Thank you for your service This past week, we had to say goodbye to many of our colleagues.

This week has been tough. We've had to say bye to many colleagues

To them:

You were fantastic! Your dedication and service to our research community and our country have been valuable and valued. You are, and will always be, part of the amazing history of NASA.

open.substack.com/pub/plasmane...

let’s hope scientists can restore access to DSCOVR at some point since having reliable solar wind information is very important for monitoring space weather conditions.

On July 1, 2025, NASA reported the discovery of a new comet, called 3I/ATLAS.

It is only the third known object outside our solar system ever to be observed.

THIS IS REALLY COOL. Here’s why:
🧵⬇️

Erin strengthens, becoming the first hurricane of the 2025 Atlantic Season.

This hi-res view shows several lightning flashes within an intensifying storm.

The chart shows the hemorrhage of NASA staff in recent months, with darker orange indicating mission-support staff (over 1000 people), and the lighter color other NASA staff. GSFC alone has lost over 800 people. NASA HQ lost over 400 people, as did Kennedy Space Center. Source: NASA, reported by Politico.

2019: "NASA is one of the most recognised, revered and iconic brands in the world" (davidsonbranding.com.au/nasa-modern-...). 2025: >1000 NASA mission-support staff (and 2800 other NASA employees) have left under the current administration.

Trying to choose the cover for my 2026 Aurora Calendar. Which one do you like more: left or right?

Make sure to tap and expand both images. Thanks!

A map of Spain with the total eclipse path marked. It travels from Oviedo in the NW down to Palma in the SE. A colour scale marks the average August cloud cover from 20 years worth of data. There are pockets with <10% chance of clouds along the path of totality. From https://eclipsophile.com/tse2026/

A total solar eclipse. Whispy clouds cover a dark circle with a ring of bright light around it. On one side is an especially bright light, like a diamond on a ring.

Mark diaries: 1 yr from today!

12th Aug 2026: total solar eclipse🌞🌚🌍 for Northern Spain, Greenland and West Iceland.

Where's the best spot? Well eclipsophile.com has kindly calculated the average Aug cloud cover & Spain looks v promising 🧪🔭

📷: M Tomasso
ℹ️: www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/sola...

This image from India's Chandrayaan-2 orbiter from 7 March 2025 shows Intuitive Machines' IM-2 lunar lander lying on its side in a crater.

On the left rim is the shadow of one of the legs sticking up into space. Long gouges at right show how the lander dragged across the surface before tipping.

A line graph of July temperature anomalies, with a jagged bright red line growing from left to right across the page. The Y axis is labeled Temperature Anomaly in degrees Celsius, running from -.5 to 1. The X axis is labeled Year, running from 1880 to past 2000, with the line reaching 2025. Although the data line does not uniformly go up, with peaks and dips especially in the earlier years, the overall trend is rising temperatures. By 2023 the line is above the 1 degree Celsius point.

July 2025 comes in third hottest for NASA's GISTEMP surface instrumental record, behind only 2024 and 2023. 🧪⚒️

Data freely available from GISS: data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/

On Aug. 10, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin completed their 21-day quarantine after returning from the Moon.
cerebral-overload.com/?p=114735

#OTD August 10, 1966 Lunar Orbiter 1,
was launched from Cape Kennedy to photograph possible Apollo landing sites from lunar orbit.
Www.contactlight.de

Ad Astra, Commander Jim Lovell.

Der Bereich links oben auf der erdzugewandten Seite der Sonne in gelber Farbe. Auf der Zeigerposition zehn Uhr zwei bis drei weiße Stellen, von denen sogenannte koronale Loops ausgehen und zur Sonne zurückreichen. Das sind Bögen aus Sonnenmaterie, wobei es sich natürlich nicht um feste Materie handelt, wie wir die kennen. Sondern um ein Gas, genauer um ein Plasma. In diesem Zustand haben die positiv geladenen Atomkerne keine negativ geladenen Elektronen mehr, die sie umkreisen. Dadurch - keine Sorge, die kleine Physikstunde ist gleich vorbei - ist die Sache nicht mehr elektrisch neutral, wie das bei Atomen sonst der Fall ist. Sondern die Kerne sind eben elektrisch geladen und reagieren daher auf die komplexen Magnetfelder der Sonne, die diese Materie wie in Schläuchen gefangen halten. Und so kommt es zu diesen spektakulären Bögen, die sich auch hier im Bild vielfach überlagern und derart groß sind, dass die Erde da mehrfach hineinpassen würde. Spektakuläre Physik!

Guten Morgen zusammen - wie immer mit einem aktuellen Bild der Sonne via Satellit SDO, hier mal wieder kräftig reingezoomt (und im ALT-Text beschrieben und kurz erklärt).

a damaged wheel of the Mars rover Curiosity

13 years of roving Mars had taken its toll! Image captured 12 hours ago by Curiosity.

#Mars Aug. 6, 2025 - Sol 4621 🧪🔭
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The image shows the comet’s ‘head’ at the left of the frame, which is casting shadow onto the ‘neck’ and ‘body’ to the right. The image was taken from a distance of 120 km and the image resolution is 2.2 metres per pixel.

Close-up detail of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This image was taken by Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera and downloaded #OTD 6 August in 2014.

www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...

July 2025: 427.87 ppm July 2024: 425.55 ppm Graphs of rising concentration for the past 5 years, and since 1958, with seasonal sawtooth pattern.

Confirmed: July average of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa was ~2.3 ppm higher than last year, at 427.9 ppm.

Overall, we're still speeding in the wrong direction!

M4.4 solar flare from sunspot region 4168
Read the complete news item on https://www.spaceweatherlive.com/l/news/584

The STS-113 crewmembers used a 35mm still camera to record this image of Mt. #Etna #Volcano erupting on the island of Sicily.

US SPACE PROGRAM STS-113 mission
#Space #Shuttle #Endeavour
Launched: November 23, 2002

wikiarchives.space/picture.php?...

NASA/j. Roger

Muy agradecido a @comunidadecusa.bsky.social por divulgar nuestro trabajo!!!

Tremendo trabajo de divulgación de EPO @comunidadecusa.bsky.social del trabajo de desarrollo de instrumentación espacial que hacemos!! Gracias ECUSA!!

New Comic Strip found: Arctic Circle by Alex Hallatt for Tue, 29 Jul 2025 https://www.arcamax.com/thefunnies/arcticcircle/s-3787933

#comicstrip #arcticcirclestrip

If you're having a rough day, remember that in 1991 Tim Berners-Lee's paper for the World Wide Web was rejected and he was relegated to the poster session.

Four images of the Sun's edge are shown. In each a loop of bright material is captured above the Sun's surface. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

🔭 Coronal Loops on the Sun

Image Credit & Copyright: Andrea Vanoni

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25073...

A satellite image of the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai volcano. This image contains the visible (band 2) product from the GOES-17 weather satellite, captured at 04:30 UTC on 2022-01-15.

On January 15, 2022, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai volcano violently erupted, sending massive amounts of ash and water vapor high into the sky.

This near-limb view showcases impressive detail within the large plume. (2/4)

UK gets first female Astronomer Royal in 350 years Prof Michele Dougherty is the first woman to be appointed to the influential post.

UK gets first female Astronomer Royal in 350 years

July 30, 1971 - 54 years ago #OTD: David Scott and James Irwin became the seventh and eighth astronauts to land on the Moon with #Apollo15. David Scott and James Irwin deployed experiments & made the first-ever drives in the Lunar Roving Vehicle
contactlight.de

Apollo 15, LM "Falcon" on the Moon, Hadley Rille/Apennine Mountains , #OTD 30 July 1971
contactlight.de

“Okay, Houston. As I stand out here in the wonders of the unknown at Hadley, I sort of realize there's a fundamental truth to our nature.
Man must explore.
And this is exploration at its greatest.”
– David Scott #Apollo15 | July 30, 1971
contactlight.de

Boeing-Built X-37B Spaceplane Set for Eighth Mission The Boeing [NYSE: BA]-built X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) is preparing to launch its eighth mission (OTV-8) from Florida's Space Coast, with liftoff scheduled no earlier than August 21. This...

X-37B is getting ready for its next flight. Launch NET August 21.
boeing.mediaroom.com/2025-07-28-B...

Skylab 3 Launch by #NASA on the #Commons