WONDERS OF THE UNIVERSE

How many of the images in the following slides can you identify?

Saturn

Mars

Neptune

Mercury

Earth from space

Shadow of moon on earth

Global radar view of the surface of Venus from Magellan radar imaging between 1990–1994

Jupiter

Uranus

Europa (one of Jupiter’s moons)

Enhanced-color view of part of Conamara Chaos, showing ice rafts up to 10 km (6 mi) across. White areas are ejecta from the crater Pwyll

Craggy, 250 m high peaks and smooth plates are jumbled together in a close-up of Conamara Chaos

The craters Gula and Achelous (bottom), in the grooved terrain of Ganymede, with ejecta "pedestals" and ramparts.

Ganymede (one of Jupiter’s moons)

Io (one of Jupiter’s moons)

The detection of very high temperature volcanism--hotter than any terrestrial lavas currently erupting--is one of the most spectacular discoveries by the Galileo mission at Io. The images show curtains of lava fountains erupting on the surface. They were taken by the Galileo spacecraft on 11/26/99. The active region is approximately 25 kilometers long (15.5 miles) and 1 km (.6 mile) high.

Galileo image of cratered plains, illustrating the pervasive local smoothing of Callisto's surface

Callisto (one of Jupiter’s moons)

Titan (one of Saturn’s moons)

Triton (moon of Neptune)

Far side of the Moon, photographed by Apollo 16

Near side of the Moon

Size comparisons

kmSun 1,392,000Jupiter 142,984Saturn 120,536Uranus 51,118Neptune 49,532

←neptune

Halley's Comet, is the best-known of the short-period comets and is visible from Earth every 75–76 years. Next visit 2061.

Vesta, minor-planet designation 4 Vesta, is one of the largest asteroids in the Solar System, with a mean diameter of 525 kilometres.

OPTICAL

Crab Nebula

In the constellation of Taurus, a star is exploding. The explosion began with a supernova almost a thousand years ago, and the resulting Crab Nebula is continuing to expand at more than 1,000 km per second. It is home to a powerful pulsar.

The Horsehead Nebula is a dark nebula in the constellation Orion. The nebula is located just to the south of the star Alnitak, which is farthest east on Orion's Belt, and is part of the much larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex.

The Orion Nebula is a diffuse nebula situated south of Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky.

Horsehead

The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543, Caldwell 6) is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Draco

Multiwavelength X-ray, infrared, and optical

compilation image of Kepler's supernova remnant, SN 1604.

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Aurora borealis (northern lights)

Solar flare

Sunspot activity (notice predicted peak in 2013)

Milky Way (our) galaxy

Andromeda galaxy

Infrared image

Colliding galaxies

Hubble deep field image of galaxies and galaxy formation