I am always stunned by the photos sent back to us from our robotic spacecraft as they explore our solar system. The sheer beauty and magnitude of these images really puts our own world into a different perspective, one that is humbling to say the least. The vastness of these shots makes our personal concerns seem small and insignificant yet, at the same time, inspiring.There’s also an elegance to them that is so appealing.
I can’t explain this fully so early in the morning.
This photo from a few years back is one of my favorites. Take from NASA“s Cassini-Huygens craft which is exploring around Saturn, this image is like a beautifully constructed abstract painting with cool colors and stark geometry. Beautiful. The image consists of one of Saturn‘s moons, Rhea with the gray atmosphere of Saturn acting as a backdrop. The image is taken in a way that looks directly at the very edge of the rings of Saturn which creates the black band that cuts across the image. The result is just a beautiful image, one that I find myself just staring at for long moments at a time while I consider how we fit into this vast puzzle.
Redtree Times 
This is extraordinary – so different from most of the space photography I’ve seen. Despite the absence of vibrant color, it made me think of Mondrian. I suppose it’s the black bar.
I think that’s the beauty of it- it brings to mind diverse thoughts like yours of Mondrian.
That image has an ineffable quality to me also. It is a very simple, pleasing and only at first glance restful design brought into being by the tension of forces and masses on a huge scale.
Yes, it reflects the huge scale but also seems somehow intimate, as though you are looking at something on a microscopic level.
[…] it an abstract painting? I got it from a painter’s blog. It’s an interesting image, isn’t it. Very geometric with its clean and minimalist […]