Comprising photos taken from the ISS on December 30, 2019 during a nighttime pass over Africa, this quick timelapse shows lightning, airglow, many stars, and even a few satellites in motion—at least six, by my count! (You may need to full-screen the video and then make sure the quality is set to high to make…
This is the Oldest Surviving Photographic Image of the Moon
Today anyone with a point-and-shoot camera or even a newer cell phone can snap a decent picture of the Moon but of course there was a time when that certainly wasn’t the case. Go back to the late 1830s, when photography was in its infancy and methods for capturing light and shadows on physical media were…
We’re Safe from Apophis for at Least Another Century (and Probably Long After, Too)
If you’ve ever had concerns or even a passing curiosity about an asteroid named Apophis slamming into Earth in the near future, causing widespread death and destruction and/or even bringing about the demise of civilization as we know it, you can safely jettison all of them into a safe solar parking orbit. Not only will…
BepiColombo Captures More Closeups of Venus
If you’re a fan of spacecraft selfies captured with planets in the background (yes, it’s a thing) then you can add this to your portfolio of favorites: it’s the bright limb of Venus captured by ESA/JAXA’s BepiColombo spacecraft during a gravity-assist flyby on August 10, 2021 from a distance of 1,573 kilometers/977 miles. This view…
Where’s Percy? Ingenuity Captured Perseverance on Camera During Another Successful Flight on Mars
During yet another successful flight over the surface of Mars in Jezero Crater on 4 August 2021, JPL’s Ingenuity helicopter captured its robotic partner Perseverance on camera off in the distance. The image above, shared by NASA on 11 August 2021, shows a view from Ingenuity taken from about 12 meters up with its shadow…
Researchers Find Evidence of Water Vapor on Ganymede in Historic Hubble Data
News from NASA on July 26, 2021 For the first time, astronomers have uncovered evidence of water vapor in the atmosphere of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede, the largest moon in the Solar System. This water vapor forms when ice from the moon’s surface sublimates — that is, turns from solid to gas. Astronomers re-examined Hubble observations from…
InSight Measures the Size of Mars’ Core
News from NASA’s InSight Mission on July 22, 2021 (source) Before NASA’s InSight spacecraft touched down on Mars in 2018, the rovers and orbiters studying the Red Planet concentrated on its surface. The stationary lander’s seismometer has changed that, revealing details about the planet’s deep interior for the first time. Three papers based on the…
It’s the First Confirmation of a Moon-Forming Disk Around an Exoplanet!
There are well over 4,000 currently-known exoplanets orbiting stars in our galaxy — 4,438 to be exact! (as of July 22, 2021) — but still to date no confirmed* direct observation of any exomoons, despite we know they’re likely present around most planets just as they are in our own Solar System. Now, astronomers have…
Here’s Our First Close-up Image of Ganymede in Over Two Decades!
The image data are starting to come in from NASA’s Juno spacecraft and if this is any indication, they’re going to be gorgeous! On Monday, June 7, 2021 the Jupiter-orbiting spacecraft passed within just over 1000 kilometers of Ganymede. This is the closest any spacecraft has come to the Solar System’s largest moon since May…
This Is What It’s Like To Land on Mars
On February 18, 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully landed on Mars, becoming the fifth robotic rover to do so and the third operational exploration robot currently on the planet’s surface. Today during a press conference NASA released stunning high-definition video from Perseverance’s entry, descent, and landing (EDL) sequence to the anticipation and excitement of scientists…
First Color Images from (and of) NASA’s Perseverance Rover on Mars
It’s Sol 1 of the Mars 2020 mission on Mars and the very first color pictures are already here! Revealed today, February 19, during a press conference at JPL these images show sneak peeks of the immediate region around Perseverance’s landing site in Jezero Crater, captured by the rover’s hazard avoidance cameras—minus the dirty dust…
Success! There’s a New Rover on Mars!
Today’s Perseverance rover landing on Mars was a success! There are now two new robots on Mars—Perseverance and the Ingenuity helicopter it brought along—which touched down in Jezero Crater at 3:44 p.m. EST / 20:44 UTC today, February 18. The confirmation signal was received here on Earth, 127 million miles away, 11 minutes and 21…
Lights in the Dark 