Sunrise on the dunes of Titan
Digital work
Callisto
Digital work
The ancient surface of Callisto is one of the most heavily cratered in the Solar System. A surface made of cratered plains, light plains, bright and dark smooth plains... a contrast of darkness and brightness. Callisto also hides a treasure: A salty ocean 50-200 km deep beneath its surface. Callisto's surface has an averige albedo of about 20%, but small patches of pure water ice, water frost deposits, with an albedo as high as 80% are found on the surface, surrounded by much darker areas. They are located on elevated surface features as crater rims, scarps and ridges.
In the sky, Jupiter with a size of 4º, eight times our Moon seen from Earth. Here it is accompanied by one of its inner moons, Europa.
The colossal fountains of Enceladus
Digital work
Huge jets of water ice that rise thousands of kilometers above the surface. Undoubtedly, one of the greatest wonders of the Solar System.
The powerful gravitational force of Saturn heats the interior of the small moon, making possible the existence of an inner ocean of liquid water. When the water is expelled to the outside, when it contacts the space vacuum it vaporizes and explodes, forming the geysers. Immediately the vapor is frozen again, falling in the form of snowflakes.
Las fuentes colosales de Encélado. Obra digital.
Enormes chorros de hielo de agua que se elevan a miles de kilómetros sobre la superficie. Indudablemente, una de las maravillas más grandes del Sistema Solar.
La poderosa fuerza gravitacional de Saturno calienta el interior de la pequeña luna permitiendo la existencia de un océano interior de agua líquida. Cuando este agua es expulsada al exterior, al contactar con el vacío no presurizado del espacio, estalla violentamente y se transforma en vapor formando géiseres. Casi inmediatamente este vapor se vuelve a congelar y cae en forma de copos de nieve.
Charon from Pluto
Digital work
In 1988 the atmosphere of Pluto was detected for the first time during a stellar occultation. New Horizons spacecraft arrived at Pluto in July 2015. It found a surprisingly robust hazy atmosphere on the dwarf planet. The haze extends at least 160 kilometers (100 miles) above the surface. Clouds, haze, winds, micro snowflakes,... could all be part of Pluto's dynamic weather system. Clouds and haze must be made of the very constituents of its atmosphere: molecular nitrogen and some carbon monoxide and methane. The presence of clouds, however, is dependent on the existence of a temperature gradient, like that on Earth. And with clouds must come some form of rain or, at Pluto's distance from the Sun, snow. It is thought that clouds in Pluto's atmosphere may be composed of tiny frozen spherules of nitrogen or carbon monoxide, rather than liquid or snowflakes.
Charon, the faithful companion, is seen in Pluto's sky with a size of 3º, six times our Moon from Earth.
The frozen plains of Pluto
Digital work
Although the apparent size of the Sun is 30 times smaller than seen from Earth, from Pluto our star is still very bright, giving roughly 150 to 450 times the light of the full Moon on Earth (the variability being due to the fact that Pluto's orbit is highly elliptical). So it is still possible to read a book on Pluto. Pluto's atmosphere consists of a thin envelope of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide gases, which are derived from the ices of these substances on its surface, This atmosphere produces a noticeable blue haze which is visible at sunset.
Storm on Titan
Digital work
Dense clouds of methane that cause violent storms often occur on the largest moon of Saturn, Titan. And most likely we will find other meteorological phenomena, such as heavy rains of liquid methane (whose drops must be larger than those of rainwater on Earth), lightning and thunder and the rainbow ...
Tvashtar erupting, Io
Digital work
Digital work
The Galileo spacecraft was able to study huge eruptions on Tvashtar Paterae: A 25-kilometer long (16 mi), 1 to 2-kilometer high (0.62 to 1.24 mi) curtain of lava was seen, followed by a plume of gas rising 385 kilometers (239 mi) above the surface of Io. On February 2007 the New Horizons probe, on its way to Pluto, captured an enormous eruption with a 330-kilometer high (210 mi) plume.
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