Celestia

Celestia mobile 1.9.1 for Apple devices has been released. This is a content update which also adds support for iOS/iPadOS/macOS 26. Version 1.9.0 for Apple devices had the same changelog.
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Celestia mobile 1.9.0 for Android devices has been released. This is a content update.
Download from GitHub

Celestia mobile 1.8.9 for Android devices has been released. This update fixes a bug where the 'Go' button would be missing on installed add-ons.
Full changelog and download available on GitHub

Celestia mobile 1.8.8 for Apple devices has been released. This update includes content updates, a new camera setting, bugfixes and general improvements.
Full changelog and download available on GitHub

Celestia mobile 1.8.8 for Android devices has been released. This update includes content updates, a new camera setting, bugfixes and general improvements.
Full changelog and download available on GitHub

Celestia mobile 1.8.7 for Apple devices has been released. This update includes Lua fixes, constellation line fading revision, changes to comet tail size calculation, atmosphere updates, and other minor fixes and additions.
Full changelog and download available on GitHub

Celestia mobile 1.8.7 for Android devices has been released. This update includes Lua fixes, constellation line fading revision, changes to comet tail size calculation, atmosphere updates, and other minor fixes and additions.
Full changelog and download available on GitHub

Celestia mobile 1.8.6 for Apple devices has been released. This update fixes some minor bugs.
Full changelog and download available on GitHub

Celestia mobile 1.8.5 for Apple devices has been released. This update fixes an issue with the context menu not loading or actions not working.
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Celestia mobile 1.8.4 for Apple devices has been released. This update includes updates to the exoplanet catalog, minor data updates, and gyroscope support. 1.8.3 was also released and has the same changelog.
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Celestia mobile 1.8.3 for Android devices has been released. This update includes updates to the exoplanet catalog, minor data updates, and gyroscope support.
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Celestia mobile 1.8.2 for Apple devices has been released. This update includes content updates, better temperature calculation, revisions and corrections, and other minor changes.
Full changelog and download available on GitHub

Celestia mobile 1.8.2 for Android devices has been released. This update includes content updates, better temperature calculation, revisions and corrections, and other minor changes.
Full changelog and download available on GitHub

Celestia mobile 1.8.1 for Apple devices has been released. This update fixes InfoURLs for exoplanets.
[Download from GitHub(github.com/celestiamobi...)

thinking about bringing back screenshot of the day to this account and the twitter account. just not sure how to set up a system through which people can submit their screenshots

Like Earth's moon, Saturn's largest moon Titan is locked in synchronous rotation with its planet. This mosaic of images recorded by the Cassini spacecraft in May of 2012 shows its anti-Saturn side, the side always facing away from the ringed gas giant. The only moon in the solar system with a dense atmosphere, Titan is the only solar system world besides Earth known to have standing bodies of liquid on its surface and an earthlike cycle of liquid rain and evaporation. Its high altitude layer of atmospheric haze is evident in the Cassini view of the 5,000 kilometer diameter moon over Saturn's rings and cloud tops. Near center is the dark dune-filled region known as Shangri-La. The Cassini-delivered Huygens probe rests below and left of center, after the most distant landing for a spacecraft from Earth.

🔭 Titan: Moon over Saturn

Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Space Science Institute

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25050...

A complex orange and purple nebula with a complex texture is shown in front of a dark starfield. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

🔭 IC 418: The Spirograph Nebula

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgement: R. Sahai (JPL) et al.

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25042...

👀 Spot the European spacecraft that relays the most data from Mars to Earth: around 200 megabytes per day.

🛰️ @esa.int's Trace Gas Orbiter is the youngest spacecraft of the Mars Relay Network.

🎥 Check this cool NASA interactive feature: science.nasa.gov/mars/mars-re...

Celestia mobile 1.8.0 for Apple devices has been released. This update fixes InfoURLs for exoplanets.
Download from GitHub

Celestia mobile 1.8.0 for Android devices has been released. This update fixes InfoURLs for exoplanets.
Download from GitHub

Biomass launched to count forest carbon ESA’s groundbreaking Biomass satellite, designed to provide unprecedented insights into the world’s forests and their crucial role in Earth’s carbon cycle, has been launched. The satellite lifted off ...

🌳🛰️ Our groundbreaking Biomass satellite lifted off on Vega-C #VV26 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana at 10:15 BST/11:15 CEST on 29 April. The satellite is designed to provide unprecedented insights into the world’s forests and their crucial role in Earth’s carbon cycle.

Artist's impression of ESA’s Biomass satellite measuring the biomass of Earth's forests.

ESA’s Biomass satellite, enclosed in a Vega-C rocket fairing, on the launch pad at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. Credit: ESA

Get ready to track our forests' biomass! 🌳🛰️ ESA's Biomass mission is scheduled for launch tomorrow, 29 April, at 11:15 CEST. ▶️ Follow live from 10:55 CEST: www.youtube.com/live/EEhmFO_... 🔭

Main belt asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson is about 8 kilometers long and 3.5 kilometers across. On April 20, this sharp close-up of the asteroid was captured at a distance of about 1100 kilometers by the Lucy spacecraft's long range camera during its second asteroid encounter. Named after American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson, discoverer of the Lucy hominid fossil, the elongated asteroid was likely formed about 150 million years ago from a gentle collision of two smaller bodies creating its characteristic contact binary shape. Launched in October of 2021, the Lucy spacecraft will continue its travels through the main asteroid belt in 2025, but is on its way to explore Jupiter's swarm of Trojan asteroids. Lucy is expected to encounter its first Trojan asteroid target, 3548 Eurybates, in August 2027.

🔭 Asteroid Donaldjohanson

Image Credit: Lucy/NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL/NOIRLab

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25042...

YouTube video by European Space Agency, ESA Space Debris: Is it a Crisis?

It's #1stApril but this is no joke. The clock is most definitely ticking. A catastrophic chain reaction of space debris causing collisions, each creating more debris, is not just a possibility, it's already under way. In some orbits, we really could run out of space. Is it a crisis?

YouTube video by ESA Extras Media briefing: Europe's top experts address the growing threat of space debris

🔴 Live now from the 9th European Conference on Space Debris...

ESA Space Environment Report 2025

"Preventing the addition of new debris is no longer sufficient. We must now actively clean up the space environment to halt the onset of a chain reaction that could render heavily utilised regions unusable. Immediate and decisive action is necessary."

Read the ESA Space Environment Report 2025 👇

UK firm to land Europe’s first rover on Mars A UK aerospace company is set to land the first European rover on the red planet, as it wins £150 million to complete the touchdown system delivering the rover safely to Mars.

Airbus in the UK have been awarded £150 million to help deliver Europe's Mars rover to the red planet. 🚀🔴

Funded by @esa.int through us, Airbus will develop the landing system for the Rosalind Franklin rover, set to land in 2030 in the hunt for past Martian life.

www.gov.uk/government/n...

One of the brightest galaxies in planet Earth's sky is similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy: big, beautiful Messier 81. Also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's galaxy for its 18th century discoverer, this grand spiral can be found toward the northern constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. The sharp, detailed telescopic view reveals M81's bright yellow nucleus, blue spiral arms, pinkish starforming regions, and sweeping cosmic dust lanes. But some dust lanes actually run through the galactic disk (left of center), contrary to other prominent spiral features. The errant dust lanes may be the lingering result of a close encounter between M81 and the nearby galaxy M82 lurking outside of this frame. Scrutiny of variable stars in M81 has yielded a well-determined distance for an external galaxy -- 11.8 million light-years.

🔭 Messier 81

Image Credit & Copyright: Lorand Fenyes

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25032...

A starfield dominated by a large nebula is pictured. The center is blue and the perimeter is red. Many dark dust pillars are visible. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

🔭 Star Formation in the Pacman Nebula

Image Credit & Copyright: Juan Montilla (AAE)

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25032...

Angled from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of the image is a conical shaped orange-red cloud known at Herbig-Haro 49/50. This feature takes up about three-fourths of the length of this angle. The upper left end of this feature has a translucent, rounded end. At this same location there is a background spiral shaped galaxy with a concentrated blue center that fades outwards to blend in with red spiral arms. The conical feature widens slightly from the rounded end at the upper right down to the lower right. The black background of space is clearer, speckled with some white stars and smaller, more numerous, fainter white galaxies.

😵 Be ready to be amazed!

The NASA/ESA/CSA James #Webb Space Telescope brings you the "Cosmic Tornado" 🌪️

Webb observations have also revealed the identity of the fuzzy object at the tip of this object also known as Herbig-Haro 49/50.

Read more 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

🔭 🧪 ☄️