The Pillars of Creation: A 3D Multiwavelength Exploration | STScI

The Pillars of Creation: A 3D Multiwavelength Exploration | STScI

This scientific visualization explores the iconic Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula using data from the Hubble and Webb Space Telescopes. 

Based on scientific results, astronomers and artists modeled this striking formation in three dimensions and created a movie that flies past and amongst the pillars. What looks like 3 pillars in a two-dimensional image separates into four dust clouds with ionized gas streaming away from each.

As the virtual camera files through the model, the view shifts back and forth between the visible light and infrared light perspectives. Viewers gain an appreciation of the contrasting observations seen by Hubble and Webb, and how the telescopes complement each other by probing different scientific aspects of the clouds.

The Pillars of Creation nickname derives from the fact that stars are forming within these dust clouds. The visual tour highlights various stages of star formation including an embedded protostar at the top of the central pillar, bipolar jets from a unseen forming star in the upper part of the left pillar, and a newborn star in the middle of the left pillar.

This visualization is a product of the AstroViz Project of NASA's Universe of Learning. A longer and explanatory visualization, including narration detailing the structures and science, is available as "The Pillars of Creation and the Interplay of Stars and Dust".

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Nebulae #EagleNebula #PillarsOfCreation #SerpensCauda #Constellations #SpaceTelescopes #JWST #InfraredAstronomy #HST #OpticalAstronomy #Universe #ESA #Europe #CSA #Canada #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #Art #Visualization #HD #Video

Duration: Oct. 8, 2025

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

Image Details: Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon, 08/10/2025 at 10:30 UT, from New Mexico USA, TelescopeNetwork.astrottica.it, with a NM 300/1140 (Astrottica) CCD ASI 2600 MM in bin2 RGB=3x30s L=20x30s field of view 44'x66', processed by Astroart Software and PS. The presence of the Moon is starting to be "heavy", causing a loss of contrast and an increase in gradients.

Location: Astrottica Observatory, New Mexico, USA

Rolando's website: 

https://www.facebook.com/astrottica

Capture Date: Oct. 8, 2025

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

The Orion Nebula: Infrared View | Subaru Telescope

The Orion Nebula: Infrared View | Subaru Telescope

Located 1,500 light years away, the Orion Nebula (Messier 42) shows a host of treasures when viewed in infrared light. There are stars in the Trapezium, an open cluster of stars at the center, that are only visible in infrared light. The orange feature above center is called the Kleinman-Low Nebula, and appears greatly affected by the newly forming central star IRc2. The blue emission in this representative color photograph is caused by hot gas ionized by the Trapezium stars. This is one of the first photographs ever taken through Japan's Subaru Telescope.

At the center of the image is the Trapezium, a group of four bright stars. Many stars seen around the Trapezium are young stars embedded in the Orion molecular cloud located behind the Orion Nebula. Many of them are seen only at infrared wavelengths. Blue, faint, and diffuse emission extending over the entire region is due to hot gas ionized by strong ultraviolet radiation emitted by the Trapezium stars. The bright bar seen in the lower left part of the image is an ionization front.

Above the Trapezium, a butterfly-like red feature is seen in the image, containing the Kleinman-Low (KL) nebula. It is deeply embedded in the Orion molecular cloud. At the center of the KL nebula is a star called IRc2 that is in the process of forming. This star is believed to be thirty times more massive than the Sun, and its activities are the cause of the large butterfly feature.

This false-color image was synthesized from three images taken with J (1.25 micron), K' (2.15 micron), and H 2 -line (2.12 micron, narrow band) filters, assigning blue for J, green for K', and red for H 2 -line images. Nine images of contiguous fields were obtained with the Subaru Telescope's Cooled Infrared Spectrograph and Camera for OHS (CISCO). It has a 2 arcmin by 2 arcmin field of view, and were combined to make this image.  Ghost (false) images from very bright stars are also visible.

The Subaru Telescope is an astronomical observation facility operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). It is located at the summit of Mauna Kea at an altitude of 4,200 meters in the U.S. state of Hawaii.

Learn more about Japan's Subaru Telescope: 
https://subarutelescope.org/en/

Credit: CISCO, Subaru 8.3-m Telescope, NAOJ
Release Date: Jan. 29, 1999

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #SubaruTelescope #すばる望遠鏡 #CISCO #InfraredAstronomy #NAOJ #国立天文台 #Stars #TrapeziumCluster #Nebulae #OrionNebula #Messier42 #M42 #NGC1976 #KleinmanLowNebula #Cosmos #Universe #Japan #日本 #MaunaKea #Hawaii #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Virgin Galactic: The Feather | "We Build SpaceShips"

Virgin Galactic: The Feather | "We Build SpaceShips"

Virgin Galactic’s spaceship adapts to its three phases of flight. It travels to space as a rocket. In space, it folds nearly in half, allowing it to steadily reenter the atmosphere. Then, it becomes a piloted glider, returning customers safely to their departure runway. A single one-of-a-kind system makes it all happen.

Welcome to Virgin Galactic - "The Spaceline for Earth".

Register for updates and learn more at: 
https://www.virgingalactic.com

Video Credit: Virgin Galactic
Duration: 6 minutes, 43 seconds
Release Date: Oct. 8, 2025

#NASA #Space #Earth #CommercialSpaceflight #VirginGalactic #Year2024 #DeltaSpaceship #SuborbitalFlights #Astronauts #SpaceTourism #HumanSpaceflight #SpaceportAmerica #NewMexico #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Close up: The Orion Nebula (M42)—Visible Spectrum | Subaru Telescope

Close up: The Orion Nebula (M42)—Visible Spectrum | Subaru Telescope

The Orion Nebula (M42), located in the winter constellation Orion, is known as a star-forming region located relatively close to Earth, approximately 1,500 light-years away. Its large apparent size makes it easy to find with the naked eye, and a large number of stars can be seen through a telescope.

At the center of the red nebula seen in high-mass star-forming regions is the Trapezium, a cluster of newly formed stars. The ultraviolet rays from the Trapezium ionize hydrogen gas, causing it to glow red.

This image was created using a three-color composite, with the g-band (wavelength 470 nanometers), i-band (wavelength 760 nanometers), and y-band (wavelength 980 nanometers) assigned to blue, green, and red, respectively. It was taken with the Subaru Telescope's Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC), an ultra-wide-field prime focus camera.

The Subaru Telescope is an astronomical observation facility operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). It is located at the summit of Mauna Kea at an altitude of 4,200 meters in the U.S. state of Hawaii.

Learn more about Japan's Subaru Telescope: 
https://subarutelescope.org/en/

Credits: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan; Image provided by Michitaro Koike and Masayuki Tanaka

Duration: 2 minutes
Release Date: June 17, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #SubaruTelescope #すばる望遠鏡 #HSC #NAOJ #国立天文台 #Stars #TrapeziumCluster #Nebulae #OrionNebula #Messier42 #M42 #NGC1976 #Cosmos #Universe #Japan #日本 #MaunaKea #Hawaii #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

The Orion Nebula (M42): Visible Spectrum | Subaru Telescope

The Orion Nebula (M42): Visible Spectrum | Subaru Telescope

The Orion Nebula (M42), located in the winter constellation Orion, is known as a star-forming region located relatively close to Earth, approximately 1,500 light-years away. Its large apparent size makes it easy to find with the naked eye, and a large number of stars can be seen through a telescope.

At the center of the red nebula seen in high-mass star-forming regions is the Trapezium, a cluster of newly formed stars. The ultraviolet rays from the Trapezium ionize hydrogen gas, causing it to glow red.

This image was created using a three-color composite, with the g-band (wavelength 470 nanometers), i-band (wavelength 760 nanometers), and y-band (wavelength 980 nanometers) assigned to blue, green, and red, respectively. It was taken with the Subaru Telescope's Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC), an ultra-wide-field prime focus camera.

The Subaru Telescope is an astronomical observation facility operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). It is located at the summit of Mauna Kea at an altitude of 4,200 meters in the U.S. state of Hawaii.

Learn more about Japan's Subaru Telescope: 
https://subarutelescope.org/en/

Credits: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan; Image provided by Michitaro Koike and Masayuki Tanaka
Release Date: May 1, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #SubaruTelescope #すばる望遠鏡 #HSC #NAOJ #国立天文台 #Stars #TrapeziumCluster #Nebulae #OrionNebula #Messier42 #M42 #NGC1976 #Cosmos #Universe #Japan #日本 #MaunaKea #Hawaii #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

COSMOS Field of Galaxies Billions of Years Old: Deep Imaging | Subaru Telescope

COSMOS Field of Galaxies Billions of Years Old: Deep Imaging | Subaru Telescope

This COSMOS field image resembles a jewel box featuring colorful objects that reflect the 13.8 billion-year history of the Universe—from our present Universe to the distant past. The COSMOS field is renowned for its deep exploration of the distant Universe. This image was created using a long exposure of 10-20 hours and shows the vastness of our Universe—full of galaxies. It was taken with the Subaru Telescope's Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC), an ultra-wide-field prime focus camera.

The Subaru Telescope is an astronomical observation facility operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). It is located at the summit of Mauna Kea at an altitude of 4,200 meters in the U.S. state of Hawaii.

Learn more about Japan's Subaru Telescope: 
https://subarutelescope.org/en/

Credit: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)/Tanaka Masayuki

Duration: 1 minute, 21 seconds
Release Date: Feb. 19, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #SubaruTelescope #すばる望遠鏡 #NAOJ #国立天文台 #Stars #Galaxies #COSMOSField #DeepImaging #Cosmos #Universe #Japan #日本 #MaunaKea #Hawaii #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

COSMOS Field of Galaxies Billions of Years Old: Deep Imaging | Subaru Telescope

COSMOS Field of Galaxies Billions of Years Old: Deep Imaging | Subaru Telescope

This COSMOS field image resembles a jewel box featuring colorful objects that reflect the 13.8 billion-year history of the Universe, from our present Universe to the distant past. The COSMOS field is renowned for its deep exploration of the distant Universe. This image was created using a long exposure of 10-20 hours and shows the vastness of our Universe—full of galaxies. It was taken with the Subaru Telescope's Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC), an ultra-wide-field prime focus camera.

The Subaru Telescope is an astronomical observation facility operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). It is located at the summit of Mauna Kea at an altitude of 4,200 meters in the U.S. state of Hawaii.

Learn more about Japan's Subaru Telescope: 
https://subarutelescope.org/en/

Credit: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)/Tanaka Masayuki
Release Date: Feb. 19, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #SubaruTelescope #すばる望遠鏡 #NAOJ #国立天文台 #Stars #Galaxies #COSMOSField #DeepImaging #Cosmos #Universe #Japan #日本 #MaunaKea #Hawaii #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Mauna Kea, Hawaii: Home of Japan's Subaru Telescope | International Space Station

Mauna Kea, Hawaii: Home of Japan's Subaru Telescope | International Space Station

Expedition 73 flight engineer and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui: "Just earlier, I passed by the vicinity of Hawaii and took a photo of the Subaru Telescope at the National Astronomical Observatory."  

"I am proud of the Subaru Telescope that has continued to make remarkable observations for over 25 years!"

Learn more about Japan's Subaru Telescope: 
https://subarutelescope.org/en/

Mauna Kea is a dormant shield volcano on the island of Hawaiʻi. Its peak is 4,207.3 m (13,803 ft) above sea level, making it the highest point in Hawaii and the island with the second highest high point, behind New Guinea, the world's largest tropical island with multiple peaks that are higher. Mauna Kea is about 38 m (125 ft) higher than Mauna Loa, its more massive neighbor. Hawaiʻi, sometimes written as Hawaii, is the largest island in the United States, located in the state of Hawaii, the southernmost state in the union.

Image Credit: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)/Kimiya Yui
Image Date: Oct. 5, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Earth #MaunaKea #Hawaii #SubaruTelescope #ISS #AstronautPhotography #Astronauts #KimiyaYui #油井亀美也 #Japan #日本 #JAXA #宇宙航空研究開発機構 #UnitedStates #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #HumanSpaceflight #SpaceLaboratory #InternationalCooperation #Expedition73 #STEM #Education

Melting Moonbeams? Atmospheric Refraction at Moonset | International Space Station

Melting Moonbeams? Atmospheric Refraction at Moonset | International Space Station

Expedition 73 flight engineer and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Kimiya Yui: 

". . . This is a video of the Moon taken at the time when you all were probably gazing at it. If you couldn't see the Mid-Autumn full Moon due to bad weather, please watch this one; if you did see it, try comparing it with the ground!"

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.

Credit: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)/Kimiya Yui

Duration: 50 seconds 

Release Date: Oct. 6, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Sun #Earth #ISS #Moon #Moonset #AstronautVideography #Astronauts #KimiyaYui #油井亀美也 #Japan #日本 #JAXA #宇宙航空研究開発機構 #UnitedStates #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #HumanSpaceflight #SpaceLaboratory #InternationalCooperation #Expedition73 #STEM #Education #HD #Video

How to Eat Mooncakes in Microgravity: Mid-Autumn Festival | China Space Station

How to Eat Mooncakes in Microgravity: Mid-Autumn Festival | China Space Station

Shenzhou-20 astronauts aboard China's Tiangong Space Station indulged in Mooncake unboxing and eating activities for the Mid-Autumn Festival. 

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! 🥮🥮🥮!  Enjoy!

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, is a harvest festival celebrated in Chinese culture. It is held on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar with a full Moon at night, corresponding to mid-September to early October of the Gregorian calendar. On this day, the Chinese believe that the Moon is at its fullest and brightest, coinciding with the time of harvest in the middle of autumn.

The Shenzhou-20 crew has stayed in orbit for more than 150 days, carrying out a large number of scientific experiments and technological tests.

The Shenzhou-20 astronauts entered the space station on April 25, 2025, for a mission expected to last around 6 months.

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: China Manned Space Agency (CMSA)
Duration: 37 seconds
Release Date: Oct. 7, 2025

#NASA #Space #Science #China #中国 #Mooncakes #MidAutumnFestival #中秋节 #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 #HumanSpaceflight #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Auroras over Tromsø, Norway

Auroras over Tromsø, Norway

Photographer Eva Kristiansen: "Queen Aurora didn't just dance—she reigned with all her colors and power. This was nature performing unforgettable dramas. And it's true, the autumn nights hold their own kind of magic."

Auroras are produced when the Earth's magnetosphere is sufficiently disturbed by the solar wind that the trajectories of charged particles in solar wind and magnetospheric plasma, mainly in the form of electrons and protons, precipitate them into the upper atmosphere (thermosphere/exosphere) due to Earth's magnetic field, where their energy is lost. The resulting ionization and excitation of atmospheric constituents emits light of varying color and complexity. [Wikipedia]

Solid Colored Aurora

Green is common at the upper latitudes, while red is rare. On the other hand, aurora viewed from lower latitudes tend to be red.

Element Emission Colors

Oxygen: The big player in the aurora is oxygen. Oxygen is responsible for the vivid green (wavelength of 557.7 nm) and also for a deep brownish-red (wavelength of 630.0 nm). Pure green and greenish-yellow aurorae result from the excitation of oxygen.

Nitrogen: Nitrogen emits blue (multiple wavelengths) and red light.

Other Gases: Other gases in the atmosphere become excited and emit light, although the wavelengths may be outside of the range of human vision or else too faint to see. Hydrogen and helium, for example, emit blue and purple. Although our eyes cannot see all of these colors, photographic film and digital cameras often record a broader range of hues.

Aurora Colors According to Altitude

Above 150 miles: red, oxygen

Up to 150 miles: green, oxygen

Above 60 miles: purple or violet, nitrogen

Up to 60 miles: blue, nitrogen

The Colors of the Aurora (National Park Service)

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

Image Credit: Eva Kristiansen 

Image Details: Nikon D850 Nikkor 14-24mm Iso 1600, f/2.8, 2.5 sec.
Eva's website: https://www.instagram.com/xevitak/
Image Date: Oct. 1, 2025

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Planets #Earth #Aurora #AuroraBorealis #NorthernLights #SolarSystem #Sun #Photography #Photographer #EvaKristiansen #Tromsø #Norway #Norge #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Journey to Didymos Asteroid System: A Year Later | Europe's Hera Mission

Journey to Didymos Asteroid System: A Year Later | Europe's Hera Mission

What a difference a year makes! Today Hera’s asteroid mission for planetary defense is cruising through deep space on the far side of the Sun, headed to its final destination: the Didymos binary asteroid system. However, a year ago, on October 7, 2024, it was uncertain if the mission was ever going to take off at all.

Its launcher was grounded due to a launch anomaly and Hurricane Milton was closing on Cape Canaveral! The mission needed to lift off then and there because it had to perform a flyby of Mars to speed it on its way to Didymos. Any delay would add years to its travel time. Thankfully, Hera received permission for launch and the heavens cleared just half an hour before launch. Liftoff happened to plan—the team had their mission in space!

Since then Hera has been testing out the ‘self-driving’ technology it will use around the asteroids on Earth and the Moon. It performed its flyby of Mars and imaged its very first asteroid from three million kilometers, proving the capability of its main Asteroid Framing Camera. Next, Hera is heading for aphelion, its furthest distance from the Sun. It will reach Didymos in autumn 2026, where it will begin its mission to find out what happened to the smaller asteroid after NASA’s DART spacecraft impacted it in September 2022.

The Hera spacecraft will revisit the Dimorphos asteroid to gather vital close-up data about the deflected body after NASA's DART Mission performed a grand-scale experiment by applying a well-understood and potentially repeatable planetary defense technique. 

On September 26, 2022, moving at 6.1 km/s, NASA’s DART spacecraft crashed into the Dimorphos asteroid. Part of our Solar System changed. The impact shrunk the orbit of the Great Pyramid-sized Dimorphos around its parent asteroid, the mountain-sized Didymos. 

The Hera Mission will also perform the most detailed exploration yet of a binary asteroid system—although binaries make up 15% of all known asteroids, one has never been surveyed in detail.

Learn more about the Hera Mission:
https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Hera

Video Credit: European Space Agency
Duration: 8 minutes
Release Date: Oct. 7, 2025

#NASA #ESA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Mars #MarsFlyby #Moons #Deimos #Asteroids #Dimorphos #Didymos #Asteroid #Hera #HeraSpacecraft #CubeSats #Earth #PlanetaryDefense #DeepSpace #SolarSystem #Europe #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Young Stars of The Carina Nebula | Hubble Space Telescope

Young Stars of The Carina Nebula | Hubble Space Telescope

Image Processor Judy Schmidt: "The colors here mean a mix of things. Darker parts are dust or molecular clouds for sure. I want to say the bluer things are reflection [nebulae], while the whitish patch on the right is a combination of emission, reflection, and dust all together. The mouse-shaped cloud at the bottom of the picture is surely surrounded by emission."

HD 93250 is a highly luminous hot blue binary star in the Carina Nebula in the constellation Carina. It is the brightest and slightly off-center star in the picture. Distance: 400 light years

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Image Processing: Judy Schmidt
Release Date: Aug. 16, 2014

#NASA #ESA #Hubble #Astronomy #Space #Science #Nebulae #EmissionNebulae #ReflectionNebulae #CarinaNebula #NGC3372 #Stars #StarHD93250 #Carina #Constellations #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #GSFC #STScI #JudySchmidt #CitizenScience #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon: View from Austria

Comet C/2025 A6 Lemmon: View from Austria

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, 2025, 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.

Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. Austria is bordered by Germany to the northwest, the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia to the northeast, Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. 

Image Credit: Michael Jaeger
Details: under best mountain conditions after Moonrise, 1.45 UT LRGB 450/90/90/90sec 16"/3.2 QHY 600 2x2 bin Michael Jäger, Gerald Rhemann G00
Capture Location: Astronomical Centre Martinsberg (AZM), Austria
Release Date: Oct. 4, 2025

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Comets #CometC2025A6Lemmon #Coma #CometaryTails #SolarSystem #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Astrophotography #MichaelJaeger #Astrophotographers #Martinsberg #Austria #Europe #STEM #Education

Chinese Scientists Find Moon's Far Side "Colder" than Near Side

Chinese Scientists Find Moon's Far Side "Colder" than Near Side

Chinese scientists found the far side of the Moon is colder deep within its interior than the side that always faces Earth. They discovered that the rocks were formed from lava deep within the Moon's interior at a temperature of about 1,100 degrees Celsius, about 100 degrees Celsius cooler than existing samples from the near side.

The study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, come from an analysis of the rock fragments collected by China's Chang'e-6 spacecraft in 2024 from the far side of the Moon.

The research team from the China National Nuclear Corporation, Beijing University and Shandong University, confirmed that the sampled rocks were about 2.8 billion years old.

Scientists also compared remote sensing data of the Chang'e-6 landing site on the far side with equivalent data from the near side. The results showed a difference of 70 degrees Celsius, closely matching the results of the sample analysis.

"The temperature of the lunar mantle on the far side of the Moon is lower than that on the near side. The basalt samples we collected were formed about 2.8 billion years ago. So the temperatures we have calculated reflect conditions in the past, not the present. They reflect conditions deep inside the Moon—the lunar mantle, not the lunar surface," said He Sheng, a researcher of the Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology of China National Nuclear Corporation.

China's Chang'e-6 mission in 2024 accomplished humanity's first-ever sampling from the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the Moon. The Chang'e-5 probe landed in 2020 on the northwest region of the Ocean of Storms.

Video Credit: CCTV
Duration: 1 minute
Release Date: Oct. 6, 2025

#NASA #CNSA #Change6  #嫦娥六号 #Space #Astronomy #Science #China #中国 #Moon #LunarSampleReturn #Geology #LunarNearSide #LunarFarSide #SouthPole #SpaceTechnology #SpaceExploration #CLEP #InternationalCooperation #Pakistan #SouthAfrica #France #Italy #ASI #Sweden #STEM #Education #HD #Video