Spacecraft images captivate people’s imagination, shifting people’s understanding of our planet’s place within space. Some images have even become cultural icons.
Scientists can immediately process uncompressed satellite images for details enhancement, contrast adjustment and color manipulation as well as adding filters.
Archival-quality images contain similar metadata as consumer digital cameras, such as exposure times and durations.
Astronauts
Long before selfies became ubiquitous on smartphones, astronauts used cameras in space to document their work. Their photographs reveal both the beauty and challenges associated with living in space – helping us better comprehend our planet’s place within its universe.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station often take stunning images of Earth. Without atmospheric interference to distort sunlight, taking clear and beautiful shots is much simpler for these astronauts.
These stunning images taken by ISS crew members reveal the staggering diversity of Earth’s landscapes. One image depicts an uplifted rock formation in Sahara desert while another image features Minnesota lakes at night which appear like broken glass or water splashed onto dark surfaces.
Space may be sparse on squares, but it has plenty of round planets and stars. The Hubble Space Telescope’s WFC3 camera captures images across an array of light spectrums; when combined in photo form they reveal the stunning X-shaped feature of an extinct star.
Voyager
Voyager spacecrafts were able to capture stunning photos of our solar system and its planets and moons despite their great distance from Earth, including one image dubbed by Carl Sagan as “a pale blue dot,” depicting all seven planets with their rings visible for the first time ever.
Voyager 1 and 2, launched aboard Titan-Centaur rockets on August 20, 1977, were able to capture images of Jupiter, its moons, Saturn’s rings, Uranus (on the right) and Neptune – three outermost planets in their systems.
Photos were taken over several hours with instructions sent from Earth via radio antennas to each probe’s radio antennas, using telescopes equipped with various filters for each shot; for instance, Neptune rings required dark filters in order to capture their dim lighting while wide-angle shots on Uranus utilized clear filters.
Hubble
Since opening its eyes to the universe 30 years ago, Hubble has captured some of astronomy’s most unforgettable images. It can see light across both visible and infrared wavelengths that remain hidden to human vision.
As seen in this vibrant image of Cat’s Eye Nebula (also called Barnard 33), infrared light penetrated dense clouds that cover it to reveal details which would otherwise remain concealed by visible light alone, including swirling knots of gas and an eruption of rapid energy release from a jet shooting out at high speed.
Hubble images include portraits of galaxy clusters, an extremely detailed snapshot of the Crab Nebula and an assortment of galaxies formed through mergers. Furthermore, it has taken many close-up shots of planets within our Solar System, such as this latest shot of Jupiter which shows an impending storm on its icy moon Europa.
Mars
An orbiting spacecraft took color photos and low-resolution video of Mars Exploration Rover Curiosity as it descended through its atmosphere to land safely, as it is expected that higher resolution frames will become available within weeks.
NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor captured this image that shows an orbital view of Mars’ northern polar cap and Chasma Boreale canyon, nearly bisecting it. Mount Sharp can also be seen here with layers consisting of both hematite and clay minerals in its rock structure.
This mosaic of Mars was constructed using 90 images captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). As it flew in an elliptical orbit around its home planet, different altitudes over its path allowed different views into its surface – providing us with a stunning new perspective of this majestic planet.