Silhouette Gallery

Saturn silhouetted, Cassini image

Saturn silhouetted. Cassini spacecraft image of Saturn and its ring system with the Sun directly behind. The view revealed two previously unknown rings. One, associated with the orbits of the moons Janus and Epimetheus, lies in between the outer edge of the bright main rings and the thin grey/brown G Ring. The other, associated with the orbit of the moon Pallene, lies just inside the broad and diffuse outer E ring. Earth is seen as a bright dot at the ten o'clock position between the bright main rings and the G Ring. This is a composite of 165 images taken at infrared, visible light and ultraviolet wavelengths by the Cassini spacecraft on 15th September 2006, while it was around 2.2 million kilometres from Saturn

© Nasa/Jpl/Space Science Institute/Science Photo Library

Horsehead Nebula

Horsehead Nebula, optical image. North is atleft. The distinctive horsehead shape is formed bythe dark nebula B33 being silhouetted against thebright emission nebula IC 434. The blue-white areaat lower left is the reflection nebula NGC 2023.An emission nebula is a cloud of gas and dust thatglows as the hydrogen gas it contains is ionisedby radiation from hot stars within it. Areflection nebula does not emit its own light, butreflects the light of stars in or around it. Thiscomplex of gas and dust lies around 1500 lightyears from Earth in the constellation Orion

© J-c Cuillandre/Canada-france-hawaii Telescope/Science Photo Library

Jaguar aircraft DP035691

RAF COLTISHALL, Scottow, Norfolk. November 30th, 2006 - Silhouetted against a winter sun, Jaguar aircraft, which were based at RAF Coltishall for over 30 years, make a final fly past during the closing ceremony

© Historic England

Aeroplane, Air Craft, Air Plane, Event, Flying, Silhouette, Sky