Littlecadet-biguniverse - Space, Our Favorite Frontier!!

MARTIAN STORMS - Seen in 1977 by the Viking 2 Orbiter

“Like its predecessor, the Viking 2 mission consisted of a lander and an orbiter designed to take high-resolution images, and study the Martian surface and atmosphere. Both the Viking 1 and 2 landers benefited greatly from their orbiting counterparts, which snapped images that helped mission controllers navigate the landers to safe landing sites.”

This particular image was taken by the Viking 2 Orbiter and shows a massive dust storm on the red planet. This spectacular storm can be seen on a global scale. The Viking 2 mission would end 3 years later on April 11, 1980.

Credit: NASA/JPL

Top: Hubble’s infrared vision pierced the dusty heart of our Milky Way galaxy to reveal more than half a million stars at its core. At the very hub of our galaxy, this star cluster surrounds the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole, which is about 4 million times the mass of our sun.

Credits: NASA, ESA, and Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA, Acknowledgment: T. Do, A.Ghez (UCLA), V. Bajaj (STScI)

Bottom: This annotated, infrared image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the scale of the galactic core. The galaxy’s nucleus (marked) is home to a central, supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A-star.

Credits: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Acknowledgment: T. Do, A.Ghez (UCLA),V. Bajaj (STScI)

Three LEGO Minifigures Journey to Jupiter

Did you know that the Juno mission is also one giant leap for minifigure-kind? Three LEGO crew members have set their sights on being the first toy to visit another planet, enduring the five year, 1.75 billion mile journey aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft. One minifigure is a likeness of Galileo Galilei – who discovered Jupiter’s four largest moons. The other two represent the Roman god Jupiter and his wife Juno. Each figure has been custom molded out of aluminum to represent their special characteristics. Jupiter carries a lightning bolt, Juno has a magnifying glass to represent her search for truth, Galileo is carrying a telescope and a model of the planet Jupiter.

To me, these minifigures add a beautifully ordinary and intensely human element to this extraordinary mission.

Explore more of the LEGO Group’s partnership with NASA at LEGO.com/Space

The giant star Zeta Ophiuchi

Colliding Galaxies NGC 7318, part of Stephan’s Quintet

Very colorful clouds of Rho Ophiuchi.

Image Credit & Copyright: Tom Masterson, ESO’s DSS

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