Our planet is beautiful and amazing. Perhaps, with the development of space tourism, the secret dream of many people to see the earth from space will come true. Today, you can admire the breathtaking, magnificent panoramas of the Earth in photographs.
We present a selection of ten of the most famous images of the globe from NASA.
A widely known and widely circulated image of our stunning planet until 2002. The birth of this photograph was the result of long and painstaking work. From a compilation of footage from months of research into the movement of oceans, clouds, and drifting ice, scientists have compiled an amazing color scheme mosaic
“Blue Marble” is recognized as a universal treasure and even now is considered the most detailed and detailed image of the globe. 
An image taken from a record distance (about 6 billion kilometers) using the Voyajer 1 space probe. This spacecraft managed to transmit about 60 frames to NASA from the very depths solar system, including the “Pale Blue Dot,” where the globe appears as a tiny (0.12 pixel) bluish speck of dust on a brown stripe.
The “Pale Blue Dot” was destined to become the very first “portrait” of the Earth against the endless backdrop of outer space. 
Another world-famous photo is a stunning view of the Earth taken by the American crew of Apollo 11 during the historic mission: the landing of earthlings on the Moon in 1969.
Then three astronauts, led by Neil Armstrong, successfully completed the task - they landed on lunar surface and returned home safely, having managed to leave this legendary photograph for history. 
A photo unexpected for human perception: two luminous crescents on a completely black background of the universe. On the bluish crescent of the Earth you can see the contours eastern Asia, the western Pacific Ocean and the white areas of the Arctic. The image was transmitted in September 1977 by the Voyager 1 interplanetary probe. In this photograph, our planet is captured at a distance of more than 11 million kilometers. 
The crew of Apollo 11 took two more famous photographs, in which the Earth's Terminator (from the Latin terminare - to stop) is visible with a rounded line - the light dividing line separating the illuminated (light) part of the celestial body from the unlit (dark) part, circling the planet twice per day - at sunset and sunrise. At the North and South Poles, this phenomenon is observed quite rarely. 
Thanks to this photograph, humanity was able to see what our home looks like from another planet. Earth From the surface of Mars, it appears as a planetary disk flickering above the horizon. 
This image was the first to capture the landscape of the far side of the Moon using Swedish Hasselblad equipment. This event occurred in April 1972, when the Apollo 16 crew descended to the dark side of the Earth's moon, with John Young as expedition commander. 
This photograph has a scandalous reputation: many experts believe that the picture was not taken on the Moon at all, but in a specially equipped studio that simulates the lunar surface. Many question the very fact of astronauts being on the Moon. 
Recently, NASA announced that on July 19, the Cassini probe in orbit around Saturn will photograph the Earth, which at the time of shooting will be at a distance of 1.44 billion kilometers from the device. This is not the first photo shoot of this kind, but the first one that was announced in advance. NASA experts hope that the new image will take pride of place among such famous images of the Earth. Whether this is true or not, time will tell, but for now we can remember the history of photographing our planet from the depths of space.
For a long time, people have always wanted to look at our planet from above. The advent of aviation gave humanity the opportunity to rise beyond the clouds, and soon the rapid development of rocket technology made it possible to obtain photographs from truly cosmic heights. The first photographs from space (if we adhere to FAI standards, according to which space begins at an altitude of 100 km above sea level) were taken in 1946 using a captured V-2 rocket.
The first attempt to photograph the earth's surface from a satellite was made in 1959. Satellite Explorer-6 I took this wonderful photo. By the way, after Explorer 6's mission was completed, it still served the American Motherland by becoming a target for testing anti-satellite missiles.
Since then, satellite photography has developed at an incredible pace and now you can find a bunch of images of any part of the earth's surface for every taste. But the vast majority of these photos were taken from low Earth orbit. What does the Earth look like from more distant distances?
Apollo Snapshot
The only people who could see the entire Earth (roughly speaking in one frame) were 24 people from the Apollo crews. We are left with several classic photographs as a legacy from this program.
Here's a photo taken with Apollo 11, where the earth's terminator is clearly visible (and yes, we are not talking about a famous action movie, but about the line dividing the illuminated and unlit parts of the planet).
Photo of the Earth's crescent above the surface of the Moon taken by the crew Apollo 15.
Another Earthrise, this time over the so-called dark side of the Moon. Photo taken with Apollo 16.
"The Blue Marble"- another iconic photograph taken on December 7, 1972 by the crew of Apollo 17 from a distance of approximately 29 thousand km. from our planet. This was not the first image to show the Earth fully illuminated, but it became one of the most famous. The Apollo 17 astronauts are so far the last people who could observe the Earth from this angle. To mark the 40th anniversary of the photo, NASA remade this photo, stitching together a bunch of frames from different satellites into a single composite image. There is also a Russian analogue, taken from the Electro-M satellite.
When viewed from the surface of the Moon, the Earth is constantly located at the same point in the sky. Since the Apollos landed in equatorial regions, in order to make a patriotic avatar, the astronauts had to get the hang of it.
Mid-range shots
In addition to Apollo, Earth from long distance photographed a number of AMCs. Here are the most famous of these pictures
A very famous photo Voyager 1, taken on September 18, 1977 from a distance of 11.66 million kilometers from Earth. As far as I know, this was the first image of the Earth and the Moon in one frame.
A similar photo taken by the device Galileo from a distance of 6.2 million kilometers in 1992
Photo taken on July 3, 2003 from the station Mars Express. The distance to Earth is 8 million kilometers.
And here is the most recent, but oddly enough the worst quality image taken by the mission Juno from a distance of 9.66 million kilometers. Just think - either NASA really saved money on cameras, or because of the financial crisis, all the employees responsible for Photoshop were fired.
Images from Martian orbit
This is what Earth and Jupiter looked like from Mars orbit. The pictures were taken on May 8, 2003 by the device Mars Global Surveyor, located at that time at a distance of 139 million kilometers from Earth. It is worth noting that the camera on board the device could not take color images, and therefore these are pictures in false colors.
Scheme of the location of Mars and the planets at the time of shooting
And this is how the Earth looks from the surface of the red planet. It's hard to disagree with this inscription.
Here's another image of the Martian sky. The brighter point is Venus, the less bright one (pointed to by the arrows) is our home planet.
For those interested, a very atmospheric photo of a sunset on Mars. Somewhat reminiscent of a similar shot from a movie Stranger.
The same shot from Alien
Images from Saturn's orbit
But the Earth in one of the pictures taken by the apparatus mentioned at the beginning Cassini. The image itself is composite and was taken in September 2006. It was made up of 165 photographs taken in the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum, which were then glued together and processed, making the colors look natural. In contrast to this mosaic, the July 19 survey of Earth and the Saturn system will be filmed for the first time in so-called natural colors, that is, as the human eye would see them. In addition, for the first time, the Earth and Moon will be captured by Cassini's highest-resolution camera ever.
By the way, here’s what Jupiter looks like from Saturn’s orbit. The image, of course, was also taken by the Cassini spacecraft. At that time, the gas giants were separated by a distance of 11 astronomical units.
Family portrait from "inside" the solar system
This portrait of the solar system was made by the apparatus MESSENGER, orbiting Mercury in November 2010. The mosaic, compiled from 34 images, shows all the planets of the solar system, except for Uranus and Neptune, which were too far away to be recorded. In the photographs you can see the Moon, the four main satellites of Jupiter and even a piece of the Milky Way.
Actually, our home planet
Higher resolution
Layout of the apparatus and planets at the time of shooting
Family portrait "outside" the Solar system
And finally, the father of all family portraits and ultra-distant photographs is a mosaic of 60 photographs taken by the same Voyager 1 between February 14 and June 6, 1990. After the passage of Saturn in November 1980, the device was generally inactive - it had no other celestial bodies left to study, and there were still about 25 years of flight left before approaching the heliopause boundary.
After numerous requests, Carl Sagan managed to convince NASA management to reactivate the ship's cameras, which were turned off a decade ago, and take a photograph of all the planets in the solar system. The only things that were not photographed were Mercury (which was too close to the Sun), Mars (which, again, was hindered by the light from the Sun) and Pluto, which was simply too small.
Voyager 1 was chosen because it followed a trajectory that seemed to lift it above the plane of the ecliptic, which made it possible to photograph all the planets “from above.”
This is the view at the time of filming from the spacecraft. 
A snapshot of the Sun and the regions where Earth and Venus were located
Planets close up
Carl Sagan himself said this about this photo: "Take another look at this point. It's here. This is our home. This is us. Everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you've ever heard of, every person who has ever existed lived their lives on Our many pleasures and sufferings, thousands of self-confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and gatherer, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every couple in love, every mother and father, every capable child, inventor and traveler, every ethics teacher, every lying politician, every “superstar”, every “greatest leader”, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived here - on a speck suspended in a ray of sunshine.
The earth is a very small stage in the vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood shed by all these generals and emperors so that, in the rays of glory and triumph, they might become the short-term masters of a grain of sand. Think of the endless cruelties committed by the inhabitants of one corner of this point on the barely distinguishable inhabitants of another corner. About how often disagreements are between them, about how eager they are to kill each other, about how hot their hatred is.
Our posturing, our imagined importance, the illusion of our privileged status in the universe - they all give in to this point of pale light. Our planet is just a lonely speck of dust in the surrounding cosmic darkness. In this grandiose emptiness there is not a hint that someone will come to our aid in order to save us from our own ignorance.
Earth is the only one so far known world, capable of supporting life. We have nowhere else to go—at least not in the near future. To visit - yes. Colonize - not yet. Whether you like it or not, the Earth is our home now."
26 PHOTOS
1. Karst sculptures in southeastern China. (Photo: Robert Simmon/NASA Earth Observatory/Landsat 8). 
2. Bazman volcano in the southeastern part of Iran. Until now, not a single eruption of this volcano has been documented in history, but volcanic gas is constantly coming out of it. This is probably not an extinct, dormant volcano. The photo was taken from the International Space Station. (Photo: NASA/ISS Expedition 38) 
3. And this is the Bering Sea during a phytoplankton bloom. Scientists say the milky water indicates a coccolithophorid algae bloom. (Photo: NASA/MODIS). 
4. Lake Elton in Russia, near the border with Kazakhstan. He has a very high level salinity and it is very shallow - on average the depth is about half a meter. And the brown spot that is visible in the picture is the deepest part of the lake, where silt and sediment accumulate, coloring the water. (Photo: NASA). 
5. Sunset on the Baltic Sea. The image was taken on June 15, 2014 from the ISS. (Photo: NASA/Expedition 40 ISS) 
6. A layer of dust and sand over the Sahara Desert, and above it cumulus clouds. (Photo: NASA/Expedition 40 ISS) 
7. Plankton bloom in Indian Ocean, 600 kilometers south of the Australian coast. (Photo: Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon/NASA Earth Observatory) 
8. Melted ice on top of a glacier in southeast Alaska. The photo was taken on July 16, 2014 from an ER-2 aircraft. (Photo: NASA). 
9. Okavango Delta in the Kalahari Desert South Africa, illuminated sunlight. The image was taken on June 6, 2014 from the ISS. (Photo: NASA). 
10. These are farmlands in Pampa, Argentina, and among them is a forest guitar. It was created in the late 70s by Pedro Martin Ureta, in honor of his late wife. It is planted with seven thousand trees - cypresses and eucalyptus. The image was taken by the Terra satellite. (Photo: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS). 
11. Chiltepe Peninsula in western Nicaragua with the Apoeque volcanic complex. And the water around the peninsula is Lake Managua. In the middle of the peninsula is the Apoeque caldera [a vast cirque-shaped basin with steep walls] with a lake 2.8 kilometers wide and 400 meters deep. The last eruption of Mount Apoeke occurred approximately 2000 years ago. (Photo: NASA/ISS Expedition 38) 
12. Cloudless sky over the Iberian Peninsula. In northern Spain you can see the snow-capped Cantabrian Mountains. Below is the largest plateau in Europe - the Meseta, to the east - the Pyrenees, and above them - the French Massif Central. The photo was taken on March 8, 2014. (Photo: Jeff Schmaltz/NASA GSFC) 
13. Venetian Lagoon. The red area on the right side of the photo is the Venetian roofs. Above them is Mestre, a district of Venice located on the mainland. (Photo: NASA/ISS Expedition 39) 
14. There are 28 active glaciers on the Northern Patagonian Ice Plateau. The San Quentin Glacier is the largest of them; its beginning is visible on the left, flowing into the lake. (Photo: NASA/ISS). 
15. Hurricane Edward was captured on September 16, 2014 from the ISS. And its “eye” has a diameter of about 30 kilometers. (Photo: NASA/ISS Expedition 41/Reid Wiseman) 
16. Meanders (smooth bends of the channel) of the Colorado River in national park Canyonlands, in Utah, USA. (Photo: Jesse Allen, Robert Simmon/NASA Earth Observatory/Landsat) 
17. Forest fire in the Funny River area, Alaska. (Photo: Jesse Allen/NASA Earth Observatory/Landsat 8). 
18. Ijen volcano complex on the island of Java. On the right side you can see a caldera with an acidic lake (pH 0.3). (Photo: Jesse Allen/NASA Earth Observatory/Landsat). 
19. African sands blown by the winds straight into Atlantic Ocean. Interestingly, these sands overcome the entire ocean to get to the Northern and South America, and the minerals they contain fertilize American forests. Every year, about 40 million tons of Sahara sand fall into the Amazon lowlands. (Photo: NASA/Expedition 40 ISS) 
20. Meanders of the Amazon River. (Photo: Jesse Alle/NASA Earth Observatory/Landsat). 
21. Drought in southern Brazil. The photo shows the dry Jaguari reservoir, one of five reservoirs that supply water to the state of Sao Paulo. (Photo: Jesse Allen/NASA Earth Observatory/Landsat). 
22. Badyn-Jaran in China. The picture shows lakes among the highest dunes in the world (reaching a height of 500 meters). (Photo: NASA). 
23. King Sound is a bay in Western Australia where you can observe the largest tides in the world. (Photo: NASA/Expedition 40 ISS) 
24. This is Nishino-shima - a volcanic island belonging to Japan. Last November, an underwater volcano erupted to create a new island just 500 meters away, which grew so quickly that within a month the two islands became one. The photo was taken on March 30, 2014. (Photo: Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon/NASA Earth Observatory/Landsat 8). 
25. Murzuk (sandy desert) in Libya. The dark area in the image is the volcanic Tibesti Mountains. The image was taken from the ISS on November 26, 2014. (Photo: NASA/ISS Expedition 42) 
26. This is us! This remarkable photograph of our planet was taken by the Suomi NPP satellite on March 30, 2014. (Photo: Robert Simmon/NASA Earth Observatory)
The surface of the Earth can now be constantly monitored. In addition, access to viewing satellite images is available. Among the many applications for such actions, Google Earth online in real time is the most popular in Russia.
Yandex maps can be named as the main competitor. Their developers are Russians, due to which Russian cities are designed with the greatest precision. Due to the available functions, for large settlements You can view the level of Internet congestion, as well as numerous geodata and demographic data. Google provides access to traffic, as well as all information on plots of land only in the United States.
Google Earth online from a satellite in real time is displayed on the manufacturer’s website. For the plugin to work fully and to display all the main elements, it is recommended to use an Internet browser Google Chrome. In some situations, it will be enough to refresh the page so that everything opens correctly.
The main advantage of Google Maps is the presence of a developed application for users, through which they can view satellite images in any direction. This provides an opportunity to move away from the classic browser and simply download the application in advance and use all its features. In addition, it will have much more functions and properties. If desired, you can open the 3D globe in virtual mode.
If you first download Google Earth online, rather than viewing maps in an Internet browser, clients receive a full range of positive points, which include:
This is only a minimal list of advantages purchased by clients online maps from satellite.
As mentioned earlier, Google Maps is accessible not only through the Internet browser, but also through the application. Using the plugin, you can use interactive maps in any web browser. The specified address is embedded in the resource program code. In this case, the entire planet, as well as a specific selected region, can be displayed. In the latter case, you will have to enter the appropriate coordinates.
Control is carried out via keyboard and mouse. In combination with each other, they allow you to zoom in or out, and adjust the cursor while moving. In addition, there are additional icons (“+”, “-”) on the map.
Among the map viewing modes, the following stand out:
The main requirement for stable operation and instant loading of maps is a high-speed Internet connection. You can also use offline mode, but even here you will initially have to use the Internet to download.
The science
Space full of unexpected surprises and incredibly beautiful landscapes that today astronomers can capture in photographs. Sometimes space or land spaceships do this unusual photos what scientists still They've been wondering for a long time what it is.
Space photos help make amazing discoveries, see the details of the planets and their satellites, draw conclusions regarding them 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 by special digital camera during the project Digitized Sky Survey 2.
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 photo 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.
3) Beautiful colors 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.
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.
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 photo 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.
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. Heated dust is shown in red, and green color indicates dense clouds.
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 one appeared in the sky. unusual phenomenon. More precisely it was done photo of an unusual solar flare, which is depicted in the photo in the shape of a heart.
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 absolutely 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".
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. Appearance dark spots and stripes on the hill are associated with the seasonal thawing of a layer of dry ice (carbon dioxide).
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.
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 region. 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.
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.
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 ours 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 place intensive formation new stars, especially in the red nebula region just below the center of the image.
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.
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.
28) Sunset on Mars. May 19, 2005 NASA Mars rover MER-A Spirit 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, A general structure 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.
