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Planet Mars: A Cloudy Protonilus Mensae | China's Tianwen-1 Mars Orbiter
Protonilus Mensae is an area of Mars in the Ismenius Lacus quadrangle. It is centered on the coordinates of 43.86° N and 49.4° E. Its western and eastern longitudes are 37° E and 59.7° E. North and south latitudes are 47.06° N and 39.87° N. Protonilus Mensae is between Deuteronilus Mensae and Nilosyrtis Mensae; all lie along the Martian dichotomy boundary. Its name was adapted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1973.
The surface here is described as fretted terrain. This terrain contains cliffs, mesas, and wide flat valleys. Surface features are believed to have been caused by debris-covered glaciers.
This image was captured by the China National Space Administration's Tianwen-1 Mars spacecraft that has been orbiting and operating at Mars since February 2021. This robotic probe originally contained six elements: an orbiter, two deployable cameras, a lander, a remote camera, and the Zhurong rover. The spacecraft, with a total mass of nearly five tons, was one of the heaviest probes launched to Mars and carried 14 scientific instruments. China is the second country after the United States to make a successful soft landing and to establish communication from the Martian surface. This is the first in a series of planned interplanetary missions undertaken by CNSA as part of China's planetary exploration program.
Image details: Mosaic of 3 images created using data processed from moon.bao.ac.cn/ Mission: CNSA Tianwen 1 Camera: MoRIC Time: 2022-03-01T23:50:27.510000Z Longitude: 39.206461 Latitude: 46.255012 Altitude: 394 km North is up Map of the area: maps.planet.fu-berlin.de/#map=7/2421621.05/2532685.46
Image Credit: CNSA/CLEP/PEC/MoRIC Image Processing: Andrea Luck Release Date: May 4, 2025
This video takes us on a journey through the Sh2-46 nebula, located 6,000 light years away, and where not everything is what it seems. The red hues come from hydrogen atoms ionized by the bright blue star at the center of the nebula, but this star may have actually been born elsewhere. The image was taken with the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), hosted at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in Chile.
Credit: ESO/VPHAS+ team Duration: 1 minute Release Date: May 5, 2025
Sh2-46 Nebula & Bright Star HD 165319 in Serpens | ESO VLT Survey Telescope
In space, not everything is what it seems. This picture shows the nebula Sh2-46, also named Gum 80, situated roughly 6,000 light-years away. The strong red hues of Sh2-46 might be beautiful, but they hide an "impostor".
The big blue-white star at the center of the image is HD 165319, an O type star, one of the brightest, but rarest types of stars in the Universe. The star is largely responsible for the striking red tones around it, caused by the ionization of the hydrogen atoms that make up the nebula. This star, however, should not be here.
Astronomers think that this star was born somewhere else: in the nearby Eagle Nebula. Located in the tail section of the Serpens constellation (the snake), the Eagle Nebula is full of star-forming regions. Once born, these stars become bound by gravity, creating a giant open cluster. Sometimes, though, a few of them become disentangled, embarking on a solitary mission through space that can lead them to infiltrate other unrelated nebulae. A bow shock next to HD 165319 seems to indicate that the star is currently plunging through Sh2-46. Perhaps this nebula will end up looking differently if the star ends up leaving it behind…
Image Description: The image shows a giant red nebula in space. Behind the nebula there are countless stars of different colors and sizes. Most stars are small and have a white to pale blue hue. Overall, the nebula is round and appears to change from diffuse to concentrated towards the center of the picture. Its color also changes from a dark red to a vibrant orange. Within the center of the picture, inside the brightest region of the nebula, lies a large, white to pale blue star.
This highly detailed picture of Sh2-46 was taken by the VLT Survey Telescope (VST). It explores the sky in visible light. Currently owned by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), the VST is located at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory, in Chile.
Spiral Galaxy NGC 3596 in Leo: Face-on | Hubble Space Telescope
The spiral galaxy NGC 3596 is on display in this NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope picture that incorporates six different wavelengths of light. NGC 3596 is situated 90 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo. The galaxy was discovered in 1784 by astronomer William Herschel, the namesake of the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory.
NGC 3596 appears almost perfectly face-on when viewed from Earth, showcasing the galaxy’s neatly wound spiral arms. The bright arms mark where the galaxy’s stars, gas and dust are concentrated. Star formation is also most active in a galaxy’s spiral arms, as shown by the brilliant pink star-forming regions and young blue stars tracing NGC 3596’s arms in this image.
What causes these spiral arms to form? It’s a surprisingly difficult question to answer, partly because of the remarkable diversity of spiral galaxies. Many have clear spiral arms, while others have patchy, feathery arms. Many have prominent bars across their centers, while others have compact, circular nuclei. Many have close neighbors, while others are isolated.
Early ideas of how spiral arms formed were stumped by what is called the ‘winding problem’. If a galaxy’s spiral arms are coherent structures, the arms would be wound tighter and tighter as the galaxy spins, until the arms are no longer visible. Now, researchers believe that spiral arms represent a pattern of high-density and low-density areas rather than a physical structure. As stars, gas and dust orbit within a galaxy’s disc, they pass in and out of the spiral arms. Much like cars moving through a traffic jam, these materials slow down and bunch up as they enter a spiral arm, before emerging and continuing their journey through the galaxy.
Image Description: A spiral galaxy viewed face-on, with a slightly oval-shaped disc. The center is a bright white spot surrounded by a golden glow. Two spiral arms extend out from the center, wrapping around the galaxy and broadening out to form the thick outer edge of the disc. Thin reddish strands of dust and bright pink spots follow the arms through the disc. Faint strands of stars extend from the arms’ tips, out beyond the disc.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker Release Date: May 5, 2025
Earth views from the Dragon spacecraft during Fram2, the first polar-orbit human spaceflight mission. Watch the extended, ~4-hour cut with additional views via SpaceX on X:
The Fram2 Mission's crew (the "Framonauts") were the first humans to view the Earth’s polar regions from space.
Mission Objectives
During their multi-day mission, Dragon and the crew explored Earth from a polar orbit for the first time. They conducted 22 research studies designed to help advance humanity’s capabilities for long-duration space exploration and understanding of human health in space. For example, the crew took the first x-ray in space. They also performed exercise studies to maintain muscle and skeletal mass, and grew mushrooms in microgravity.
The Crew This was the first human spaceflight for Mission Commander Chun Wang (Malta), Vehicle Commander Jannicke Mikkelsen (Norway), Vehicle Pilot Rabea Rogge (Germany), plus Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Eric Philips (Australia).
The Fram2 Mission was named in honor of Fram "Forward", the first exploration ship to complete voyages to the Arctic and Antarctica between 1893 and 1912. Framonaut Vehicle Commander Jannicke Mikkelsen of Norway carried a small piece of that ship to orbit.
Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated & Rideshare (VADR) Launch Services | NASA
Happy Star Wars Day! "Not in a galaxy far far away, but right here with NASA's Launch Services Program (LSP)! Our Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated & Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract provides low-cost launch services for high-risk tolerant payloads." #MayThe4thBeWithYou
Shenzhou-20 Crew to Conduct New Cytology Experiments | China Space Station
The Shenzhou-20 crew will conduct three new cytology experiments during their mission in China's space station.
The Shenzhou-20 spacecraft, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on April 24, 2025, sending astronauts Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie to space.
The three astronauts took over the space station from the Shenzhou-19 crew on April 27. They will gradually start assigned space experiments, including those related to cell science.
The samples for the cytology experiments were delivered to the spacecraft only 6.5 hours before the launching, while the ground-based researchers simulated the sample loading process before that to make sure the samples can be in the best state.
"We loaded the cells at the last minute before launching, aiming to provide them with the most suitable and optimal environmental conditions. During this process, we try to keep the cells in a dormant state as much as possible, so that their response to the environment can be minimized. After entering the orbit, we have specialized cell culture incubators inside the space medicine experiment cabinet, which are set to 37 degrees Celsius. This is when we activate the cells," said Li Yinghui, a researcher from the China Astronaut Research and Training Center.
Cytology has always been an important component of China's space medicine experiments. The research primarily focuses on studying the effects of space environment on cells, as well as the characteristics and patterns of cellular responses.
Li introduced the focuses and targets of the three new cytology experiments.
"In space, there have been examples of astronauts developing blood clots, so we are focusing on the mechanisms of thrombosis. We have chosen cardiac muscle cells and endothelial cells to conduct co-cultivation, to observe their interactions under microgravity conditions. Additionally, for the first time internationally, we will co-culture three types of brain region cells, those of cortex, thalamus and cerebellum, into a tri-brain-like organoid to study their interactions from the perspective of motor ability under weightlessness. Furthermore, we have selected classical clinical formulas from traditional medicine. By regulating neural cells, we hope to see whether they can have a better effect on improving memory," said Li.
In previous manned spacecraft missions, China had sent 19 types of cells, including human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes, skin stem cells, osteoblasts, human skeletal muscle satellite cells and artificial blood vessel chips, into space.
A total of 22 cytology experiments were conducted in orbit, achieving a series of innovative results in areas such as experimental technology, experimental models and scientific research. Some of these results have already contributed to enhancing public health, providing a research platform for exploring health issues such as osteoporosis, muscle atrophy, cardiovascular decline and cognitive function decline.
Video Credit: CCTV Duration: 2 minutes Release Date: April 28, 2025
Aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronaut and Expedition 73 flight engineer Jonny Kim discusses life and work aboard the orbital outpost during an in-flight interview at 12:10pm ET April 29, 2025, with students attending Santa Monica High School in Santa Monica, California.
We are engaging students in NASA’s exciting missions, broad range of careers, and unique opportunities. Join us as we apply science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to explore space, improve aeronautics, examine Earth, and strive to land the next humans on the Moon with the Artemis program.
NASA Flight Engineers: Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Jonny Kim
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.
NASA Artemis II Moon Rocket: ICPS Integration | Kennedy Space Center
Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program have finished integrating the interim cryogenic propulsion stage to the Space Launch System (SLS) launch vehicle stage adapter on Thursday, May 1, 2025, inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The four-story propulsion system, built by Boeing and United Launch Alliance (ULA), is powered by an RL10 engine that will enable the Orion spacecraft to build up enough speed for the push toward the Moon during the Artemis II crewed test flight.
The Artemis II test flight will be sending NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Reid Wiseman, as well as Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, on a ten-day journey around the Moon and back.
Artemis II will launch no earlier than April 2026.
Learn more about NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket: nasa.gov/sls
Astrophotographer Sacha Layos: "Thwarted from going to sleep like a regular human by these skies! The twilight skies of spring bring about some of the most beautiful pink and purple displays! We are nearly out of skies dark enough for aurora for the season so I have to take it where I can get it."
Auroras happen when charged particles from the Sun interact with Earth's magnetic field, creating dazzling light shows in the sky. The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, occurs in an upper layer of Earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere.
Salty Emi Koussi: Volcano in Sahara Desert | International Space Station
The volcano Emi Koussi appears as a brown circular feature in this astronaut photograph. The volcano's caldera appears as a smaller circle in the center of the image. A white area—a bed of salt—is visible in the lowest part of the caldera.
An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photograph of Emi Koussi, a large volcano in the central Sahara Desert in northern Chad. The volcano’s cone measures 70 kilometers (43 miles) in diameter and displays several dark-toned lava flows on its slopes.
The photo is centered on the volcano’s summit. It lies along the rim of an elliptical caldera that casts dark shadows. The summit reaches an elevation of 3,415 meters (11,204 feet), making it the highest peak in the Sahara Desert. The surrounding desert flats are marked by light-toned sands.
A prominent feature in the caldera is the white salt-covered bed of a small dry lake. This salt bed lies at the caldera’s lowest point, many meters (approximately 745 meters/2,450 feet) below the summit of Emi Koussi. Several circular volcanic vents within the caldera can be seen in the high-resolution version of the image.
Numerous dry stream channels appear as thin lines on the flanks of the volcano, radiating away from the caldera. Despite very low rainfall in the region, geologists think that such channels were formed by water-driven erosion that occurred over thousands of years. Several channels on the lower slopes, including those toward the bottom of the image, are marked by shadows.
A line of small, circular cones and vents appears on the volcano’s north flank. The line runs toward the slopes of Tarso Ahon, another large volcanic mountain. A depression between Emi Koussi and Tarso Ahon is occupied by deep canyons that cast the largest shadows. One canyon is 600 meters (2,000 feet) deep and leads water west, while the other is 250 meters (700 feet) deep and leads water east. The canyons formed in the depression due to the concentration of water runoff from both Emi Koussi and Tarso Ahon.
In northern Chad, the tallest peak in the Sahara Desert is topped with a patch of salt, not snow.
Image Credit: Astronaut photograph ISS072-E-423041 was acquired on December 29, 2024, with a Nikon Z9 digital camera using a focal length of 200 millimeters. It is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. Image Date: Dec. 29, 2024
Post-Spacewalk: Ayers & McClain Spacesuit Processing | International Space Station
NASA astronaut and Expedition 73 flight engineer Jonny Kim: "M+23: An EVA (spacewalk) is a long day for all involved—flight control and EVA teams, spacewalkers, and IV teams. NASA TV captures the 6.5–7-hour EVA, but not the extensive same-day preparations or the hours of post-mission cleanup. This is a time-lapse of Takuya Onishi and me welcoming spacewalkers Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain back to the airlock after their successful mission."
"We assist them in removing their spacesuits and organize the airlock. In the coming days, Anne and Vapor will undertake critical tasks to prepare their suits and the airlock for future spacewalks, ensuring readiness for upcoming missions."
"Similarly, ground teams will conduct post-mission analysis and debriefings, sharing lessons learned to enhance future operations."
NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers concluded their spacewalk at 2:49 p.m. EDT on May 1, 2025. The total time was 5 hours and 44 minutes. It was the third spacewalk for McClain and the first for Ayers, and the 275th spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.
McClain and Ayers completed their primary objectives, including relocating a space station communications antenna and the initial mounting bracket installation steps for an IROSA that will arrive on a future SpaceX commercial resupply services mission. Additionally, the astronaut pair completed a pair of get ahead tasks, including installing a jumper cable to provide power from the P6 truss to the International Space Station’s Russian segment and another to remove bolts from a micrometeoroid cover.
Station Commander: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Flight Engineer Takuya Onishi Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Kirill Peskov, Sergey Ryzhikov, Alexey Zubritskiy
NASA Flight Engineers: Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Jonny Kim
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.
Spacewalkers: NASA Astronauts McClain & Ayers | International Space Station
NASA astronauts and Expedition 73 flight engineers Nichole Ayers (left) and Anne McClain (right) are pictured.
NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 flight engineer Nichole Ayers on spacewalk.
NASA astronauts and Expedition 72 flight engineers Nichole Ayers (left) and Anne McClain (right) are pictured.
NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 flight engineer Anne McClain at work on spacewalk with robotic help from the Canadian Space Agency's Canadarm2.
NASA astronauts and Expedition 73 flight engineers Nichole Ayers (right-center) and Anne McClain (left-center) are pictured with Expedition 73 Station Commander and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Flight Engineer Takuya Onishi (background-center) and NASA astronauts and Expedition 73 flight engineer Jonny Kim (forground-far right).
Spacewalkers: NASA astronauts and Expedition 73 flight engineers Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain captured this Earth view during their extravehicular activity (EVA)
NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers concluded their spacewalk at 2:49 p.m. EDT on May 1, 2025. The total time was 5 hours and 44 minutes. It was the third spacewalk for McClain and the first for Ayers, and the 275th spacewalk in support of space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.
McClain and Ayers completed their primary objectives, including relocating a space station communications antenna and the initial mounting bracket installation steps for an IROSA that will arrive on a future SpaceX commercial resupply services mission. Additionally, the astronaut pair completed a pair of get ahead tasks, including installing a jumper cable to provide power from the P6 truss to the International Space Station’s Russian segment and another to remove bolts from a micrometeoroid cover.
NASA Flight Engineers: Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers, Jonny Kim
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.
Star Trails over Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile
Countless star trails appear as colorful brushstrokes spread across the night sky above NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. This mesmerizing image was created using long-exposure photography, a technique where a photographer allows light to enter their camera lens for a period of several minutes to several hours. The camera captures the subject’s movements, and the resulting image shows the flow of time in a single shot.
During its decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Rubin will use a technique known as difference imaging: equipped with the largest camera ever built, Rubin will image the southern sky every few nights. Scientists will stack the best images in each filter each year into ultra-long exposures and create template images of the southern sky. When this template is compared to individual images, scientists will be able to identify ‘movements’ in the night sky, such as new supernovae or the 'pulsations' of variable stars. After 10 years and thousands of exposures, Rubin will produce an unprecedented ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition, time-lapse record of our Universe—the ultimate 'movie' of the night sky.
This image was captured by Hernán Stockebrand, a NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador.
Cosmic Community of Abell 1489 in Coma Berenices | Gemini North Telescope
Punctuating the deep black of this image are hundreds of blobs of light, each one an entire galaxy in our Universe. Many of the yellowish points are members of the galaxy cluster Abell 1489, imaged here using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on Gemini North, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab.
Galaxy clusters are immense neighborhoods of galaxies gravitationally bound together. These massive formations serve as tools for astronomers to understand the Universe’s dark matter distribution, structure, and overall evolution. Astronomers classify galaxy clusters in several ways and have compiled multiple catalogs of clusters. This particular cluster has been labeled using the Abell classification scheme. Within this scheme, clusters are mainly sorted by their richness—the number of galaxies they contain—and their distance from us. Abell 1489 was categorized with a richness of Group 4. This means it has between 200 and 299 galaxies and makes it one of the richer clusters in the Abell catalog.
Abell 1489 appears fainter in most telescopes than other galaxy clusters, indicating that the structure is immensely distant from Earth. Yet images like this demonstrate the sensitivity of instruments like GMOS to resolve this cluster’s distant light and reveal its richness. This abundance is of particular importance for future study: the mass of all these galaxies together makes this cluster behave as a ‘magnifying glass’ to view light sources that are even farther away. These effects of gravitational lensing are visible as arcs of light, such as in the upper middle section of this image. The Gemini telescopes are among the few telescopes that can show lensing in such clarity.
Credits: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA Image Processing: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez (International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab) Acknowledgments: PI: Adi Zitrin (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) Release Date: April 30, 2025
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