Image of the Day: June 2012

Rock Me on the Water

Friday, June 1, 2012: At sunrise, the high-fidelity space shuttle model sits aboard the barge that will transport it from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Johnson Space Center's visitor center in Houston. The model was installed at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in 1993. NASA moved it onto the water in order to begin building the facility to display shuttle Atlantis in 2013. Photo released May 24, 2012.

— Tom Chao

There’s a Little Black Spot on the Earth Today

Monday, June 4, 2012: Geostationary satellite MTSAT generated this image of the annular solar eclipse of May 20-21, 2012. The picture clearly shows the scale of the moon’s shadow on the Earth (just right of top center). This image was generated during a color test of the Visible Daily-Earth project by the Planetary Habitability Laboratory @ UPR Arecibo. Color correction was made based on NASA Visible Earth datasets.

— Tom Chao

Glow World

Tuesday, June 5, 2012: NGC 7026, a planetary nebula, lies just beyond the tip of the tail of the constellation of Cygnus (The Swan). Not actually a nebula, a planetary nebula represents a stage in the life of mid-sized stars like the sun, when the star’s nuclear fuel runs out and the outer layers of gas puff out. The gas is heated by the hot core of the star, and the gaseous envelope glows like a fluorescent light.

— Tom Chao

The Rare Delight of the Sight of You

Wednesday, June 6, 2012: This image shows the Solar Dynamic Observatory's ultra-high definition view of the 2012 Venus Transit taken in the 304 angstrom wavelength of light. On June 5-6 2012, SDO is collecting images of one of the rarest predictable solar events: the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. This event happens in pairs eight years apart that are separated from each other by 105 or 121 years. The last transit was in 2004 and the next will not happen until 2117. NASA image captured June 6, 2012.

— Tom Chao

New York, New York, Big City of Dreams

Thursday, June 7, 2012: Like generations of immigrants before, shuttle Enterprise receives a welcoming salute from Lady Liberty, as the test shuttle floats up the Hudson River to its new home at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, on June 6, 2012.

— Tom Chao

Gosh Yardang It!

Friday, June 8, 2012: ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft obtained this view of Danielson (right) and Kalocsa craters in the Arabia Terra region of Mars. The image shows the yardangs — streamlined hills carved by wind — bisected by the darker dune field in Danielson crater. The alternating sedimentary layers of the crater floor suggests that periodic changes in the climate of Mars occurred, possibly due to changes in the planet’s rotation axis.

— Tom Chao

Is This One of Harry Mudd's Androids?

Monday, June 11, 2012: NASA's Johnson Space Center posted this photo on Facebook, June 8, 2012. They wrote: "George Takei (Star Trek's Sulu) and Robonaut throwing the Vulcan salute during a recent visit to NASA Johnson Space Center."

— Tom Chao

I'll Stretch You Out

Tuesday, June 12, 2012: NGC 5754 is the large spiral galaxy seen face-on in this image. Nearby to the upper left, NGC 5752 interacts with NGC 5754, as seen by the long filaments being pulled away. Both galaxies are part of a quartet of galaxies known as Arp 297. NGC 5754 lies in the constellation Bootes, the Herdsman, at a distance of roughly 200 million light-years

— Tom Chao

I'm an Outsider, Outside of Everything

Wednesday, June 13, 2012: Saturn's small moon Epimetheus orbits beyond the planet's rings. Here, Cassini spacecraft spts the moon outside the thin F ring near the bottom center of this photo, on the far side of the rings. This view looks toward the southern, unilluminated side of the rings. The image was taken in visible light on Dec. 30, 2011, at a distance of approximately 1.5 million miles (2.4 million kilometers) from Epimetheus.

— Tom Chao

Let the Water Hold Me Down

Thursday, June 14, 2012: NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations project (NEEMO) is a NASA mission based in Aquarius, the world's only undersea research station. Aquarius lies off Key Largo in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It sits next to deep coral reefs 62 feet (19 meters) below the surface. Here aquanauts test and develop surface operations for planetary sample return missions. Image released June 13, 2012.

— Tom Chao

It's Not the Heat, It's the Humidity

Friday, June 15, 2012: A simulated 5-day Mars mission took place in the Giant Ice Caves of Dachstein, Austria, created by the Austrian Space Forum and international research partners in April-May 2012. Here, a lunar rover created by the Part-Time Scientists, Asimov R3, undergoes testing in the King Arthur Dome. High humidity inside poses quite a challenge for the little rover.

— Tom Chao