Best / Most Significant Images Of 2005 - Unmanned Spaceflight.com

Best / Most Significant Images Of 2005, Year-end feature

elakdawalla View Member Profile	Dec 22 2005, 04:06 PM Post #1
Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454	OK, so I have been given a late assignment to create a "Year in Pictures" feature for our site looking back at 2005, and I'm looking for some "homework help" . I did one of these last year (sadly it is not available on the new site, I will try to repost it ASAP) and included pictures from Wild-2, tons from Spirit and Opportunity and Cassini, Genesis embedded in the desert, that sort of thing. The idea is to showcase pictures that are beautiful, scientifically meaningful, or historically important, or all of the above. I thought I'd see if any of you might have any opinions about what I should include. I've already got a space reserved for at least one "amateur" pic, likely the Av Week cover. I can't include everything that's suggested here (my editor has final say) but this community collectively has a much broader viewpoint on the last year than just lil' old me and I'm sure you'll come up with good stuff I never would have thought of... --Emily -------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.

Replies (1 - 34)

djellison View Member Profile	Dec 22 2005, 04:37 PM Post #2
Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14457 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1	What I'd include.... The Hubble Mars shot of the Dust Storm Plutos two new moons MRO Launch and/or Lunar Calib image Anything and Everything from Cassini - particularly some of the KODAKMMT's DI images, the impactor images are fairly poor quality, but a sequence of flyby images of the impact would be good Aqua/Terra images of Hurricanes / Flooding and Hemel Hempstead Oil Depot / LA Bush Fires Aqua / Terra images of the Annular Eclipse Images of the Tile Gap Filler removal EVA Something from MEX, umm, the ancient Martian 'Glaciers' Heck - I could think of dozens Doug

lyford View Member Profile	Dec 22 2005, 04:47 PM Post #3
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1281 Joined: 18-December 04 From: San Diego, CA Member No.: 124	I would nominate this shot of Hyperion Dramatic, good balance of art and science, etc. Makes nice desktop wallpaper - which is why these missions are funded, right? And I second most of Doug's -------------------- Lyford Rome "Zis is not nuts, zis is super-nuts!" Mathematician Richard Courant on viewing an Orion test

mhoward View Member Profile	Dec 22 2005, 05:00 PM Post #4
Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3431 Joined: 11-August 04 From: USA Member No.: 98	I think Spirit's Summit Pan would be a no-brainer. Honestly, although it's a shame, I think that may be the only result from the rovers that much of the public has even been vaguely aware of this year. It does truly represent a significant moment in spaceflight, IMHO.

djellison View Member Profile	Dec 22 2005, 05:16 PM Post #5
Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14457 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1	Ahh - the Summit Pan + Deck pan reprojected in the Polar Format as seen in this place would be the best way to present it I think - and yes, it should be in there Doug

odave View Member Profile	Dec 22 2005, 05:21 PM Post #6
Member Group: Members Posts: 510 Joined: 17-March 05 From: Southeast Michigan Member No.: 209	I second the Hyperion image. Two others I would make sure to include are the Enceladus plumes, and at least one shot from Hayabusa showing those large boulders on Itokawa just hanging there at non-intuitive angles. -------------------- --O'Dave

JRehling View Member Profile	Dec 22 2005, 05:25 PM Post #7
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321	QUOTE (lyford @ Dec 22 2005, 08:47 AM) I would nominate this shot of Hyperion Dramatic, good balance of art and science, etc. Makes nice desktop wallpaper - which is why these missions are funded, right? I'd revise that to the color image of Hyperion. Ansel Adams and the now-rare Hollywood B&W film withstanding, color is what the public wants to see, since the midpoint of Wizard of Oz. The thing that aggravates me about good desktop images is that the normal use of my computer obscures everything but the edges. Especially devastating to whole-object pictures with black boundaries!

lyford View Member Profile	Dec 22 2005, 06:00 PM Post #8
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1281 Joined: 18-December 04 From: San Diego, CA Member No.: 124	QUOTE (JRehling @ Dec 22 2005, 09:25 AM) I'd revise that to the color image of Hyperion. Ansel Adams and the now-rare Hollywood B&W film withstanding, color is what the public wants to see, since the midpoint of Wizard of Oz. Well, color notwithstanding, I think you are right about the composition - lays a little nicer in the frame: -------------------- Lyford Rome "Zis is not nuts, zis is super-nuts!" Mathematician Richard Courant on viewing an Orion test

Phillip View Member Profile	Dec 22 2005, 06:11 PM Post #9
Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 67 Joined: 18-April 05 From: Austin, Texas Member No.: 249	I would include one of the shots that shows the shadow of the Hayabusa probe on the Itokawa Asteroid. Noteworthy and thought provoking. Phillip

elakdawalla View Member Profile	Dec 22 2005, 06:47 PM Post #10
Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454	Great stuff so far...keep it coming! I'm adding a Huygens view of the channels on Titan to the list. I can't decide though whether to use one of Rene Pascal's beautiful mosaics or one of the first-released raw frames. The latter is not nearly as pretty of course but it is very significant because everyone who saw it, expert or not, could instantly interpret what those channels meant... --Emily -------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.

Bob Shaw View Member Profile	Dec 22 2005, 07:08 PM Post #11
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239	o The pre and post soil-slump 'movement' .gif images from Opportunity o 'The Promised Land' o Falcon-1 on the pad o Any dust devil movies Bob Shaw -------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!

Michael Capobian... Michael Capobianco View Member Profile	Dec 22 2005, 08:37 PM Post #12
Member Group: Members Posts: 114 Joined: 6-November 05 From: So. Maryland, USA Member No.: 544	Don't forget the Iapetus in Saturnshine images, which were taken on January 1, 2005. Michael

DEChengst View Member Profile	Dec 22 2005, 08:47 PM Post #13
Member Group: Members Posts: 270 Joined: 29-December 04 From: NLA0: Member No.: 133	The Huygens photo showing the riverbed. Image showing that Opportunity freed herself from Purgatory Dune. -------------------- PDP, VAX and Alpha fanatic ; HP-Compaq is the Satan! ; Let us pray daily while facing Maynard! ; Life starts at 150 km/h ;

Jyril View Member Profile	Dec 22 2005, 08:57 PM Post #14
Member Group: Members Posts: 249 Joined: 11-June 05 From: Finland (62°14′N 25°44′E) Member No.: 408	The Huygens surface photo is by far the most thought-provoking image of this year. As if there weren't many already. -------------------- The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.

Jyril View Member Profile	Dec 22 2005, 09:04 PM Post #15
Member Group: Members Posts: 249 Joined: 11-June 05 From: Finland (62°14′N 25°44′E) Member No.: 408	The latest batch of Cassini images released just a moment ago includes a couple of painfully beautiful images (see latest Photojournal images; full resolution images are not yet available for some reason). -------------------- The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.

ugordan View Member Profile	Dec 22 2005, 09:13 PM Post #16
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3652 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523	QUOTE (Jyril @ Dec 22 2005, 10:04 PM) The latest batch of Cassini images released just a moment ago includes a couple of painfully beautiful images (see latest Photojournal images; full resolution images are not yet available for some reason). Awesome! A whole s*itload of new releases just as I was starting to wonder what happened to our Xmas presents! Also a nice writeup on the CICLOPS homepage. Hey, Ted, remember this one? -------------------- www.flickr.com/photos/ugordan

Jyril View Member Profile	Dec 22 2005, 09:41 PM Post #17
Member Group: Members Posts: 249 Joined: 11-June 05 From: Finland (62°14′N 25°44′E) Member No.: 408	See Volcanopele's new thread. -------------------- The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.

dvandorn View Member Profile	Dec 23 2005, 02:40 AM Post #18
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15	Emily, I'd like to suggest including the artist's representations of the proposed CEV/LSAM combination that, if it gets funded, will take humans back tot he Moon within the next dozen or so years. They're available at the nasa.gov website somewhere, I'm sure. -the other Doug -------------------- “The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.” -Mark Twain

Bjorn Jonsson View Member Profile	Dec 23 2005, 11:11 PM Post #19
IMG to PNG GOD Group: Moderator Posts: 2257 Joined: 19-February 04 From: Near fire and ice Member No.: 38	This list of mine is heavily biased given the fact that I'm (even) more interested in Cassini-Huygens than e.g. MER: * At least two images from Huygens, one during descent showing 'lakebeds', 'channels' etc. and then a post-landing image, preferably in color (the post-landing image is the image of the year IMO) * The Enceladus plumes * Hyperion hi-res global mosaic showing its weird appearance * Images of Iapetus showing the equatorial ridge from the flyby a year ago - assuming these didn't appear as part of a collection of 2004 images. Also maybe images of Iapetus in Saturnshine * The famous global image of Dione with Saturn and the ring shadows on its globe in the background. * One of the images of Saturn's rings showing the opposition highlight (maybe this one: http://ciclops.org/view.php?id=1187 ) * Maybe this one of Rhea behind Dione: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/imag...eiImageID=51392 * Some of the beautiful Cassini images like this one: http://ciclops.org/view.php?id=1112 (there are many more) * An image of Itokawa showing Haybusa's shadow on the asteroid * A hi-res global image of Itokawa * A DI image showing the impact - the one where the bright plume is visible with its shadow also visible on the comet's surface * Possibly a global image from Messenger's Earth flyby

Bill Harris View Member Profile	Dec 24 2005, 12:32 AM Post #20
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3009 Joined: 30-October 04 Member No.: 105	There have been so many wonderful images this year; how do you pick even a few? I'll go along with Bjorn's and "all of the above". I think the most evocative class of images are those which show a Saturnian satellite against a background of Saturn or Rings instead of black space. This composition has a three-dimensional quality that none other have. --Bill -------------------- Dawn-- Ceres Pluto Encounter Rosetta Mission

mchan View Member Profile	Dec 24 2005, 02:38 AM Post #21
Member Group: Members Posts: 600 Joined: 26-August 05 Member No.: 476	One of my picks of the year was a recent Cassini release that is simple and subtle in its beauty -- http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07654

mars loon View Member Profile	Dec 24 2005, 03:26 AM Post #22
Member Group: Members Posts: 548 Joined: 19-March 05 From: Princeton, NJ, USA Member No.: 212	Emily, All the above, especially mars (eg summit pan), saturns moons and temple 1. Its been a planetary bonanza of a year unlike any other. your choice is tough The Enceledus Plume: both for beauty and far reaching science implications Titan's channels and lake for a mind blowing new vista some new ones I dont see above: Cosmic Mountains of Creation http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/relea...c2005-14c.shtml Star Forming Region NGC 1333 http://ipac.jpl.nasa.gov/media_images/ssc2005-24a_medium.jpg Cassopia A http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/relea...c2005-14c.shtml http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2005/casa/ ken

mcaplinger View Member Profile	Dec 24 2005, 04:36 AM Post #23
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2558 Joined: 13-September 05 Member No.: 497	MGS/MOC keeps cranking out images; I guess one of our favorites from 2005 is the cPROTO mosaic of Chasma Boreale: http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/0...eale/index.html -------------------- Disclaimer: This post is based on public information only. Any opinions are my own.

elakdawalla View Member Profile	Dec 24 2005, 05:08 PM Post #24
Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454	QUOTE (mcaplinger @ Dec 23 2005, 08:36 PM) MGS/MOC keeps cranking out images; I guess one of our favorites from 2005 is the cPROTO mosaic of Chasma Boreale: http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/0...eale/index.html Wow, thanks for the suggestion, Mike. That is a gorgeous picture. It is always hard to select images from the "workhorses" like MGS and Odyssey -- like you say they just crank and crank until I begin to take them for granted. Do you have any other particular favorites for the year? --Emily -------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.

mcaplinger View Member Profile	Dec 24 2005, 08:05 PM Post #25
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2558 Joined: 13-September 05 Member No.: 497	QUOTE (elakdawalla @ Dec 24 2005, 09:08 AM) Do you have any other particular favorites for the year? MOC images Mars Odyssey: http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/05/19/ Outcrops in East Candor: http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/05/30/ MOC's 200,000th image: http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/06/03/ -------------------- Disclaimer: This post is based on public information only. Any opinions are my own.

elakdawalla View Member Profile	Dec 26 2005, 06:16 PM Post #26
Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454	What's a good Opportunity image for 2005? So far all I've got is several from Spirit. --Emily -------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.

DEChengst View Member Profile	Dec 26 2005, 06:56 PM Post #27
Member Group: Members Posts: 270 Joined: 29-December 04 From: NLA0: Member No.: 133	QUOTE (elakdawalla @ Dec 26 2005, 07:16 PM) What's a good Opportunity image for 2005? The iron meteorite ? Heatshield pieces ? -------------------- PDP, VAX and Alpha fanatic ; HP-Compaq is the Satan! ; Let us pray daily while facing Maynard! ; Life starts at 150 km/h ;

Bill Harris View Member Profile	Dec 26 2005, 07:04 PM Post #28
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3009 Joined: 30-October 04 Member No.: 105	My favorite Oppy image this year is the "Lookback" image from Sol 659. From the first Mogollon outcrop, looking back at the North Erebus dunefield across the plain to Endurance. This image is so evocative of the journey, and is courtesy of Nico and Dilo. --Bill -------------------- Dawn-- Ceres Pluto Encounter Rosetta Mission

dot.dk View Member Profile	Dec 26 2005, 07:18 PM Post #29
Member Group: Members Posts: 578 Joined: 5-November 04 From: Denmark Member No.: 107	Purgatory Dune? -------------------- "I want to make as many people as possible feel like they are part of this adventure. We are going to give everybody a sense of what exploring the surface of another world is really like" - Steven Squyres

Toma B View Member Profile	Dec 26 2005, 07:26 PM Post #30
Member Group: Members Posts: 648 Joined: 9-May 05 From: Subotica Member No.: 384	QUOTE (dot.dk @ Dec 26 2005, 10:18 PM) Purgatory Dune? AAAAAAAARRRRGGGHHHH NOOOOOOOOOO NOT THAT ONE!!!!! -------------------- The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. Jules H. Poincare My "Astrophotos" gallery on flickr...

Toma B

Dec 26 2005, 07:57 PM

Post #31

Member

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In my opinion "The most significant image" would be Spirits Everest Panorama, but this one I have waited 20 years to see...
http://ciclops.org/view.php?id=483

--------------------

The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful.
Jules H. Poincare

My "Astrophotos" gallery on flickr...

nprev

Dec 26 2005, 08:58 PM

Post #32

Merciless Robot

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I found this one from Oppy (I think) intriguing enough to save...notice the striped pattern on the exposed whitish surface.

The image title is 2M178563853EFFAE03P2956M2M1-BR

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A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.

MaG View Member Profile	Dec 26 2005, 10:13 PM Post #33
Newbie Group: Members Posts: 18 Joined: 20-April 05 From: Czech Republic Member No.: 300	QUOTE (elakdawalla @ Dec 24 2005, 07:08 PM) It is always hard to select images from the "workhorses" like MGS and Odyssey -- Do you have any other particular favorites for the year? From my archive.. MGS http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/06/22/ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/11/21/ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/12/02/ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/05/28/ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/09/26/ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/09/05/ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/03/27/ From Mars Odyssey - I can not found website, so zip to download: http://udalosti.astronomy.cz/sdileni/forum/mo.zip and Arsia Mons detailed images and Mars Odyssey Art images as well.. IMHO is very hard set one image of the year, it is hard to set ten or maybe 100 images.. ;-) -------------------- Astro Events (in Czech)

elakdawalla View Member Profile	Dec 31 2005, 05:39 PM Post #34
Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454	My Year in Pictures feature is finally posted, just in the nick of time: http://planetary.org/news/2005/1231_The_Ye...tures_2005.html Thanks to everybody for your suggestions! --Emily -------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.

mars loon View Member Profile	Dec 31 2005, 11:02 PM Post #35
Member Group: Members Posts: 548 Joined: 19-March 05 From: Princeton, NJ, USA Member No.: 212	QUOTE (elakdawalla @ Dec 31 2005, 05:39 PM) My Year in Pictures feature is finally posted, just in the nick of time: http://planetary.org/news/2005/1231_The_Ye...tures_2005.html Thanks to everybody for your suggestions! --Emily Emily, you have made a fantastic, wide ranging and beautiful selection of "The Year in Pictures". Thank you for including the international team of mars enthusiasts and Aviation Week and thank you for a generous write-up. ken

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