is covered in dark, volcanic basins and brighter, mountainous highlands -- both exceedingly ancient. The surface of icy Enceladus is uniformly bright, far brighter than Earth's moon. Large areas of Enceladus' surface are characterized by youthful (on geologic timescales), wrinkled terrains. Although the north pole of Enceladus (313 miles or 504 kilometers across) was dark when Cassini arrived at Saturn, the march of the seasons at Saturn have brought sunlight to the north and taken it from the south. This view looks toward the leading hemisphere of Enceladus. North on Encealdus is up. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Sept. 8, 2015. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 80,000 miles (129,000 kilometers) from Enceladus. Image scale is 2,530 feet (772 meters) per pixel. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA18351

This pair of images shows the Martian surface captured by NASA's Curiosity rover using its Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) camera on Nov. 7, 2024, the 4,357th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The raw image on the left has not been processed; on the right is the same image after being processed on Earth to reveal additional details in the camera's images, which were taken after sunset, when the lighting is more uniform than the harsh shadows that occur earlier in the day. MARDI was designed to capture images from below the rover as Curiosity descended to the surface on Aug. 5, 2012. (Those images were later assembled together to create the first video of a descent to the Martian surface.) After landing, the mission repurposed MARDI as a surface camera. They use it to take a snapshot at the end of every drive to document the changing terrain and textures the mission has come across during its exploration of Gale Crater and the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain within it, Mount Sharp. MARDI views the surface just behind the rover's left front wheel, which is visible in the images. While it is not in sharp focus on the surface (the camera was designed to capture the long-range imaging during descent) but is able to resolve features as small as a few millimeters (0.1 inch). Likewise, because MARDI wasn't intended to be a surface camera, it lacks a dust cover. As a result, its dusty lens mutes colors and details. The first version of the pair of images above was processed onboard the rover into a color image. Once scientists back on Earth receive such images, they perform additional processing to improve contrast and sharpness, and to correct for distortions caused by the camera's fisheye lens (the curved edges of the final image are the result of correcting for those distortions). Because of that additional processing, MARDI has provided a useful way to study rock layering, textures, mineral veins, wheel tracks, and sand ripples – all of which are apparent in the second, processed, image here. Occasionally scientists will take a series of images while Curiosity drives, creating an image strip that documents changes across the surface. When the rover remains stationary (such as when it's collecting and processing a rock sample) a series of images can reveal the movement of windblown sand. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26516

STS097-355-011 (30 Nov. -11 Dec. 2000) --- This vertical scene showing Torino and Milano, Italy, at night, was photographed with a 35mm camera by one of the STS-97 crew members aboard the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Endeavour. The night lights of Torino and Milano (two larger illuminated areas) are visible in the view, which covers the western end of the Po River Valley. Torino is the bright spot slightly left of center and Milano is the larger bright spot towards the bottom center of the image. The deeply eroded flanks of the snow-covered Alps Mountains (serrated-looking, light-colored terrain top half of the image) is visible north of the two large cities. Several mountain passes that connect the Po River Valley with France and Switzerland can be identified by the string of lights in the narrow, linear valleys. A translucent-looking cloud (bottom center) somewhat obscures the nighttime landscape south of Torino and Milano. The northwest coast of Italy, including the Italian city of Genova, can be identified in the lower left corner of the image. This photography was taken by astronauts using high speed film and long exposure on a night with a full moon illuminating the surface of the Earth.

S87-35313 (15 May 1987)--- This artist's rendering illustrates a Mars Sample Return mission under study at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). As currently envisioned, the spacecraft would be launched in the mid to late 1990's into Earth-orbit by a space shuttle, released from the shuttle's cargo bay and propelled toward Mars by an upper-stage engine. A lander (left background) would separate from an orbiting vehicle (upper right) and descend to the planet's surface. The lander's payload would include a robotic rover (foreground), which would spend a year moving about the Martian terrain collecting scientifically significant rock and soil samples. The rover would then return to the lander and transfer its samples to a small rocket that would carry them into orbit and rendezvous with the orbiter for a return to Earth. As depicted here the rover consists of three two-wheeled cabs, and is fitted with a stereo camera vision system and tool-equipped arms for sample collection. The Mars Sample Return studies are funded by NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications.

The ice-exposing impact crater at the center of this image is an example of what scientists look for when mapping places where future astronauts should land on Mars. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this view using its High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on July 17, 2016. The color in this image has been enhanced for effect; water ice would not actually look this blue on Mars. The crater is estimated to be about 59 feet wide (18 meters wide). Surrounding the impact is a rough kind of surface known as "polygon terrain," which on Earth is known to form when subsurface ice expands and contracts repeatedly over time. Seeing this terrain surrounding an ice-exposing crater suggests much more ice could be found there. This impact is one of many included in a NASA-funded mapping project called Subsurface Water Ice Mapping, or SWIM. Mars has both water ice and carbon dioxide ice (dry ice); water ice would be a critical resource for the first astronauts to step foot on Mars, who can use it for drinking, rocket fuel, and other purposes. The more water ice these astronauts land next to, the less they need to bring with them. Because the Martian atmosphere is so thin – less than 1% the pressure experienced at sea level on Earth – liquid water is unstable on the Red Planet and will vaporize unless it's frozen. But water ice on the planet's surface is only stable at high latitudes that are far too cold for astronauts and robots to survive. So SWIM attempts to locate water ice preserved within the subsurface in the mid-latitudes, where landing would be feasible. Such regions are far enough toward the poles for water ice to be plentiful, but close enough to the equator to avoid the coldest temperatures seen on Mars. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26044

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover used one of its navigation cameras to take this image of flat terrain in Jezero Crater. This is one possible site that NASA may consider for a Mars Sample Return lander that would collect Perseverance's samples of Mars rock and sediment in the future. The lander would serve as the launch platform for a Mars Ascent Vehicle that would blast off from Mars, delivering the samples to an orbiter as part of their journey to Earth for intensive study. Choosing an area that lacks large rocks (especially those over 7 1/2 inches, or 19 centimeters, in diameter), sand dunes, and steeply angled terrain would go a long way toward easing the path for an MSR recovery vehicle to efficiently grab tubes before heading to the lander. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25370

Deposits of impact glass have been preserved in Martian craters, including Alga Crater, shown here. Detection of the impact glass by researchers at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, is based on data from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. In color coding based on analysis of CRISM spectra, green indicates the presence of glass. (Blues are pyroxene; reds are olivine.) Impact glass forms in the heat of a violent impact that excavates a crater. Impact glass found on Earth can preserve evidence about ancient life. A deposit of impact glass on Mars could be a good place to look for signs of past life on that planet. This view shows Alga Crater's central peak, which is about 3 miles (5 kilometers) wide within the 12-mile (19-kilometer) diameter of this southern-hemisphere crater. The information from CRISM is shown over a terrain model and image, based on observations by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. The vertical dimension is exaggerated by a factor of two. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19673

SL4-139-4072 (February 1974) --- A high oblique view of the North Atlantic coast of Canada as seen from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. A Skylab 4 crewman used a hand-held 70mm Hasselblad camera to take this picture. The Strait of Belle Isle, near the center of the picture, separates the Island of Newfoundland from the Canadian mainland. The Strait also connects the Gulf of St. Lawrence with North Atlantic Ocean. The elongated land mass (lower center) is the northern-most peninsula of the Island of Newfoundland. The large land mass at left center is mainland Newfoundland and Quebec. Note the sea ice in the Atlantic. Snow and some ice intermittently cover the land masses, and ice plumes of brash ice or pancake ice can be seen in various shapes and formations. General terrain and ice conditions can be distinguished and evaluated up to at least 55 degrees north latitude in this north looking view. Dr. William Campbell, sea and ice expert with the U.S. Geological Survey, will use this photograph in the study of ice dynamics. Photo credit: NASA

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover used its navigation cameras, or navcams, to capture this scene while driving up to Jezero Crater's rim on Nov. 11, 2024, the 1,326th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The sandy terrain seen here, along with a 10-degree average slope, meant it was a slippery drive. Rover tracks trail off behind Perseverance in this image. Far in the distance is the floor of Jezero Crater. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26479

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover drove first backward then forward as it negotiated some slippery terrain found along a route up the rim of Jezero Crater that the science team calls "Summerland Trail." The 31 images used to create this video were acquired by one of the rover's navigation cameras on Oct. 15, 2024, the 1,299th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Video available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26377

Gazing off toward the horizon is thought-provoking no matter what body's horizon it is. Rhea's horizon is slightly irregular and battered by craters, so thoughts inevitably turn towards the forces that shape these icy worlds. The surface of Rhea (949 miles or 1527 kilometers across) has been sculpted largely by impact cratering, each crater a reminder of a collision sometime in the moon's history. On more geologically active worlds like Earth, the craters would be erased by erosion, volcanoes or tectonics. But on quieter worlds like Rhea, the craters remain until they are disrupted or covered up by the ejecta of a subsequent impact. Lit terrain seen here is on the trailing hemisphere of Rhea. North on Rhea is up and rotated 12 degrees to the right. In this view, Cassini was at a subspacecraft latitude of 9 degrees North. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 10, 2015. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 35,000 miles (56,000 kilometers) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 76 degrees. Image scale is 1,100 feet (330 meters) per pixel. .http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/pia18316

This look at the complex, ice-covered surface of Jupiter's moon Europa came from NASA's Juno mission during a close pass on Sept. 29, 2022. At closest approach, the spacecraft came within a distance of about 219 miles (352 kilometers). Juno's flyby is only the third close pass of the moon in history and the closest look any spacecraft has provided of Europa since Jan. 3, 2000, when NASA's Galileo came within 218 miles (351 kilometers) of the surface. Europa is the sixth-largest moon in the solar system, slightly smaller than Earth's moon. Scientists think a salty ocean lies below a miles-thick ice shell. This segment of the first image of Europa taken during this flyby by the spacecraft's JunoCam (a public-engagement camera) zooms in on a swath of Europa's surface north of the equator. Due to the enhanced contrast between light and shadow seen along the terminator (the nightside boundary, at 10 degrees west longitude), rugged terrain features are easily seen, including tall shadow-casting blocks, while bright and dark ridges and troughs curve across the surface. The oblong pit near the terminator might be a degraded impact crater. The vertical area covered in the image is 155 miles (250 kilometers) tall. The resolution of the image is 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) per pixel. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25330

SL4-138-3894 (5 Jan. 1974) --- An oblique view of a portion of the northeastern part of the United States, as photographed from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit by one of the Skylab 4 crewmen. The camera used was a hand-held 70mm Hasselblad, and with SO-368 medium-speed Ektachrome film. This is an excellent example of the regional view which is available from space. The entire area of New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, southeastern New York, and southern New England can be examined in one view. Long Island, New York City and the lower Hudson River Valley are readily seen in their regional framework. The Boston area, although blurred by clouds, is also included. The spackling of the snow enhances the contrast, especially of terrain and cultural features. Different levels of clouds can be studies, especially the crossing layers of cirrus in the center of the photograph, with the lower cirrus trending north-south and the upper (probably associated with a jet stream) trending east-west. Photo credit: NASA

First quarter. Visible high in the southern sky in early evening. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been in orbit around the Moon since the summer of 2009. Its laser altimeter (LOLA) and camera (LROC) are recording the rugged, airless lunar terrain in exceptional detail, making it possible to visualize the Moon with unprecedented fidelity. This is especially evident in the long shadows cast near the terminator, or day-night line. The pummeled, craggy landscape thrown into high relief at the terminator would be impossible to recreate in the computer without global terrain maps like those from LRO. To download, learn more about this visualization, or to see what the Moon will look like at any hour in 2015, visit <a href="http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4236" rel="nofollow">svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4236</a> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b> <b>Find us on <a href="http://instagram.com/nasagoddard?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>

New Moon. By the modern definition, New Moon occurs when the Moon and Sun are at the same geocentric ecliptic longitude. The part of the Moon facing us is completely in shadow then. Pictured here is the traditional New Moon, the earliest visible waxing crescent, which signals the start of a new month in many lunar and lunisolar calendars. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been in orbit around the Moon since the summer of 2009. Its laser altimeter (LOLA) and camera (LROC) are recording the rugged, airless lunar terrain in exceptional detail, making it possible to visualize the Moon with unprecedented fidelity. This is especially evident in the long shadows cast near the terminator, or day-night line. The pummeled, craggy landscape thrown into high relief at the terminator would be impossible to recreate in the computer without global terrain maps like those from LRO. To download, learn more about this visualization, or to see what the Moon will look like at any hour in 2015, visit <a href="http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4236" rel="nofollow">svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4236</a> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b> <b>Find us on <a href="http://instagram.com/nasagoddard?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>

This visualization shows the Moon's phase and libration at hourly intervals throughout 2015, as viewed from the northern hemisphere. Each frame represents one hour. Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been in orbit around the Moon since the summer of 2009. Its laser altimeter (LOLA) and camera (LROC) are recording the rugged, airless lunar terrain in exceptional detail, making it possible to visualize the Moon with unprecedented fidelity. This is especially evident in the long shadows cast near the terminator, or day-night line. The pummeled, craggy landscape thrown into high relief at the terminator would be impossible to recreate in the computer without global terrain maps like those from LRO. To download, learn more about this visualization, or to see what the Moon will look like at any hour in 2015, visit <a href="http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4236" rel="nofollow">svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4236</a> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b> <b>Find us on <a href="http://instagram.com/nasagoddard?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>

Third quarter. Rises around midnight, visible to the south after sunrise. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been in orbit around the Moon since the summer of 2009. Its laser altimeter (LOLA) and camera (LROC) are recording the rugged, airless lunar terrain in exceptional detail, making it possible to visualize the Moon with unprecedented fidelity. This is especially evident in the long shadows cast near the terminator, or day-night line. The pummeled, craggy landscape thrown into high relief at the terminator would be impossible to recreate in the computer without global terrain maps like those from LRO. To download, learn more about this visualization, or to see what the Moon will look like at any hour in 2015, visit <a href="http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4236" rel="nofollow">svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4236</a> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b> <b>Find us on <a href="http://instagram.com/nasagoddard?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>

Waning gibbous. Rises after sunset, high in the sky after midnight, visible to the southwest after sunrise. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been in orbit around the Moon since the summer of 2009. Its laser altimeter (LOLA) and camera (LROC) are recording the rugged, airless lunar terrain in exceptional detail, making it possible to visualize the Moon with unprecedented fidelity. This is especially evident in the long shadows cast near the terminator, or day-night line. The pummeled, craggy landscape thrown into high relief at the terminator would be impossible to recreate in the computer without global terrain maps like those from LRO. To download, learn more about this visualization, or to see what the Moon will look like at any hour in 2015, visit <a href="http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4236" rel="nofollow">svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4236</a> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b> <b>Find us on <a href="http://instagram.com/nasagoddard?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>

These five images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show different Martian features of progressively greater size and complexity, all thought to result from thawing of seasonal carbon-dioxide ice that covers large areas near Mars' south pole during winter. The sequence illustrates possible stages in development of a type of Martian terrain called "araneiform," from Latin for spider-shaped. They range from a depression with one trough (upper left) to a broad network of "spiders" (lower right). Each image has a scale bar in meters, from 20 meters (66 feet) in the upper-left image to 300 meters (984 feet) in the lower-right one. Each image also includes dark "fans" that result from the same thawing process. Carbon-dioxide ice, better known as "dry ice," does not occur naturally on Earth. On Mars, sheets of it cover the ground during winter in areas near both poles, including the south-polar regions with spidery terrain. The dark fans appear in these areas each spring. Spring sunshine penetrates the ice to warm the ground underneath, causing some carbon dioxide on the bottom of the sheet to thaw into gas. The trapped gas builds pressure until a crack forms in the ice sheet. Gas erupts out, and gas beneath the ice rushes toward the vent, picking up particles of sand and dust. This erodes the ground and also supplies the geyser with particles that fall back to the surface, downwind, and appear as the dark spring fans. These five images are excerpts from HiRISE observations PSP_002718_0950, taken Feb. 24, 2007, at 85 degrees south latitude, 82 degrees east longitude, and ESP_011842_0980, taken Feb. 4, 2009, at 81 degrees south latitude, 76 degrees east longitude. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21258

Waxing gibbous. Visible to the southeast in early evening, up for most of the night. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been in orbit around the Moon since the summer of 2009. Its laser altimeter (LOLA) and camera (LROC) are recording the rugged, airless lunar terrain in exceptional detail, making it possible to visualize the Moon with unprecedented fidelity. This is especially evident in the long shadows cast near the terminator, or day-night line. The pummeled, craggy landscape thrown into high relief at the terminator would be impossible to recreate in the computer without global terrain maps like those from LRO. To download, learn more about this visualization, or to see what the Moon will look like at any hour in 2015, visit <a href="http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4236" rel="nofollow">svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4236</a> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b> <b>Find us on <a href="http://instagram.com/nasagoddard?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>

Waning crescent. Low to the east before sunrise. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been in orbit around the Moon since the summer of 2009. Its laser altimeter (LOLA) and camera (LROC) are recording the rugged, airless lunar terrain in exceptional detail, making it possible to visualize the Moon with unprecedented fidelity. This is especially evident in the long shadows cast near the terminator, or day-night line. The pummeled, craggy landscape thrown into high relief at the terminator would be impossible to recreate in the computer without global terrain maps like those from LRO. To download, learn more about this visualization, or to see what the Moon will look like at any hour in 2015, visit <a href="http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4236" rel="nofollow">svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4236</a> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b> <b>Find us on <a href="http://instagram.com/nasagoddard?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>

Waxing crescent. Visible toward the southwest in early evening. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been in orbit around the Moon since the summer of 2009. Its laser altimeter (LOLA) and camera (LROC) are recording the rugged, airless lunar terrain in exceptional detail, making it possible to visualize the Moon with unprecedented fidelity. This is especially evident in the long shadows cast near the terminator, or day-night line. The pummeled, craggy landscape thrown into high relief at the terminator would be impossible to recreate in the computer without global terrain maps like those from LRO. To download, learn more about this visualization, or to see what the Moon will look like at any hour in 2015, visit <a href="http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4236" rel="nofollow">svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4236</a> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b> <b>Find us on <a href="http://instagram.com/nasagoddard?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>

This animation is a playback of data recorded by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover during an autonomous drive on July 15, 2023, the 854th day, or sol, of the mission. During this drive, the rover identified and navigated around the 14-inch (35-centimeter) rock seen at center-left. The self-driving autonomous navigation system, AutoNav, allows the rover to autonomously re-plan its route around rocks or other obstacles on its way to a pre-established destination. Engineers driving the rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California use visualization software to plan how the rover moves around on Mars and to evaluate its performance. The lines seen emanating from the front of the rover are 20 feet (6 meters) long and indicate the paths the rover is evaluating for safety in real time, while driving. Lines that turn blue show where the rover identified a "wheel drop" hazard – where a wheel could drop more than 14 inches (35 centimeters). Magenta lines indicate where the rover saw a belly pan clearance issue – where a terrain feature could get too close to the belly pan underneath the rover. The surrounding white terrain is a digital elevation model that the rover creates onboard using navigation camera images. The animation has been sped up compared to real time. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Animation available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26073

Full Moon. Rises at sunset, high in the sky around midnight. Visible all night. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been in orbit around the Moon since the summer of 2009. Its laser altimeter (LOLA) and camera (LROC) are recording the rugged, airless lunar terrain in exceptional detail, making it possible to visualize the Moon with unprecedented fidelity. This is especially evident in the long shadows cast near the terminator, or day-night line. The pummeled, craggy landscape thrown into high relief at the terminator would be impossible to recreate in the computer without global terrain maps like those from LRO. To download, learn more about this visualization, or to see what the Moon will look like at any hour in 2015, visit <a href="http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4236" rel="nofollow">svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4236</a> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b> <b>Find us on <a href="http://instagram.com/nasagoddard?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>

SL3-88-004 (July-September 1973) --- A vertical view of the Salinas River Valley area south of Monterey Bay, California area is seen in this Skylab 3 Earth Resources Experiments Package S190-B (five-inch Earth terrain camera) photograph taken from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. The valley is an irrigated agricultural area, and is indicated by the dark-green and light-gray rectangular patterns in the centre of the picture. The city of Salinas is barely visible under the cloud cover at the top (north) end of the valley. The dark mass on the left (west) side of the valley is the Santa Lucia mountain range. The Big Sur area is on the left and partly covered by clouds. The Diablo Range forms the dark mass in the lower right (southeast) corner of the photograph. The town of Hollister is the gray area in the dark-green rectangular farm tracts which occupy the floor of the San Benito Valley in the upper right (northeast) corner of the photograph. The Salinas River flows northwestward toward Monterey Bay. The towns of Soledad, Greenfield and King City appear as gray areas along U.S. 101 in the Salinas Valley. The geology of the area is complex, and has been racked by several earthquakes resulting from movement along the San Andreas and subsidiary faults. Here, the surface expression of the San Andreas Fault can be traced from a point just west of Hollister at the contrast of dark brown and tan to a point about one inch left of the lower right (southeast) corner of the picture. Subsidiary faults are indicated by the curving trend of the rocks along the right side. The photograph will provide detailed information on land use patterns (Dr. R. Colwell, University of California, Berkeley) and fault tectonics (Dr. P. Merifield, Earth Science Res., Inc. and Dr. M. Abdel-Gawad, Rockwell International). Federal agencies participating with NASA on the EREP project are the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Corps of Engineers. All EREP photography is available to the public through the Department of Interior’s Earth Resources Observations Systems Data Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 57198. Photo credit: NASA

SL4-93-167 (February 1974) --- A vertical view of the Kennedy Space Center and the Florida Atlantic coast area is seen in this Skylab 4 Earth Resources Experiments Package S190-B (five-inch earth terrain camera) infrared photography taken from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. This photograph shows the major land-ocean features of the Florida coast near Vero Beach northward to Cape Canaveral and the KSC complex. The launch pads for the Skylab missions are clearly visible. Identification of living vegetation is possible through the use of the color infrared film. Various shades of red portray differences in the vegetation such as shown in the patterns in the agricultural area near Vero Beach. In the Kennedy Space Center, the nearly continuous and uniform red color shows that most of the land areas are heavily vegetated. The white coastal beach areas are strongly contrasted to the red land and the blue Atlantic Ocean. Old dunal areas in KSC are visible on Merritt Island which is separated from the Launch areas by the Banana River and the mainland by the Indian River. Federal and state highways and numerous causeways over the rivers are easily identified. The Florida mainland is partly shadowed by small white clouds which cast a pronounced shadow to the east of each cloud indicated the Sun is west of solar noon. Federal agencies participating with NASA on the EREP project are the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Core of Engineers. All EREP photography is available to the public through the Department of Interior's Earth Resources Observations Systems Data Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 57198. Photo credit: NASA

S73-35079 (July-September 1973) --- A near vertical view of the Caribbean coast of Venezuela is seen in this Skylab 3 Earth Resources Experiment Package S190-B (five-inch Earth terrain camera) photograph taken from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. The large body of water is the Golfo de Venezuela; and the major land mass is the Peninsula de Paraguana. The view is looking northward from the mouth of the Golfete de Coro and Punta Cardon to Punta Macolla. The peninsula is connected to the Venezuelan mainland by the narrow strip of land in the most easterly corner of the picture. The dry, arid climate on the peninsula is indicated by sparse vegetation and the abundance of sand dunes. The highest point is about 2,700 feet above the sea and is the conspicuous black spot. Old raised shoreline features appear as streaks parallel to the Golfete de Coro. Sand dunes and stream erosion have modified these features. Water of the Golfete de Coro is red from the high sediment content. The streaks in the water off the peninsula is apparently an effect of wind which is blowing sand and water offshore. The EREP investigator Dr. Jose Antonio Galavis, of the Ministerio de Mines e Hidrocarburos, will use this information to map geology and coastal sedimentation in the Peninsula de Paraguana. Federal agencies participating with NASA on the EREP projects are the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Corps of Engineers. All EREP photography is available to the public through the Department of Interior?s Earth Resources Observations Systems Data Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 57198. (Alternate number SL3-83-237) Photo credit: NASA

S73-35081 (July-September 1973) --- A view of approximately 3,600 square miles of north central Wyoming and southern Montana is seen in this Skylab 3 Earth Resources Experiments Package S190-B (five-inch Earth terrain camera) photograph taken from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. The Big Horn River following northward crosses between the northwest trending Big Horn Mountains and the Pryor Mountains. Yellowtail Reservoir, named after a former chief of the Crow Indian tribe in the center of the picture is impounded by a dam across the small rectangular crop area along the Big Horn River (upper right) and the strip farming (yellow) practiced on the rolling hill along the Big Horn River and its tributaries (upper left corner and right edge). The low sun angle enhances the structural features of the mountains as well as the drainage patterns in the adjacent basins. Rock formation appears in this color photograph as they would to the eye from this altitude. The distinctive redbeds can be traced along the front of the Pryor Mountains and indicate the folding that occurred during mountain building. EREP investigators, Dr. Houston of the University of Wyoming and Dr. Hoppin of the University of Iowa, will analyze the photograph and use the results in geological mapping and mineral resource studies. Lowell, Wyoming (lower left corner) and Hardin, Montana (upper right corner) can be recognized. Federal agencies participating with NASA on the EREP project are the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Corps of Engineers. All EREP photography is available to the public through the Department of Interior?s Earth Resources Observations Systems Data Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 57198. (Alternate number SL3-86-337) Photo credit: NASA

S73-35080 (July-September 1973) --- A vertical view of northeast Oklahoma and the metropolitan Tulsa area is seen in this Skylab 3 Earth Resources Experiments Package S190-B (five-inch Earth terrain camera) photograph taken from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. THE PICTURE SHOULD BE HELD WITH THE CLOCK ON THE LEFT AND THE LAKE IN THE CORNER ON THE RIGHT. THE LONG STRETCH OF HIGHWAY (U.S. 75) RUNS STRAIGHT NORTH FROM TULSA. Tulsa, a rapidly expanding city in the heart of the mid-continent oil field, has a population of approximately 330,000. The Arkansas River meanders across the southern (lower) portion of the photograph passing through Tulsa as it flows southeastward. Oologah Reservoir, the long body of water, is located northeast of Tulsa. Lake Hudson is the body of water in the right corner of the picture. Keystone Reservoir is to the west and upstream from Tulsa. Westward from Tulsa U.S. 64 makes a 45 degree bend as it turns northwest to cross the Keystone Reservoir. The thin white line over the Oologah Reservoir is a highway bridge. Bartlesville is on U.S. 75 near the north (top) corner of the picture. The Tulsa International Airport is immediately northeast of downtown Tulsa. Several smaller airfields are visible in the surrounding area. The toll roads and other major highways are clearly visible in the picture. Claremore is northeast of Tulsa on U.S. 66 with the Will Rogers Turnpike passing nearby. Sapulpa is southwest of Tulsa on the Turner Turnpike which leads toward Oklahoma City. The detailed information contained in this photograph can be extracted by direct observation and applied to updating land use and cultural maps of Tulsa and to numerous surrounding satellite cities. All EREP photography is available to the public through the Department of Interior?s Earth Resources Observations Systems Data Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 57198. (Alternate number SL3-83-206) Photo credit: NASA

SL4-92-300 (February 1974) --- A near vertical view of the Mobile Bay, Alabama area is seen in this Skylab 4 Earth Resources Experiments Package S190-B (five-inch earth terrain camera) photograph taken from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. North of Mobile the Tombigbee and Alabama Rivers join to form the Mobile River. Detailed configuration of the individual stream channels and boundaries can be defined as the Mobile River flows into Mobile Bay, and thence into the Gulf of Mexico. The Mobile River Valley with its numerous stream channels is a distinct light shade in contrast to the dark green shade of the adjacent areas. The red coloration of Mobile Bay reflects the sediment load carried into the Bay by the rivers. Variations in red color indicate sediment load and the current paths within Mobile Bay. The waterly movement of the along shore currents at the mouth of Mobile Bay is shown by the contrasting light blue of the sediment-laden current and the blue of the Gulf predominately. Agricultural areas east and west of Mobile Bay are characterized by a rectangular pattern in green to white shades. Color variations may reflect the type and growth cycle of crops. Agricultural areas (light gray-greens) are also clearly visible in other parts of the photograph. Interstate 10 extends from near Pascagoula, Mississippi eastward through Mobile to the outskirts of Pensacola, Florida. Analysis of the EREP photographic data will be undertaken by the U.S. Corps of Engineers to determine bay dynamic processes. Federal agencies participating with NASA on the EREP project are the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Corps of Engineers. All EREP photography is available to the public through the Department of Interior's Earth Resources Observations Systems Data Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. 57198 Photo credit: NASA

S73-35082 (July-Sept. 1973) --- A near vertical view of a portion of west Africa ravaged by drought for the past five years is seen in this Skylab 3 Earth Resources Experiments Package S190-B (five-inch Earth terrain camera) photograph taken from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. The semi-desert scene is in southeastern Niger about 200 nautical miles east-northeast of the capital city of Niamey. A polygonal-shaped area (dark) in the lower right corner of the picture represents a range-management ranch. The dry stream beds trending diagonally across the photograph locally contain some water or vegetation (green). The beds are sources of water through shallow drilling and contain soils suitable for production of crops. The variety of tans, browns and grays are typical desert colors that represent barren rocks and soil or sand-filled ancient stream valleys. Absence of vegetation is the singular feature of the area. Dr. G. Stuckmann of the Geographic Institute, University of Technology, Mannover, Federal Republic of Germany, will use this photograph in the study of the hydrologic regime of the region through analysis of fossil drainage patterns, geological structures and accumulations of surface water. Federal agencies participating with NASA on the EREP project are the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Corps of Engineers. All EREP photography is available to the public through the Department of Interior?s Earth Resources Observations Systems Data Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 57198. (Alternate number SL3-86-166) Photo credit: NASA

SL3-88-053 (July-September 1973) --- A near vertical view of the Tennessee-Virginia-Kentucky border area is seen in this Skylab 3 Earth Resources Experiments Package S190-B (five-inch Earth terrain camera) photograph taken from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. The clock is in the most southerly corner of the picture. Interstate 81 under construction extends northeast-southwest across the bottom portion of the photograph. The larger urban area nearest the center of the picture is Kingsport, Tennessee. On the southern side of I-80 and east of Kingsport is the city of Bristol, Tennessee-Virginia. Johnson City, Tennessee is the urban area near the edge of the picture southeast of Kingsport. The Holston River, a tributary of the Tennessee River, meanders through the Kingsport area. The characteristic ridge and valley features in the Cumberland Plateau of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia are clearly visible. Forests (dark green) occur on the ridges and clearly outline the folded and faulted rock formations. The valleys (light) were formed in the softer rocks as a result of erosion. Agricultural areas are indicated by the characteristic rectangular patterns. Coal production is an important industry of this area; and it is mined by surface open pit operations. The irregular light areas in the Kentucky-Virginia border area are the strip mines which follow the contour of the land. Reclamation of the strip mine areas is aided through accurate knowledge of the mine and drainage systems. Dr. Ronald Brooks of the Wolf Research and Development Corporation can use this photograph in study of strip mine areas in the east central U.S. Federal agencies participating with NASA on the EREP project are the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Corps of Engineers. All EREP photography is available to the public through the Department of Interior’s Earth Resources Observations Systems Data Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 57198. Photo credit: NASA

SL3-87-355 (July-September 1973) --- A vertical view of the eastern coast of Sicily area is seen in this Skylab 3 Earth Resources Experiments Package S190-B (five-inch earth terrain camera) infrared photograph taken from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. Mount Etna, the highest volcano in Europe (10,958 feet), is still active as evidenced by the thin plume of smoke emanating from its crest. (The altitude is approximate because the height of the volcano changes with each eruption). On the flanks of Etna recent lava flows appear black in contrast to the older flows and volcanic debris that are red. Numerous small, circular cinder cones on the flanks represent sites of previous eruptions. Catania, on the Mediterranean coast south of Etna, is the largest of several cities and villages which appear as light-gray patches on the lower slopes of the volcano. Plano de Catania, south of the city of Catania, is outlined by polygonal light and dark agricultural tracts. Several lakes, the largest of which is Lake Pozzillo, show up as dark blue in the photograph. The unusual colors in the picture are due to the use of color infrared film in which vegetation appears red. This is very evident on the slopes of Etna, in the Monti Nebrodi area at upper let, and in the local areas in the lower part of the picture. Studies of Mount Etna and related volcanic features will be undertaken by Professor Roberto Cassinis of Servizio Geologio d?Italia, Rome. Federal agencies participating with NASA on the EREP project are the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Corps of Engineers. All EREP photography is available to the public through the Department of Interior?s Earth Resources Observation Systems Data Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 57198. Photo credit: NASA

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover used one of its navigation cameras to take this panorama of a proposed landing site for the Mars Sample Return lander. The lander would collect rock and sediment samples that Perseverance has taken and would also serve as the launch platform for a Mars Ascent Vehicle that would blast off from Mars, delivering the samples to an orbiter as part of their journey to Earth for intensive study. Choosing an area that lacks large rocks (especially those over 7 1/2 inches, or 19 centimeters, in diameter), sand dunes, and steeply angled terrain would go a long way toward easing the path for an MSR recovery vehicle to efficiently grab tubes before heading to the lander. This panorama is made up of five images taken on April 14, 2022 (the 409th Martian day, or sol, of the mission) and stitched together back on Earth. The color has been adjusted to match the lighting conditions as the human eye would perceive them on Earth. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25406

SL3-83-166 (July-September 1973) --- A vertical view of the Washington D.C. and the Baltimore, Maryland area is seen in the Skylab 3 Earth Resources Experiments Package S190-B (five-inch Earth terrain camera) photograph taken from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. The Chesapeake Bay is on the right (east) side of the picture. The Potomac River flows through the Washington area in the lower left (southwest) corner of the photograph. Several transportation routes and major highways stand out very distinctly. Especially conspicuous are the beltways around the cities, Interstate 95 between Baltimore and the nation?s capitol and Interstate 70N leading west from Baltimore. The tunnel and harbor facilities in Baltimore show clearly, also. Identifiable features in the Washington area include the Capitol Building, the Mall area, Robert F. Kennedy Stadium (white circle), the five bridges across the Potomac, Andrews Air Force Base (on east loop), and the smaller Anacostia River. The extent of the urbanization in this area is dramatically illustrated in this picture. The photograph has sufficient resolution that the housing patterns for individual suburban areas are clearly defined with the houses shown as pink gray, wooded areas as dark green and cleared areas light green. Chesapeake Bay circulation patterns are indicated by contrast of dark and light blue. Sediment plumes (red) are seen entering the bay north and east of Baltimore. The bay bridge stands out white against the blue water. The detailed information contained in this one photograph will be of direct use to several EREP investigator teams in land use analysis, sedimentation and circulation patterns in the bay, and resource surveys of Maryland. All EREP photography is available to the public through the Department of Interior?s Earth Resources Observations Systems Data Center, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 57198. Photo credit: NASA

Video footage from the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured this closeup view of the takeoff and landing of the 13th flight of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on Sept. 4, 2021. The 160.5-second reconnaissance sortie involved flying into challenging terrain and taking images of a specific outcrop from multiple angles. The closeup video of takeoff and landing was acquired as part of a science observation intended to measure the dust plumes generated by the helicopter. At the beginning of the video, Ingenuity is near the lower left of frame, at a distance of about 980 feet (300 meters) from the rover. It climbs to an altitude of to 26 feet (8 meters) before beginning its sideways translation. The helicopter leaves the camera's field of view on the right. Soon after, the helicopter returns into the field of view (the majority of frames that did not capture helicopter after it exited the camera's field of view were purposely not downlinked from Mars by the team) and lands at a location near its takeoff point. To obtain the footage, the two-camera Mastcam-Z's "right eye" was at its maximum zoom setting (110mm focal length). The video is shot at 6 frames per second. Another view (PIA24978) was taken at the same time by Mastcam-Z's "left eye" imager and provides a wider perspective of the same flight. The Mastcam-Z investigation is led and operated by Arizona State University in Tempe, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, California, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras, and in collaboration with the Neils Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen on the design, fabrication, and testing of the calibration targets. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Movie available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24979

Video footage from NASA's Perseverance Mars rover provides a big-picture perspective of the 13th flight of NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. The 160.5-second reconnaissance sortie involved flying into challenging terrain and taking images of a specific rocky outcrop from multiple angles. Captured from a distance of about 980 feet (300 meters) by the rover's two-camera Mastcam-Z, Ingenuity is barely discernable near the lower left of frame at the beginning of the video. An annotated version of this video highlighting the location of Ingenuity can be found here. At 0:04 seconds into the video Ingenuity takes off and climbs to an altitude of to 26 feet (8 meters) before beginning its sideways translation to the right. At the video's 0:59 second point, Ingenuity leaves the camera's field of view on the right. Soon after (1:02), the helicopter returns into the field of view (the majority of frames that did not capture helicopter after it exited the camera's field of view were purposely not downlinked from Mars by the team) and lands at a location near its takeoff point. To obtain the footage, the "left eye" of the Mastcam-Z instrument is set for a wide-angle shot (26 mm focal length). The video is shot at 6 frames per second. Another view (PIA24979) is taken at the same time by Mastcam-Z's other ("right eye") imager and provides a closer perspective of the helicopter as it took off and landed. The Mastcam-Z investigation is led and operated by Arizona State University in Tempe, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, California, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras, and in collaboration with the Neils Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen on the design, fabrication, and testing of the calibration targets. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Movie available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24978

SL3-83-0152 (July-September 1973) --- A near vertical view of the metropolitan Detroit, Michigan area is seen in this Skylab 3 Earth Resources Experiments Package S190-B (five-inch Earth terrain camera) photograph taken from the Skylab space station in Earth orbit. The 25-mile long Detroit River drains the smaller body of water (Lake St. Clair) and flows southwestward separating Detroit from Windsor, Ontario, and empties into Lake Erie. The Detroit River handles a great deal of Great Lakes barge and ship traffic. Major streets and thoroughfares radiating from the city are clearly visible. Fighting Island is the highly reflective, white area located almost in the center of the picture. This high reflectivity is caused by the functional use of the island-disposal ponds for chemical salts. Sedimentation and/or pollution patterns in the area provide interesting visual phenomena for speculation and analysis. Distinct and rather unique cultivated field patterns can be observed south and east of Windsor, Ontario. This is a direct result of an English survey and land tenure system which was utilized when the area was settled. New areas of residential development are fairly easy to differentiate from older, established residential areas. Vegetation and extent of area coverage can be determined. The Oakland County Planning Commission and the Federal Bureau of Outdoor Recreation working closely with Irv Sattinger of the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (University of Michigan) are presently processing and analyzing photographic and Multispectral scanner data to determine its usefulness for recreation and open space site studies for this area. Photo credit: NASA

Mountains on the Moon On the Earth, we are taught that mountains form over millions of years, the result of gradual shifting and colliding plates. On the moon however, the situation is quite different. Even the largest lunar mountains were formed in minutes or less as asteroids and comets slammed into the surface at tremendous velocities, displacing and uplifting enough crust to create peaks that easily rival those found on Earth. On a few occasions in the past year, NASA has tilted the angle of LRO to do calibrations and other tests. In such cases the camera has the opportunity to gather oblique images of the lunar surface like the one featured here of Cabeus Crater providing a dramatic view of the moon's mountainous terrain. Cabeus Crater is located near the lunar south pole and contains the site of the LCROSS mission's impact. Early measurements by several instruments on LRO were used to guide the decision to send LCROSS to Cabeus. During the LCROSS impact LRO was carefully positioned to observe both the gas cloud generated in the impact, as well as the heating at the impact site. Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University To see the other nine images go to: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/first-year.html" rel="nofollow">www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/first-year.html</a> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe.

Team kite This kite was part of the scientific tool kit. It carried a camera that can be used to make high-resolution mosaics of the study site. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Jacob Bleacher In June, five student journalists from Stony Brook University packed their hiking boots and hydration packs and joined a NASA-funded science team for 10 days on the lava fields of Kilauea, an active Hawaiian volcano. Kilauea’s lava fields are an ideal place to test equipment designed for use on Earth’s moon or Mars, because volcanic activity shaped so much of those terrains. The trip was part of an interdisciplinary program called RIS4E – short for Remote, In Situ, and Synchrotron Studies for Science and Exploration – which is designed to prepare for future exploration of the moon, near-Earth asteroids and the moons of Mars. To read reports from the RIS4E journalism students about their experiences in Hawaii, visit <a href="http://ReportingRIS4E.com" rel="nofollow">ReportingRIS4E.com</a> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b> <b>Find us on <a href="http://instagrid.me/nasagoddard/?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured this mosaic of a location nicknamed "Castell Henllys" using its Mastcam-Z camera on April 13, 2023, the 763rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The rounded boulders seen here are believed to have been washed into Jezero Crater, which Perseverance is exploring, by strong flood waters billions of years ago. This occurred during one of three major periods that scientists have identified in the development of the lake and river system that occupied Jezero in the ancient past. This view looks toward the southwest, with the Castell Henllys area approximately 328 feet (100 meters) away. The mosaic is made up of three images that were stitched together after being sent back to Mars. The image has been processed to improve contrast on the terrain. Arizona State University leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras, and in collaboration with the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen on the design, fabrication, and testing of the calibration targets. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26208

This image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows gullies near the edge of Hale crater on southern Mars. The view covers an area about 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) across and was taken on Aug. 3, 2009. Martian gullies carved into hill slopes and the walls of impact craters were discovered several years ago. Scientists are excited to study these features because, on Earth, they usually form through the action of liquid water -- long thought to be absent on the Martian surface. Whether liquid water carves gullies under today's cold and dry conditions on Mars is a major question that planetary scientists are trying to answer. The gullies pictured here are examples of what a typical Martian gully looks like. You can see wide V-shaped channels running downhill (from top to bottom) where the material that carved the gully flowed. At the bottom of the channel this material empties out onto a fan-shaped mound. The fans from each gully overlap one other in complicated ways. At the tops of the channels, large amphitheater-shaped alcoves are carved in the rock. The material removed from these alcoves likely flowed downhill to the aprons through the gullies. The terrain in this image is at 36.5 degrees south latitude, 322.7 degrees east longitude. Gullies at this site are especially interesting because scientists recently discovered actively changing examples at similar locations. Images separated by several years showed changes in the appearance of some of these gullies. Today, planetary scientists are using the HiRISE camera to examine gullies such as the one in this image for change that might provide a clue about whether liquid water occurs on the surface of Mars. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA12194

A sweeping panorama combining 33 telephoto images into one Martian vista presents details of several types of terrain visible on Mount Sharp from a location along the route of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover. The rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam) recorded the component images with its right-eye camera on April 10, 2015, during the 952nd Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars, before that sol's drive. The panorama spans from south-southeast, at left, to west-southwest. The color has been approximately white-balanced to resemble how the scene would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. Higher elevations on Mount Sharp are visible at left, including the jagged skyline to the right of a 100-meter scale bar overlaid on the image. (One hundred meters is about 328 feet.) The 2-meter (7-foot) scale bar near the center of the scene is on an exposure of pale mudstone within Mount Sharp's basal geological unit, the Murray formation, and nearby darker rocks. The 3-meter (10-foot) scale bar farther to the right is at the base of a rise called "Gray Wolf Peak." "Logan Pass," a science destination for the rover, is at a dip on the horizon near the right edge of the panorama. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the rover's Mastcam. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19397

This early-morning view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover covers a field of view of about 130 degrees of the inner wall of Gale Crater. It was acquired during a period when there was very little dust or haze in the atmosphere, so conditions were optimal for long-distance imaging. The right side of the image fades into the glare of the rising sun. Mastcam's right-eye camera, which has a telephoto lens, took the component images on March 16, 2016, during the 1,284th sol, or Martian day, of Curiosity's work on Mars. The rover's location was on the "Naukluft Plateau" of lower Mount Sharp, inside Gale Crater. The view spans from west-northwest on the left to northeast on the right. Details of the morphology (shape and pattern of features) on the wall, which include gullies, channels and debris fans help geologists understand the processes that have shaped the crater and transported sediments -- sand, pebbles and larger rocks -- down to the floor of the crater. Some of the foothills show layers morphologically not unlike the layers Curiosity is exploring near the base of Mount Sharp, suggesting that the crater was filled along the north wall with sediments that have in large part now been eroded away, much as happened closer to Mount Sharp. The scene is presented with a color adjustment that approximates white balancing, to resemble how the terrain would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. Figure 1 includes labels on three peaks of the crater wall, for scale and position reference. The peak labeled "A," near the left end of the panorama, is at azimuth 291.8 degrees east of north and 18.1 miles (29.1 kilometers) away from the rover's position. It rises about 6,200 feet (1,900 meters) above the closest point on the floor of the crater. Peak "B," at azimuth 357.2 degrees east of north (or 2.8 degrees from north), is about 17.6 miles (28.4 kilometers) away and rises about 3,900 feet (1,200 meters) above the base of its foothills. Peak "C," at azimuth 33.6 degrees east of north, is about 27.3 miles (45.5 kilometers) distant and rises about 6,200 feet (1,900 meters) above the base of its foothills. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA20333

Mastcam-Z, a pair of zoomable cameras aboard NASA's Perseverance rover, imaged its calibration target for the first time on Feb. 20, 2021, the second Martian day, or sol, of Perseverance's mission. Visible in this natural-color composite are the Mastcam-Z primary-color and grayscale calibration target (the colorful circular object at right foreground) as well as the camera's secondary calibration target (the small colorful L-bracket just below the primary target). The Mastcam-Z team uses these targets to calibrate images of the Martian terrain to adjust for changes in brightness and dust in the atmosphere throughout the day. The white square plate containing a grid of circular colored disks mounted farther to the aft on the rover is the calibration target for the SuperCam instrument. To the left of the image, the dusty and rocky Martian surface is visible at the Perseverance rover's landing site in Jezero crater. For more details about the Mastcam-Z calibration targets, see the article "Mars in Full Color" on the Mastcam-Z public web site, at https://mastcamz.asu.edu/mars-in-full-color. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Subsequent missions by NASA in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency) would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these cached samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24423

This pair of images from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity rover illustrates how special filters are used to scout terrain ahead for variations in the local bedrock. The upper panorama is in the Mastcam's usual full color, for comparison. The lower panorama of the same scene, in false color, combines three exposures taken through different "science filters," each selecting for a narrow band of wavelengths. Filters and image processing steps were selected to make stronger signatures of hematite, an iron-oxide mineral, evident as purple. Hematite is of interest in this area of Mars -- partway up "Vera Rubin Ridge" on lower Mount Sharp -- as holding clues about ancient environmental conditions under which that mineral originated. In this pair of panoramas, the strongest indications of hematite appear related to areas where the bedrock is broken up. With information from this Mastcam reconnaissance, the rover team selected destinations in the scene for close-up investigations to gain understanding about the apparent patchiness in hematite spectral features. The Mastcam's left-eye camera took the component images of both panoramas on Sept. 12, 2017, during the 1,814th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. The view spans from south-southeast on the left to south-southwest on the right. The foreground across the bottom of the scene is about 50 feet (about 15 meters) wide. Figure 1 includes scale bars of 1 meter (3.3 feet) in the middle distance and 5 meters (16 feet) at upper right. Curiosity's Mastcam combines two cameras: the right eye with a telephoto lens and the left eye with a wider-angle lens. Each camera has a filter wheel that can be rotated in front of the lens for a choice of eight different filters. One filter for each camera is clear to all visible light, for regular full-color photos, and another is specifically for viewing the Sun. Some of the other filters were selected to admit wavelengths of light that are useful for identifying iron minerals. Each of the filters used for the lower panorama shown here admits light from a narrow band of wavelengths, extending to only about 5 to 10 nanometers longer or shorter than the filter's central wavelength. The three observations combined into this product used filters centered at three near-infrared wavelengths: 751 nanometers, 867 nanometers and 1,012 nanometers. Hematite distinctively absorbs some frequencies of infrared light more than others. Usual color photographs from digital cameras -- such as the upper panorama here from Mastcam -- combine information from red, green and blue filtering. The filters are in a microscopic grid in a "Bayer" filter array situated directly over the detector behind the lens, with wider bands of wavelengths. The colors of the upper panorama, as with most featured images from Mastcam, have been tuned with a color adjustment similar to white balancing for approximating how the rocks and sand would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22065

In December of 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 became the first people to leave our home planet and travel to another body in space. But as crew members Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders all later recalled, the most important thing they discovered was Earth. Using photo mosaics and elevation data from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), this video commemorates the 45th anniversary of Apollo 8's historic flight by recreating the moment when the crew first saw and photographed the Earth rising from behind the Moon. Narrator Andrew Chaikin, author of A Man on the Moon, sets the scene for a three-minute visualization of the view from both inside and outside the spacecraft accompanied by the onboard audio of the astronauts. The visualization draws on numerous historical sources, including the actual cloud pattern on Earth from the ESSA-7 satellite and dozens of photographs taken by Apollo 8, and it reveals new, historically significant information about the Earthrise photographs. It has not been widely known, for example, that the spacecraft was rolling when the photos were taken, and that it was this roll that brought the Earth into view. The visualization establishes the precise timing of the roll and, for the first time ever, identifies which window each photograph was taken from. The key to the new work is a set of vertical stereo photographs taken by a camera mounted in the Command Module's rendezvous window and pointing straight down onto the lunar surface. It automatically photographed the surface every 20 seconds. By registering each photograph to a model of the terrain based on LRO data, the orientation of the spacecraft can be precisely determined. Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASA_GoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b> <b>Find us on <a href="http://instagram.com/nasagoddard?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>

This video shows NASA's Perseverance Mars rover using its auto-navigation, or AutoNav, technology to drive 548 feet (167 meters) on Sept. 12, 2021, the 200th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. AutoNav allows the rover to autonomously re-plan its route around rocks or other obstacles on its way to a pre-established destination. The video was taken by the rover's navigation cameras; they are capable of color, but black-and-white images are better for navigation. The video has been sped up by roughly 200 times with roughly 30 seconds between frames. In total, the rover drove 574 feet (175 meters). The first 26 feet (8 meters) were based on commands sent up earlier by rover drivers, allowing Perseverance to build a 3D map of the terrain under and around it. This map allows the AutoNav function to assess the safety of available paths at the rover's location; engineers call this "crawling on to the map." Once AutoNav takes over, the rover autonomously chooses a path to reach the intended destination, continually imaging around itself to maintain a 98-foot-by-98-foot (30-meter-by-30-meter) map centered on the rover. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Movie available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24934

Mars is a dynamic planet. HiRISE has witnessed many surface changes over the past ten years, including hundreds of new craters formed by ongoing impacts. Most of these impacts are likely caused by asteroids that have strayed into collision courses with Mars. The planet's much thinner atmosphere compared to Earth makes small asteroids less likely to burn up prior to hitting the Martian surface. This new crater, which formed explosively at the point of impact, has a diameter of roughly 8 meters (about 25 feet), but its surrounding blast zone and ejecta extend over a kilometer (about one mile) beyond the crater itself. The materials exposed nearest the crater have distinctive yellowish and lighter grey appearances, while more distant ejected materials range from dark brown to bright bluish in an enhanced-color view. These varied materials may have originated from different layers penetrated by the impact. This new impact was discovered using the lower-resolution Context Camera (CTX), also on board Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. An older CTX image of this region from May 2012 shows a uniformly dust-covered surface, while a newer CTX image from September 2016 reveals the crater's dark blast zone. New craters on Mars are easiest to locate in such dust-coated terrains, where they provide opportunistic "road cuts" that allow scientists to see beneath the dust blanket and determine the underlying rock compositions and textures. This particular crater formed about 300 kilometers (roughly 200 miles) east of the Spirit rover's final resting spot in Gusev Crater. The map is projected here at a scale of 25 centimeters (9.8 inches) per pixel. [The original image scale is 26.2 centimeters (10.3 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning); objects on the order of 79 centimeters (31 inches) across are resolved.] North is up. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21451

This annotated image highlights potential routes that NASA's Perseverance team is considering in September 2022 for the rover to drive from the front of an ancient river delta to the rim of Jezero Crater. The team will continue to investigate the Martian terrain and consider the science potential of these options before choosing the rover's route. The Perseverance team and the U.S. Geological Survey collaborated on the base map seen here, combining multiple images from the High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera with color from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), both instruments aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The HiRISE images used span a period from 2007 to 2017. Perseverance landed on the floor of Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021. The delta, which Perseverance reached in April 2022, is a fan-shaped area where an ancient river once flowed into an ancient lake and deposited rocks and sediment. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25244

STS089-742-014 (22-31 Jan. 1998) --- This near-nadir picture of the central Andes, showing Santiago and other parts of Chile and Argentina, was photographed with a 70mm handheld camera from the Earth-orbiting space shuttle Endeavour. Santiago (population 4.7 million) is visible to the right of center, west of the snow-capped Andes Mountains. Mendoza, Argentina is the light spot in the upper center of the image in the eastern foothills of the Andes. Cerro Aconcagua, the highest peak in South America (22,834 feet) is due west of Mendoza. Note the sharp bend in the river valley to the junction with a straight north-trending valley. Aconcagua is the large, rounded mass with a bit of cloud just northwest of the valley junction. Bright white spots on the left of the image are salars, or dry lake beds of gypsum and/or salt. Usually dry, some contain water due to recent rains generated by the record El Nino this year. The Pacific Ocean is to the upper right. The continental shelf is very steep in this region and water depths drop (to almost 17,000 feet over a distance of about 60 miles) over the same distance inland from the coast, the Andes rise +17,000 to almost 23,000 feet. The reason for this is the very rapid plate motion between the Pacific Ocean plate and South America. According to NASA scientists, over the last 140 million years, South America has been overriding the Pacific plate resulting in the rapid rise in the Andes and the rapid subduction of the Pacific plate, along with any sediments that are shed into the ocean along the continental margin. The dark, linear mountain ranges east of the high Andes (right center) constitute the Precordillera block; rock strata there have been correlated with the Ordovician (approximately 470 million years old) rocks near El Paso, Texas. The rocks and the fossils within them are virtually identical in the two areas, which are now widely separated. This region would be considered a "remnant terrain" from the time when this portion of South America and Texas were once joined. Photo credit: NASA

Two of the raised treads, called grousers, on the left middle wheel of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover broke during the first quarter of 2017, including the one seen partially detached at the top of the wheel in this image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on the rover's arm. This image was taken on March 19, 2017, as part of a set used by rover team members to inspect the condition of the rover's six wheels during the 1,641st Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. Holes and tears in the wheels worsened significantly during 2013 as Curiosity was crossing terrain studded with sharp rocks on the route from near its 2012 landing site to the base of Mount Sharp. Team members have used MAHLI systematically since then to watch for when any of the zig-zag shaped grousers begin to break. The last prior set of wheel-inspection images from before Sol 1641 was taken on Jan. 27, 2017, (Sol 1591) and revealed no broken grousers. Longevity testing with identical aluminum wheels on Earth indicates that when three grousers on a given wheel have broken, that wheel has reached about 60 percent of its useful life. Curiosity has driven well over 60 percent of the amount needed for reaching all the geological layers planned as the mission's science destinations, so the start of seeing broken grousers is not expected to affect the mission's operations. Curiosity's six aluminum wheels are about 20 inches (50 centimeters) in diameter and 16 inches (40 centimeters) wide. Each of the six wheels has its own drive motor, and the four corner wheels also have steering motors. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21486

STS097-711-069 (30 Nov. - 11 Dec. 2000) This view featuring Cape Town and the Western Cape Province in the Republic of South Africa was provided by one of the STS-97 astronauts using a 70mm handheld camera aboard the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Endeavour. The capital and largest city of Western Cape Province, Cape Town (1995 population in the urban and suburban area shows in excess of 1.9 million), is visible between False Bay (large, U-shaped bay) and a smaller bay along the Atlantic coast of the peninsula. Within the urban built-up area some of the infrastructure of Cape Town, including the city center and the harbor and waterfront facilities, can be identified near the small bay (middle left edge of the image). Table Mountain elevation of 3563 feet (1086 meters above sea level) separates the city center (north of the mountain) from the southern suburbs of Cape Town. The Cape of Good Hope, long famous as the gateway from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean, is located at the southern tip of the claw-shaped peninsula. False Bay is a popular recreational region for the local residents of the greater Cape Town region, as well as a tourist attraction for people who live beyond the borders of South Africa. The lighter-colored terrain, mainly north of Cape Town, shows a landscape of large, cultivated field patterns. These coastal plains are separated from the interior by a chain of folded mountain ranges that include the Cedarberg (dark, linear, north/south aligned feature in the upper right corner) and the more complex, folded Herrivierberge Mountains (dark structure, right middle) that are located northeast of Cape Town.

One of the navigation cameras aboard NASA's Perseverance captured this image of the tracks made by the rover during its climb up the rim of Jezero Crater on Oct. 11, 2024, the 1,295th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The rover's tracks, seen disappearing into the distance, have churned up the regolith (broken rock and sand) on the surface, indicating high slip. The edges of the tracks are not straight or smooth, which indicates cross-track sliding during the drive. On less slippery terrain, the tracks have well defined lines from the grousers on the rover wheels. The distant river channel seen at the upper left of image is Neretva Vallis, which fed Jezero Crater with fresh water billions of years ago. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26379

This look ahead from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover includes four geological layers to be examined by the mission, and higher reaches of Mount Sharp beyond the planned study area. The redder rocks of the foreground are part of the Murray formation. Pale gray rocks in the middle distance of the right half of the image are in the Clay Unit. A band between those terrains is "Vera Rubin Ridge." Rounded brown knobs beyond the Clay Unit are in the Sulfate Unit, beyond which lie higher portions of the mountain. The view combines six images taken with the rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam) on Jan. 24, 2017, during the 1,589th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars, when the rover was still more than half a mile (about a kilometer) north of Vera Rubin Ridge. The panorama has been white-balanced so that the colors of the rock and sand materials resemble how they would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. It spans from east-southeast on the left to south on the right. The Sol 1589 location was just north of the waypoint labeled "Ogunquit Beach" on a map of the area that also shows locations of the Murray formation, Vera Rubin Ridge, Clay Unit and Sulfate Unit. The ridge was informally named in early 2017 in memory of Vera Cooper Rubin (1928-2016), whose astronomical observations provided evidence for the existence of the universe's dark matter. Annotated and full resolution TIFF files are available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA21716

This still image features a free-air gravity map of the Moon's southern latitudes developed by S. Goossens et al. from data returned by the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission. If the Moon were a perfectly smooth sphere of uniform density, the gravity map would be a single, featureless color, indicating that the force of gravity at a given elevation was the same everywhere. But like other rocky bodies in the solar system, including Earth, the Moon has both a bumpy surface and a lumpy interior. Spacecraft in orbit around the Moon experience slight variations in gravity caused by both of these irregularities. The free-air gravity map shows deviations from the mean gravity that a cueball Moon would have. The deviations are measured in milliGals, a unit of acceleration. On the map, purple is at the low end of the range, at around -400 mGals, and red is at the high end near +400 mGals. Yellow denotes the mean. The map shown here extends from the south pole of the Moon up to 50°S and reveals the gravity for that region in even finer detail than the global gravity maps published previously. The image illustrates the very good correlation between the gravity map and topographic features such as peaks and craters, as well as the mass concentration lying beneath the large Schrödinger basin in the center of the frame. The terrain in the image is based on Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) altimeter and camera data. Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b> <b>Find us on <a href="http://instagram.com/nasagoddard?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>

Antarctica—the continent at the southernmost reach of the planet—is fringed by cold, often frozen waters of the Southern Ocean. The extent of sea ice around the continent typically reaches a peak in September and a minimum in February. The photograph above shows Antarctic sea ice on November 5, 2014, during the annual cycle of melt. The image was acquired by the Digital Mapping System (DMS), a digital camera installed in the belly of research aircraft to capture images of terrain below. In this case, the system flew on the DC-8 during a flight as part of NASA’s Operation IceBridge. Most of the view shows first-year sea ice in the Bellingshausen Sea, as it appeared from an altitude of 328 meters (1,076 feet). The block of ice on the right side of the image is older, thicker, and was once attached to the Antarctic Ice Sheet. By the time this image was acquired, however, the ice had broken away to form an iceberg. Given its close proximity to the ice sheet, this could have been a relatively new berg. Read more: <a href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=86721" rel="nofollow">earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=86721</a> Credit: NASA/Goddard/IceBridge DMS L0 Raw Imagery courtesy of the Digital Mapping System (DMS) team and the NASA DAAC at the National Snow and Ice Data Center Credit: <b><a href="http://www.earthobservatory.nasa.gov/" rel="nofollow"> NASA Earth Observatory</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">NASA image use policy.</a></b> <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission. <b>Follow us on <a href="http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix" rel="nofollow">Twitter</a></b> <b>Like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Greenbelt-MD/NASA-Goddard/395013845897?ref=tsd" rel="nofollow">Facebook</a></b> <b>Find us on <a href="http://instagrid.me/nasagoddard/?vm=grid" rel="nofollow">Instagram</a></b>

This 60-second video pans across an enhanced-color composite image, or mosaic, of the delta at Jezero Crater on Mars. The delta formed billions of years ago from sediment that an ancient river carried to the mouth of the lake that once existed in the crater. Taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard NASA's Perseverance rover, the video begins looking almost due west of the rover, and sweeps to the right until it faces almost due north. Fourteen images compose the mosaic that provides the base image for this video (included as an additional figure); they were acquired on Nov. 28, 2021 (the 275th sol, or Martian day, of Perseverance's mission) as the rover sat at the highest vantage point in the "South Séítah" geological unit, allowing a perspective that included boulders and other features atop the delta as well as farther west and northwest across its surface. The mountains in the background are the rim of Jezero Crater. The view also shows brown hills in the middle distance that are part of an ancient delta, where a river hit a lake in the crater. The rover has spent the last several months exploring the sandy and rocky terrain in the foreground. The color bands of the image have been processed to improve visual contrast and accentuate color differences. The sky would not actually look blue to a human explorer on the Red Planet. The Mastcam-Z investigation is led and operated by Arizona State University in Tempe, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, California, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras, and in collaboration with the Neils Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen on the design, fabrication, and testing of the calibration targets. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA's Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. Movie available at https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25022

On July 19, 2013, in an event celebrated the world over, NASA's Cassini spacecraft slipped into Saturn's shadow and turned to image the planet, seven of its moons, its inner rings -- and, in the background, our home planet, Earth. With the sun's powerful and potentially damaging rays eclipsed by Saturn itself, Cassini's onboard cameras were able to take advantage of this unique viewing geometry. They acquired a panoramic mosaic of the Saturn system that allows scientists to see details in the rings and throughout the system as they are backlit by the sun. This mosaic is special as it marks the third time our home planet was imaged from the outer solar system; the second time it was imaged by Cassini from Saturn's orbit; and the first time ever that inhabitants of Earth were made aware in advance that their photo would be taken from such a great distance. With both Cassini's wide-angle and narrow-angle cameras aimed at Saturn, Cassini was able to capture 323 images in just over four hours. This final mosaic uses 141 of those wide-angle images. Images taken using the red, green and blue spectral filters of the wide-angle camera were combined and mosaicked together to create this natural-color view. A brightened version with contrast and color enhanced (Figure 1), a version with just the planets annotated (Figure 2), and an annotated version (Figure 3) are shown above. This image spans about 404,880 miles (651,591 kilometers) across. The outermost ring shown here is Saturn's E ring, the core of which is situated about 149,000 miles (240,000 kilometers) from Saturn. The geysers erupting from the south polar terrain of the moon Enceladus supply the fine icy particles that comprise the E ring; diffraction by sunlight gives the ring its blue color. Enceladus (313 miles, or 504 kilometers, across) and the extended plume formed by its jets are visible, embedded in the E ring on the left side of the mosaic. At the 12 o'clock position and a bit inward from the E ring lies the barely discernible ring created by the tiny, Cassini-discovered moon, Pallene (3 miles, or 4 kilometers, across). (For more on structures like Pallene's ring, see PIA08328). The next narrow and easily seen ring inward is the G ring. Interior to the G ring, near the 11 o'clock position, one can barely see the more diffuse ring created by the co-orbital moons, Janus (111 miles, or 179 kilometers, across) and Epimetheus (70 miles, or 113 kilometers, across). Farther inward, we see the very bright F ring closely encircling the main rings of Saturn. Following the outermost E ring counter-clockwise from Enceladus, the moon Tethys (662 miles, or 1,066 kilometers, across) appears as a large yellow orb just outside of the E ring. Tethys is positioned on the illuminated side of Saturn; its icy surface is shining brightly from yellow sunlight reflected by Saturn. Continuing to about the 2 o'clock position is a dark pixel just outside of the G ring; this dark pixel is Saturn's Death Star moon, Mimas (246 miles, or 396 kilometers, across). Mimas appears, upon close inspection, as a very thin crescent because Cassini is looking mostly at its non-illuminated face. The moons Prometheus, Pandora, Janus and Epimetheus are also visible in the mosaic near Saturn's bright narrow F ring. Prometheus (53 miles, or 86 kilometers, across) is visible as a faint black dot just inside the F ring and at the 9 o'clock position. On the opposite side of the rings, just outside the F ring, Pandora (50 miles, or 81 kilometers, across) can be seen as a bright white dot. Pandora and Prometheus are shepherd moons and gravitational interactions between the ring and the moons keep the F ring narrowly confined. At the 11 o'clock position in between the F ring and the G ring, Janus (111 miles, or 179 kilometers, across) appears as a faint black dot. Janus and Prometheus are dark for the same reason Mimas is mostly dark: we are looking at their non-illuminated sides in this mosaic. Midway between the F ring and the G ring, at about the 8 o'clock position, is a single bright pixel, Epimetheus. Looking more closely at Enceladus, Mimas and Tethys, especially in the brightened version of the mosaic, one can see these moons casting shadows through the E ring like a telephone pole might cast a shadow through a fog. In the non-brightened version of the mosaic, one can see bright clumps of ring material orbiting within the Encke gap near the outer edge of the main rings and immediately to the lower left of the globe of Saturn. Also, in the dark B ring within the main rings, at the 9 o'clock position, one can see the faint outlines of two spoke features, first sighted by NASA's Voyager spacecraft in the early 1980s and extensively studied by Cassini. Finally, in the lower right of the mosaic, in between the bright blue E ring and the faint but defined G ring, is the pale blue dot of our planet, Earth. Look closely and you can see the moon protruding from the Earth's lower right. (For a higher resolution view of the Earth and moon taken during this campaign, see PIA14949.) Earth's twin, Venus, appears as a bright white dot in the upper left quadrant of the mosaic, also between the G and E rings. Mars also appears as a faint red dot embedded in the outer edge of the E ring, above and to the left of Venus. For ease of visibility, Earth, Venus, Mars, Enceladus, Epimetheus and Pandora were all brightened by a factor of eight and a half relative to Saturn. Tethys was brightened by a factor of four. In total, 809 background stars are visible and were brightened by a factor ranging from six, for the brightest stars, to 16, for the faintest. The faint outer rings (from the G ring to the E ring) were also brightened relative to the already bright main rings by factors ranging from two to eight, with the lower-phase-angle (and therefore fainter) regions of these rings brightened the most. The brightened version of the mosaic was further brightened and contrast-enhanced all over to accommodate print applications and a wide range of computer-screen viewing conditions. Some ring features -- such as full rings traced out by tiny moons -- do not appear in this version of the mosaic because they require extreme computer enhancement, which would adversely affect the rest of the mosaic. This version was processed for balance and beauty. This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 17 degrees below the ring plane. Cassini was approximately 746,000 miles (1.2 million kilometers) from Saturn when the images in this mosaic were taken. Image scale on Saturn is about 45 miles (72 kilometers) per pixel. This mosaic was made from pictures taken over a span of more than four hours while the planets, moons and stars were all moving relative to Cassini. Thus, due to spacecraft motion, these objects in the locations shown here were not in these specific places over the entire duration of the imaging campaign. Note also that Venus appears far from Earth, as does Mars, because they were on the opposite side of the sun from Earth. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17172

This collage shows some of the most interesting geological sites that NASA's Dawn spacecraft has revealed at dwarf planet Ceres. Images were acquired with the spacecraft's framing camera during various phases of the mission: Survey orbit at a distance of about 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers); high-altitude mapping orbit (HAMO) at a distance of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers) from Ceres; and low-altitude mapping orbit (LAMO) at an altitude of 240 miles (385 kilometers). In the first row, from left to right: Ceres in shown in false color, roughly centered on Occator Crater, home of the brightest area on Ceres. This picture combines color images obtained by Dawn in its survey orbit. Red corresponds to a wavelength range around 980 nanometers (near infrared), green to a wavelength range around 750 nanometers (red, visible light) and blue to a wavelength range of around 430 nanometers (blue, visible light). This picture illustrates the diversity of terrains on Ceres where the bluish material points to recently emplaced material and the brownish background material is associated with older terrains. Juling Crater (12 miles, 20 kilometers in diameter) as seen in LAMO. Central coordinates are 36 degrees south latitude, 168 degrees east longitude. It is named after the Sakai/Orang Asli (Malaysia) spirit of the crops. This crater displays evidence for the presence of ice -- for example, in the form of a large flow feature seen at the top of the image. Oxo Crater (6 miles, 10 kilometers in diameter) as seen in LAMO. Center coordinates are 42 degrees north latitude, 0 degrees east longitude. It is named after the god of agriculture in Afro-Brazilian beliefs of Yoruba derivation. Oxo hosts the first site at which Dawn detected ice on Ceres, exposed by a landslide. Ahuna Mons is not only a volcano, but also the tallest mountain on Ceres. It is about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) high and 11 miles (17 kilometers) wide. Center coordinates are 10 degrees south latitude, 316 degrees east longitude. This view combines images obtained in LAMO in blue (430 nanometers), green (750 nanometers) and infrared (980 nanometers) color filters. Ahuna is named after the Sumi tribe (Nagaland, northeastern India) traditional post-harvest thanksgiving festival. Second Row Occator Crater (57 miles, 92 kilometers across) is seen in LAMO images. Center coordinates are 20 degrees north latitude, 239 degrees east longitude. Named after the Roman agricultural deity of the harrowing. This image shows a "Type I" flow feature with a thick "toe" typical of rock glaciers and icy landslides on Earth as viewed in LAMO. The flow feature, found in Ghanan Crater (77 degrees north latitude, 31 degrees east longitude), is one of the most voluminous on Ceres. Enhanced color view of Haulani Crater (21 miles, 34 kilometers in diameter) in color observed in HAMO. Central coordinates: 6 degrees north latitude, 11 degrees east longitude. Named after the Hawaiian plant goddess. Kokopelli Crater (21 miles, 34 kilometers in diameter) seen in LAMO. Central coordinates: 18 degrees north latitude, 125 degrees east longitude. Named after the Pueblo (SW USA) fertility deity, who presides over agriculture. This crater displays a nice arrangement of scarps that likely formed when the crater partly collapsed during its formation. Third Row Central region of Occator Crater, called Cerealia Facula, seen in color. The facula -- or "bright spot" -- is about 9 miles (14 kilometers) in diameter. Center coordinates: 20 N, 240 E. Cerealia refers to the major festival in Ancient Rome that celebrates the grain goddess Ceres (8 days in mid- to late April). The view was produced by combining the highest resolution images of Occator obtained in LAMO (at image scales of 35 meters, or 115 feet, per pixel) with color images obtained in HAMO (at image scales of 135 meters, or about 440 feet, per pixel). The three images used to produce the color were taken using filters centered at 430, 750 and 980 nanometers (the last being slightly beyond the range of human vision, in the near-infrared). North part of Nar Sulcus seen in LAMO. The full feature is about 39 miles (63 km) in length and is located around 42 degrees south latitude, 280 degrees east longitude. Nar is a Azerbaijani festival of pomegranate harvest held in October-November in Goychay city, center of pomegranate cultivation in Azerbaijan. A sulcus is a set of parallel furrows or ridges. Ikapati Crater (31 miles, 50 kilometers in diameter) seen in LAMO. Central coordinates: 34 degrees north latitude, 46 degrees east longitude. Ikapati is named after the Philippine goddess of the cultivated lands. The crater has a smooth floor, probably because heat from the impact that formed Ikapati caused ice in the ground to melt, and then refreeze. This view of Ceres, taken in LAMO, shows an area located at approximately 86 degrees south longitude, 177 degrees east longitude. This part of Ceres, near the south pole, has such long shadows because, from the perspective of this location, the sun is near the horizon. At the time this image was taken, the sun was 4 degrees north of the equator. If you were standing this close to Ceres' south pole, the sun would never get high in the sky during the course of a nine-hour Cerean day. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA22090