Wednesday, December 1, 2010 This composite image of the Sun taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft shows the HMI magnetic field in blue and orange (indicating opposite polarity) aligned with the AIA 171 channel in extreme ultraviolet superimposed over it (May 23, 2010). The juxtaposition is especially effective at showing how the arcs that we observe in UV light emerge from regions of strong magnetic field.
Thursday, December 2, 2010 This image, taken on August 13, 2010, by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, shows the moon Enceladus over the bright arc of Saturn's atmosphere.
Friday, December 2, 2010 This Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image (released Aug. 1, 2007) shows a ridge in Mars' Terra Meridiani that is most likely a former streambed, now exposed in inverted relief. The stream that formed this ridge must have been ancient, as the ridge is buried by brighter rocks, which are themselves very old, having been thickly deposited and then heavily eroded
Wednesday, December 8, 2010 This view of grains from a sand dune near Christmas Lake, Ore., was taken by a test version of the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on Curiosity, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, slated to launch in fall 2011. Three 2-millimeter-diameter (0.08-inch-diameter) ball bearings in the scene provide an independent measure of the image scale. This image has a resolution of 15.4 microns per pixel, about twice as high as the camera resolution on Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity. The view covers an area about 1 inch, or 2.5 centimeters, across.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010 The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, 747SP sat on the tarmac during nighttime telescope operations at NASA’s Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in October 2010. SOFIA, a cooperative program between NASA and the German Aerospace Center DLR, took its first science flight Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2010, focusing on the Orion nebula and the Sharpless 140 star cluster.
Monday, December 2, 2010 Gary Sullivan demonstrated the use of a vacuum dry box and safety equipment in this April 1963 photo. The box provided an inert, or controlled atmosphere, for handling sensitive materials such as cesium during tests of components and materials for ion motor propellant feed systems.
Thursday, December 9, 2010 The dark rippled dunes of Mars' Proctor Crater likely formed more recently than the lighter rock forms they appear to cover. Researchers believe the dunes slowly shift in response to pervasive winds. This image was taken by HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter currently circling Mars.
Friday, December 10, 2010 The Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft with Expedition 25 Commander Doug Wheelock and Flight Engineers Shannon Walker and Fyodor Yurchikhin touches down near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan on Friday, Nov. 26, 2010. They were returning from six months onboard the International Space Station.
Monday, December 13, 2010 Harrat Khaybar, Saudi Arabia. lies in the western half of the Arabian peninsula, and contains extensive lava fields known as haraat (referred to as harrat for a named field). The most recent recorded eruption of this volcanic field took place between 600-700 A.D. The local climate may have been much wetter during some periods of volcanic activity. Today, the regional climate is hyperarid, leading to an almost total lack of vegetation. The image was taken by the Expedition 16 crew aboard the International Space Station in March 2008.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 Rings enrobe crescent Saturn in this Cassini spacecraft image. Clouds swirl through the atmosphere of the planet, while barely-visible Prometheus orbits between the planet's main rings and its the thin F ring. Saturn's moon Prometheus appears very small above the rings near the middle of the image.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010 During the STS-129 mission's first spacewalk in November 2009, astronauts Mike Foreman and Robert L. Satcher Jr. (not pictured) installed a spare S-band antenna structural assembly on the station's truss.
Thursday, December 16, 2010 Students wielding toy Lego bricks participated in "Build the Future" at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010. The event was part of pre-launch activities surrounding the STS-133 mission. NASA and The LEGO Group will feature educational games and activities designed to spark children's interest in science, technology, engineering and math.
Friday, December 17, 2010 A NASA rocket launched Dec. 12 from Norway to study the mysterious northern lights. This photo of the RENU launch was taken from downtown Andenes, Norway.
Monday, December 20, 2010 The Soyuz launcher carrying the Soyuz TMA spacecraft is erected on the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It will bring NASA astronaut Catherine Coleman, Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev and European astronaut Paolo Nespoli to the International Space Station.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010. Temperatures plunged during the first week of December in much of Europe and parts of the United States. This image shows the temperature of the land surface for December 3-10, 2010, compared to the average temperature for the same period between 2002 and 2009 (blue=colder; red=warmer). A climate pattern known as the Arctic Oscillation caused the temperatures to fall. The unusual cold brought heavy snow to Northern Europe, stopping flights and trains early in December.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 The Kjell Henriksen Observatory, which is operated by the University Center of Svalbard, provides downrange support for many sounding rocket missions launched from the Andøya Rocket Range, including the recent RENU project launched to study the auroras.
Thursday, December 23, 2010 Located at 18,400 feet above sea level in Chile's Atacama Desert, the new CCAT observatory will detect radiation normally blocked to ground-based telescopes by water vapor in the atmosphere.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010 The northern lights hang along the planet's magnetic field. For the first time, scientists have measured the strength of the field in Earth's core.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010 This photo of the Dec. 20 total lunar eclipse by Jimmy Westlake shows the blue edge to Earth's shadow set against the reddened moon.
Thursday, December 30, 2010 Space shuttle Discovery sits on Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Dec 21, 2010, with the partially-eclipsed moon overhead.
