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Emily Lakdawalla • Sep 10, 2012

A couple of gems from the archives

We still have a lot of work to do to migrate into our new website some of the great stuff we don't want to lose from our old website. This work is sometimes tedious, but this week, it's been really enjoyable, because I'm working on migrating some of the prettiest space images from our archives. Our old site's "image library" was entirely behind the scenes and invisible to the public; we didn't have a good way to feature such images independently of blog entries or web pages. One of the big changes I wanted in our new site was an independent Space Images section to highlight some of this great stuff. Here's just a few of the gems I've unearthed this week:

Jupiter and Europa from Cassini
Jupiter and Europa from Cassini This true-color image of a half-phase Europa poised above Jupiter's great red spot was taken by Cassini as it sailed past on 2 January 2001.Image: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI / color composite by Gordan Ugarkovic
Venera 9's landing site
Venera 9's landing site Venera 9 landed on October 22, 1975 and returned the first image from the surface of another planet. The terrain at Venera 9's landing site is blocky, unlike those observed by Venera 10, 13, and 14.Image: Ted Stryk
Mariner 6 and 7 mosaic of Sinus Meridiani
Mariner 6 and 7 mosaic of Sinus Meridiani This mosaic was lovingly constructed from Mariner 6 and 7 data by Ted Stryk. Most of the data is from Mariner 6; a small gore between two mosaics was filled in with some Mariner 7 data. The mosaics cover Sinus Meridiani, the location of the Opportunity landing site.Image: NASA / mosaic by Ted Stryk / annotations by Phil Stooke
70 kilometers above the surface of Titan
70 kilometers above the surface of Titan An artist's conception of Huygens' descent. At an altitude of 70 kilometers above the surface, Huygens is inside the layer of complex organic condensate haze. Below that layer, the view becomes clearer.Image: ESA / NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / René Pascal
Voyager 1's departure shot of Saturn
Voyager 1's departure shot of Saturn Saturn was Voyager 1's last planetary encounter. It captured this iconic image of the ringed giant as it left the Saturn system at 21:15 UTC on December 15, 1980.Image: NASA / JPL / color composite by Gordan Ugarkovic

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