APOD 4.1

Mercury from Messenger

Mercury, looks quite like the moon. A lot like the moon actually, but it is larger, denser, and more massive and has twice the gravity of the Moon. What I am truly interested in is the fact that we made a satellite so resistant to heat that it could get all the way to Mercury and not burn up. Without an atmosphere, planets really get pummeled. These craters have these awesome blue shades coming out of them and brown patches, and it makes me wonder what it truly is. The large crater at the upper left hand corner is actually 50 miles wide. Holy ridiculousness Batman, a 50 mile wide crater. I guess the sun's effect on comets really affords this planet a beating. Awesome planet, awesome APOD.

APOD 3.8

Valles Marineris

Mars, my favorite planet. It reminds me of Tatooine in a way. But in all reality, Earth's Grand Canyon is one of my favorite places I've ever visited, and simply put, this thing trumps it. I don't even know if this deserves to be called a canyon. It is so massive that it is more just a low point on the big red planet, rather than a canyon. It is said to be up to 8 meters deep, which means it could have even been an great place for an ocean, but what do my ideas present? The true origin is thought to be a giant crack that occurred when the planet was cooling.

APOD 3.7

NGC 6914 Nebulae

This beautiful amount of dust in the sky is amazing. Now this is clearly false color, but who cares NASA. They make beautiful images using the spectroscopic findings and then color them all in. I wish I could have pulled this off when I was 3. This is a star factory, among emission nebulae. The red is a hot hydrogen, and it looks great in false color. You know all these pictures aren't as cool as I give them credit for. When you actually look up at the sky, you see shades of blue, from stars, grays, and blacks, and the occasional whites. It is actually quite disheartening and quite a dream crusher. Oh well, still makes for some awesome backgrounds.

APOD 3.6

California Nebula

NGC 1499 has quite a resemblance to the outline of the state of California, is found within Orion's Arm. What is amazing to hear is, so are we. This nebula is only 1500 light years away. That is simply nothing compared to the distances of many other objects. The nebula has a reddish tint to it due to Hydrogen colliding and bonding with "long lost" electrons. The entire thing is only about 100 light years long. Not a bad picture for such a small object. The culprit of the nebula being emission is expected to be the bright XI Persei emitting its electrons making this a beautiful object. This can actually be seen quite easily with a wide view telescope, therefore I know what I will be asking to see at the next star gaze.