The Bad Astronomy Blog gives a top ten list of astronomy images for 2006. There are some really wonderful choices there, and Phil Plait gives a good deal of discussion of each one. The winner is this fantastic back-lit (by the sun, not some giant NASA flashgun) image of Saturn taken -of course- by the Cassini mission:
Now there’s another wonderful feature of this photo that makes it such a clear winner. I won’t take away Phil’s pleasure at telling you himself, so go over to his site and look at the whole set. I will simply say that there are two clues in this post: The title, and the light source.
Enjoy.
-cvj
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That is beautiful
Thanks, and a happy new year.
Loved the clean tumbling along the short axis until it reaches air, and also the shock wave off the nose from the forward looking camera.
Dear Phil, I learned of the SRB movie from you!
Clifford, thanks for the link love!
Amara, I totally forgot about the SRB video. I linked to it back in July (http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2006/07/10/awesome-shuttle-launch-videos/). You should read that post; it features my very smart daughter. 🙂
Dear Clifford,
Thank you for showing the striking image and the link to Phil Plait’s blog.
I will use this pic as a New Year greeting card.
Happy New Year!
Regards from Russia.
Anya
Beautiful and serene in glory, and the pale blue microscopic dot wonders why, and looks back to the sublime abysm…
Thanks for a breathtaking picture!
Christine
It just seems too surreal to be real. Yet please pardon me for the cheesy cliche. At present, though, I’m simply at a loss for words… Nevertheless, thanks–Clifford– for sharing this most spectacular image of Saturn!
Oh! Nice selection Phil.
I still think “Orion’s belt” is quite brilliant. 🙂 Thanks Q.
Clifford: giant NASA flashgun
What is that? 🙂
OK, the SRB movie link isn’t working right. If you go to this page: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts121/news/index.html , then you can see the movie of the right forward solid rocket booster (and choose your media format).
I was in the conference room at the Division of Planetary Sciences Pasadena meeting in October when Carolyn Porco of the imaging team displayed that picture for the first time to a roomful of planetary scientists. There was an audible gasp from the audience, so that shows you that planetary scientists are not immune to stunning beauty from their field. The second ‘feature’ that you allude to was unknown to me when I saw this in October, so thank you for pointing us to Phil’s blog, as now the value of this picture is multiplied another 100 times for me.
One pic that I didn’t see on Phil’s Best 10 list, but then, it was a movie, was the awesome “My Life as a solid rocket booster” cam movie. (camera on the SRB of the July 4 shuttle launch) The fall back down to Earth made me dizzy!