Mars

Rover offers Mars weather forecast: Pink skies, dust storms

By Todd Halvorson, USA TODAY

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Nathan Spotts's Portfolio

If you "Like" Adobe Creative Suite on Facebook, you saw these beautiful, imaginative landscapes by Nathan Spotts. I have written before I have always loved artist's renderings of distant worlds, but this is a surreal perspective of our own existing world.
Nathan Spotts's Portfolio

Unrealistic Scenes by Nathan Spotts
(image via http://www.nathanspotts.com/)

Kepler

Kepler

Several days back, scientists announced the discovery of a planet in the habitable zone called Kepler-22b. It is located about 600 light-years away, orbiting a sun-like star. If the greenhouse effect operates there similarly to how it does on Earth, the average surface temperature on Kepler-22b would be 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius).

This is only the beginning, considering the Kepler spacecraft has already detected more than 1,000 exoplanets. The far more interesting discovery will be the determination of the planet's chemical make-up.

There is new software being creating to assist with the rendering of exoplanets, but in the meantime here's an artist's rendition of what the planet may look like.

Artist's Rendition of Kepler-22b

The Galaxy from a Cliff

The Galaxy from a Cliff

I enjoyed this back-lit panel from a recent trip to Washington DC.

Jupiter's Moon Europa

New Finding Ups the Chances of Life on Jupiter's Moon Europa

Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus showed potential, and now Jupiter's moon Europa is showing promise for life-sustaining conditions even if they may be buried deep in its crust.

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Europa's "Great Lake." Scientists speculate many more exist throughout the shallow regions of the moon's icy shell.
Credit:Britney Schmidt/Dead Pixel VFX/Univ. of Texas at Austin

Saturn's Rings Photograph

Saturn's Rings Photograph

Beautiful photo taken of Saturn and its rings by the Cassini spacecraft. I had a bit of an obsession with the Cassini-Huygens craft since it began orbiting Saturn in 2004.

I vividly remember being at work and constantly refreshing my web browser to catch glimpses of Huygens descending through Titan's, Saturn's largest satellite, atmosphere. Titan's thick atmosphere is believed to resemble an early Earth. There were numerous glitches with the data feed, but I was excited to see the first image that showed the surface to resemble a squishy Mars.

Saturn [Image credit: NASA]

Lonely Rogue Worlds Surprisingly Outnumber Planets with Suns

Lonely Rogue Worlds Surprisingly Outnumber Planets with Suns

Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer,
Space.com Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer,
space.com – Wed May 18, 6:00 pm ET

Artist's conception provided

This artist's conception provided by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory-Caltech shows a newly discovered type of planet that wanders freely or follows very loose orbits. Astronomers have the mysterious denizens of the Milky Way are apparently as common as the stars. One expert called the discovery a huge surprise.… Read more »

(AP Photo/NASA JPL-Caltech)