Welcome to Planet Earth
26.10.1997

Welcome to Planet Earth, the third planet from a star named the Sun. The Earth is shaped like a sphere and composed mostly of rock. Over 70 percent of the Earth's surface is water. The planet has a relatively thin atmosphere composed mostly of nitrogen and oxygen.

A Hurricane in the Gulf
28.09.1998

Last Friday, Hurricane Georges was photographed from space entering the Gulf of Mexico. This immense storm system, larger than most states, is expected to make landfall today. Starting as a slight pressure difference, hurricanes grow into large spiraling storm systems of low pressure, complete with high winds and driving rain.

Tharsis Volcanos
18.06.1999

Ice crystal clouds float above the immense Tharsis volcanos of Mars in this recently released picture from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. Olympus Mons at the upper left is 340 miles across and almost 15 miles high - the largest volcano in the solar system.

Comet Churyumov Gerasimenko in Crescent
29.04.2015

What's happening to Comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko? As the 3-km wide comet moves closer to the Sun, heat causes the nucleus to expel gas and dust. The Rosetta spacecraft arrived at the comet's craggily double nucleus last July and now is co-orbiting the Sun with the giant dark iceberg.

The Surface of Europa
19.05.2016

An enhanced-color view, this image covers a 350 by 750 kilometer swath across the surface of Jupiter's tantalizing moon Europa. The close-up combines high-resolution image data with lower resolution color data from observations made in 1998 by the Galileo spacecraft.

A Martian Sunset
1.08.1997

You've had a hard day rolling past Martian rocks, so now just relax your APXS and enjoy the Martian sunset. The above pictures taken by Mars Pathfinder highlight how clouds vary during the end of a Martian day.

Welcome to Planet Earth
31.01.1999

Welcome to Planet Earth, the third planet from a star named the Sun. The Earth is shaped like a sphere and composed mostly of rock. Over 70 percent of the Earth's surface is water. The planet has a relatively thin atmosphere composed mostly of nitrogen and oxygen.

Lenticular Clouds Over Washington
4.11.2012

Are those UFOs near that mountain? No -- they are multilayered lenticular clouds. Moist air forced to flow upward around mountain tops can create lenticular clouds. Water droplets condense from moist air cooled below the dew point, and clouds are opaque groups of water droplets.

Ship Tracks over the Pacific Ocean
8.06.2022

What are those unusual streaks? Some images of planet Earth show clear bright streaks that follow the paths of ships. Known as ship tracks, these low and narrow bands are caused by the ship's engine exhaust.

Magnified Mars
6.02.2004

At first glance, this sharp, color close-up gives the strong impression of pebbles strewn over a sandy beach. But the picture is one of the first microscopic images of another planet, captured by the Opportunity rover on its tenth sol on the martian surface at Meridiani Planum.