Promoting science and technology education through spaceflight and weather balloons.

Cat’s Paw Nebula from Webb Space Telescope

By |2025-07-21T13:44:26-04:00July 21st, 2025|Categories: NASA News, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , , , |

Photo of the Day Nebulas are perhaps as famous for being identified with familiar shapes as perhaps cats are for getting into trouble. Still, no known cat could have created the vast Cat's Paw Nebula visible toward the constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius). At 5,700 light years distant, Cat's Paw is an emission nebula [...]

The Rosette Nebula from DECam

By |2025-07-16T13:44:28-04:00July 16th, 2025|Categories: NASA News, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , , , |

Photo of the Day Would the Rosette Nebula by any other name look as sweet? The bland New General Catalog designation of NGC 2237 doesn't appear to diminish the appearance of this flowery emission nebula, as captured by the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Blanco 4-meter telescope at the NSF's Cerro Tololo Inter-American [...]

Collapse in Hebes Chasma on Mars

By |2025-07-15T13:44:24-04:00July 15th, 2025|Categories: NASA News, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , , , |

Photo of the Day What's happened in Hebes Chasma on Mars? Hebes Chasma is a depression just north of the enormous Valles Marineris canyon. Since the depression is unconnected to other surface features, it is unclear where the internal material went. Inside Hebes Chasma is Hebes Mensa, a 5 kilometer high mesa that appears [...]

Planetary Nebula Mz3: The Ant Nebula

By |2025-07-13T13:44:31-04:00July 13th, 2025|Categories: NASA News, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , , , |

Photo of the Day Why isn't this ant a big sphere? Planetary nebula Mz3 is being cast off by a star similar to our Sun that is, surely, round. Why then would the gas that is streaming away create an ant-shaped nebula that is distinctly not round? Clues might include the high 1000-kilometer per [...]

Clouds and the Golden Moon

By |2025-07-12T13:44:25-04:00July 12th, 2025|Categories: NASA News, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , , , |

Photo of the Day As the Sun set, a bright Full Moon rose on July 10. Its golden light illuminates clouds drifting through southern hemisphere skies in this well-composed telephoto image from Conceição do Coité, Bahia, Brazil. The brightest lunar phase is captured here with both a short and long exposure. The two exposures [...]

The Pleiades in Red and Blue

By |2025-07-08T12:44:45-04:00July 8th, 2025|Categories: NASA News, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , , |

Photo of the Day If you have looked at the sky and seen a group of stars about the size of the full Moon, that's the Pleiades (M45). Perhaps the most famous star cluster in the sky, its brightest stars can be seen even from the light-polluted cities. But your unaided eye can also [...]

The Spiral North Pole of Mars

By |2025-07-06T12:44:31-04:00July 6th, 2025|Categories: NASA News, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , , , |

Photo of the Day Why is there a spiral around the North Pole of Mars? Each winter this pole develops a new outer layer about one meter thick composed of carbon dioxide frozen out of the thin Martian atmosphere. This fresh layer is deposited on a water-ice layer that exists year round. Strong winds [...]

Nova V462 Lupi Now Visible

By |2025-07-03T12:44:44-04:00July 3rd, 2025|Categories: NASA News, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , , |

Photo of the Day If you know where to look, you can see a thermonuclear explosion from a white dwarf star. Possibly two. Such explosions are known as novas and the detonations are currently faintly visible with the unaided eye in Earth's southern hemisphere -- but are more easily seen with binoculars. Pictured, Nova [...]

Milky Way Through Otago Spires

By |2025-07-02T12:44:43-04:00July 2nd, 2025|Categories: NASA News, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , , , |

Photo of the Day Does the Milky Way always rise between these two rocks? No. Capturing this stunning alignment took careful planning: being in the right place at the right time. In the featured image taken in June 2024 from Otago, New Zealand, the bright central core of our Milky Way Galaxy, home to [...]

Dark Sand Cascades on Mars

By |2025-06-29T12:44:24-04:00June 29th, 2025|Categories: NASA News, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , , |

Photo of the Day Are these trees growing on Mars? No. Groups of dark brown streaks have been photographed by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on melting pinkish sand dunes covered with light frost. The featured image was taken in 2008 April near the North Pole of Mars. At that time, dark sand on the [...]

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