Mind-Blowing Photos of the Solar System

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Michael Benson / Kinetikon Pictures (c) All Rights Reserved

Felix Baumgartner’s skydive from space, inspired me to look at more mind-blowing photography from outside our atmosphere. The photography and work of Michael Benson caught my attention. He has created a spectacular view of the solar system. Truly never before seen photos. To make the images on display in his upcoming book, Planetfall, Benson first curated thousands of photographs from NASA and the European Space Agency. The majority of his selects came from unmanned spacecraft hurtling through space. Some are from rovers on Mars or crewmembers aboard the International Space Station.He then processed the raw files and stitched them together into jaw-dropping shots from the cosmos. Click through the image tabs above to see what I’m talking about.

Photos from unmanned probes are normally black-and-white, shot with a variety of filters. To add color, Benson typically overlays images originally filtered in red, green and blue to create a composite spectrum that replicates what the human eye might see. The process can take weeks, but once it’s completed Benson is left with something unique: an image that is as accurate to the view from a passing spacecraft as most of us will ever come.