NASA has shared eight dreamy images of planets captured by their spacecrafts [efebe709]. The images showcase the beauty and wonder of our solar system. One of the images features Mercury, highlighting young craters in blue and opaque minerals in dark blue. Another image captures Saturn's rings extending on both sides from a distance of 690,000 miles. A close-up image of Jupiter's northern hemisphere reveals massive storms swirling in its gassy atmosphere. The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) captured an image of Earth's western hemisphere, showing snow and clouds in white, oceans in blue, and continents in green and brown. The images also include a picture of Pluto, displaying craters and cracks on its surface in red, white, tan, and orange. A photo of Mars displays large mud cracks in red and brown, believed to have formed during long cycles of wet and dry conditions. An image of Venus shows swirls of white blending with shades of red and tan. Lastly, there is a picture of Neptune taken from 4.4 million miles away [efebe709]. These dreamy images offer a glimpse into the incredible sights that NASA has captured through its exploration of our solar system.
In addition to the stunning images of planets, a pair of perfectly aligned 'wave clouds' were spotted above the Crozet Islands in the Southern Ocean [ea6ffc58]. The photo was taken by an unnamed astronaut on board the International Space Station on January 8, 2023. Wave clouds are repeating bands of cloud and non-cloud that look like wispy streaks floating in the sky when viewed from above or below. They are created when stable air moves over raised land, causing the air to oscillate up and down. The topography pushes the air upward before gravity pulls it back down. Wave clouds can also form above land but are more common over large bodies of water. The wave cloud on the left of the image is formed by air passing over Mount Marion-Dufresne, a 3,576-foot-tall peak on East Island, while the pattern on the right is caused by Mascarin Peak, a mountain on Possession Island. The Crozet Islands are uninhabited apart from a small research station on Possession Island. In the past, the islands have been home to marooned sailors who survived being shipwrecked. The islands are located roughly halfway between South Africa and Antarctica.
