Martian weather and drifting clouds as seen from the InSight lander.
Sunset from InSight
Image is color corrected. See original vs corrected here.
Asteroid Bennu Is Active?!
Take a look at this image of Bennu and notice the material being ejected from the surface in the middle of the image. We are seeing an extremely rare “active” asteroid for the first time up-close. According to Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, "probably the biggest surprise of the early stages of the OSIRIS-REx mission and, I would say, one of the biggest surprises of my scientific career".
Since Osiris-Rex’s arrival in January this kind of event has been observed at least eleven times with three of events ejecting over 100 observable particles. There is no official theory as to the cause, but they suggest that these particles ultimately go into orbit for a spell and eventually return to the surface of Bennu. Which explains why after billions of years the rock hasn’t whittled away to nothing.
Hayabusa2 Samples an Asteroid Movie!
A near real-time movie! This is a pretty rare thing in deep space exploration. Most clips we see are time-lapse moons slipping by other moons or a spacecraft approaching it’s target. It is not often we see such dramatic movies coming from deep space.
Ultima Thule Improved Image
A Most Distant Encounter
Still waiting on better images from the Ultima Thule flyby on New Years Eve. Above is the best of just two images shared so far from the encounter. Below is a true-color attempt by Wildespace on unmannedspaceflight.com.
Mars Panorama from Curiosity
This might be the prettiest Mars pan yet.
Profile of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Nice profile image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko posted by jccwrt on twitter.
Two Rovers Dropped on Ryugu by Hayabusa 2
Closest Look Yet at Occator Crater, Ceres
Occator Crater is the mesa or large butte with a flat top located in the lower right hand corner of the image. It has been puzzling scientists since Dawn approached Ceres because its brightness was so intense that people were speculating if light could somehow actually be emanating from within the body. Many details are now visible in the boundaries between the bright and dark material but it is not yet clear if the lines are runoff, splatter or some other process yet to be understood.
Cassini Image of Mimas & Tethys
Taken 2006. Posted by landru79.
Most Incredible REAL Video From the Surface of a Comet
The short clip compresses 25 minutes of images taken by the Philae Lander as it came to rest on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. There is more going on in the image than you would think. Much of the dust that appears to be falling straight down are actually stars moving as 67P rotates. The dust that is actually moving in the image travels in all directions and mostly upward.
Image by @landru79 (who just won the internet). Be sure to see this page on LiveScience that explains how the clip was made and also includes an animation isolating the stars so you can see what is actually moving on the surface.
Ceres: The Center of Occator Crater
We missed this amazing image (March of 2016) of the enigmatic Occator Crater on Ceres by the Dawn spacecraft. Scientists studying Ceres’ bright spots determined the spots’ age are only about four million years, some 30 million years younger than Occator crater itself. This suggests that there have been eruptive outbursts of sub-surface salt-water on Ceres over a long period of time and could even still be happening today.
That is an amazing discovery considering that the size of Ceres is smaller than anyone would have expected to have the ability to generate internal heating enough to create such processes.
Original image posted by JPL.
Jovarazzi II
Jupiter as Art or Jovarazzi
There are so many amazing images coming from Juno that it is hard to select anything that is not beautiful. However, this image stood out to me not only due to the colors and texture (which they all have) but compositionally as well.
Mars. Just Saying.
Nothing to say here, except this is a pretty amazing pan.
The Farthest on Netflix
You must see The Farthest : Voyager in Space
a beautiful documentary now streaming on Netflix. The film follows the program from concept to becoming the first man-made object to explore interstellar space.
And yes, there's also a whole in there about the
.
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Some Amazing Images from Juno
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All taken from the Bruce Murray Space Image Library.
Phobos Over Mars
Mars' inner moon Phobos appears far darker than the bright clouds of Mars in this view taken by the Indian Mars Orbiter Mission on October 14, 2014. Image by Emily Lakdawalla for Planetary Society.
Atlas Close-Up
There’s another crazy saucer shaped moon at Saturn. We posted last month about the tiny moon Pan and now there’s Atlas. Another oddly shaped moon imaged up-close just days before Cassini’s Grand Finale begins.