2.9 Unusual Silica Rich Soil Discovered on Mars

The unusually light soil recently found on the Martian surface is composed of almost entirely silica. Such soil has never been seen on Mars before. Silica, on Earth, is generally created by volcanic activity or a hot spring. This suggests that Mars may have had hot water activity across its surface. Also, microbes flourish on such Earth conditions, so scientists are curious if microbes flourished on a wet Mars thousands upon thousands of years ago.

2.8 The Fairy of Eagle Nebula

Here is a picture of the "Fairy" of the Eagle Nebula. This structure is formed by cosmic dust produced by a single star. It stands nearly ten light-years tall, spewing radiation much hotter than fire. Inside this shell of gas is a cavity of a forming open cluster.

2.7 M74: The Perfect Spiral

Here is M74, one of the most photogenic spiral galaxies. M74 is an island universe composed of 100 billion stars that lies 32 light-years away in the constellation Pisces. The spiral arms are traced by blue star clusters and dark cosmic dust lanes. The red spots throughout the image are the star forming regions and are red due to Hydrogen gas. This image spans 30,000 light-years across the galaxy.