A month in space

The Guardian runs a series (actually various series) on science topics, the series "A Month in Space" this month has a set of simply stunning pictures. Alas I can't link to the pictures, but I can link to the article:

A month in space: A Martian dust devil, Milky Way bubbles and a star trek navigational aid – in pictures

This month's roundup of some of the best space-related images includes a dust devil and its shadow on the surface of Mars, some of the cosmic bubbles spotted by 35,000 citizen scientists, and a new navigational technique for starships exploring the final frontier

Eric Hilaire and James Kingsland  Friday 20 April 2012 19.04 BST

As for other series, there's an excellent one working through the Periodic Table of the Elements...this month, that most well known of elements: Praseodymium.

Phobos passes Jupiter… as seen from Mars!

Phobos passes Jupiter; as seen from Mars!

Mars Express is a European Space Agency probe that’s been orbiting the Red Planet since 2003, returning vast amount of data. Lately it’s been taking some amazing images and video of the tiny Martian moon Phobos, and the ESA just released this amazing footage of the lumpy potato moon passing by Jupiter as seen from the orbiting craft:

Endurance Crater, Mars

Fantastic picture of Endurance crater taken by Odyssey:

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA13794.jpg

The picture is huge!

Opportunty and the Crater

APOD has a fantastic picture today of a small crater on Mars taken by NASA's Opportunity rover. As the picture is quite large click the above link.

Here's the text from the above:

Nereus Crater on Mars
Credit: Mars Exploration Rover Mission, JPL, NASA; Image Processing: Kenneth Kremer Explanation: It was along the way. The robotic rover OpportunityMeridiani Plain on Mars has a destination of Endeavour Crater, a large crater over 20 kilometers across which may yield additional clues about the cryptic past of ancient Mars. Besides passing open fields of dark soil and light rock, Opportunity has chanced upon several interesting features. One such feature, pictured above in a digitally stitched and horizontally compressed panorama, is Nereus Crater, a small crater about 10 meters across that is surrounded by jagged rock. Besides Nereus, Opportunity recently also happened upon another unusual rock -- one that appears to be the third large meteorite found on Mars and the second for Opportunity during only this trip. Opportunity has been traveling toward Endeavour Crater for over a year now, and if it can avoid ridged rocks and soft sand along the way, it may reach Endeavour sometime next year.