Solar System
Planet Mercury close-up viewed by MESSENGER
This view of Mercury was taken by MESSENGER in 2008. Many of Mercury's ancient and heavily cratered surface features are visible such as very long rays that appears to be running across the planet. MESSENGER was from an altitude of about 27,000 kilometers and look back 90 minutes when this image was captured.
Image credit: MESSENGER/ NASA
Jupiter and its Great Red Spot viewed by Hubble
This view of Jupiter was taken on June 27, 2019, by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to showcase the gas giant's Great Red Spot and intense color palette in Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere. These colors provide important clues to the active processes in Jupiter's atmosphere. Jupiter's bands are formed by differences in the thickness and height of thick ammonia ice clouds. for example, colorful bands moving in the opposite direction at various latitudes, formed from different atmospheric pressures. While lighter bands rise higher and contain thicker clouds than dark bands.
Image Credit: NASA/ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Center), and M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley)
Cassini's view of Saturn and its rings
This stunning view of Saturn and its rings was captured by the spacecraft Cassini on February 9, 2008, using its Wide-Angle Camera. Cassini, when it was operating, was 43 million miles (69 million kilometers) away from Saturn. One of Saturn's moons Enceladus is also faintly visible to the left near Saturn in this capture.
Image credit: NASA/JPL/ Space Science Institute
Clearest/ Closest view of Mars captured by Hubble
The Hubble Space Telescope snaps its sharpest views of the red planet Mars between April 27 and May 6, 1999, when Mars was 54 million miles (87 million km) away from Earth. Many of Mars's features are visible in this image such as the massive canyons of Valles Marineris, some of them which form linear markings on the planet which were once previously thought to be canals. Mars's morning clouds and a large cyclonic storm encircling the planet's south ice polar cap is made of water ice are also depicted in this image. Hubble captured this image of the red planet when it was nearly 35 million miles (nearly 56 million km) away from Earth.
Image credit: NASA/ESA, J.Bell (Cornell U) and M.Wolff(SSI)