Lunar Electric Rover Field Testing in Arizona | NASA Artemis Moon Program

Lunar Electric Rover Field Testing in Arizona | NASA Artemis Moon Program

A front view of the Lunar Electric Rover (LER) prototype during the Desert Research and Technology Studies (RATS) remote field test at Black Point Lava Flow, Arizona in 2008.

A back view of the Lunar Electric Rover (LER) prototype during the Desert Research and Technology Studies (RATS) remote field test at Black Point Lava Flow, Arizona in 2008. Two Mark III spacesuits are visibly mounted on the LER suit port.

As astronauts explore the South Pole region of the Moon during Artemis missions, they will be able to go farther and conduct more science than ever before thanks to new lunar terrain vehicles.

Human mobility on the lunar surface is crucial for enhancing scientific discovery on each mission and preparing for planetary mobility on Mars. Instead of owning the vehicle, NASA plans to contract it as a service from industry. The LTV will be the ultimate lunar surface terrain vehicle with advanced power management, autonomous driving, state of the art communications and navigation systems, along with other extreme environment technologies that will provide the ability to collect and conduct science while keeping astronauts and the vehicle safe and ready for its next mission.

Learn more about NASA's Lunar Terrain Vehicle Program:

https://www.nasa.gov/suits-and-rovers/lunar-terrain-vehicle/

Image Credit: NASA/Regan Geeseman

Image Date: Oct. 24, 2008

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Earth #Moon #ArtemisProgram #LunarElectricRover #LER #Prototype #ResearchandTechnologyStudies #RATS #CommercialSpace #Robotics #SpaceTechnology #Engineering #SpaceExploration #SolarSystem #Desert #BlackPointLavaFlow #Arizona #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon: View from New Mexico

Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon: View from New Mexico

Comet Lemmon is brightening and moving into morning northern skies. Besides Comet SWAN25B and Comet ATLAS, Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) is now the third comet currently visible with binoculars and on long camera exposures. Comet Lemmon was discovered early this year and is still headed into the inner Solar System. The comet will round the Sun on November 8, but first it will pass its nearest to the Earth—at about half the Earth-Sun distance—on October 21. 

Although the brightnesses of comets are notoriously hard to predict, optimistic estimates have Comet Lemmon then becoming visible to the unaided eye. The comet should be best seen in predawn skies until mid-October, when it also becomes visible in evening skies.

New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also borders the state of Texas to the east and southeast, Oklahoma to the northeast, and shares an international border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora to the south.

Image Credit: Rolando Ligustri

Rolando's website: 

https://www.facebook.com/astrottica

Image Details: NW 300/1140 ccd ASI 2600MM RGB=3x60s L=20x60s
Location: Astrottica Observatory, New Mexico, USA 
Image Date: Oct. 2, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Comets #CometC2025A6Lemmon #Coma #CometaryTails #SolarSystem #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Astrophotography #RolandoLigustri #Astrophotographers #NewMexico #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Close-up: Galaxy NGC 2775—Spiral, elliptical or neither? | Hubble

Close-up: Galaxy NGC 2775—Spiral, elliptical or neither? | Hubble

This NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope picture features a galaxy that is challenging to categorize. The galaxy in question is NGC 2775. It lies 67 million light-years away in the constellation Cancer (The Crab). NGC 2775 sports a smooth, featureless center that is devoid of gas, resembling an elliptical galaxy. It also has a dusty ring with patchy star clusters, like a spiral galaxy. 

Is it spiral or elliptical—or neither?

Since we can only view NGC 2775 from one angle, it is difficult to say for certain. Researchers have classified NGC 2775 as a spiral galaxy because of its feathery ring of stars and dust and as a lenticular galaxy. Lenticular galaxies have features common to spiral and elliptical galaxies.

It is not yet known exactly how lenticular galaxies come to be. They can form in a variety of ways. Lenticular galaxies might be spiral galaxies that have merged with other galaxies, or that have mostly run out of star-forming gas and lost their prominent spiral arms. They also might have started out more similar to elliptical galaxies, then collected gas into a disk around them.

Evidence suggests that NGC 2775 has merged with other galaxies in the past. Invisible in this Hubble image, NGC 2775 has a tail of hydrogen gas that stretches almost 100,000 light-years around the galaxy. This faint tail could be the remnant of one or more galaxies that wandered too close to NGC 2775 before being stretched apart and absorbed. If NGC 2775 merged with other galaxies in the past, it could explain the galaxy’s strange appearance today.

A Hubble image of NGC 2775 was previously released in 2020. The new version adds observations of a specific wavelength of red light that is emitted by clouds of hydrogen gas surrounding massive young stars.

Image Description: A galaxy seen face-on with a slightly elliptical disc that appears to have a hole in the center like a doughnut. In the hole, the core is a brightly glowing point that shines light out beyond the edge of the disc. Around the hole is an inner ring of dust, and at the galaxy’s edge is a thicker outer ring of dust, with a swirling web of dust strands in between. Blue stars and red nebulae are visible behind the dust.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Belfiore, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)

Duration: 30 seconds
Release Date: Sept. 22, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Stars #Galaxies #NGC2775 #SpiralGalaxies #EllipticalGalaxies #LenticularGalaxies #Cancer #Constellations #Cosmos #Universe #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Close-up: Spiral Galaxy NGC 6000 in Scorpius | Hubble

Close-up: Spiral Galaxy NGC 6000 in Scorpius | Hubble

Stars of all ages are on display in this NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope picture. This sparkling spiral galaxy is called NGC 6000 and it is located 102 million light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. 

This galaxy has a glowing yellow center and glittering blue outskirts. The colors reflect the average ages, masses and temperatures of the galaxy’s stars. In the heart of the galaxy, the stars tend to be older and smaller. Less massive stars are cooler than more massive stars, and somewhat counterintuitively, cooler stars are redder, while hotter stars are bluer. Farther out along NGC 6000’s spiral arms, brilliant star clusters host young, massive stars that appear distinctly blue.

Hubble collected the data for this image while surveying the sites of recent supernova explosions in nearby galaxies. NGC 6000 has hosted two recent supernovae: SN 2007ch in 2007 and SN 2010as in 2010. Using Hubble’s sensitive detectors, researchers are able to discern the faint glow of supernovae years after the initial explosion. These observations help to constrain the masses of supernova progenitor stars and can indicate if they had any stellar companions. 

By zooming in to the right side of the galaxy’s disc in this image, you may see something else yellow and blue: a set of four thin lines. These are an asteroid in our Solar System. It was drifting across Hubble’s field of view as it gazed at NGC 6000. The four streaks are due to exposures that were recorded one after another with slight pauses in between. These were combined to create this final image. The colors appear this way because each exposure used a filter to collect only specific wavelengths of light, in this case around red and blue. Having these separate exposures is important to study and compare stars by their colors—but it also makes asteroid interlopers very obvious!

Image Description: An oval-shaped spiral galaxy where only the center and lower half is in frame. Its center is mainly golden in color with a white glowing core. Its thick spiral arms are mostly blue, particularly at the outskirts; the colors merge in between. Dark lanes of dust swirl through the center, blocking some of its light. Stars and distant galaxies can be seen around the edges on a black background.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Filippenko
Acknowledgement: M. H. Özsaraç, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)

Duration: 30 seconds
Release Date: Sept. 29, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Stars #Galaxies #NGC6000 #SpiralGalaxies #Scorpius #Constellations #Cosmos #Universe #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

'Waves' of Earth Aurora | International Space Station

'Waves' of Earth Aurora | International Space Station

Expedition 73 flight engineer and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui: "Recently, the aurora has been beautiful, so I tried filming a time-lapse video in between my workouts. Please enjoy the footage of the aurora surging in like waves, and then feeling like you're sailing through a sea of aurora. While drawing power from the Earth, let's keep pushing forward together this October, too!"

Auroras happen when charged particles from the Sun interact with Earth's magnetic field, creating dazzling light shows in the sky. Auroras occurs in an upper layer of Earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere.

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: Kimiya Yui/JAXA

Duration: 36 seconds
Release Date: Sept. 30, 2025

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Stars #Sun #SolarSystem #SolarWind #Planets #Earth #Aurora #Astronauts #KimiyaYui #AstronautPhotography #UnitedStates #Japan #日本 #JAXA #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #HumanSpaceflight #SpaceLaboratory #InternationalCooperation #Expedition73 #STEM #HD #Video

Xanthe Terra Region of Planet Mars: Simulated Fly Over | ESA Mars Express

Xanthe Terra Region of Planet Mars: Simulated Fly Over | ESA Mars Express

The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft takes us on a flight over curving channels carved by water, islands that have resisted erosion, and a maze of hilly terrain. Central to the tour is a 1300 km-long outflow channel called Shalbatana Vallis. It cascades down from the highland region of Xanthe Terra to the smoother lowlands of Chryse Planitia.

Billions of years ago, water surged through this channel, creating many of the features we see today. The tour culminates in a spectacular view of a 100 km-wide impact crater, smashed out of Mars’s surface when it collided with a space rock.

Xanthe Terra is a large area on Mars, centered just north of the Martian equator. Its coordinates are 3°N 312°E and its diameter is 1867.65 km. Its name means "golden-yellow land." It is in the Lunae Palus quadrangle, the Coprates quadrangle, the Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle, and the Oxia Palus quadrangle.

Ravi Vallis, Aromatum Chaos, Ophir, Ganges Chasma, Nanedi Valles, Shalbatana Vallis, Orson Welles Crater, Mutch Crater, and Da Vinci Crater are examples of major features in Xanthe Terra.

Over twenty years of observations from Mars Express have solidified our picture of Mars as a once-habitable planet with warmer and wetter epochs that may have been oases for ancient life. 

Processing notes:

This video was created using the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera Mars Chart (HMC30) data, an image mosaic made from single orbit observations of the mission’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). The mosaic image, centred at 5°N/320°E, is combined with topography information from the digital terrain model to generate a three-dimensional landscape.

For every second of the movie, 50 separate frames are rendered following a predefined camera path in the scene. The vertical exaggeration used for the animation is three-fold. Atmospheric effects, like clouds and haze, have been added to conceal the limits of the terrain model. The haze starts building up at a distance of 250 km.

The HRSC camera on Mars Express is operated by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The systematic processing of the camera data took place at the DLR Institute for Planetary Research in Berlin-Adlershof. The working group of Planetary Science and Remote Sensing at Freie Universität Berlin used the data to create the film.

Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin & NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Duration: 3 minutes, 23 seconds
Release Date: Oct. 2, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Planet #Mars #Geology #XantheTerra #ShalbatanaVallis  #MarsExpress #MarsExpressSpacecraft #HRSC #Europe #DLR #FUBerlin #Berlin #Germany #Deutschland #STEM #Education #Animation #HD #Video

The Area around Rogue Planet Cha 1107-7626—Visible Light & Infrared Views

The Area around Rogue Planet Cha 1107-7626—Visible Light & Infrared Views

This visible-light image, part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2, shows the position in the sky of the rogue planet Cha 1107-7626. The planet (not visible here) is located exactly at the center of the frame.

This infrared image, taken with the European Southern Observatory’s Visible and Infrared Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) shows the position in the sky of the rogue planet Cha 1107-7626. The planet is a small dot located exactly at the center of the frame.

Location in the sky of the rogue planet Cha 1107-7626 in visible light and infrared. Astronomers have found an intense ‘growth spurt’ in this planet that does not orbit a star. Observations with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) reveal that this free-floating planet is eating up gas and dust from its surroundings at a rate of six billion tonnes a second, the strongest ever found for a planet of any kind.

The newly studied object, with a mass five to 10 times the mass of Jupiter, is located about 620 light-years away in the constellation Chamaeleon. Officially named Cha 1107-7626, this rogue planet is still forming and is fed by a surrounding disc of gas and dust. This material constantly falls onto the free-floating planet, a process known as accretion. However, the team led by Almendros-Abad has now found that the rate at which the young planet is accreting is not steady.

Credit: European Southern Observatory / Digitized Sky Survey 2/Meingast et al.
Release Date: October 2, 2025

#NASA #ESO #Space #Astronomy #Science #Stars #Planets #Exoplanets #Cha11077626 #Accretion #Chamaeleon #Constellations #Astrophysics #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #VLT #ParanalObservatory #Chile #SouthAmerica #UnitedStates #STEM #Education 

Journey to Rogue Planet Cha 1107-7626 in Chamaeleon | ESO

Journey to Rogue Planet Cha 1107-7626 in Chamaeleon | ESO

This video zooms in on Cha 1107-7626, located about 620 light-years away in the constellation Chamaeleon. This rogue planet is 5-10 times more massive than Jupiter and doesn’t orbit a star. 

The video combines images taken with telescopes at unique times and wavelengths. It begins with a wide view of the night sky in visible light. As we zoom in, we switch to an infrared view taken with European Southern Observatory’s Visible and Infrared Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). Finally, we show an artist’s animation of the planet, which is eating up gas and dust from a disc around it. Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have found this is now happening at a rate of about 6 billion tonnes per second. 

Credit: European Southern Observatory/L. Calçada, M. Kornmesser/N. Risinger/Digitized Sky Survey 2/Meingast et al
Duration: 1 minute
Release Date: Oct. 2, 2025

#NASA #ESO #Space #Astronomy #Science #Stars #Planets #Exoplanets #Cha11077626 #Accretion #Chamaeleon #Constellations #Astrophysics #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #VLT #ParanalObservatory #Chile #SouthAmerica #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Rogue Planet Found Growing at Record Rate | European Southern Observatory

Rogue Planet Found Growing at Record Rate | European Southern Observatory

Astronomers have found an intense ‘growth spurt’ in a rogue planet––a planet that does not orbit a star. Observations with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) reveal that this free-floating planet is eating up gas and dust from its surroundings at a rate of six billion tonnes a second, the strongest ever found for a planet of any kind. This video summarizes the discovery.  

The newly studied object, with a mass five to 10 times the mass of Jupiter, is located about 620 light-years away in the constellation Chamaeleon. Officially named Cha 1107-7626, this rogue planet is still forming and is fed by a surrounding disc of gas and dust. This material constantly falls onto the free-floating planet, a process known as accretion. However, the team led by Almendros-Abad has now found that the rate at which the young planet is accreting is not steady.

By August 2025, the planet was accreting about eight times faster than just a few months before, at a rate of six billion tonnes per second! “This is the strongest accretion episode ever recorded for a planetary-mass object,” says Almendros-Abad. The discovery, published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, was made with the X-shooter spectrograph on ESO’s VLT, located in Chile’s Atacama Desert. The team also used data from the James Webb Space Telescope, operated by the US, European and Canadian space agencies, and archival data from the SINFONI spectrograph on ESO's VLT.

"The origin of rogue planets remains an open question: are they the lowest-mass objects formed like stars, or giant planets ejected from their birth systems?” asks co-author Aleks Scholz, an astronomer at the University of St Andrews, United Kingdom. The findings indicate that rogue planets may share a similar formation path to stars since similar bursts of accretion have been spotted in young stars before. As co-author Belinda Damian, also an astronomer at the University of St Andrews, explains: “This discovery blurs the line between stars and planets and gives us a sneak peek into the earliest formation periods of rogue planets.”

Credit: ESO
Directed by: Angelos Tsaousis and Martin Wallner
Editing: Angelos Tsaousis
Written by: Malika Nora Duffek
Footage and photos: ESO, Luis Calçada, Martin Kornmesser, Angelos Tsaousis, Christoph Malin, Digitized Sky Survey 2, Meingast et al.
Scientific consultant: Paola Amico, Mariya Lyubenova
Based on research by: V. Almendros-Abad et al., ApJL
Release Date: Oct. 2, 2025

#NASA #ESO #Space #Astronomy #Science #Stars #Planets #Exoplanets #Cha11077626 #Accretion #Chamaeleon #Constellations #Astrophysics #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #VLT #ParanalObservatory #Chile #SouthAmerica #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Star Trails at Lake Ninan, Western Australia

Star Trails at Lake Ninan, Western Australia

Star trails are caused by the Earth’s rotation. It makes stars appear to move in arcs and circles around the Earth’s celestial poles (the celestial south pole is seen to the left in this image). The distance of each star to the pole star helps us define that stars are circumpolar or seasonal. Circumpolar stars do not rise or set like the Sun—they would even be continuously visible during the day at any time of the year if not for the Sun’s light. Meanwhile, seasonal stars rise in the east and set in the west, changing with the seasons due to their proximity to the celestial equator. These pathways are an effect of the geometry of Earth’s orbit, and the latitude you observe the sky from will change what stars appear circumpolar.

Photographer Trevor Dobson: "This is a 999 shot star trails image taken at Lake Ninan, 2 hours north east of Perth in Western Australia. Started these at 7pm and finished at 4am."

Image details: Nikon d5500, 11mm, 999 x 30 seconds, ISO 1250, f/3.2

Image Credit: Trevor Dobson
Image Date: Sept. 20, 2025
Release Date: Oct. 2, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Planets #Earth #PlanetaryRotation #SolarSystem #Stars #StarTrails #Cosmos #Universe #Astrophotography #TrevorDobson #Astrophotographer #LakeNinan #WesternAustralia #Australia #STEM #Education

RocketCam Views: United Launch Alliance Atlas V Kuiper 3 Launch

RocketCam Views: United Launch Alliance Atlas V Kuiper 3 Launch

The third launch of Amazon's Project Kuiper will used United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket to deliver satellites of the constellation into low Earth orbit (LEO). Project Kuiper is Amazon’s low Earth orbit satellite broadband network. Its mission is to provide fast, reliable internet to customers around the world, including those in unserved and underserved communities, using a constellation of more than 3,200 LEO satellites.

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket carrying the Kuiper 3 mission for Amazon’s Project Kuiper lifted off on Sept. 25, 2025, at 8:09 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral. This mission demonstrates the partnership between ULA and Amazon to launch and deliver new solutions for global connectivity.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) update:
https://newsroom.ulalaunch.com/releases/united-launch-alliance-propels-amazons-project-kuiper-to-enhance-broadband-access-to-connect-the-world

Amazon's Project Kuiper:
https://www.aboutamazon.com/what-we-do/devices-services/project-kuiper

Video Credit: United Launch Alliance (ULA)
Duration: 5 minutes, 39 seconds
Release Date: Oct. 1, 2025

#NASA #Space #Earth #Satellites #LEO #Amazon #ProjectKuiper #Kuiper3Mission #SatelliteConstellations #CommunicationsSatellites #BroadbandInternetServices #AtlasVRockets #RocketCam #ULA #CapeCanaveral #Florida #UnitedStates #CommercialSpace #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Shenzhou-20 Crew Sends Greetings for China's National Day | China Space Station

Shenzhou-20 Crew Sends Greetings for China's National Day | China Space Station

The Shenzhou-20 crew on board China's orbiting space station Tiangong extended their greetings to the motherland and the Chinese people in celebration of the National Day on October 1, 2025.

The crew, namely astronauts Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie, are dressed up in red tops with the words reading "The motherland is the light that illuminates everything" and "I love you, China", demonstrating their love and deep affection for the motherland.

"From personally witnessing the successful in-orbit assembly of the T-shaped configuration of the three modules of China's space station to the impressive achievements in its application and development today, I deeply feel that these accomplishments are inseparable from the dedicated efforts of the entire project team and, more importantly, the attention and support of the people across the country. Here at the Chinese space station, we wish prosperity and strength to our great motherland and happiness and good health to all the ethic groups in China," said Chen Dong, celebrating National Day in space for the second time.

Chen Dong, the crew's commander, had previously participated in the crewed spaceflight missions of Shenzhou-11 and Shenzhou-14, and he celebrated National Day in space for the first time during the Shenzhou-14 mission in 2022.

Chen Zhongrui wears a red sweatshirt with the words "Devote my youth to the great motherland", expressing his steadfastness and loyalty as a space traveler to the motherland.

"We have spent five months in the Tiangong space station, successfully completing four spacewalks. Every time I look down at our motherland while wearing the extravehicular spacesuit, my heart is filled with pride and honor. Nowadays, our 'space vegetable garden' has yielded a bountiful harvest, testifying to the miraculous power of space exploration. We are grateful to our country for providing us with the platform to pursue our dreams. We will certainly live up to this trust and safeguard the space home for the Chinese people," said Chen Zhongrui.

Wearing a sweatshirt with the words reading "Wishing a brighter future to the motherland," Wang Jie sent his best wishes to the motherland.

"On the occasion of the National Day, we aboard the Chinese space station feel a surge of emotions. As a young astronaut, my space trip is so fulfilling. Please rest assured, the motherland and the people, that we are feeling great in the space station. Next, we will continue to carry out various scientific experiments and make all necessary preparations to welcome the Shenzhou-21 crew, successfully completing our leg in the Shenzhou family's relay in space," said Wang Jie.

"We wish our great motherland peace and prosperity from the Chinese space station. I love you, China," the crew said together.

Video Credit: CCTV
Duration: 2 minutes, 11 seconds
Release Date: Oct. 1, 2025

#NASA #Space #Science #China #中国 #NationalDay #Shenzhou20Mission #神舟二十号 #Shenzhou20Crew #Taikonauts #ChenDong #ChenZhongrui #WangJie #Astronauts #ChinaSpaceStation #中国空间站 #TiangongSpaceStation #SpaceLaboratory #CMSA #中国载人航天工程办公室 #LongDurationMissions #HumanSpaceflight #STEM #Education #Video

Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io | NASA's Juno Mission [Alert: Budget Cancelation]

Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io | NASA's Juno Mission [Alert: Budget Cancelation]

During its close flyby of Jupiter’s moon Io on December 30, 2023, NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured some of the most detailed imagery ever of Io’s volcanic surface. In this image, taken by the JunoCam instrument from about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) above the moon, Io’s night side [left lobe] is illuminated by “Jupitershine,” which is sunlight reflected from the planet’s surface.

This image is the NASA Science Image of the Month for October 2025.

NASA's highly successful Juno Mission is being canceled in NASA's Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request, along with 18 other active science missions. NASA's science budget is being reduced by nearly 50%. NASA's total budget will become the lowest since 1961, after accounting for inflation.

Contact your representatives in the United States Congress, House and Senate, to express your concerns about severe budget cuts at NASA:

https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials/

NASA's Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request (PDF): https://www.nasa.gov/fy-2026-budget-request/

Image Description: Jupiter's moon, Io, as seen by NASA's Juno spacecraft. Io is yellow-brown and looks somewhat like a potato. It has geographical features look like the eyes on a potato. Io is partly illuminated by sunshine reflecting off of Jupiter's surface. The darkness of space provides a black background.

More information about Juno is available at:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/juno

https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu

Image Credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/Southwest Research Institute (SwRI)/Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS)
Image processing: Emma Wälimäki
Text credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/Southwest Research Institute (SwRI)/Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS)
Release Date: Sept. 30, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Planets #Jupiter #JupiterShine #Moons #Io #Geology #Volcanoes #JunoMission #JunoSpacecraft #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #JPL #Caltech #MSFC #SwRI #UnitedStates #BudgetAlert #NASAMissionCancellation #Infographics #STEM #Education

China's Tianwen-2 Asteroid Sample-Return Spacecraft Captures Earth Selfie

China's Tianwen-2 Asteroid Sample-Return Spacecraft Captures Earth Selfie

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) on October 1, 2025, unveiled a remarkable image of the Tianwen-2 probe alongside Earth, captured during its deep-space journey.

The newly released image, acquired by a monitoring camera mounted on the probe's robotic arm, showcases China's five-starred red flag and the white return capsule against the backdrop of a distant, blue Earth.

According to CNSA, the Tianwen-2 probe is currently approximately 43 million kilometers from Earth and 45 million kilometers from the asteroid 2016HO3.

The probe has successfully completed a series of in-orbit tests, including the deployment of sampling devices and self-checks of electronic devices. All systems are reported to be functioning normally, while onboard instruments have begun collecting valuable scientific data on the space environment, according to the CNSA.

China launched its first asteroid sample-return mission, Tianwen-2, on May 29—an endeavour to shed light on the formation and evolution of asteroids and the early solar system.

The mission aims to achieve multiple goals over a decade-long expedition: collecting samples from near-Earth asteroid 2016HO3 and exploring the main-belt comet 311P, which is farther from Earth than Mars.

Tianwen-2 will collect pristine samples from the near-Earth asteroid, 2016HO3 and return them to Earth. Next, it will go explore the main-belt comet 311P—more distant than Mars.

The probe is expected to return asteroid samples to Earth in 2027 with the entire mission to last a decade.

If successful, China will become only the third country in the world to carry out such a feat after Japan and the United States.

The Tianwen-2 mission is the latest example of China's space achievements in recent years. These include returning samples from the near and far sides of the Moon, launching a successful mission to probe Mars, operating its own national space station in orbit, and moving ahead in its plan to send humans to the lunar surface by 2030.

Video Credit: CCTV
Duration: 55 seconds
Release Date: Oct. 1, 2025

#NASA #CNSA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Earth #Asteroids #AsteroidKamooalewa #Asteroid2016HO3 #AsteroidSampleReturn #Comets #Comet311P #Comet311PPANSTARRS #CometFlyby #China #中国 #Tianwen2 #天问二号 #Tianwen2Spacecraft #DeepSpace #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #STEM #Education #HD #Video

U.S. & Russian Expedition 74 & Soyuz MS-28 Crew | International Space Station

U.S. & Russian Expedition 74 & Soyuz MS-28 Crew | International Space Station

Soyuz MS-28 crew members (from left) NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev of Russia pose for a portrait at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. 

NASA astronaut and Soyuz MS-28 Mission Specialist Chris Williams poses for a portrait in his Sokol launch and entry suit at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia.

Roscosmos cosmonaut and Soyuz MS-28 Commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Russia poses for a portrait in his Sokol launch and entry suit at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia.

Roscosmos cosmonaut and Soyuz MS-28 Flight Engineer Sergey Mikaev of Russia poses for a portrait in his Sokol launch and entry suit at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia.

Expedition 74 crew members (from left) NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev of Russia pose for a portrait at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

NASA astronaut and Expedition 74 Flight Engineer Chris Williams poses for a portrait in his flight suit at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Roscosmos cosmonaut and Expedition 74 Flight Engineer Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Russia poses for a portrait in his flight suit at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Roscosmos cosmonaut and Expedition 74 Flight Engineer Sergey Mikaev of Russia poses for a portrait in his flight suit at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

The Russian Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft, targeted to launch Nov. 27, 2025, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, will carry Williams on his first flight, as well as Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev of Roscosmos, to the space station for an eight-month mission as part of Expeditions 73/74.

Selected as a candidate in 2021, Williams graduated with the 23rd astronaut class in 2024. He began training for his first space station flight assignment immediately after completing initial astronaut candidate training.

Williams was born in New York City, and considers Potomac, Maryland, his hometown. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Stanford University in California and a doctorate in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, where his research focused on astrophysics. Williams completed medical physics residency training at Harvard Medical School in Boston. He was working as a clinical physicist and researcher at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston when he was selected as an astronaut candidate.

The International Space Station is a convergence of science, technology, and human innovation enabling research not possible on Earth. For nearly 25 years, NASA has supported a continuous U.S. human presence aboard the orbiting laboratory, where astronauts have learned to live and work in space for extended periods of time. The space station is a "springboard for developing a low Earth economy" and NASA’s next great leaps in human exploration at the Moon under the Artemis campaign and Mars.

Learn more about the International Space Station:

https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station

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: Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC)/NASA's Johnson Space Center

Image Dates: Dec. 12, 2024-Sept. 30, 2025

#NASA #Space #ISS #Science #Earth #SoyuzMS28Crew #SoyuzCrewSpacecraft #Astronauts #ChrisWilliams #Cosmonauts #SergeyKudSverchkov #SergeyMikaev #HumanSpaceflight #SpaceTechnology #SpaceResearch #SpaceLaboratory #JSC #UnitedStates #GCTC #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #Expedition74 #STEM #Education

What's Up for October 2025: Skywatching Tips from NASA | JPL

What's Up for October 2025: Skywatching Tips from NASA | JPL

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

A supermoon takes over the sky, the Draconid meteor shower peeks through, and the Orionid meteor shower shines bright. 

0:00 Intro

0:13 Supermoon

0:51 International Observe the Moon Night

1:14 Draconid meteor shower

1:53 Orionid meteor shower

3:00 October Moon phases

Video Credit: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
Duration: 3 minute, 22 seconds
Release Date: Sept. 30, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Skywatching #Earth #MeteorShowers #Draconids #Orionids #Moon #SuperMoon #Planets #Stars #SolarSystem #Nebulae #Galaxies #Constellations #MilkyWayGalaxy #Skywatching #JPL #Caltech #UnitedStates #Canada #Mexico #NorthernHemisphere #STEM #Education #HD #Video