The Dark Side of Pluto

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft took this stunning image of Pluto only a few minutes after closest approach on July 14, 2015. The image was obtained at a high phase angle –that is, with the sun on the other side of Pluto, as viewed by New Horizons. Seen here, sunlight filters through and illuminates Pluto’s complex […]

Great Barrier Reef Near Whitsunday Islands

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station used a powerful lens to photograph these three reefs in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef on Oct. 12, 2015. Reefs are easy to spot from space because the iridescent blues of shallow lagoons contrast sharply with the dark blues of deep water. via NASA http://ift.tt/1P1a2Iu

Chasma Boreale and North Polar Ice Cap of Mars

Mars has bright polar caps of ice that are easily visible from telescopes on Earth. A seasonal cover of carbon-dioxide ice and snow is observed to advance and retreat over the poles during the Martian year. Scientists using radar data have found a record of the most recent Martian ice age recorded in the north […]

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Prepared for Mission to an Asteroid

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is revealed after its protective cover is removed inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, on May 21, 2016. OSIRIS-REx, targeted for a Sept. 8 launch, will be the first U.S. mission to sample an asteroid, retrieve at least two ounces of surface material and return it to Earth […]

Fjord and Glacier in East-Central Greenland

On May 19, 2016, NASA’s IceBridge, an airborne survey of polar ice, crossed Greenland to fly central glacier flowlines in the east-central region of the country. This photo captures the fjord of Violin Glacier, with Nord Glacier at the upper left corner. This is IceBridge’s eighth spring campaign of science flights over Arctic sea and […]

Up and Over

Cassini orbited in Saturn’s ring plane — around the planet’s equator — for most of 2015. via NASA http://ift.tt/1WcJKuB

*pokes her head out* Hi!

First: Where did May go? It feels as if it was April yesterday. Second: I spent May revising the first 10 k of Vanished, and it is off  to the excellent Kari Sperring who kindly agreed to betaread it. While I am waiting for the edits back, I am outlining the second half.  I have […]

CubeSats Deployed From the International Space Station

CubeSats fly free after leaving the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer on the International Space Station on May 17, 2016. Seen here are two Dove satellites. The satellites are part of a constellation designed, built and operated by Planet Labs Inc. to take images of Earth from space. via NASA http://ift.tt/27I2gi7