Astronomy compels us to look upward, and leads us from this world to another. Plato said that more than 2,300 years ago, and it remains just as true today. The wonders of space never cease to amaze, and if you doubt that, check out the latest photos from NASA.
How can you not feel awed by a photo of the Trapezium Cluster, where three young stars move away from each other? Or fascination pondering an unfathomably vast gas cloud in a distant galaxy? They’re as mystifying as they are beautiful. It’s not for nothing that Emerson said, “the sky is the ultimate art gallery, just above us.”
If you can look at a photo of the Saturnian moon Mimas (the smallest astronomical body known to be round due to self-gravitation), and see only a rock, then ponder the effort involved in making that image. The Cassini probe that flew within 25,620 miles of Mimas left this planet 19 years ago, and has already visited Venus and Jupiter. Its mission ends in September with a suicidal descent into the thick Saturnian atmosphere on September 15. NASA is sacrificing the probe to ensure it doesn’t contaminate Titan or Enceladus—two moons that may be capable of sustaining life. Yes, that’s actually a concern. NASA has an entire department dedicated to that stuff—the Office of Planetary Protection. But that’s another story.
Want more wonder? Check out the entire collection.