Colorful Clouds Near Rho Ophiuchi

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Colorful Clouds Near Rho Ophiuchi
Image Credit & Copyright: Tom O'Donoghue

Explanation: Why is the sky near Antares and Rho Ophiuchi so colorful? The colors result from a mixture of objects and processes. Fine dust illuminated from the front by starlight produces blue reflection nebulae. Gaseous clouds whose atoms are excited by ultraviolet starlight produce reddish emission nebulae. Backlit dust clouds block starlight and so appear dark. Antares, a red supergiant and one of the brighter stars in the night sky, lights up the yellow-red clouds on the lower center. Rho Ophiuchi lies at the center of the blue nebula near the top. The distant globular cluster M4 is visible just to the right of Antares, and to the lower left of the red cloud engulfing Sigma Scorpii. These star clouds are even more colorful than humans can see, emitting light across the electromagnetic spectrum.

Earth From Space: Colorful Camargue

Earth from Space is presented by Kelsea Brennan-Wessels from the ESA Web-TV virtual studios. In the thirty-first edition, we explore France's Camargue delta region.

Sun Eruption Seen In Colorful UV Light

On April 7th 2012, a coronal mass ejection was lofted towards Mercury and set to slam into its ultra-thin atmosphere on April 9th. The Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the blast in extreme ultraviolet. Credit: NASA / SDO / Mash Mix: SPACE.com / Original Music by Mark C. Petersen, Loch Ness Productions

Colorful Kites Fly Over Thailand

From superman to jellyfish to global warming - kites of all shapes and sizes, some carrying a message, create a colorful scene in Thailand's beach town of Cha-am. Kilmeny Duchardt reports.

A Colorful Side Of The Moon

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A Colorful Side of the Moon
NASA / GSFC / DLR / Arizona State Univ. / Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Explanation: This colorful topographical map of the Moon is centered on the lunar farside, the side not seen from planet Earth. That view is available to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter though, as the spacecraft's wide angle camera images almost the entire lunar surface every month. Stereo overlap of the imaging has allowed the computation of topographical maps with coverage between 80 degrees north and south latitude. The results have about a 300 meter resolution on the lunar surface and 10 to 20 meter elevation accuracy. Data closer to the north and south poles is filled in using the orbiter's laser altimeter. In this map, white, red, green, and purple represent progressively lower elevations. In fact, the large circular splotch tending to purple hues at the bottom is the farside's South Pole-Aitken Basin. About 2500 kilometers in diameter and over 12 kilometers deep, it is one of the largest impact basins in the Solar System.