Neptoons

Now that's Winter, I'm thinking about NEWSLETTER. But I haven't written anything for one yet...

Right now, my energy is going towards preparing Chapter 5 for localization. The translation process begins next week. We have extracted all the English text and we are now annotating it.

Reddish barren landscape out to the horizon. A light-toned vortex, the dust devil, is at center left. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Kevin M. Gill

A large dust devil caught by the Mars Perseverance Rover on Sol 1531 (June 10th). The more visible part of the dust devil (center left) is leaning to the left, but if you look closely as you follow it up, it then arcs to the right.

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The probes from left to right: Io Observer (not yet an approved mission but it is considered for New Frontiers 5), Europa Clipper, Juno, Juice, Tianwen-4 (A CNSA mission)

Jovian Grand Tour

NASA’s Europa Clipper Uses Mars to Go the Distance - NASA The orbiter bound for Jupiter’s moon Europa will investigate whether the moon is habitable, but it first will get the help of Mars’ gravitational force to get

From NASA: On March 1st, Europa Clipper will perform a gravity assist flyby of Mars, using the planet's gravity to adjust its trajectory as it makes its way to Jupiter. No visible light images, sadly. Details: go.nasa.gov/4bfYfba

Ride along virtually: eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-s...

Some good news for once. With the delay in the announcement of opportunity for NF5 from 2023 to hopefully next year, there was some concern that the possible mission list would change dramatically.

An Io observer is still recommended for the mission list for NF5.

A crescent Triton (left), moon of Neptune, from Voyager 2 in 1989, and a crescent Pluto from New Horizons in 2015. This illustrates just how much rougher the surface of Pluto is than the melted-down Triton.

Workers at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center are surrounding a covered spacecraft on a platform in a clean room environment.

#NASARoman: NASA has successfully joined the sunshade to the Roman observatory’s ‘exoskeleton.’

The visor-like sunshade will help prevent unwanted light from entering the telescope: go.nasa.gov/4hQItFR

Annotated starfield image of the constellation Corvus, taken by the Stellar Reference Units (SRU) onboard Europa Clipper.

Glad to see that the star trackers are working on Europa Clipper! They are a part of the Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) system that help the spacecraft find its way through space. www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/en-rout...

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A high resolution mosaic of Rhea from Voyager 1 using image taken during its closest approach in 1980. This is the highest resolution mosaic that Voyager 1 obtained of any world.

This image, captured by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in 1996, showcases Io as a crescent shape against the backdrop of space. A prominent blue plume erupts from the dark side of the moon, originating from the Ra Patera volcano. This volcanic activity is a defining characteristic of Io, a moon known for its intense geological activity and dynamic surface.

Io - Volcanic Plume from Ra Patera - Nasa's Galileo 1996.
Processing: @andrealuck.bsky.social.
www.flickr.com/photos/19227...
🔭 🧪

Argonaut: a first European lunar lander The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed a contract with Thales Alenia Space in Italy to lead European aerospace companies in building the Argonaut Lunar Descent Element, ESA’s first lunar lander.

#Argonaut: Europe's first lunar lander.

🌔 @esa.int’s Argonaut will establish Europe's independent access to the #Moon, with regular missions planned from the 2030s.

🤝 @thalesaleniaspace.bsky.social in Italy leads the European consortium to build this versatile lunar descent module.

A top-down view of a round, silver metal device that looks like three concentric circles. The outermost circle has triangular metal ridges that look like rays of sun. The second ring is covered in dark dust particles and small rocks, with silver bolts peeking through the dust. The central circle has three metal bars, crossing in a star pattern.

Asteroid Bennu sample.

ANALYSIS OF ASTEROID BENNU SAMPLES SUGGEST THAT THE EARLY SOLAR SYSTEM HAD WIDESPREAD CONDITIONS FOR LIFE, INCREASING THE CHANCES THAT LIFE COULD HAVE FORMED ON OTHER PLANETS AND MOONS!!!!

THIS IS AMAZINGGGGG 🤩

ESA actively monitoring near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4 The European Space Agency (ESA) Planetary Defence Office is closely monitoring the recently discovered asteroid 2024 YR4, which has a very small chance of impacting Earth in 2032. This page was l...

🔭 We're closely monitoring the recently discovered asteroid #2024YR4. The #asteroid has an almost 99% chance of safely passing Earth in 2032, but a possible impact cannot yet be entirely ruled out. 2024 YR4 is estimated to be between 40 m and 100 m wide.

NASA Juno Mission Spots Most Powerful Volcanic Activity on Io to Date Even by the standards of Io, the most volcanic celestial body in the solar system, recent events observed on the Jovian moon are extreme.

JIRAM and JunoCam onboard Juno observed a volcanic eruption near Io's South Pole ("West Illyrikon"). The energy output by this eruption appears to exceed the previous largest observed eruption on Io at Surt in February 2001.

40 yrs ago the ESA Giotto spacecraft was launched to Halley's Comet and later became first spacecraft to flypast and image a comet nucleus.
Built in the UK, seen here being tested.
Halley's nucleus from 600km.
#astronomy #spaceflight
Credits: 1. ESA/BAe Space Systems/ Intespace
2. ESA/MPAe Lindau

We caught a beautiful view of our little blue planet. 🥹

I can't stop watching this video, thinking our lander is truly leaving us behind. 🧪🦋

Blue Ghost is on her way back out towards her apogee! #BGM1

Video: Firefly Aerospace

Assembled using a stack of four CB3 filtered images of Titan. Centered over the equator with North pointing towards the top left corner. Data collected by Cassini on October 26 2004. False color. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Kevin M. Gill

Titan - October 26 2004 - From Kevin M. Gill (kevinmgill.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/XDkJUw

two men are arm wrestling each other in a gym . ALT: two men are arm wrestling each other in a gym .

Io’s in top tier

You are looking at the shadow of Ganymede cast on the Great Red Spot of Jupiter. The shadow is of course a dark disk. Ganymede (like the other large Galilean moons) often passes between the Sun and Jupiter and, because it orbits in a plane close to Jupiter's orbit, its shadow is cast on the gas giant.

🧵
1/
This is spectacular!

On 21 April 2014, the shadow of the moon Ganymede swept across the center of the Great Red Spot (GRS), giving Jupiter the unnatural aspect to have a pupil in the center of a giant eye.

Image source➡️ hubblesite.org/contents/med...

🔭 🧪 #planetsci

I’m also a bit skeptical about the landings sometimes, but even if the Apollo landings weren’t real, pretty much all of the images from low earth-high earth orbit taken by humans are, there are entire databases where you can find raw images taken by humans and satellites of Earth

Because the Blue Marble (1972) and the DSCOVR image (2015) are the only real images, the rest are all maps that have been laid on a sphere. They still use real data of course, but they are enhanced to give off more details about Earth. Hope I did a decent job explaining lol

An image of Earth from a lander going to the Moon

Firefly's Blue Ghost lander on its way to the Moon just took this pretty awesome Blue Marble image of Earth.

Towards low-cost missions to Mars Two decades after Mars Express, ESA is returning to small-scale missions aimed at exploring the Red Planet. With a completely different landscape of technologies available this time around, new opport...

Two decades after #MarsExpress, @esa.int is returning to small-scale missions aimed at exploring the Red Planet. With a completely different landscape of technologies available this time around, new opportunities for interplanetary missions open up... 🧪

Small round clay disk painted to look like the planet Mars. The left side is reddish brown and the right side is darker brown. There is a polar cap at the bottom in a grey and white.

I’m an anxious neurodivergent gal but will continue to do my best being a positive voice. I get overwhelmed easily now & find peace in my art business, hiding away and painting. But know that here we fight for science, for conservation, & for human rights 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Today I finished Mars on clay

Venus with clear ultraviolet cloud detail. JAXA/ISAS/DARTS/Kevin M. Gill

Beautiful Venus for a timeline cleanse.

Taken in ultraviolet light by Japan’s Akatsuki orbiter in May 2020.

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Umbriel, moon of Uranus, seen by the approaching Voyager 2 in 1986. The crater with a bright rim called "Wunda" can be seen in the upper right. This is the highest resolution color view we have of Umbriel, although this dataset is often draped over the best black and white view.

Nine False Color Composites of Saturn These images were taken on June 19, 2012 and received on Earth June 20, 2012. The camera was pointing toward SATURN at approximately 1,706,891 miles (2,746,975 kilometers) away, and the images were taken using the CL1, MT2, MT3, and BL1 filters. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute/ color composites by Val Klavans

The Many Shades of Saturn - From Val Klavans - https://flic.kr/p/cjPwTN