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THE VISUAL ARCHIVE / 122 FRAMES

Alien Worlds & Life.
Look closer.

Artwork from the investigations, newest first. Open an image to see it larger. Every frame has a story separating the measured science from what the artwork imagines.

Showing 61–90 of 122 images · Page 3 of 5

Jupiter’s auroras are immense, persistent and electrically connected to its moons, making the Jovian system behave almost like one enormous electromagnetic machine. — An Aurora Connected to MoonsJupiter’s magnetic environment links auroral emissions with surrounding plasma and satellites.The story behind this image

An instrument designed to peer into Jupiter’s atmosphere became a way of probing Europa’s ice, helping scientists constrain the shell separating space from the ocean below. — A Jupiter Instrument Looks Beneath EuropaA moon flyby gave Juno’s microwave radiometer a different target.The story behind this image

Io is continuously flexed by the gravitational architecture of the Jovian system, turning orbital mechanics into heat, magma and eruptions on a scale unknown on Earth. — A Moon Worked by GravityIo’s volcanism is powered by tidal stresses within the Jovian system.The story behind this image

A spacecraft designed around a finite lifetime became a witness beyond it. — The Spacecraft That Kept AskingExtended operation allowed Juno to gather more than its original Jupiter survey.The story behind this image

Conceptual view of the later Hapcheon impact basin as a quiet landscape — The Basin After the FireHapcheon's later life is the story: a studied impact basin, lake deposits, and evidence for microbial structures.The story behind this image

A large asteroid impact releases tremendous energy into the crust, fracturing rock, melting material and reorganizing the surrounding landscape. — When an Impact Opens the CrustA large impact can fracture and heat rocks beneath a basin.The story behind this image

After the impact, the basin filled with water and may have supported hydrothermal circulation driven by heat stored in the fractured crust below. — A Lake Above Warm RockPost-impact water and heat may have sustained a hydrothermal setting.The story behind this image

Stromatolites are layered structures created through interactions between microbial communities and sediments. — Layer by Layer at the ShoreStromatolite-like structures point to interactions of microbes and sediments.The story behind this image

Microbial mats can interact with minerals and sediments to build layered structures over long periods of time. — The Living Edge of a Mineral LakeMicrobial mats can alter and trap sediment in layered structures.The story behind this image

The stromatolites described in the study contain chemical clues linking their growth environment to both hydrothermal activity and extraterrestrial material. — Chemistry Left in the LayersGeochemical clues connect the crater’s altered environment and impact material.The story behind this image

Early Earth experienced far more frequent impacts than the modern planet. — Many Craters, Many Possible HabitatsImpacts can create temporary combinations of water, rock, and heat.The story behind this image

Mars contains countless ancient impact craters, many of which formed when liquid water was more common on the planet. — A Search Strategy for MarsAncient Martian craters can preserve clues to water and alteration.The story behind this image

Conceptual night forest where insect lights and animal signals form rhythmic patterns — Many Voices, Similar PacesFireflies and crickets frame a comparative finding about signal timing; the pictured chorus is imagined.The story behind this image

Lightning continually excites the enormous electromagnetic cavity surrounding Earth, creating natural resonances in the planet’s atmosphere. — Two Rhythms, Different CausesAtmospheric resonance and animal signaling are separate phenomena.The story behind this image

Across insects, amphibians, birds, fish, crustaceans, primates and marine mammals, radically different signals repeatedly cluster inside a similar slow rhythm. — A Shared Range Across Many SignalsA surveyed set of animal communication rates often falls between about 0.5 and 4 hertz.The story behind this image

When communication rates from very different animals are placed together, a remarkable concentration emerges around only a few events per second, as though evolution has repeatedly discovered the same useful wi — What the Collected Rates ShowA distribution is evidence about a sample, not a law for all life.The story behind this image

Neural circuits require time to integrate incoming information before responding. — Why a Listener Might Set the PaceNeural integration offers a possible explanation for repeated slow tempos.The story behind this image

The tempos of speech, walking and popular music repeatedly overlap with the same slow rhythmic range found in animal communication, suggesting that some of our most familiar patterns may have biological roots f — Familiar Human TemposSpeech and movement can share broad timescales with some biological signals.The story behind this image

If information-processing biology imposes comparable limits elsewhere, extraterrestrial organisms might also evolve preferred communication rhythms, even if everything else about them is unfamiliar. — A Hypothesis Beyond EarthCommunication rates might offer one clue in a future search for unfamiliar life.The story behind this image

On another living world, communication might use light, pressure, electricity or senses we cannot imagine, yet the rhythm itself could reveal that the signal is being produced for another mind. — Signals for Senses We Do Not KnowAn alien channel could differ while its temporal structure remains analyzable.The story behind this image

Conceptual rocky exoplanet lit by its star while its interior grows quiet — A World with Enough Light and Too Little HeatAn imagined rocky planet contrasts surface illumination with the uncertain energy deep below.The story behind this image

Long-lived radioactive isotopes add heat to a rocky planet's interior. — A Planet’s Slow Interior FurnaceLong-lived radioactive isotopes contribute heat over geologic time.The story behind this image

Earth, Venus, and Mars illustrate very different planetary outcomes. — Three Worlds, Different HistoriesEarth, Venus, and Mars show that surface conditions diverge.The story behind this image

A speculative stagnant-lid world after its volcanic carbon supply weakens. — When Rock Stops Returning CarbonWeakening volcanism could alter a planet’s long-term carbon balance.The story behind this image

Rocky planets inherit elements from material enriched across earlier stellar generations. — A Planet Inherits Its IngredientsRocky worlds form from material enriched by earlier cosmic processes.The story behind this image

A conceptual portrait inspired by TRAPPIST-1's seven rocky planets. — Seven Known Worlds, Unknown FurnacesTRAPPIST-1 has seven rocky planets, but their pictured terrain is invented.The story behind this image

We can watch a planet pass in front of its star and investigate the light it filters. — The Shadow Reveals Less Than the MantleTransit light offers limited information about a distant planet.The story behind this image

Conceptual artwork pairing Titan and Pluto around an infrared spectral mystery — The Mark Shared by Titan and PlutoTwo distant worlds show an infrared absorption near the same wavelength, but the artwork joins them in a way the data do not.The story behind this image

Imagined Titan dunes and liquid-filled terrain beneath orange atmospheric haze — Beneath Titan’s HazeWebb measured a narrow infrared absorption; this imagined landscape is not a map of its source.The story behind this image

Conceptual organic particles descending through Titan’s thick haze — Particles Falling Through Titan’s SkyTitan’s haze is real, while this view of individual particles and deposits is an artistic interpretation.The story behind this image