Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Processing by Björn Jónsson
Monday, 20 April 2026
This view of Jupiter's icy moon Europa was captured by JunoCam, the public engagement camera aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft, during the mission's close flyby on Sept. 29, 2022. Citizen scientist Björn Jónsson processed the view to create this image. Jónsson processed the image to enhance the color and contrast. The resolution is about 1 kilometer per pixel.
JunoCam took the image at an altitude of 1,521 kilometers above a region of the moon called Annwn Regio. In the image, the terrain beside the day-night boundary appears rugged, with pits and troughs. Numerous bright and dark ridges and bands stretch across a fractured surface, revealing the tectonic stresses that the moon has endured over millennia. The circular dark feature at the lower right is Callanish Crater.
Credit: NASA
Tuesday, 21 April 2026
In this photo taken on April 6, 2026, a portion of the Moon’s far side is seen along the terminator—the boundary between lunar day and night—where low-angle sunlight casts long shadows across the surface.
A section of the Orientale Basin is visible in the upper-right portion of the lunar disk, its structure subtly revealed under grazing illumination. This lighting enhances contrast across the cratered terrain, highlighting variations in surface features and providing insight into the Moon’s geologic history.
Credit: NASA/ESA – S. Adenot
Wednesday, 22 April 2026
No, this photo, taken from the International Space Station, does not reveal a massive fire. Instead, the clouds reflect the sunset light, creating the illusion of flame. ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot captured this stunning view on April 9, 2026, posting:
"Did you know we get 16 sunrises and sunsets every day as we orbit Earth? They come and go quickly, but the colours are so intense! This dramatic, billowing cloud, captured at sunset, stood out with its incredible shades of orange. Nature is definitely an artist."
Credit: U.S. Naval Observatory
Thursday, 23 April 2026
These two images of Pluto were captured several days apart in 1978. The planet appears elongated on the left, which is due to the fact that these images captured both Pluto and its companion dwarf planet, Charon.
On 22 June 1978, an astronomer at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. was making routine measurements of photographic plates taken with the 1.55-meter (61-inch) Kaj Strand Astrometric Reflector at the USNO Flagstaff Station in Arizona. The purpose of these images was to refine the orbit of the far-flung planet Pluto to help compute a better ephemeris for this distant object.
Astronomer James W. Christy had noticed that a number of the images of Pluto appeared elongated, but images of background stars on the same plate did not. Other plates showed the planet as a tiny, round dot. Christy examined a number of Pluto images from the USNO archives, and he noticed the elongations again. Furthermore, the elongations appeared to shift relative to the stars over time.
After eliminating the possibility that the elongations were produced by plate defects and background stars, the only plausible explanation was that they were caused by a previously unknown moon orbiting Pluto at a distance of about 19,600 kilometers (12,100 miles) with a period of just over six days. On 7 July 1978, the discovery was formally announced to the astronomical community and the world by the IAU Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams via IAU Circular 3241.
Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
Friday, 24 April 2026
Noticeable change on Mars can take millions of years – but ESA’s Mars Express has captured a blanket of dark ash creeping across the planet in just decades.
The image shows a scene of two halves, with Mars’s typical bright tan-colored sands butting up against dark volcanic ash deposits. When this part of Mars was viewed by NASA’s Viking orbiters in 1976, the ash was noticeably less widespread than it is today.
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