Best Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2011

Was originally pulled from www.nnm.ru, post not there anymore...

Dr. Marek Kukula (Marek Kukula), an astronomer at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, invites readers to make a space trip by these photographs, which depicted the most vivid "tourist" attractions of our solar system. This collection of photographs was provided in connection with the start of the contest "Best Photographer astronomer-2011» (Astronomy Photographer of the Year), conducted by the Royal Observatory.The competition is only the photos taken by people.

The Green Universe: Carl Sagan and the "Pale Blue Dot"

Link: http://sierraclub.typepad.com/greenlife/2012/03/green-perspec.html

March 26, 2012

The Green Universe: Carl Sagan

Sensational news stories can make badly behaved celebrities and bickering politicians seem larger than life. Luckily, the scientists who study the vast universe maintain a different perspective. This week, we'll bring you quotes and videos that reveal nature's star power.

Carl Sagan and the "Pale Blue Dot"

It might look like a grainy photograph, but take a closer look. See that tiny little dot in the middle of the yellowish band of light? Carl Sagan asked the NASA operators of the Voyager I to snap this picture as the spacecraft was leaving our solar system, to remind us of this very simple fact: "Everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was lived out their life . . . lived there."

Watch the video below to see our home planet in a new light:

--photo courtesy of NASA; video by Pale Blue Films

YouTube - Discovery on 2012 - Galactic Plane, Dark Rift

35 Impossible Landscapes from Mars

Sources: 1 2 3

Are you tired of seeing landscapes from this planet? If you are, we have a treat for you. Thanks to NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) which has been orbiting Mars since 2006, currently circling approximately 300 km (187 mi) above the Martian surface. On board the MRO the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera has been photographing the planet for several years now at resolutions as fine as mere inches per pixel.