NASA photographs of the earth from space. Cities and countries from space. Amazing photos. New images of Mars

Earth is a planet of amazing beauty, captivating with its incredible landscapes. But if you look into the depths of space using powerful telescopes, you understand: there is also something to admire in space. And photographs taken by NASA satellites are therefore confirmation.

1. Sunflower Galaxy

The Sunflower Galaxy is one of the most beautiful cosmic structures known to man in the Universe. Its sweeping spiral arms are composed of new blue-white giant stars.

2. Carina Nebula

Although many people think this image is photoshopped, it is actually a real photo of the Carina Nebula. Giant accumulations of gas and dust stretch over more than 300 light years. This region of active star formation is located at a distance of 6,500 - 10,000 light years from Earth.

3. Clouds in the atmosphere of Jupiter

This infrared image of Jupiter shows clouds in the planet's atmosphere, colored differently depending on their height. Because the large amount of methane in the atmosphere limits the penetration of sunlight, yellow areas are clouds at the highest altitude, red are mid-level, and blue are the lowest clouds.

What's really amazing about this image is that it shows the shadows of all three of Jupiter's largest moons - Io, Ganymede and Callisto. An event like this occurs approximately once every ten years.

4. Galaxy I Zwicky 18

Zwicky 18's shot of Galaxy I looks more like a scene from Doctor Who, which adds a special cosmic beauty to the image. The dwarf irregular galaxy puzzles scientists because some of its star formation processes are typical of the formation of galaxies in the earliest days of the Universe. Despite this, the galaxy is relatively young: its age is only about a billion years.

5. Saturn

The faintest planet that can be seen from Earth with the naked eye, Saturn is generally considered the favorite planet for all budding astronomers. Its remarkable ring structure is the most famous in our Universe. The image was taken in infrared light to show the subtle nuances of Saturn's gaseous atmosphere.

6. Nebula NGC 604

More than 200 very hot stars make up the nebula NGC 604. The Hubble Space Telescope was able to capture the nebula's impressive fluorescence caused by ionized hydrogen.

7. Crab Nebula

Compiled from 24 individual images, this photograph of the Crab Nebula shows a supernova remnant in the constellation Taurus.

8. Star V838 Mon

The red ball in the center of this image is the star V838 Mon, surrounded by many dust clouds. This incredible photo was taken after a starburst caused a so-called "light echo" that pushed dust further away from the star and into space.

9. Westerlund 2 Cluster

The Westerlund 2 cluster was photographed in infrared and visible light. It was published in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Hubble telescope in Earth orbit.

10. Hourglass

One of the creepy images (in fact, the only one of its kind) that NASA captured is the Hourglass Nebula. It was named so because of the unusually shaped gas cloud that was formed under the influence of stellar wind. It all looks like a creepy eye that looks from the depths of space to Earth.

11. Witch's broom

The image of part of the Veil Nebula, which is 2,100 light-years from Earth, shows all the colors of the rainbow. Due to its elongated and thin shape, this nebula is often called the Witch's Broom Nebula.

12. Constellation Orion

In the constellation Orion you can see a real giant lightsaber. It is actually a jet of gas under enormous pressure that creates a shock wave upon contact with surrounding dust.

13. Explosion of a supermassive star

This image shows the explosion of a supermassive star that looks more like a birthday cake than a supernova. Two loops of star remnants extend unevenly, while a ring in the center surrounds the dying star. Scientists are still searching for a neutron star or black hole at the center of the former giant star.

14. Whirlpool Galaxy

Although the Whirlpool Galaxy looks magnificent, it hides a dark secret (literally) - the galaxy is full of ravenous black holes. On the left, the Maelstrom is shown in visible light (i.e., its stars), and on the right, in infrared light (its dust cloud structures).

15. Orion Nebula

In this image, the Orion Nebula looks like the open mouth of a Phoenix bird. The image was taken in infrared, ultraviolet and visible light to create an incredibly colorful and detailed image. The bright spot where the bird's heart used to be is four giant stars, about 100,000 times brighter than the Sun.

16. Ring Nebula

As a result of the explosion of a star similar to our Sun, the Ring Nebula was formed - beautiful hot layers of gas and remnants of the atmosphere. All that remains of the star is a small white dot in the center of the picture.

17. Milky Way

If anyone needed to describe what hell looks like, they could use this infrared image of the core of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Hot, ionized gas swirls at its center in a giant vortex, and massive stars are born in various locations.

18. Cat's Eye Nebula

The stunning Cat's Eye Nebula is made up of eleven rings of gas that predate the formation of the nebula itself. The irregular internal structure is believed to be the result of a fast-moving stellar wind that "torn" the bubble shell at both ends.

19. Omega Centauri

More than 100,000 stars cluster together in the Omega Centauri globular cluster. The yellow dots are middle-aged stars, like our Sun. The orange dots are older stars, and the large red dots are stars in the red giant phase. After these stars shed their outer layer of hydrogen gas, they turn bright blue.

20. Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula

One of NASA's most popular photographs of all time is the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula. These giant formations of gas and dust were captured in visible light. The pillars change over time as they are "weathered" by stellar winds from nearby stars.

21. Stefan Quintet

Five galaxies, known as Stephen's Quintet, are constantly fighting with each other. Although the blue galaxy in the upper left corner is much closer to Earth than the others, the other four are constantly "stretching" each other apart, distorting their shapes and tearing their arms.

22. Butterfly Nebula

Informally known as the Butterfly Nebula, NGC 6302 is actually the remnants of a dying star. Its ultraviolet radiation causes the gases ejected by the star to glow brightly. The butterfly's wings extend over two light years, or half the distance from the Sun to the nearest star.

23. Quasar SDSS J1106

Quasars are the result of supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies. Quasar SDSS J1106 is the most energetic quasar ever found. About 1,000 light-years from Earth, SDSS J1106's emission is roughly equal to 2 trillion Suns, or 100 times that of the entire Milky Way.

24. War and Peace Nebula

The nebula NGC 6357 is one of the most dramatic works in the sky and it is not surprising that it has been unofficially dubbed "War and Peace". Its dense network of gas forms a bubble around the bright star cluster Pismis 24, then uses its ultraviolet radiation to heat the gas and push it out into the Universe.

25. Carina Nebula

One of the most breathtaking images of space is the Carina Nebula. The interstellar cloud, composed of dust and ionized gases, is one of the largest nebulae visible in Earth's sky. The nebula consists of countless star clusters and even the brightest star in the Milky Way galaxy.

The frame shows the islands that make up Venice and the Venetian Lagoon that surrounds them. The image was taken on June 22, 2008 from the commercial satellite Ikonos-2.

The photo shows the extraordinary landscape of the Tanezrouft Desert, one of the most uninhabited parts of the Sahara in southern Algeria. The image was taken on June 24, 2009 from the advanced Japanese ALOS satellite.

Photo: JAXA, ESA

Fertile farmland in the Imperial Valley of Southern California, USA, imaged on July 4, 2010 by the ALOS 4-ton Earth observation satellite.

Photo: ESA, 2009

A plankton bloom in the Barents Sea off the northern coast of Europe, captured by the Envisat satellite on August 19, 2009.

Photo: ESA

The Jurua River (a right tributary of the Amazon) meanders through the Amazon rain forest in western Brazil. The image was compiled from three frames received from the Envisat satellite on January 2, February 1 and March 3, 2012.

Photo: ESA

This Envisat image shows snow clouds blanketing the North Sea and sweeping down toward the strait between Denmark (bottom right) and Norway (top center). In the upper right, a more massive cluster of clouds covers southeastern Norway and extends over Sweden. Part of the Danish Jutland Peninsula is visible in the lower right corner.

Photo: KARI/ESA

The image was taken on November 24, 2012 by the Kompsat-2 satellite. Before you is the Mangistau region in the southwest of Kazakhstan, east of the Caspian Sea. The road network in the lower left of the image is the Karakuduk oil field. White squares in the “web” indicate oil wells.

Photo: KARI/ESA

The Kompsat-2 satellite captured rolling hills of farmland in the northwestern United States.

Photo: European Space Agency

In this Envisat satellite image, the Ganges River delta in southern Asia is visible in the foreground. It is also the largest delta in the world.

Photo: USGS/ESA

This artificially colored image was received on May 4, 2012 from the Geological Survey satellite LandSat-5. The arable agricultural lands of the American state of Kansas are divided into circles and rectangles due to the different types of irrigation systems used.

Photo: ESA

The massive iceberg in the center of the image broke off from the Petermann Glacier in Greenland in August 2010. The Envisat satellite captured this image on May 4, 2011. From late May to late June, more than 1,000 icebergs flock into the southern part of the Labrador Sea, which is why the place is called “Iceberg Alley.”

Photo: JAXA, ESA

Deep in the Sahara Desert, in southeastern Libya, lies the Al Jaf oasis, depicted in this image from Japan's ALOS satellite. The city can be seen in the upper left corner. The two parallel lines are the runways of Kufra Airport.

Photo: KARI/ESA

The Korean satellite Kompsat-2 captured this image of southern and central Romania on January 2, 2013.

Photo: ESA

Most of Siberia, which is visible in the photo, lies above the Arctic Circle. This is also a permafrost region. In the lower left corner stands out the Yenisei River, which flows north into the Kara Sea. Photo taken by Envisat satellite on March 5, 2012.

Photo.

Satellite map of Russia - high-resolution images taken from space by orbital stations. The image that the user sees consists of many individual images. The high quality of equipment used at orbital stations made it possible to achieve the highest quality of imaging. As a result, on the screens of mobile devices and PC monitors, we have access to high-precision, high-resolution images, the image of which is very accurate and clear.

The satellite map of Russia displays high-resolution images in real time. You can see almost all Russian cities on them. By zooming in and out of objects, moving the cursor over individual sections of the map, you will be able to view streets, buildings, individual structures and squares. The larger the city, the more detailed the satellite map section will be for it.

Satellite map online in real time 2016 - exploring the country together

High resolution satellite maps online 2016 - a set of high-precision images through which you can study settlements of different sizes at a specific point in time. The user, selecting the object and scale he needs, receives a snapshot of it at the same point in time. By selecting the appropriate parameters instead of the “satellite view” mode, you can display the image:

• landscape view;
• schematic representation of Russia and its individual cities;
• Satellite view - real image.

Online high-resolution satellite maps of 2015-2016 are the most user-friendly models of interactive map images from the website service. They will allow you to travel throughout the entire state, from anywhere in the world. Satellites make it possible to track current data on the location and condition of various muddy objects from different settlements in vast Russia.

Photos from space published on the websites of NASA and other space agencies often attract the attention of those who doubt their authenticity - critics find traces of editing, retouching or color manipulation in the images. This has been the case since the birth of the “moon conspiracy,” and now photographs taken not only by Americans, but also by Europeans, Japanese, and Indians have come under suspicion. Together with the N+1 portal, we are looking into why space images are processed at all and whether, despite this, they can be considered authentic.

In order to correctly assess the quality of space images that we see on the Internet, it is necessary to take into account two important factors. One of them is related to the nature of interaction between agencies and the general public, the other is dictated by physical laws.

Public relations

Space images are one of the most effective means of popularizing the work of research missions in near and deep space. However, not all footage is immediately available to the media.

Images received from space can be divided into three groups: “raw”, scientific and public. Raw, or original, files from spacecraft are sometimes available to everyone, and sometimes not. For example, images taken by the Mars rovers Curiosity and Opportunity or Saturn's moon Cassini are released in near real time, so anyone can see them at the same time as scientists studying Mars or Saturn. Raw photographs of the Earth from the ISS are uploaded to a separate NASA server. Astronauts flood them with thousands, and no one has time to pre-process them. The only thing that is added to them on Earth is a geographic reference to make searching easier.

Typically, public footage that is attached to press releases from NASA and other space agencies is criticized for retouching, because they are the ones that catch the eye of Internet users in the first place. And if you want, you can find a lot of things there. And color manipulation:

Photo of the landing platform of the Spirit rover in visible light and capturing near-infrared light.
(c) NASA/JPL/Cornell

And overlaying several images:

Earthrise over Compton Crater on the Moon.

And copy-paste:

Fragment of Blue Marble 2001
(c) NASA/Robert Simmon/MODIS/USGS EROS

And even direct retouching, with erasing some image fragments:

Highlighted shotApollo 17 GPN-2000-001137.
(c) NASA

NASA’s motivation in the case of all these manipulations is so simple that not everyone is ready to believe it: it’s more beautiful.

But it’s true, the bottomless blackness of space looks more impressive when it’s not interfered with by debris on the lens and charged particles on the film. A color frame is indeed more attractive than a black and white one. A panorama from photographs is better than individual frames. It is important that in the case of NASA it is almost always possible to find the original footage and compare one with the other. For example, the original version (AS17-134-20384) and the “printable” version (GPN-2000-001137) of this image from Apollo 17, which is cited as almost the main evidence of retouching of lunar photographs:

Comparison of frames AS17-134-20384 and GPN-2000-001137
(c) NASA

Or find the rover’s “selfie stick,” which “disappeared” when creating its self-portrait:

Curiosity images from January 14, 2015, Sol 868
(c) NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Physics of Digital Photography

Typically, those who criticize space agencies for manipulating color, using filters, or publishing black-and-white photographs “in this digital age” fail to consider the physical processes involved in producing digital images. They believe that if a smartphone or camera immediately produces color frames, then a spacecraft should be even more capable of doing this, and they have no idea what complex operations are needed to immediately get a color image onto the screen.

Let us explain the theory of digital photography: the matrix of a digital camera is, in fact, a solar battery. There is light - there is current, no light - no current. Only the matrix is ​​not a single battery, but many small batteries - pixels, from each of which the current output is separately read. Optics focuses light onto a photomatrix, and electronics reads the intensity of energy released by each pixel. From the data obtained, an image is constructed in shades of gray - from zero current in the dark to maximum in the light, that is, the output is black and white. To make it color, you need to apply color filters. It turns out, oddly enough, that color filters are present in every smartphone and in every digital camera from the nearest store! (For some, this information is trivial, but, according to the author’s experience, for many it will be news.) In the case of conventional photographic equipment, alternating red, green and blue filters are used, which are alternately applied to individual pixels of the matrix - this is the so-called Bayer filter .

The Bayer filter consists of half green pixels, and red and blue each occupy one quarter of the area.
(c) Wikimedia

We repeat here: navigation cameras produce black and white images because such files weigh less, and also because color is simply not needed there. Scientific cameras allow us to extract more information about space than the human eye can perceive, and therefore they use a wider range of color filters:

Matrix and filter drum of the OSIRIS instrument on Rosetta
(c) MPS

Using a filter for near-infrared light, which is invisible to the eye, instead of red, resulted in Mars appearing red in many of the images that made it into the media. Not all of the explanations about the infrared range were reprinted, which gave rise to a separate discussion, which we also discussed in the material “What color is Mars.”

However, the Curiosity rover has a Bayer filter, which allows it to shoot in colors familiar to our eyes, although a separate set of color filters is also included with the camera.

(c) NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The use of individual filters is more convenient in terms of selecting the light ranges in which you want to look at the object. But if this object moves quickly, then its position changes in pictures in different ranges. In the Elektro-L footage, this was noticeable in the fast clouds, which managed to move in a matter of seconds while the satellite was changing the filter. On Mars, a similar thing happened when filming sunsets at the Spirit and Opportunity rover - they do not have a Bayer filter:

Sunset taken by Spirit on Sol 489. Overlay of images taken with 753,535 and 432 nanometer filters.
(c) NASA/JPL/Cornell

On Saturn, Cassini has similar difficulties:

Saturn's moons Titan (behind) and Rhea (front) in Cassini images
(c) NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

At the Lagrange point, DSCOVR faces the same situation:

Transit of the Moon across the Earth's disk in a DSCOVR image on July 16, 2015.
(c) NASA/NOAA

To get a beautiful photo from this shoot suitable for distribution in the media, you have to work in an image editor.

There is another physical factor that not everyone knows about - black and white photographs have higher resolution and clarity compared to color ones. These are so-called panchromatic images, which include all the light information entering the camera, without cutting off any parts of it with filters. Therefore, many “long-range” satellite cameras shoot only in panchrome, which for us means black and white footage. Such a LORRI camera is installed on New Horizons, and a NAC camera is installed on the LRO lunar satellite. Yes, in fact, all telescopes shoot in panchrome, unless special filters are used. (“NASA is hiding the true color of the Moon” is where it came from.)

A multispectral “color” camera, equipped with filters and having much lower resolution, can be attached to a panchromatic one. At the same time, its color photographs can be superimposed on panchromatic ones, as a result of which we obtain high-resolution color photographs.

Pluto in panchromatic and multispectral images from New Horizons
(c) NASA/JHU APL/Southwest Research Institute

This method is often used when photographing the Earth. If you know about this, you can see in some frames a typical halo that leaves a blurry color frame:

Composite image of the Earth from the WorldView-2 satellite
(c)DigitalGlobe

It was through this overlay that the very impressive frame of the Earth above the Moon was created, which is given above as an example of overlaying different images:

(c) NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University

Additional processing

Often you have to resort to the tools of graphic editors when you need to clean up a frame before publishing. Ideas about the perfection of space technology are not always justified, which is why debris on space cameras is common. For example, the MAHLI camera on the Curiosity rover is simply crap, there’s no other way to put it:

Photo of Curiosity by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on Sol 1401
(c) NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

A speck in the STEREO-B solar telescope gave rise to a separate myth about an alien space station constantly flying above the north pole of the Sun:

(c) NASA/GSFC/JHU APL

Even in space, it is not uncommon for charged particles to leave their traces on the matrix in the form of individual dots or stripes. The longer the shutter speed, the more traces remain; “snow” appears on the frames, which does not look very presentable in the media, so they also try to clear it off (read: “photoshop” it) before publication:

(c) NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Therefore, we can say: yes, NASA photoshops images from space. ESA photoshops. Roscosmos photoshops. ISRO photoshops. JAXA photoshops... Only the Zambian National Space Agency does not photoshop. So if someone is not satisfied with NASA images, then you can always use their space images without any signs of processing.

The science

Space full of unexpected surprises and incredibly beautiful landscapes that today astronomers can capture in photographs. Sometimes space or ground-based spacecraft take such unusual photographs that scientists still They've been wondering for a long time what it is.

Space photos help make amazing discoveries, see details of planets and their satellites, draw conclusions regarding their physical properties, determine the distance to objects, and much more.

1) Glowing gas of the Omega Nebula . This nebula, open Jean Philippe de Chaizeau in 1775, located in the area constellation Sagittarius Milky Way galaxy. The distance to us from this nebula is approximately 5-6 thousand light years, and in diameter it reaches 15 light years. Photo taken with a special digital camera during the project Digitized Sky Survey 2.

New images of Mars

2) Strange lumps on Mars . This photo was taken by the panchromatic context camera of the automatic interplanetary station Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which explores Mars.

Visible in the picture strange formations, which formed on lava flows interacting with water on the surface. Lava, flowing down the slope, encircled the bases of the mounds, then swelled. Lava Swelling- a process in which the liquid layer, which appears under the hardening layer of liquid lava, lifts the surface slightly, forming such a relief.

These formations are located on the Martian plain Amazonis Planitia- a huge territory that is covered with frozen lava. The plain is also covered a thin layer of reddish dust, which slides down steep slopes, forming dark stripes.

Planet Mercury (photo)

3) Beautiful colors of Mercury . This colorful image of Mercury was created by combining a large number of images taken by NASA's interplanetary station "Messenger" for a year of work in Mercury orbit.

Of course it is not the real colors of the planet closest to the Sun, but the colorful image reveals the chemical, mineralogical and physical differences in Mercury's landscape.

4) Space lobster . This image was taken by the VISTA telescope European Southern Observatory. It depicts a cosmic landscape, including a huge glowing cloud of gas and dust, which surrounds young stars.

This infrared image shows the nebula NGC 6357 in the constellation Scorpion, which is presented in a new light. The photo was taken during the project Via Láctea. Scientists are currently scanning the Milky Way in an attempt to map the more detailed structure of our galaxy and explain how it was formed.

Mysterious mountain of the Carina Nebula

5) Mysterious mountain . The image shows a mountain of dust and gas rising from the Carina Nebula. The top of a vertical column of cooled hydrogen, which is about 3 light years, is carried away by radiation from nearby stars. Stars located in the area of ​​the pillars release jets of gas that can be seen at the tops.

Traces of water on Mars

6) Traces of an ancient water flow on Mars . This is a high resolution photo that was taken January 13, 2013 using a spacecraft European Space Agency Mars Express, offers to see the surface of the Red Planet in real colors. This is a shot of the area southeast of the plain Amenthes Planum and north of the plain Hesperia planum.

Visible in the picture craters, lava channels and valley, along which liquid water probably once flowed. The valley and crater floors are covered in dark, wind-blown deposits.

7) Dark space gecko . The picture was taken with a ground-based 2.2-meter telescope European Southern Observatory MPG/ESO in Chile. The photo shows a bright star cluster NGC 6520 and its neighbor - a strangely shaped dark cloud Barnard 86.

This cosmic couple is surrounded by millions of luminous stars in the brightest part of the Milky Way. The area is so filled with stars that you can hardly see the dark background of the sky behind them.

Star formation (photo)

8) Star Education Center . Several generations of stars are shown in an infrared image taken by NASA's space telescope. "Spitzer". In this smoky area known as W5, new stars are formed.

The oldest stars can be seen as blue bright dots. Younger stars highlight pinkish glow. In brighter areas, new stars form. Red indicates heated dust, while green indicates dense clouds.

Unusual nebula (photo)

9) Valentine's Day Nebula . This is an image of a planetary nebula, which may remind some of rosebud, was obtained using a telescope Kitt Peak National Observatory in USA.

Sh2-174- an unusual ancient nebula. It was formed during the explosion of a low-mass star at the end of its life. What remains of the star is its center - white dwarf.

Usually white dwarfs are located very close to the center, but in the case of this nebula, its the white dwarf is located on the right. This asymmetry is associated with the interaction of the nebula with the environment that surrounds it.

10) Heart of the Sun . In honor of the recent Valentine's Day, another unusual phenomenon appeared in the sky. More precisely it was done photo of an unusual solar flare, which is depicted in the photo in the shape of a heart.

Saturn's satellite (photo)

11) Mimas - Death Star . Photo of Saturn's moon Mimas taken by NASA spacecraft "Cassini" while it approaches the object at the closest distance. This satellite is something looks like the Death Star– a space station from a science fiction saga "Star Wars".

Herschel Crater has a diameter 130 kilometers and covers most of the right side of the satellite in the image. Scientists continue to explore this impact crater and its surrounding areas.

Photos were taken February 13, 2010 from a distance 9.5 thousand kilometers, and then, like a mosaic, assembled into one clearer and more detailed photo.

12) Galactic duo . These two galaxies, shown in the same photo, have completely different shapes. Galaxy NGC 2964 is a symmetrical spiral, and the galaxy NGC 2968(top right) is a galaxy that has a fairly close interaction with another small galaxy.

13) Mercury colored crater . Although Mercury does not boast a particularly colorful surface, some areas on it still stand out with contrasting colors. The pictures were taken during the spacecraft mission "Messenger".

Halley's Comet (photo)

14) Halley's Comet in 1986 . This famous historical photograph of the comet as it made its final approach to Earth was taken 27 years ago. The photo clearly shows how the Milky Way is illuminated on the right by a flying comet.

15) Strange hill on Mars . This image shows a strange, spiky formation near the Red Planet's South Pole. The surface of the hill appears to be layered and shows signs of erosion. Its height is estimated 20-30 meters. The appearance of dark spots and stripes on the hill is associated with the seasonal thawing of a layer of dry ice (carbon dioxide).

Orion Nebula (photo)

16) Orion's beautiful veil . This beautiful image includes cosmic clouds and stellar wind around the star LL Orionis, which interacts with the stream Orion Nebula. The star LL Orionis produces winds that are stronger than those of our own middle-aged star, the Sun.

Galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici (photo)

17) Spiral galaxy Messier 106 in the constellation Canes Venatici . NASA Space Telescope "Hubble" with the participation of an amateur astronomer, took one of the best photographs of a spiral galaxy Messier 106.

Located at a distance of about 20 million light years away, which is not that far away by cosmic standards, this galaxy is one of the brightest galaxies, and also one of the closest to us.

18) Starburst galaxy . Galaxy Messier 82 or Galaxy Cigar located at a distance from us 12 million light years in the constellation Big Dipper. The formation of new stars occurs quite quickly in it, which puts it at a certain phase in the evolution of galaxies, according to scientists.

Because the Cigar Galaxy is experiencing intense star formation, it 5 times brighter than our Milky Way. This photo was taken Mount Lemmon Observatory(USA) and required a holding time of 28 hours.

19) Ghost Nebula . This photo was taken using a 4 meter telescope (Arizona, USA). The object, called vdB 141, is a reflection nebula located in the constellation Cepheus.

Several stars can be seen in the nebula area. Their light gives the nebula an unattractive yellowish-brown color. Photo taken August 28, 2009.

20) Powerful hurricane of Saturn . This colorful photo taken by NASA "Cassini", depicts Saturn's strong northern storm, which at that moment reached its greatest power. The contrast of the image has been increased to show troubled areas (in white) that stand out from other details. The photo was taken March 6, 2011.

Photo of the Earth from the Moon

21) Earth from the Moon . Being on the surface of the Moon, our planet will look exactly like this. From this angle, the Earth too phases will be noticeable: Part of the planet will be in shadow, and part will be illuminated by sunlight.

Andromeda Galaxy

22) New images of Andromeda . In a new image of the Andromeda Galaxy, obtained using Herschel Space Observatory, the bright streaks where new stars are forming are visible in especially detail.

The Andromeda Galaxy or M31 is the closest large galaxy to our Milky Way. It is located at a distance of about 2.5 million years, and is therefore an excellent object for studying the formation of new stars and the evolution of galaxies.

23) Star cradle of the constellation Unicorn . This image was taken using a 4-meter telescope Inter-American Observatory of Cerro Tololo in Chile January 11, 2012. The image shows part of the Unicorn R2 molecular cloud. This is a site of intense new star formation, especially in the red nebula region just below the center of the image.

Satellite of Uranus (photo)

24) Ariel's scarred face . This image of Uranus's moon Ariel is made up of 4 different images taken by the spacecraft. "Voyager 2". The pictures were taken January 24, 1986 from a distance 130 thousand kilometers from the object.

Ariel has a diameter about 1200 kilometers, most of its surface is covered with craters with a diameter of 5 to 10 kilometers. In addition to craters, the image shows valleys and faults in the form of long stripes, so the landscape of the object is very heterogeneous.

25) Spring "fans" on Mars . At high latitudes, each winter, carbon dioxide condenses from the Martian atmosphere and accumulates on its surface, forming seasonal polar ice caps. In the spring, the sun begins to heat the surface more intensely and the heat passes through these translucent layers of dry ice, heating the soil underneath.

Dry ice evaporates, immediately turning into gas, bypassing the liquid phase. If the pressure is high enough, the ice cracks and gas escapes from the cracks, forming "fans". These dark "fans" are small fragments of material that are carried away by the gas escaping from the cracks.

Galactic merger

26) Stefan Quintet . This group is from 5 galaxies in the constellation Pegasus, located in 280 million light years from the earth. Four of the five galaxies are undergoing a violent merger phase and will crash into each other, eventually forming a single galaxy.

The central blue galaxy appears to be part of this group, but this is an illusion. This galaxy is much closer to us - at a distance only 40 million light years. The image was obtained by researchers Mount Lemmon Observatory(USA).

27) Soap Bubble Nebula . This planetary nebula was discovered by an amateur astronomer Dave Jurasevich July 6, 2008 in the constellation Swan. The picture was taken with a 4-meter telescope Mayall National Observatory Kitt Peak V June 2009. This nebula was part of another diffuse nebula, and it is also quite faint, so it was hidden from the eyes of astronomers for a long time.

Sunset on Mars – photo from the surface of Mars

28) Sunset on Mars. May 19, 2005 NASA Mars rover MER-A Spirit I took this amazing photo of the sunset while being on the edge of Gusev crater. The solar disk, as you can see, is slightly smaller than the disk that is visible from Earth.

29) Hypergiant star Eta Carinae . In this incredibly detailed image taken by NASA's space telescope "Hubble", you can see huge clouds of gas and dust from the giant star Eta of Kiel. This star is located at a distance from us more than 8 thousand light years, and the overall structure is comparable in width to our Solar System.

Near 150 years ago a supernova explosion was observed. Eta Carinae became the second most luminous star after Sirius, but quickly faded away and ceased to be visible to the naked eye.

30) Polar Ring Galaxy . Amazing Galaxy NGC 660 is the result of the merger of two different galaxies. It is located at a distance 44 million light years from us in the constellation Pisces. On January 7, astronomers announced that this galaxy has powerful flash, which is most likely the result of the massive black hole at its center.