With Love from Universe Today

By Nancy Atkinson - February 14, 2012 at 2:46 PM UTC | Site News
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Here's an image from the Mars Global Surveyor that looks like a box of chocolates, with different shaped landforms, including a heart-shaped one. We'd like to take this opportunity on Valentine's Day to express our love and appreciation to our readers, for allowing us to share the latest in space and astronomy news with you. And it's true, you never know what you're going to get; what news story is going to break or what amazing images we'll share. But our

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felt thanks for your readership, your comments, and for your regular visits to our website.

You can see the full image MGS Mars image here

-- which also includes some other heart-shaped craters and other unique landforms -- and below is a rose-shaped pair of interacting galaxies, just for you.

[caption id="attachment_93570" align="alignleft" width="580" caption="A pair of interacting galaxies called Arp 273. The larger of the spiral galaxies, known as UGC 1810, has a disk that is distorted into a rose-like shape by the gravitational tidal pull of the companion galaxy below it, known as UGC 1813. This image is a composite of Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 data taken on December 17, 2010, with three separate filters that allow a broad range of wavelengths covering the ultraviolet, blue, and red portions of the spectrum. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)"]

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Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com