A supermoon occurred yesterday. And tonight’s moon should also look impressive. Supermoons appear slightly larger and brighter than most full moons because they reach their full phase when slightly nearer to the Earth — closer than 90 percent of all full moons. This supermoon was also a blue moon given the definition that it is […]

A training model of the sample return capsule is seen is seen during a drop test in preparation for the retrieval of the sample return capsule from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, at the Department of Defense’s Utah Test and Training Range. via NASA https://ift.tt/oUMlW7P

Inside the Cocoon Nebula is a newly developing cluster of stars. Cataloged as IC 5146, the beautiful nebula is nearly 15 light-years wide. Soaring high in northern summer night skies, it’s located some 4,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus). Like other star forming regions, it stands out in red, glowing, […]

One of the most spectacular solar sights is an erupting prominence. In 2011, NASA’s Sun-orbiting Solar Dynamic Observatory spacecraft imaged an impressively large prominence erupting from the surface. The dramatic explosion was captured in ultraviolet light in the featured time lapse video covering 90 minutes, where a new frame was taken every 24 seconds. The […]

On August 11 a Rocket Lab Electron rocket launched from a rotating planet. With a small satellite on board its mission was dubbed A Sky Full of SARs (Synthetic Aperture Radar satellites), departing for low Earth orbit from Mahia Peninsula on New Zealand’s north island. The fiery trace of the Electron’s graceful launch arc is […]

The subject of this week’s circular Hubble Picture of the Week is situated in the Perseus Cluster, also known as Abell 426, 320 million light-years from Earth. It’s a barred spiral galaxy known as MCG+07-07-072, seen here among a number of photobombing stars that are much closer to Earth than it is. MCG+07-07-072 has quite […]

A single exposure made with a camera pointed almost due north on August 12 recorded this bright Perseid meteor in the night sky west of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The meteor’s incandescent trace is fleeting. It appears to cross the stars of the Big Dipper, famous northern asterism and celestial kitchen utensil, while shimmering curtains […]

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station snapped this photo while in orbit over southeast Brazil. The image focuses on the Três Marias Reservoir, a human-made waterbody fed by the São Francisco River. The types of land cover vary across the image, with bold colors dominating the scene. via NASA https://ift.tt/dLUlNhi

Bright Mars and even brighter Jupiter are in close conjunction just above the pine trees in this post-midnight skyscape from Vallentuna, Sweden. Taken on August 12 during a geomagnetic storm, the snapshot records the glow of aurora borealis or northern lights, beaming from the left side of the frame. Of course on that date Perseid […]

Teams at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida practice the Artemis mission emergency escape, or egress, procedures on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. Simulated flight crew members practice getting out of the emergency egress basket and into the emergency transport vehicle to drive them to safety in the event of an unlikely emergency during launch countdown. […]