21st Century Gallery

Jupiter and Io, New Horizons image

Jupiter and Io. Montage of images of Jupiter (left) and its moon Io (right), obtained by the New Horizons spacecraft in February and March 2007 as it passed Jupiter on its way to Pluto. The image of Jupiter was obtained with its infrared spectrometer (LEISA). The different colours show high-altitude clouds (blue), and deeper clouds (red). The Great Red Spot (lower left) is blue and white. The Io image was obtained in approximate true colour with a long-range camera (LORRI) and a multispectral camera (MVIC). The red dot on the nightside of Io is an eruption of the Tvashtar volcano. The volcanic plume (blue) seen above the eruption is 330 kilometres high. Jupiter is the solar system's largest planet

© NASA/JHU/APL/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Saturns rings, Cassini image

Saturn's rings, Cassini image. The rings consist of particles of nearly pure water ice and meteoric dust and span almost 300, 000 kilometres. The largest gap in the rings is the Cassini Division, which separates the A (outer) and B (inner) rings. The smaller gap within the A ring is the Encke Gap. Pandora, one of Saturn's moons, is seen as a minute speck above the A ring at upper left. The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was launched in 1997 to investigate Saturn, its rings and its moons. This image was taken by Cassini's wide-angle camera on the 13th April 2007 at a distance of 1.8 million kilometres from Saturn

© NASA/JPL/SSI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Helix nebula, infrared Spitzer image

Helix nebula (NGC 7293), infrared Spitzer Space Telescope image. This is a planetary nebula, a series of shells of gas cast off by a dying star. The ejection of the star's outer layers exposes its hot core, whose radiation ionises the shells, causing them to glow. This image was taken at wavelengths of varying energy: high (blue), medium (green) and low (red). The gas in the central regions has been ionised more than the outer gas, which is shielded from the stellar core. The most highly ionised areas (cometary heads) are round the edge of the central void. Foreground and background stars are blue. The Helix nebula is 650 light years from Earth, in the constellation of Aquarius. Image data obtained by the IRAC sensor in October 2004

© NASA/JPL-CALTECH/J. HORA (HARVARD-SMITHSONIAN CfA)/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY