APOD 4.1

Waterfalls, Auroras, Comet: Iceland 

A truly unique photograph, this image shows fantastic terrestrial landscape along with a bright array of stars, auroras, and even the comet PANSTARRS. It was taken in southwest Iceland near the Gullfoss waterfalls. The comet is visible just about the horizon in the left, and can still be visible in the sky from the north. The bright auroras were caused by a solar flare and powerful CME which occured two days before the image was taken. 

APOD 3.8

Chelyabinsk Meteor Flash 

Photographed is the flash of the Chelyabinsk meteor which fell to Earth at 9:20am February 15. The meteor traveled around 20 km per second until making impact. It created a flash even brighter than the sun. This photograph was captured on accident as the photographer attempted to take photos of the snowy landscape. The meteor was 17 meters wide causing minor destruction in the surrounding towns, by releasing around 500 kilotons of energy. This is the greatest meteoric event since Tunguska in 1908. 

APOD 3.7

Curiosity Self-Portrait Panorama 

The Mars Curiosity Rover took an interesting and beautiful self portrait in the Gale Crater. This was the site on which Curiosity first started drilling into the rock. In the photo at the rover's feet, one can see a hole that was drilled to collect samples. The photo was pieced together with many images taken by two separate cameras which capture far or close-range images. He could photograph himself using a long arm which holds the far-range camera, which is not shown.