New Expedition 73 Crew Photos: Summer 2025 | International Space Station

New Expedition 73 Crew Photos: Summer 2025 | International Space Station

The seven-member Expedition 73 crew gathers for a portrait inside the International Space Station's Kibo laboratory module. In the front row from left are, Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Zubritsky and Sergey Ryzhikov, station Flight Engineer and Station Commander respectively of Russia, and NASA Flight Engineer Jonny Kim. In the back row are, Flight Engineers Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Oleg Platonov of Roscosmos (Russia), and Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, both from NASA. Ryzhikov is holding a patch commemorating his 500th day cumulative in space across three spaceflights including Expeditions 49-50, 63-64, and 72-73.

NASA astronaut and Expedition 73 Flight Engineer Mike Fincke displays the Nanoracks' Nanolab Space Liintech research hardware inside the International Space Station's cupola while orbiting 262 miles above a cloudy United States. Nanolab Space LiinTech tests a platform that uses optical technology to monitor the process of producing protein crystals in microgravity. This investigation could lead to the development of technology for crystallizing proteins in microgravity to produce pharmaceuticals for use in space and Earth.

NASA astronaut and Expedition 73 Flight Engineer Jonny Kim processes bone cell samples inside the Kibo laboratory module's Life Science Glovebox. He was exploring the molecular mechanisms of space-induced bone loss for an investigation that could help the human skeletal system adapt to spaceflight and lead to advanced treatments for aging conditions and bone diseases on Earth.

NASA astronaut and Expedition 73 Flight Engineer Zena Cardman processes bone cell samples inside the Kibo laboratory module's Life Science Glovebox. She was exploring the molecular mechanisms of space-induced bone loss for an investigation that could help the human skeletal system adapt to spaceflight and lead to advanced treatments for aging conditions and bone diseases on Earth.

Update: Looking ahead to the next cargo resupply mission, NASA, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 5:49 p.m. EDT Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, for the launch of the next commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station. The Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral in Florida, delivering science and supplies to the orbital complex.

Follow Expedition 73:
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 73 Crew

Station Commander: Sergey Ryzhikov (Roscosmos)

JAXA Flight Engineer (Japan): Kimiya Yui

Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Alexey Zubritskiy, Oleg Platonov

NASA Flight Engineers: Jonny Kim, Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke

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.

Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science

For more information about STEM on Station:

https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation
Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM)

Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center
Capture Date: Aug. 28, 2025

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Stars #Planets #Earth #Astronauts #UnitedStates #Japan #日本 #JAXA #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #SpaceLaboratory #InternationalCooperation #Expedition73 #STEM #Education

Kamchatka's Stratovolcanoes Pierce the Clouds | International Space Station

Kamchatka's Stratovolcanoes Pierce the Clouds | International Space Station

This peninsula in the eastern Siberia of Russia features rugged terrain with towering, snow-covered peaks and cloud-filled valleys stretching between the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk.

Image Description: An oblique photo looks across the width of a rugged peninsula. In the middle of the scene, a cluster of snow-capped peaks stands out and appears higher than the surrounding terrain. Mountain ranges are visible in the foreground and background. The bottom quarter of the scene shows the cloud-covered Pacific Ocean. The top of the scene shows a mostly cloud-covered sea, as well as Earth's blue atmospheric layers.

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured this photograph of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East region. The highly oblique image gives an enhanced sense of the topography and captures the width of the peninsula. It stretches over 350 kilometers (215 miles) from the cloud-blanketed Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Okhotsk. Above the Sea of Okhotsk, clouds in the lower atmosphere appear white, and the upper atmosphere is blue. Snow and ice flank the peaks of mountain ranges and volcanoes, while low clouds fill the valleys.

The highest peaks of the Kamchatka Peninsula are at the center of the image. Klyuchevskaya Sopka is the tallest, at 4,754 meters (15,597 feet) above sea level. Nearby peaks include Vulkan Kamen’ (4,585 meters/15,043 feet) and Gora Ostryy Tolbachik (3,611 meters/11,847 feet). These stratovolcanoes make up part of the Klyuchevskoy Volcanic Group (KVG) that also includes Gora Bol’shaya Udina, Gora Oval’naya Zimina, and the frequently active Vulkan Bezymyannyy. The KVG is bordered by the Vostochnyy Khrebet (Eastern Range) that lines the Pacific coast of the peninsula and the Sredinny Khrebet (Central Range) that extends through the center of Kamchatka like a spine.

As part of the “Ring of Fire,” the peninsula experiences frequent tectonic activity. On July 29, 2025, two months after this photograph was taken, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake occurred with its epicenter approximately 380 kilometers (236 miles) south of the Klyuchevskoy Volcanic Group. The earthquake coincided with the intensification of volcanic activity, including the eruption of the highest peak in this image, Klyuchevskaya Sopka, and the long-inactive volcano, Krasheninnikova (just out of frame to the left). Geologists note that earthquakes can provide the final impetus for eruptions that were already building.

Image Credit: ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center
Text Credit: Wilfredo García López
Image Date: May 29, 2025
Release Date: Aug. 24, 2025

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Stratovolcano Mount Fuji in Japan | International Space Station

Stratovolcano Mount Fuji in Japan | International Space Station

Expedition 73 flight engineer and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui shared this photo of his home country on September 1, 2025.

Mount Fuji is an active stratovolcano located on the Japanese island of Honshu with a summit elevation of 3,776.24 m (12,389 ft 3 in). It is the tallest mountain in Japan, the second-highest volcano located on an island in Asia and seventh-highest peak of an island on Earth. The mountain is located about 100 km (62 mi) southwest of Tokyo and is visible from the Japanese capital on clear days. Mount Fuji's exceptionally symmetrical cone, usually covered in snow for about five months of the year, is commonly used as a cultural icon of Japan and is frequently depicted in art and photography, as well as visited by sightseers, hikers and mountain climbers. Mount Fuji last erupted between 1707 and 1708.

Follow Expedition 73:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 73 Crew

Station Commander: Sergey Ryzhikov (Roscosmos)

JAXA Flight Engineer (Japan): Kimiya Yui

Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Alexey Zubritskiy, Oleg Platonov

NASA Flight Engineers: Jonny Kim, Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke

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.

Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science

For more information about STEM on Station:

https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation
Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM)

Image Credit: Kimiya Yui/JAXA
Release Date: Aug. 28, 2025

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Planets #Earth #MountFuji #富士山 #Honshu #本州 #Japan #日本 #EastAsia #Asia #EarthObservation #KimiyaYui #AstronautPhotography #JAXA #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #HumanSpaceflight #SpaceLaboratory #InternationalCooperation #Expedition73 #UnitedStates  #STEM #Education

SpaceX CRS-33 Resupply Mission: Cargo Dragon Arrives | International Space Station

SpaceX CRS-33 Resupply Mission: Cargo Dragon Arrives | International Space Station

Expedition 73 flight engineer and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim: "Last week, SpaceX Cargo Dragon CRS-33 docked to the International Space Station, carrying precious supplies, equipment, and science. Mike Fincke and I monitored the approach and snagged these photos. First photo is a long exposure of Dragon’s approach. Nikon Z9 | 15/24/50/500mm."

At 7:05 a.m. EDT, Monday, August 25, 2025, the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft docked to the forward port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module. 

The spacecraft carried over 5,000 pounds of scientific investigations and cargo to the orbiting laboratory on SpaceX’s 33rd commercial resupply services mission for NASA. The mission launched at 2:45 a.m. on Aug. 24 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral in Florida. 

Research conducted aboard the International Space Station advances future space exploration—including Artemis missions to the Moon and astronaut missions Mars—that are intended to "provide benefits to humanity." 

Learn about NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) Program:
https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/commercial-resupply/

Follow Expedition 73:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 73 Crew

Station Commander: Sergey Ryzhikov (Roscosmos)

JAXA Flight Engineer (Japan): Kimiya Yui

Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Alexey Zubritskiy, Oleg Platonov

NASA Flight Engineers: Jonny Kim, Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke

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.

Image Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center

Capture Date: Aug. 25, 2025

Release Date: Sept. 2, 2025

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Aurora over Canada from the Flight Deck

Aurora over Canada from the Flight Deck

As forecast, a coronal mass ejection (CME) struck Earth's magnetic field on Sept. 1st (2100 UTC). A CME is a significant ejection of plasma mass from the Sun into the heliosphere. The heliosphere is the magnetosphere, astrosphere, and outermost atmospheric layer of the Sun. The impact was abrupt and strong, bringing solar winds faster than 600 km/s (1.3 million mph), and a G2-class geomagnetic storm. Pilot Matt Melnyk photographed the auroras from the cockpit of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft flying over Canada's Hudson Bay. Note: The aircraft flight deck, commonly known as the cockpit, is the area where pilots control the plane.

Photographer Matt Melnyk: "While flying the Dreamliner from Calgary to London UK, this was the view from 37,000 feet over Northern Manitoba, and Hudson Bay. Unfortunately, I don't think most of Canada was able to enjoy the show due to the amount of cloud cover I saw below.  But lucky for me, I got to witness amazing colors such as green, red, purple, pink, white and even orange which is a rare color to see.  I am very fortunate to be able to fly the Dreamliner across the Atlantic and witness these amazing shows all year long!"

On Earth, auroras are mainly created by particles originally emitted by the Sun in the form of solar wind. When this stream of electrically charged particles gets close to our planet, it interacts with the magnetic field, which acts as a gigantic shield. While it protects Earth’s environment from solar wind particles, it can also trap a small fraction of them. Particles trapped within the magnetosphere—the region of space surrounding Earth in which charged particles are affected by its magnetic field—can be energized and then follow the magnetic field lines down to the magnetic poles. There, they interact with oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the upper layers of the atmosphere, creating the flickering, colorful lights visible in the polar regions here on Earth.

Earth auroras have different names depending on the pole they occur at. Aurora Borealis, or the northern lights, is the name given to auroras around the north pole and Aurora Australis, or the southern lights, is the name given for auroras around the south pole.

The Colors of the Aurora (U.S. National Park Service)

https://www.nps.gov/articles/-articles-aps-v8-i1-c9.htm

Image Credit: Matt Melnyk
Matt's website: 

https://www.instagram.com/matt_melnyk_photography

Location: Northern Ontario & Hudson Bay

Image Date: Sept. 1, 2025
Release Date: Sept. 2, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Planets #Earth #Aurora #AuroraBorealis #NorthernLights #MagneticField #Magnetosphere #SolarWind #Sun #Star #Photography #MattMelnyk #Photographer #CitizenScience #Manitoba #HudsonsBay #Ontario #Canada #NorthAmerica #STEM #Education

What's Up for September 2025? | Skywatching Tips from NASA | JPL

What's Up for September 2025? | Skywatching Tips from NASA | JPL

Here are examples of skywatching highlights for the northern hemisphere in September 2025:

Saturn shines all month long, a conjunction between a planet, star, and the Moon, and we ring in the autumnal equinox. 

0:00 Intro 

0:04 Saturn viewing 

0:58 A sunrise conjunction

1:46 The autumnal equinox

2:11 September Moon phases

Video Credit: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Duration: 2 minutes, 32 seconds
Release Date: Sept. 2, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Skywatching #Earth #AutumnalEquinox #Moon #Planets #Saturn #Stars #Conjunctions #SolarSystem #Nebulae #Galaxies #Constellations #MilkyWayGalaxy #Skywatching #JPL #Caltech #UnitedStates #Canada #Mexico #NorthernHemisphere #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Distant Spiral Galaxy NGC 7674 in Pegasus | Hubble Space Telescope

Distant Spiral Galaxy NGC 7674 in Pegasus | Hubble Space Telescope

NGC 7674 (seen just above the center), also known as Markarian 533, is the brightest and largest member of the so-called Hickson 96 compact group of galaxies, consisting of four galaxies. This stunning Hubble image shows a spiral galaxy nearly face-on. The central bar-shaped structure is made up of stars. The shape of NGC 7674, including the long narrow streamers seen to the left of and below the galaxy can be accounted for by tidal interactions with its companions. It is located at a distance of about 350 million light years. NGC 7674 is about 125,000 light years across.

NGC 7674 has a powerful active nucleus of the kind known as a type 2 Seyfert that is perhaps fed by gas drawn into the center through the interactions with the companions.

NGC 7674 falls into the family of luminous infrared galaxies and is featured in Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies as number 182. It is located in the constellation of Pegasus, the Winged Horse, about 400 million light-years away from Earth.

This image is part of a large collection of 59 images of merging galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)
Release Date: April 24, 2008

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Galaxies #NGC7674 #Markarian533 #Hickson96 #SpiralGalaxy #Type2Seyfert #InteractingGalaxies #Pegasus #Constellations #Cosmos #Universe #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

The Horsehead and Flame Nebulas in Orion

The Horsehead and Flame Nebulas in Orion

The Horsehead Nebula is one of the most famous nebulae on the sky. It is visible as the dark indentation to the orange emission nebula at the far right of the featured picture. The horse-head feature is dark because it is really an opaque dust cloud that lies in front of the bright emission nebula. Like clouds in Earth's atmosphere, this cosmic cloud has assumed a recognizable shape by chance. After many thousands of years, the internal motions of the cloud will surely alter its appearance. The emission nebula's orange color is caused by electrons recombining with protons to form hydrogen atoms. 

Toward the lower left of the image is the Flame Nebula, an orange-tinged nebula that also contains intricate filaments of dark dust. 

Both nebulae are within the Milky Way galaxy and are at a distance of around 1400 light years.

Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Stern
Daniel's website: https://www.instagram.com/messierchaser/
Release Date: Sept. 2, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Nebulae #HorseheadNebula #Barnard33 #FlameNebula #NGC2024 #Sh2277 #Orion #Constellations #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Astrophotography #DanielStern #Astrophotographers #GSFC #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #APoD

'The Blue Star Outside the Window' Final Film Trailer | China Space Station

'The Blue Star Outside the Window' Final Film Trailer | China Space Station

Experience a captivating Earth-space journey in the final trailer for "The Blue Star Outside the Window". China's astronauts will offer their cosmic perspectives from the Tiangong Space Station when this new 8K ultra high definition (UHD) film is released to cinemas nationwide on September 5, 2025.

Since 2021, Tiangong has served as a permanently crewed space station. It is operated by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). Tiangong has a modular design with modules docked together while in low Earth orbit, between 340 and 450 km (210 and 280 mi) above the surface. It is China's first long-term space station, part of the Tiangong Program and is the core of the "Third Step" of the China Manned Space Program. Tiangong has a pressurized volume of 340 m3 (12,000 cu ft), slightly over one third the size of the International Space Station. The space station provides opportunities for space-based experiments and acts as a platform for building capacity for scientific and technological innovation.

The Shenzhou-20 crew currently aboard China's space station was launched into space in April this year and is scheduled to return to Earth in late October. Astronauts from other nations, such as Pakistan, will soon join future station crews.

Shenzhou-20 Crew

Chen Dong (陈冬) - Commander - Third spaceflight

Chen Zhong Rui (陈中瑞) - Operator - First spaceflight

Wang Jie (王杰) - Flight Engineer - First spaceflight

Video Credit: CMSA
Duration: 1 minute
Release Date: Aug. 25, 2025

#NASA #Space #Science #China #中国 #Shenzhou20Mission #神舟二十号 #Shenzhou20Crew #Taikonauts #Astronauts #ChinaSpaceStation #中国空间站 #TiangongSpaceStation #SpaceLaboratory #MicrogravityExperiments #CMSA #中国载人航天 #LongDurationMissions #HumanSpaceflight #STEM #Education #8KFilm #FilmTrailer #HD #Video

2025 Student Rocket Launch | United Launch Alliance

2025 Student Rocket Launch | United Launch Alliance

"The 2025 Student Rocket Launch took place on July 19, 2025, in Alamosa, Colorado. Interns, payload teams, mentors and spectators gathered at the rocket soar through the sky! A precise launch that shows the future of spaceflight is in good hands."

Learn more: 
https://www.ulalaunch.com/explore/intern-rockets/student-rocket-next-launch

Video Credit: United Launch Alliance (ULA)
Duration: 2 minutes, 33 seconds
Release Date: Sept. 1, 2025

#NASA #Space #Earth #Aerospace #Rocketry #Rockets #RocketLaunch #UnitedLaunchAlliance #ULA #RocketCompetition #Students #StudentLaunch #University #College #HighSchool #MiddleSchool #Schools #SanLuisValleyRocketeers #Alamosa #Colorado #UnitedStates #Technology #Cooperation #Collaboration #Engineering #Teamwork #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Solar Halos over Somerset | Earth Science

Solar Halos over Somerset | Earth Science

This image captures a parhelic circle and 22-degree halo over Somerset in southwestern England. 

Photographer Josh Dury: "Featured above is a stunning parhelic circle I captured with a fisheye lens during the afternoon of May 7, 2025, above Somerset, England. The smaller circle at bottom center is a 22-degree halo. Both the parhelic circle and halo were presented as complete circles for several minutes before heavier clouds rolled in. Hexagonal-shaped ice crystals that compose cirrus clouds were responsible for forming both of these glorious rings in the sky. However, reflection of sunlight off similarly oriented crystals forms the colorless parhelic circle, whereas refraction of sunlight through more or less randomly oriented crystals forms the halo. Note that the linear streaks marring the scene are jet contrails. Always use extreme care when looking in the direction of the Sun."

A parhelic circle is a type of halo, an optical phenomenon appearing as a horizontal white line on the same altitude as the Sun.

Solar halos are generally created by randomly oriented ice crystals in thin, high cirrus clouds. Circular 22 degree halos like this one are visible much more often than rainbows.

 

Image Credit: Josh Dury

Josh's website: https://www.joshduryphoto-media.com
Text Credit: Josh Dury; Jim Foster
Capture Location: Somerset, U.K. 

Coordinates: 51.2627880, -2.6521575

Image Date: May 7, 2025

Release Date: Sept. 1, 2025

#NASA #Science #Star #Sun #SolarSystem #Planets #Earth #EarthScience #Atmosphere #SolarHalos #ParhelicCircles #Sunlight #IceCrystals #AtmosphericOptics #Somerset #England #UK #Photography #Astrophotography #JoshDury #Astrophotographer #USRA #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #EPoD

Red Sprites over Italy | Earth Science

Red Sprites over Italy | Earth Science

You know what comes out of the bottom of a thundercloud—lightning. However, do you know what comes out of the top? The answer is sprites. Sometimes when an especially fierce lightning bolt connects with the ground, a corresponding discharge leaps from the top of the cloud toward space. These "sprites" are red, fleeting, and they tend to come in bunches.

On Aug. 29th, 2025, Giacomo Venturin of Monte Tomba, Italy, photographed a bunch of sprites dancing over a storm cell 300 km away:

"The clear sky allowed me to observe several red sprites across the border in Austria," says Venturin. "This one was generated by a lightning strike that occurred not far from Klagenfurt."

"Last night, a relatively close thunderstorm and the clear sky allowed me to observe several red sprites. In this photo, you can see one of the brightest ones, generated by a lightning strike that occurred not far from Klagenfurt. Canon Eos 60D, Samyang 35mm f/1.4 - 2" at 6400 ISO"

Although sprites have been seen, off and on, for at least a century, most scientists did not believe they existed until after 1989 when sprites were photographed by cameras onboard the space shuttle. Now "sprite chasers" routinely photograph sprites from their own backyards. Give it a try.

Red Sprites: These mysterious bursts of light in the upper atmosphere momentarily resemble gigantic jellyfish. One unusual feature of sprites is that they are relatively cold. They operate more like long fluorescent light tubes than hot compact light bulbs. In general, red sprites take only a fraction of a second to occur and are best seen when powerful thunderstorms are visible from the side.

Learn more here: https://uhu.epss.hu/en/tle-phenomena/

Image Credit: Giacomo Venturin

Giacomo's website: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006703219182
Text Credit: Spaceweather[dot]com
Capture Location: Monte Tomba, Italy
Capture Date: Aug. 29, 2025

#NASA #Science #Planets #Earth #Atmosphere #Thunderstorms #Lightning #Sprites #TLE #Photography #MonteTomba #Italy #Italia #GiacomoVenturin #Photographer #CitizenScience #STEM #Education

Jupiter's Moon Callisto: A "Dirty, Battered Iceball" | NASA's Voyager 2 Mission

Jupiter's Moon Callisto: A "Dirty, Battered Iceball" | NASA's Voyager 2 Mission

Its surface is the most densely cratered in the Solar System—but what is inside? Jupiter's moon Callisto is a battered ball of dirty ice that is larger than the planet Mercury. It was visited by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in the 1990s and 2000s, but the recently reprocessed featured image is from a flyby of NASA's Voyager 2 in 1979. The moon would appear darker if it were not for the tapestry of light-colored fractured surface ice created by eons of impacts. 

The interior of Callisto is potentially even more interesting because therein might lie an internal layer of liquid water. This potential underground sea is a candidate to harbor life—similar with sister moons Europa and Ganymede. Callisto is slightly larger than Luna, Earth's Moon, but because of its high ice content is slightly less massive. The European Space Agency's JUICE and NASA's Europa Clipper missions are now headed out to Jupiter to better investigate its largest moons.

Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Voyager 2

Processing & License: Kevin M. Gill
Release Date: Sept. 1, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #SolarSystem #Planets #Jupiter #Moons #Callisto #Voyager2Mission #Voyager2 #Voyager2Spacecraft #InterplanetarySpacecraft #DeepSpace #SpaceExploration #JPL #Caltech #GSFC #UnitedStates #CitizenScience #KevinGill #STEM #Education #APoD

The Shape of Scorpius in Three Dimensions | Space Telescope Science Institute

The Shape of Scorpius in Three Dimensions | Space Telescope Science Institute

This visualization reveals the stars of the Scorpius constellation in three dimensions. Watch as the familiar pattern on the sky distorts into a whole new perspective. 

The opening of the sequence pans up to Scorpius in the night sky. The brightest star in the constellation, Antares, is a red supergiant known as the "heart of the Scorpion". The name "Antares" can be translated to "rival of Ares" (i.e., "rival of Mars") due to its resemblance to the red planet in the night sky. The bright stars forming the tail of the scorpion are also referred to as the "fish hook". At the end of the tail, next to the star Fuyue, is the star cluster known as Ptolemy's Cluster (Messier 7). To its lower left the famous asterism known as "the teapot" from the constellation Sagittarius can be found.

As the camera orbits around the constellation, the stars of the scorpion and the dark dust clouds in the disk of our Milky Way Galaxy reveal their true distributions in space. The most distant star of the constellation is Apollyon (Iota-1 Scorpii), a supergiant that is around 2,000 light years away and over 35,000 times more luminous than the Sun. Toward the end of the spin, several star clusters cross the view of the camera. The most populated one is the Wishing Well Cluster (NGC 3532) from the constellation Carina at around 1,300 light years from the Sun. The Hyades cluster, our nearest open cluster at just 150 light years  in Taurus, makes an appearance at the lower left of the camera view just before the return to the Solar System.

This visualization features over 11 million stars down to a magnitude of 13.5 across the sky. The positions, colors, and luminosities are based on the Gaia and Hipparcos star catalogs, complemented by the HYG Database, which includes data from the Yale and Gliese catalogs. Insterstellar dust is visualized using data from the Edenhofer et al map out to a distance of 1.25 kiloparsecs (~4,000 ly) from the Sun and from the Lallement et al data out to 3 kiloparsecs (~9,800 ly). The rest of the Milky Way plane is recreated using simulated spiral galaxy data for stars and dust from the Horizon GalMer database.

Credits:

Visualization: Christian Nieves, Frank Summers (STScI)

Motion Graphics: Ralf Crawford (STScI)

Data: 

Gaia DR3 – ESA/Gaia/DPAC 

Hipparcos Catalog – ESA

HYG-Database (v4.1) – Astronexus CC BY-SA 4.0 

Edenhofer et al (2023). A Parsec-Scale Galactic 3D Dust Map out to 1.25 kpc from the Sun -- Dataset for the 1.25 kpc 3D Dust Map and the 2 kpc 3D Dust Map (v1.0.2) [Data set]. Zenodo. 

Lallement, R., et al. (2022). Updated Gaia-2MASS 3D Maps of Galactic Interstellar Dust. [Data set]. CDS.

Horizon GalMer Database – Chilingarian I. V., Di Matteo P., Combes F., Melchior A.-L., Semelin B., 2010, A&A, 518, A61

Duration: 2 minutes

Release Date: Sept. 1, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Stars #ScorpiusConstellation #Scorpius #Constellations #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #Visualization #3D #HD #Video

Spiral Galaxy NGC 7456 in Grus | Hubble Space Telescope

Spiral Galaxy NGC 7456 in Grus | Hubble Space Telescope

While it may appear unassuming at first glance, just another spiral galaxy among thousands in the Universe, the subject of this Hubble Space Telescope picture has plenty to study. NGC 7456 is its name, located over 51 million light-years away in the constellation Grus (the Crane).

In this image we see in fine detail the patchy spiral arms of this galaxy, followed by clumps of dark, obscuring dust. Blossoms of glowing pink are rich reservoirs of gas where new stars are forming, illuminating the clouds around them and causing the gas to emit this tell-tale red light. The Hubble program collecting this data is focused on stellar activity just like this, tracking new stars, clouds of hydrogen and star clusters to learn how the galaxy has evolved through time.

Hubble, with its ability to capture visible, ultraviolet and a portion of infrared light, is not the only observatory focused on NGC 7456. The European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton satellite has imaged X-rays from the galaxy on multiple occasions, discovering a number of so-called ultraluminous X-ray sources. These small, compact objects emit terrifically powerful X-rays, much more than would be expected for their size. Astronomers are still trying to pin down what powers these extreme objects, and NGC 7456 contributes a few more examples.

On top of that, the region around the galaxy’s supermassive black hole is spectacularly bright and energetic, making NGC 7456 an active galaxy. Whether looking at its core or its outskirts, at visible light or X-rays, this galaxy has something interesting to show!

Image Description: A spiral galaxy. It shines brightly at the center, and most of its disc also glows in warm colors. Its two spiral arms wind outwards from the center. They are made up mostly of large patches of bright blue specks. They also contain thin, reddish clouds of dust, and bright pink bubbles of glowing gas, where stars are forming. Distant galaxies can be seen around the galaxy as small orange spots, on a dark background.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker
Release Date: Sept. 1, 2025

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Top of The Cone Nebula Up Close in Monoceros | Hubble

Top of The Cone Nebula Up Close in Monoceros | Hubble

Top section of the giant-sized Cone Nebula

Ground-based image of the Cone Nebula with a regional outline of the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) close-up view. The Anglo-Australian Observatory, now known as the Australian Astronomical Observatory, is a 3.9-meter telescope located at the Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia.

Resembling a nightmarish beast rearing its head from a crimson sea, this celestial object is actually a pillar of gas and dust. Called the Cone Nebula (NGC 2264)—so named because in ground-based images it has a conical shape—this monstrous pillar resides in a turbulent star-forming region. This picture, taken by the newly installed Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope, shows the top part of the Cone. It has a full height equal to 23 million roundtrips to the Moon. The entire pillar is seven light-years long.

Distance: 2,500 light years in the constellation Monoceros

Radiation from hot, young stars has slowly eroded the nebula over millions of years. Ultraviolet light heats the edges of the dark cloud, releasing gas into the relatively empty region of surrounding space. There, additional ultraviolet radiation causes the hydrogen gas to glow. This produces the red halo of light seen around the pillar. A similar process occurs on a much smaller scale to gas surrounding a single star, forming the bow-shaped arc seen near the upper left side of the Cone. This arc, seen previously with the Hubble telescope, is 65 times larger than the diameter of our Solar System. The blue-white light from surrounding stars is reflected by dust. Background stars can be seen peeking through the evaporating tendrils of gas, while the turbulent base is pockmarked with stars reddened by dust.

Over time, only the densest regions of the Cone will be left. However, inside these regions, stars and planets may form. The Cone Nebula resides 2,500 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros within our Milky Way galaxy.

Pillars like the Cone nebula are common in large regions of star birth. Astronomers regard these pillars as incubators for developing stars.

Image Credit: NASA, the ACS Science Team (H. Ford, G. Illingworth, M. Clampin, G. Hartig, T. Allen, K. Anderson, F. Bartko, N. Benitez, J. Blakeslee, R. Bouwens, T. Broadhurst, R. Brown, C. Burrows, D. Campbell, E. Cheng, N. Cross, P. Feldman, M. Franx, D. Golimowski, C. Gronwall, R. Kimble, J. Krist, M. Lesser, D. Magee, A. Martel, W.
 J. McCann, G. Meurer, G. Miley, M. Postman, P. Rosati, M. Sirianni, W. Sparks, P. Sullivan, H. Tran, Z. Tsvetanov, R. White, and R. Woodruff) and ESA
Text Credit: NASA, Holland Ford (JHU), the ACS Science Team and European Space Agency
Release Date: April 30, 2002

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