PIX4615022: Mars polar cap seen by the Mariner 7 probe - The Martian polar cap as seen by the Mariner 7 spacecraft - Part of the polar cap south of Mars seen by the Mariner 7 probe in August 1969. Recolorized image. The southern martian polar cap as seen by the Mariner 7 spacecraft in august 1969. Recolorized picture / Bridgeman Images
PIX4615074: Mars - Schiaparelli - Mosaic of images obtained by the Viking probe 1. Although the image appears to represent an entire hemisphere of Mars, this view covers only a small portion (2500 km) deformed by a fish - eye effect. One can see in the centre the Schiaparelli crater (450 km in diameter) surrounded by the dark areas of Sinus Meridiani and Sinus Sabaeus, the white spot at the bottom of the image represents the Hellas basin. / Bridgeman Images
PIX4615086: Mars - Schiaparelli - Arabia - Mosaic of images obtained by the Viking probe 1. The large yellow and bright circular region is Arabia. Below, in the center of the image, the Schiaparelli crater (450 km in diameter) surrounds by the dark regions of Sinus Meridiani and Sinus Sabaeus; the white spot at the bottom of the image represents the Hellas basin. On the right, the dark area of Syris Major / Bridgeman Images
PIX4615335: Volcano Arsia Mons - Arsia Mons volcano. - Arsia Mons is one of the largest known volcanoes. It rises more than 9 km above the Martian surface and its caldera extends for 110 km. Image obtained by the Mars Global Surveyor probe. Arsia Mons is one of the largest volcanoes known. This shield volcano is part of an aligned trio known as the Tharsis Montes (the others are Pavonis Mons and Ascraeus Mons). Arsia Mons is rivaled only by Olympus Mons in terms of its volume. The summit of Arsia Mons is more than 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) higher than the surrounding plains. The crater (or caldera) at the volcano summit is approximately 110 km (68 mi) across. This view of Arsia Mons was taken by the red and blue wide angle cameras of the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) system. Bright water ice clouds (the whitish/bluish wisps) hang above the volcano, a common sight every martian afternoon in this region. Arsia Mons is located at 120* west longitude and 9* south latitude. Illumination is from the left / Bridgeman Images
PIX4615352: Gullies on Mars - Gullies along a wall of an impact crater located in the large Newton impact crater. These ravines are thought to indicate the presence of liquid water in the Martian basement. Mosaic of false-coloured images obtained by the Mars Global Surveyor probe from August 2001 to January 2002 / Bridgeman Images
PIX4615383: Image made from altimetric data obtained by the Mars Global Surveyor probe. The northern polar cap is mostly made up of water ice. It measures about 1100 km - Altimetric image of north pole made from MOLA instrument observations on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. This image is colored according to the relative height of the surface features: North Mars pole seen by Mars Global Surveyor - Mars north pole / Bridgeman Images
PIX4615391: Traces of the passage of water on Mars - Ancient river beds on Mars. Observation of sedimentary rocks shows that water is in the liquid state to dig these furrows. Region of 14 km by 19 km Mosaic of images obtained by the Mars Global Surveyor probe between August 2000 and September 2003 / Bridgeman Images
PIX4623125: Planetary nebula NGC 5189 in the Fly - NGC 5189 - Planetary nebula in Musca - This nebula is located about 3000 light years from Earth in the southern constellation of Fly. Image obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The colors used in this image correspond to the emissions of different gases: sulfur in green, hydrogen in orange and oxygen in blue. Hubble Space Telescope have photographed a festive - looking nearby planetary nebula called NGC 5189. Planetary nebulae represent the final brief stage in the life of a medium - sized star like our Sun. While consuming the last of the fuel in its core, the dying star expels a large portion of its outer envelope. This material then becomes heated by the radiation from the stellar remnant and radiates, producing glowing clouds of gas that can show complex structures, as the ejection of mass from the star is uneven in both time and direction. This image was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 on October 8, 2012, in filters tuned to the specific colors of fluorescing sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms. Broad filters in the visible and near - infrared were used to capture the star colors / Bridgeman Images
PIX4623222: Planetary nebula NGC 6543 dans le Dragon/HST - The nebula, formally cataloged NGC 6543 was one of the first planetary nebulae to be discovered; it is one of the most complex such nebulae seen in space. A planetary nebula forms when Sun - like stars gently eject their outer gaseous layers that form bright nebulae with amazing and confounding shapes. In 1994, Hubble first revealed NGC 6543's surprisingly intricate structures, including concentric gas shells, jets of high - speed gas, and unusual shock - induced knots of gas. As if the Cat's Eye itself isn't spectacular enough, this new image taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) reveals the full beauty of a bull's eye pattern of eleven or even more concentric rings, or shells, around the Cat's Eye. Each 'ring' is actually the edge of a spherical bubble seen projected onto the sky - - that's why it appears bright along its outer edge. Observations suggest the star ejected its mass in a series of pulses at 1,500 - year intervals. These convulsions created dust shells, each of which contain as much mass as all of the planets in our solar system combined (still only one percent of the Sun's mass). These concentric shells make a layered, onion - skin structure around the dying star. The view from Hubble is like seeing an onion cut in half, where each skin layer is discernible. Until recently, it was thought that such shells around planetary nebulae were a rare phenomenon. However, Romano Corradi (Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, Spain) and collaborators, in a paper published in the European journal Astronomy and Astrophysics in April 2004, have instead shown that the formation of these rings is likely to be the rule rather than the exception. The bull's - eye patterns seen around planetary nebulae come as a surprise to astronomers because they had no expectation that episodes of mass loss at the end of stellar lives would repeat every 1,500 years. Several explanations have been proposed, including cy / Bridgeman Images
PIX4623267: Planetary nebula NGC 6543 in the Dragon - Planetary Nebula NGC 6543 in Draco - Planetary nebula NGC 6543. Image obtained on September 3, 2008 with a telescope measuring 61 cm in diameter. The planetary Nebula NGC 6543 in Draco. Image taken on September 3 2008 with a 24 - inch telescope / Bridgeman Images