Tales of the Heliosphere

One of the most appreciated but unremarked benefits of Earth's space programs are the beautiful photographs. For instance, this one of Mars: The smiley face crater is Galle. Or this one of Saturn's moon Dione: Or this photo of Saturn taken by the Cassini probe: You won't see that from Earth.

Two days ago the Boston Globe published a set of photographs taken in near Earth orbit of the International Space Station. (Here.) The images are striking.

It's a cliche to refer to the blackness or darkness of space. So, it's interesting to see how bright space appears in the photographs. Presumably, even in the darkness of space, it's going to be bright outside when your orbit takes you to the day side of the Earth. What with the sun being just 93 million miles away and all and no atmosphere to speak of to diffuse the sunlight.

Anyway, go to the link and enjoy.

-tdr

Republished once to correct premature publication.

Labels: Aesthetics, Astronomy, Saturn, Space Exploration

In our perennial search for a space exploration sales pitch one justification never gets discussed. The space program produces some beautiful art. Check out this NASA webpage of Mars photos (here) for a sampling of the beauty out there that the space program brings home to us. And then look at this Hubble website (here), and Cassini's photo gallery of Saturn (here) for more. We live in a beautiful universe.

-tdr

Technorati: NASA, astronomy, space, art.

Labels: Aesthetics, Astronomy, Hubble, Mars, NASA, Saturn