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Photos from Space By Kylie MacKinnon

Earth is massive. 196.9 million miles squared, to be exact. To travel around the circumference of the world by plane would take 51 hours. However, the universe is much, much bigger. Our solar system consists of eight planets. Although only four of the eight planets have been traveled to, images from space are some of the most interesting and mind-boggling photographs you will ever see.

Image to the right by NASA

Picture of Mars' surface on 11/18/2021 by NASA's Image of the Week

The image above is the surface of Mars taken recently by NASA. Each week they upload photos from Mars directly to this website. The photo was taken on November 18, 2021 and depicts the interesting and foreign terrain of Mars' surface. According to an interview with space scientists by NASA, Mars could have potentially been habited by other forms of life. Currently, Mars’ surface temperature is hundreds of degrees cooler than Earth. However, studies have shown that a long time ago, the surface temperature of Mars was warmer. Studies have also shown that there were once many sources of water on Mars for a lengthy period of time; long enough to allow some form of evolution to happen. The image to the left shows clay formations that were initially believed to be water on the surface of Mars. The idea that science could prove that there were once life forms growing on another planet, however, is amazing; and serves as a basis that there could be other planets somewhere in the universe habited by living creatures.

Image to the left by NASA Mars Exploration Program

NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University

The image above depicts the Moon's rough, wavy surface looking over Earth. Earth is much bigger than the moon, as it is equivalent to approximately 50 moons. So looking at Earth from the moon is much different then how we see the Moon every night from Earth. The Moon is made up of different layers, with the heaviest matter in the center and the lightest making up the surface. The image to the right shows the Moon's surface and displays the massive craters as well. The moon is around 238,855 miles away from Earth, and it takes three days for a spacecraft to get there. Although it seems far away, the Moon is much closer than we think.

Image to the right by NASA Science; "Earth's Moon"

This image of Jupiter is a "mosaic" of hundreds of exposures put together. The image was created by the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii. The image is considered infrared, meaning it uses longer wavelengths to see through the thin clouds of a planets surface. The clarity of this image combined with the glowing, hot areas of land on Jupiter's surface make this image all the more interesting.

Image by International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

This image displays Saturn and five of its moons. Saturn actually has an estimated total of 82 moons. 53 of them have been confirmed by scientists, while the other 29 are either waiting to be confirmed or waiting to be discovered. Some of Saturn's moons are the size of Mercury, while others are smaller than a US state.

Image by NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

This image shows a burst of stars forming in the universe. Many images like these are taken by the Hubble telescope everyday, as new stars are constantly forming. Actually, around 4,800 are believed to be formed per second.

Image by ESA/Hubble & NASA, O. Graur

The image to the left shows a three dimensional computer generated display of Venus' tallest volcano- Maat Mons. Tons of different research is combined to form these 3D views of Venus' surface. The light, glowing parts of the image is lava flowing from the volcano.

Image to the left by NASA Science

The image to the right is the first image of a different solar system with more than one planet in orbit. Scientists already knew that planets outside of our solar system existed because they have studied the absence of star light when exoplanets would pass over them. However, taking images of these exoplanets and even the solar systems hundreds of lightyears away is a more complicated process. The center star, similar to our sun, is the bright light in the upper left-hand corner. The two other dots of light are exoplanets. The star that the planet is orbiting is around 300 light years away, and is around 17 million years old. Comparatively, our sun is 4.5 billion years old.

Image to the right by the European Southern Observatory

This is a computer generated image of the exoplanet 55 cancri e. The Super Earth planet was discovered in 2004 orbiting a star called Copernicus. What makes this planet so interesting is actually what it is made of. Although scientists can not be completely sure, they strongly believe the planet is made of mostly carbon in the form of diamond. They predict that at least a third of the planet is made up of diamond. Another interesting fact about this planet is that the atmosphere is predicted to contain large amounts of silicates, which would reflect the lava gleaming on the surface of the planet. In other words, the sky on this diamond-filled-planet would sparkle.

Image to the right by ESA/Hubble/M. Kornmesser

The following images are from NASA's "Solar System and Beyond" gallery

This image is displaying the remains of a cosmic explosion.

This image shows the combination of glowing hydrogen gas, various ages of populations of stars, and lanes of dust.

This image shows the shock wave produced by the collision of various gases.

This is a Stellar Nursery, an area in outer space where gas and dust collect to form a large mass of stars.

This image shows fragments of Titanium exploding out of a supernova.

This is an image of a Veil Nebula, which is a massive cloud of heated gas and ionized dust.

This image is of a spinning neutron star surrounded by space particles, and gained attraction when many people saw shapes and figures in the beauty of this starry image.

Created By
Kylie MacKinnon
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