Pacman Nebula

The northern pole of a large moon orbiting the blue gas giant. The clouds like structures visible are two galaxies in the process of colliding.

Alien Planet View

Picture of the day - December 29, 2018

Binary Sunset over an ice giant.

Pictures of the day - December 22, 2018

Insight System - Sixth Planet (Insight A-VI)

Insight A-Vi is an Earth-like water-world with a surface completely covered in oceans. The planet has a mass of 0.65 Earths and a diameter 0.97 times that of our planet. An extensive ring system surrounds the planet and the oceans contain simple signed-celled life.

The planet orbits at an average distance of 1.10 AU and a day on the surface lasts 18 hours and 31 minutes. Compared to the inner-worlds, Insight A-VI is rather cold with an average global temperature of 41 F. Still the oceans absorb enough heat that there are no ice caps at the poles, since ocean currents keep the water from freezing.

Note the inner two planets have comet like appearance from their atmospheres being strip away by the sun.

High Resolution Pictures

Insight A-VI

Three small moons

Rings

The sun and inner planets

Sunset

Planet rise

Pictures of the day - January 17, 2019

Colorful Titan-Like world with seas of liquid methane and a surface thriving with methane-based life, which give the planet it's unique coloring.

Space Engine System ID: RS 8550-3584-8-206537-286 8 to visit the planet in Space Engine.

Lonely Moon

Picture of the Day - October 19, 2018

Small moon passing in front of a large Super-Earth type planet.

MESSENGER Spacecraft 

MESSENGER (whose backronym is Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging, and which is a reference to the Roman mythological messenger, Mercury) was a NASA robotic spacecraft that orbited the planet Mercury between 2011 and 2015. The spacecraft was launched aboard a Delta II rocket in August 2004 to study Mercury’s chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field.

The instruments carried by MESSENGER were used on a complex series of flybys – the spacecraft flew by Earth once, Venus twice, and Mercury itself three times, allowing it to decelerate relative to Mercury using minimal fuel. During its first flyby of Mercury in January 2008, MESSENGER became the second mission after Mariner 10’s 1975 flyby to reach Mercury.

MESSENGER entered orbit around Mercury on March 18, 2011, becoming the first spacecraft to do so. It successfully completed its primary mission in 2012. Following two mission extensions, the MESSENGER spacecraft used the last of its maneuvering propellant and deorbited as planned, impacting the surface of Mercury on April 30, 2015

Source

Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Picture of the day - February 14, 2019 (Late Post).

A dark nebula obscures the galaxy.

Twin Sunset

Picture of the Day 2 - October 22,2018

Two sun’s setting viewed from planetary orbit.

Battered Desert

Picture of the day - November 5, 2018

A cratered desert world with a thin carbon dioxide atmosphere. Both heavily cratered combined with extensive surface modification from volcanism and other forms of geological activity. Evidence of a tectonic fault-line is present in the above image.