Legacy Astronomical Images > Solar System Series > Planets Unit

Description: This is a radar image of the planet Venus made by transmitting a signal at 13 cm wavelength from Arecibo and using the GBT to detect the reflection off its surface. Brighter parts of the image indicate a rougher surface, while dark regions are…

Description: This is a radar image of Maxwell Montes, a mountain range on the planet Venus, that was made by transmitting a signal at 13 cm wavelength from Arecibo and using the GBT to detect the reflection off the surface. This mountain range contains the…

Description: The planet Jupiter has a strong magnetic field which traps and holds very fast moving electrons. These electrons radiate radio waves producing the large extended features beyond the planet's disk seen in the VLA picture of Jupiter. The electrons and…

Description: Note the bright disk of the planet with a gradual fading toward the edge, called limb darkening. This illustrates a gradual cooling outward in Saturn's atmosphere. The rings are seen in emission outside the disk but then in front of the planet they…

Description: 2 cm, resolution 1.5 arcsec image of Saturn; rings are wide open. The A and B rings are clearly visible.

Description: This pair of images shows the planet Jupiter before (left - June 24, 1994) and after (right July 19, 1994) fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 struck the planet in 1994. The disk of the planet is in the center of the images. The bright red spots…

Description: This image of Mercury was the result of a bi-static radar experiment performed during the conjunction of August, 1991. The experiment used the JPL/DSN 70-m antenna in Goldstone, CA, as the transmitter, and the Very Large Array (VLA) as the receiver.…

Description: This is a radar image of Mars, made with the Goldstone-VLA radar system in 1988. Red areas are areas of high radar reflectivity. The south polar ice cap, at the bottom of the image, is the area of highest reflectivity. The other areas of high…