You could call this “Pac-Man, the Sequel.” Scientists with NASA’s Cassini mission have spotted a second feature shaped like the 1980s video game icon in the Saturn system, this time on the moon Tethys. (The first was found on Mimas Continue reading
NASA’s Galileo spacecraft acquired its highest resolution images of Jupiter’s moon Io on 3 July 1999 during its closest pass to Io since orbit insertion in late 1995. This color mosaic uses the near-infrared, green and violet filters (slightly more Continue reading
A giant of a moon appears before a giant of a planet undergoing seasonal changes in this natural color view of Titan and Saturn from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, measures 3,200 miles, or 5,150 kilometers, across and Continue reading
Reddish spots and shallow pits pepper the ridged surface of Jupiter’s moon, Europa, in this view combining information from images taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft during two different orbits around Jupiter. The dark spots are called “lenticulae,” the Latin term Continue reading
The HRSC on ESA’s Mars Express obtained this perspective view on 2 February 2005 during orbit 1343 with a ground resolution of approximately 15 metres per pixel. It shows an unnamed impact crater located on Vastitas Borealis, a broad plain Continue reading
![Crescent Neptune and Triton (NASA) [thumb]](http://space.perraudin.fr/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/neptune-triton-voyager-2-thumb-644x299.jpg)
Gliding silently through the outer Solar System, the Voyager 2 spacecraft camera captured Neptune and Triton together in crescent phase in 1989. The above picture of the gas giant planet and its cloudy moon was taken from behind just after Continue reading
It looks like even the craters on Mercury have heard of Bob Ross! The central peaks of this complex crater have formed in such a way that it resembles a smiling face. This image is oriented so north is toward Continue reading
A dust devil the size of a terrestrial tornado towers above the Martian surface in this late springtime afternoon image of Amazonis Planitia. Also captured by the Context Camera on MRO, the length of the shadow indicates that the dust Continue reading
What has happened to Saturn’s moon Iapetus? Vast sections of this strange world are dark as coal, while others are as bright as ice. The composition of the dark material is unknown, but infrared spectra indicate that it possibly contains Continue reading
Why is this moon shaped like a smooth egg? The robotic Cassini spacecraft completed the first flyby ever of Saturn’s small moon Methone in May and discovered that the moon has no obvious craters. Craters, usually caused by impacts, have Continue reading