Hi, welcome to my Space Page

I would like to use this page to show the world some of the wonderful images sent back from space by the various probes that are currently exploring the Universe, as well as from the many observatories around the world.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THE SUN	MERCURY	VENUS	THE EARTH
THE MOON	MARS	JUPITER	SATURN
URANUS	NEPTUNE	PLUTO	ASTEROIDS
COMETS	NEBULAS	SPACECRAFT	ISS

THE SOLAR SYSTEM

I would like to organize a small tour of our Solar System, using some of the images I have downloaded from the Internet (most are thanks to NASA/JPL, unless otherwise stated)

What better place to start than at the very heart & soul of the Solar System, at the SUN. It is the Sun that makes the very existence of our Solar System possible! So letīs start our journey around the Solar System with some images (taken by SOHO) of our firey father!

The Sun

Scientists are able to extract a lot of information about our Sun according to the wave length of light they analyze.

You can also analyze more images if you go to the Galleries of the Sun.

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After our brief stop by the Sun, letīs press onward (& outward towards the end of our known Solar System) & visit the first of the nine worlds that make up the Solar System. 

MERCURY

Mosiac of images from Mariner 10 stitched together to make one global image of the planet

Mercury, named after the winged Roman god, is the swiftest of the planets that orbit the Sun.There are few good images of this hottest of worlds until the probe "Messenger" arrives & enters into orbit. Those that I have found are from the Mission to Mercury by Mariner 10 in 1974.

     Mercury  from Mariner 10 (1974)               Bright Rayed Craters 1974 from Mariner 10             Outgoing view                          

If you would like to see more images visit the Galleries of Mercury.

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       Antarctica from space          The Earth (from APOLLO 8 Christmas '68)  Earth image taken by Hayabusa

If these images whet your appetite there are lots more in the Galleries of the Earth.

THE MOON     Earthīs natural satellite & the only place Man has set foot on, after the Earth!       One small step for Man      

Moon - animated lunar eclipse               A Skygazer's Full Moon            Full moon in daytime, Tijeras, N.Mexico

 

Did you like these images - there are more in the Galleries of the Moon.

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    MARS   Letīs take a look at some images I have downloaded of Mars, the God of War.       Mars      

        Mars from 5.5 million km                              Clouds on  Mars             Topography of Marsī two hemispheres

East Hills as seen from Spiritīs panoramic camera ( 13-01-04)

 

Mars panorama (as would be seen by a human on Mars)

Mars - Burns Cliff as seen from Opportunity) (13 to 20 - December - 04).

 

There are some more great images in the Galleries of Mars.

Here is a link to Images From Mars Express

Here is another to the HRSC Image Archive. 

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    JUPITER     After those images of Mars letīs go further afield & visit the King of Planets, the Mighty Jupiter.         Jupiter      

     

 

Collision of Comet Shoemaker-Levy9,1994   In true colours from Cassini          Crescent & crescent Io   

   

Jupiter & Callisto,Ganemede,Europa  Jupiter from Voyagers 1& 2& Galileo  Triple Eclipse from Hubble

 

If you liked these images, you should see the Galleries of Jupiter.

      Saturn     Our next port of call is the spectacular "Lord of the Rings", Saturn, with its magnificent system of rings & moons          

 

Saturn from Cassini (March 2004)

 

 

              Saturn                       Five views of Saturn                  Composition of Rings           

 

 

There is plenty more to see in the Galleries of Saturn.

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      URANUS

Now let us continue our tour through Solīs system of planets.

After those photos of Saturn & its marvellous ring system moons, letīs have a look at Uranus,

      Uranus      

  

 

         Rings around Uranus               Uranus & moons,  Miranda & Ariel            Uranus has rings, too!         

 

Look at the Galleries of Uranus for more images.

     

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  NEPTUNE    Our next stop on this wonderful tour will be the last of the three gas giants, & the  smallest, but still many times the size of the Earth, Neptune, the God of the seas           Neptune    

         

 

               Two views of Neptune                                             Storms on Neptune                 

 

Why not take a look at the Galleries of Neptune for more images.

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PLUTO

 

Pluto, the last, (at present), planet of our Solar System. As the Sun was our starting point for this guided tour, so Pluto puts an end to it. Pluto has a moon, Charon, almost as big as itself, forming a twin system.

        Pluto  

      

Pluto dual

 

There are some more images in The Galleries of Pluto.

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ASTEROIDS

These chunks of rock & ice form a ring around the Sun between the orbits of Mars & Jupiter. Few of them are more than a few kilometres across & have highly irregular shapes. As most of them have a low albedo they are very difficult to see by astronomers from the Earth.

Here I have put a few images of some of them

 

          

        Asteroid 243 Ida                     Ida - Dactyl (Gallileo 28-08-93)       Mathilde, Gaspra, Ida (Galileo 27-06-97)

 

Check out the lastest images on Asteroids in the Galleries of Asteroids.

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    COMETS   These "Dirty Snowballs" as Fred Hoyle, the famous British Astronomer & SciFi writer,once called them, are thought to be remnants from the time the Solar System was formed. These balls of rock, dust & water ice may have very enlongated orbits or shorter orbits which cause them to swing by the Sun every X time. As they do so their nucleus heats up & water ice sublimates into vapour which causes dust to fly off at great speed, (the "Tail" we see pointing away from the Sun pushed back by the solar wind).               Comet NEAT                       Comet Neat  26-05-2004.        Nucleus of Comet Wild (from Stardust)            Comet Kudo - Fujikawa

 

 

                            

 

COMET SHOEMAKER-LEVY9  (STRING OF PEARLS)

 

 

There are more images of comets at The Galleries of Comets.

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      Views of our Solar System             Here I'm adding a couple of views of our Solar System with all the planets in their       order of position from the Sun & 1 of our Solar System as was seen by Voyager l           SOLAR SYSTEM    

                                   

 

      ENTIRE SOLAR SYSTEM.                                         SOLAR SYSTEM                       

 

        

 

SOLAR SYSTEM FROM VOYAGER 1

 

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NEBULAS  

Having finished our tour of the Solar System I thought we might like to go much, much further afield & see how the Hubble Space Telescope , (and other telescopes), see the universe from its privileged location far, far above the highest cloud tops. Its unique position allows it to show us images of the "stars" as we have never seen them before - those tiny points of glittering light are very often immense galaxies, many times the size of our "Milky Way" galaxy!   They can also be of many different forms & colours - often very beautiful!

  Here are a few examples:          Triple  Spiral (03-07-02)    

    

                 Pinwheel Galaxy                     The Trifid Nebula                 Cat's Eye Nebula            

           

     Dumbbell Nebula                              Flame Nebula.           Hubble Sees the Stingray Nebula

If you liked these few images you will find many more in the Galleries of Nebulas.

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SPACECRAFT

 

After this visit, extremely brief, of our Solar System & an even briefer look at some of the marvels that make up the Universe, I thought I might share some photos of some of the spacecraft that have made possible many of these - often breathtaking - images we are privileged to see today.

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

 

      

Voyager 1 (26 years in space)

 

            

           Proton, (300th Lift off)                 Misión Cervantes (17-10-03)   Rosetta ready for take off (26-02-04)

          

Shenzhouv 5 (15-10-03)  1st manned Chinese rocket (15-10-03)   Long March 3-A (Chinese)

 

Indian spacecraft

If you liked the images you can see more at The Galleries of Spacecraft

 

RELATED WEB SITES

Astonomy Picture of The Day:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/

 For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm

For more images visit the Cassini imaging team home page:

http://ciclops.org

For more information on the planets of our Solar System please visit:

http://www.nineplanets.org/

For more information & all the most recent news related to Space please visit:

http://www.universetoday.com

For more information on Astronomy, please visit:

http://www.astronomyforbeginners.com/

For information on Climate Change, please visit:

http://www.climatechange.com.au