If its an acronym, it must be NASA! GRIN - Great Images in NASA - is one of the more clever. GRIN is maintained by NASA History Office at NASA Headquarters and contains over a thousand of the more popular NASA photos throughout the agency’s history. Images are high resolution in a variety of sizes. Some are selected for historical value, others due to popularity. If you’ve ever wondered where to get a copy of a space picture you’ve seen in the news, this is the first place to look.

Messenger, NASA’s first spacecraft to visit Mercury has completed two flybys of the planet Venus and two of Mercury itself.  Another flyby of Mercury is planned for later this fall before beginning a yearlong orbit in March 2011. JHU’s Applied Physics Lab has begun to release images from the October 2008 flyby of Mercury. According to investigators, the latest images revealed gave scientists a look at a previously unknown impact basin. Dubbed the Rembrant Basin, the feature is more than 430 miles or roughly the  distance between Washington, D.C., and Boston.

“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it is a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that is just peanuts to space.” Douglas Adams - Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy

This is just too good not to share. Dries Buytaert, whose blog is not typically about space, has posted a fabulous illustration that really shows just how “mind-bogglingly big” space is. It would be interesting to add Himiko to the chart too!

Tonight’s Sky

“Your guide to constellations, deep sky objects, planets and events,” Tonight’s Sky is produced monthly by the Space Telescope Science Institute and is the ideal resource for the amateur astronomer. The guide is produced from the vantage point of the northern hemisphere. In June, Venus and Mars draw close before sunrise.

Tonight’s Sky

“Your guide to constellations, deep sky objects, planets and events,” Tonight’s Sky is produced monthly by the Space Telescope Science Institute and is the ideal resource for the amateur astronomer. The guide is produced from the vantage point of the northern hemisphere. In May, the Eta Aquarid meteor shower lights up the night sky.

What could be better than pictures from an alien world? How about interactive 3d and a virtual flyover? NASA’s Cassini continues to return remarkable photos from Saturn and its moons. NASA’s JPL has cooperated with the US Geological Survey to create topographical flyover maps of Titan. And by the way, if you haven’t tried out Cassie 3D, the Cassini Virtual Tour, it’s worth taking the time to download the extra software. My recommendation: select moon mode to access the latest information and detailed 3d imagery for 7 of Saturn’s moons and visit Iapetus - the moon with a “seam”.

Earlier post:

http://spaceimagesonline.com/2009/01/19/cassini-huygens-multimedia-gallery/

Don P. Mitchell has pulled together hard-to-find space imagery from the Soviet space program. While this is a small collection, it provides a unique historical glimpse into the past. Included are lunar photos datng back to 1959 (Luna-3) along with images returned from Mars, Venus and even Halley’s Comet. Also of interest is a special section, Venera: The Soviet Exploration of Venus.

Earth from Space

Earth from Space - Astronauts’ Views of the Home Planet bills itself as a “national treasure”. This site features hand selected photographic imagery taken from the unique vantage point offered by space. These images are chosen for their unique perspective and  interesting features of our home planet. These pictures can be searched by cities, by features or even by weather patterns.

Hurricane Claudette as seen by the crew of Expedition 7 July 15, 2003

Update (4-30): Scientific Blogging has added a good video about Himiko that explains this phenomenon better than I could.

Kepler Image Gallery

Kepler, NASA’s first mission capable of finding Earth-size and smaller planets around other stars, has returned its first pictures revealing millions of stars within its field of view.

“Kepler’s first glimpse of the sky is awe-inspiring,” said Lia LaPiana, Kepler’s program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “To be able to see millions of stars in a single snapshot is simply breathtaking.”

One new image from Kepler shows its entire field of view — a 100-square-degree portion of the sky, equivalent to two side-by-side dips of the Big Dipper. The regions contain an estimated 14 millions stars, more than 100,000 of which were selected as ideal candidates for planet hunting.

Over the next three-and-a-half years, Kepler will  scan pre-selected stars for planetary evidence. It is the first NASA mission optimized specifically to seek out Earth-sized planets.