Pic of the Week: Yogi Bear Spotted on Mars

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Image (Credit): Picture of the Martian surface captured by the orbiting Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona)

This week’s image comes from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. You don’t need to look too hard to see a bear in this photo.

Here is a summary of what you are seeing from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, which operates HiRISE:

There’s a hill with a V-shaped collapse structure (the nose), two craters (the eyes), and a circular fracture pattern (the head). The circular fracture pattern might be due to the settling of a deposit over a buried impact crater. Maybe the nose is a volcanic or mud vent and the deposit could be lava or mud flows?

Pic of the Week: Solar Plasma Jet

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Image (Credit): The Sun’s coronal mass ejection. (Andrew McCarthy/@cosmic_background)

This week’s image is from LiveScience’s “10 most jaw-dropping space images of 2022.” It is described as a “false-color composite image of a coronal mass ejection measuring around 1 million miles firing away from the sun.” The image, attributed to photographer Andrew McCarthy, was created from hundreds of thousands of individual shots taken over six hours.

Pic of the Week: An Icelandic Saga

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Image (Credit): “An Icelandic Saga.” (Carl Gallagher)

This week’s image is from Mashable’s 24 Stunning Astronomy Photographs that will Take You to Infinity and Beyond. The photo, titled “An Icelandic Saga,” is from photographer Carl Gallagher.

Here is a little more about the photo:

The photographer went on a nine-day, 2500-mile road trip, chasing gaps in the clouds, to capture the Aurora Borealis above the wreck of the Gardur in the Westfjords region of Iceland. 

Pic of the Week: Disconnection Event

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Image (Credit): “Disconnection Event.” (Gerald Rhemann)

This week’s image is from the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2022 contest. The image above is the winner of the 2022 contest. It is titled “Disconnection Event,” captured by Gerald Rhemann.

Here is the language accompanying the winning image:

Comet Leonard was discovered by GJ Leonard on 3 January 2021. It made its closest pass on 12 December 2021 and, having left the solar system, won’t be seen from Earth again. On 25 Dec 2021, a piece of the comet’s tail was pinched off and carried away by the solar wind – a dramatic tail disconnection event. “Astronomy, myth and art come together beautifully in this shot. It holds great value to scientists, as it elegantly captures a disconnection event” – Imad Ahmed

Please visit The Guardian site for images from all of the winners.

Pic of the Week: Stunning Auroras

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Image (Credit): View from the ISS – further description below. (ESA/NASA-S.Cristoforetti)

This week’s image is from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Year in Images 2022 collection and shows a view from the International Space Station (ISS).

Here is the description of the image from the ESA:

Aurorae observed by ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti aboard the International Space Station for her Minerva Mission. She shared these images to her social media on 21 August 2022 with the caption: “The Sun has been really active lately. Last week we saw the most stunning auroras I have ever experienced in over 300 days in space!”

You can read more about ESA astronaut Cristoforetti’s work on the ISS here.