Ever since we first launched a camera into space back in the 1940s, we have captured
millions of images of the solar systems planets, moons, comets and asteroids. From the grainy,
but majestic first black and white photos of Earths curvature, to the magnificent high
resolution, colour images of the distant icy world, Pluto. We have been able to view the
solar system in unimaginable ways.
Only a select few people have looked back at the Earth from space firsthand, but it
doesn't mean that we cannot also see it it all its glory. For more than 70 years, weather
balloons, satellites and eventually astronauts have been capturing thousands of incredible
photographs of Earth, revealing its beauty, but also its fragility.
This image reveals the Earths sunlit side and was captured by NASA's EPIC camera which
is attached to the NOAA's DSCOVR satellite. The EPIC camera snaps a picture at least every
2 hours from one million miles away in natural colour, allowing us to observe the Earth as
it would look from human eyes. In 2016 NASA assembled more than 3000 of these incredible
images into a time-lapse sequence that shows the Earth over a year. You can see the ever-changing
motion of white clouds, that are slightly shrouding the deserts and forests of the world,
and of course the distinct blues of our vast oceans. This is our planet, the Earth in all
its splendour.
Until the mid 20th century, our neighbouring planet, Venus was believed to have similar
surface conditions to Earth. But when the Soviet Union sent their fleet of Venera probes
plummeted through the planets thick clouds, we finally got a glimpse of what Venus was
really like. A hellscape of crushing pressures and devastating temperatures.
This amazing photo was taken by the Soviet spacecraft Venera 13 in 1982 and was one of
the first colour images ever taken from the surface of Venus. The probe was designed to
last about half an hour while battling the blistering heat and the intense atmospheric
pressures, but the amazing spacecraft ended up transmitting data for more than 2 hours
after its landing. Although these images may not initially seem as stunning as those that
we have seen from the surface of Mars for example, when you think about the environmental
conditions the Venera probes had to withstand, they all of a sudden become a lot more incredible.
For just over 10 years NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory or SDO for short, has been observing
the Sun and capturing hundreds of millions of high-resolution images. The SDO snaps a
new image every 10 seconds in ten different wavelengths all from the orbit of Earth, allowing
us to see our closest star like never before.
This time-lapse captures the moment an enormous eruption occurred that produced a powerful
solar flare and a dazzling magnetic display, known as coronal rain. The footage is made
up of thousands of photographs and each second corresponds to around 6 minutes in real-time.
To show you the scale of this mighty solar storm, you can see the size of the Earth for
comparison, providing us with an understanding of just how large and violent this event really was.
In August 2014 the mysterious comet 67P/ churyumov-Gerasimenko became a part of human history by becoming
the first comet ever to be orbited and landed upon. The spacecraft that achieved this incredible
rendezvous was the European space agencies Rosetta spacecraft and the onboard landing
probe Philae.
Before this incredible mission, no one knew what comets looked like up close. But know
we can analyse thousands of magnificent images of this mysterious comet. This black and white
photo was taken when 67p/ churyumov-Gerasimenko was approaching the Sun and reveals a jet
of ice erupting from its crumbling surface, like fireworks of frozen dust and gas particles.
We were also treated to a short but spectacular close up time lapse that reveals the comet's
surface. It shows what appears to be an icy swirling atmosphere that is being illuminated
by the sun, with bright stars in the background moving vertically as the comet rotates. The
probe is roughly 13 miles away from the surface during the time-lapse and covers a time period
of around 25 minutes.
The gas giant Jupiter is easily one of the most magnificent worlds in the solar system
and over the years it has been visited by numerous spacecraft, but none have captured
its fierce beauty like NASA's Juno spacecraft. Juno has transmitted countless breathtaking
photos of Jupiter, providing researchers and space enthusiasts with an unprecedented close
up look at the enormous planet, revealing its complex cloud formations like never before.
Although we might be used to seeing the heavily colour enhanced images of Jupiter that allow
us to pick out stunning details in vivid blues, whites and oranges, in reality, the giant
planet is actually a lot more muted as these true colour images reveal. But nonetheless,
you can still see the spectacular, chaotic bands of clouds rotating and twisting like
cream swirling in a coffee.
Orbiting Saturn is one of the solar systems strangest moons, the small icy Enceladus.
This mysterious moon has been photographed by passing spacecraft in the past but it wasn't
until Cassini arrived that we really got to see its frozen, tortured surface up close.
This image was taken in August 2015 and dramatically displays Enceladus passing by part of Saturn's
rings. You can also see the contrast between the types of terrain, one side is covered
in deep ancient impact craters, while the other side is fairly smooth, indicating that
a process is taking place that is eliminating craters.
But this smooth, younger side isn't without its scars, because snaking northwards is an
enormous fracture, providing a reminder as to how surprisingly geologically active Enceladus
really is. This incredible time-lapse sequence is set over a time period of 14 hours and
reveals the active moon erupting icy plumes into space, confirming that Enceladus must
be hiding a subsurface global ocean.
Although we have access to millions of images of the solar system, we have only really explored
a fraction of it. There are still many places to visit and many more worlds to explore further.
But the images that we have collected certainly do stand as a remember of how far we have
already come, but also how far we still need to go.