Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona.
Monday, 22 December 2025
This image shows a new impact crater on Mars that formed between July and September 2018. It's notable because it occurred in the seasonal southern ice cap and has apparently punched through it, creating a two-toned blast pattern.
The impact hit the ice layer, and the tones of the blast pattern tell us the sequence. When an impactor hits the ground, the force is tremendous, like an explosion. The larger, lighter-colored blast pattern could be the result of scouring by winds from the impact shockwave. The darker-colored inner blast pattern is because the impactor penetrated the thin ice layer, excavated the dark sand underneath, and threw it out in all directions on top of the layer.
Credit: ESA/Juice/NavCam.
Tuesday, 23 December 2025
During November 2025, ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) used five of its science instruments to observe 3I/ATLAS. The instruments collected information about how the comet is behaving and what it is made of.
In addition, Juice snapped the comet with its onboard Navigation Camera (NavCam), designed not as a high-resolution science camera, but to help Juice navigate Jupiter’s icy moons following arrival in 2031.
Not only do we clearly see the glowing halo of gas surrounding the comet, known as its coma, but we also see a hint of two tails. The comet’s ‘plasma tail’ – made up of electrically charged gas, stretches out towards the top of the frame. We may also be able to see a fainter ‘dust tail’ – made up of tiny solid particles – stretching to the lower left of the frame.
The image was taken on 2 November 2025, during Juice’s first slot for observing 3I/ATLAS. It was two days before Juice’s closest approach to the comet, which occurred on 4 November at a distance of about 66 million km.
Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, Kristina Monsch (CfA); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI).
Wednesday, 24 December 2025
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the largest planet-forming disk ever observed around a young star. It spans nearly 400 billion miles — 40 times the diameter of our solar system. Tilted nearly edge-on as seen from Earth, the dark, dusty disk resembles a hamburger. Hubble reveals it to be unusually chaotic, with bright wisps of material extending far above and below the disk—more than seen in any similar circumstellar disk. Cataloged as IRAS 23077+6707, the system is located approximately 1,000 light-years from Earth. The discovery marks a new milestone for Hubble and offers fresh insight into planet formation in extreme environments across the galaxy.
Credit: ESO, ESA/Gaia/DPAC, M. Vioque et al.
Friday, 26 December 2025
How do planetary systems like our own take shape? Data from ESA’s Gaia space telescope is offering a rare look inside the dusty birthplaces of stars and planets.
This collage shows 31 young star systems, observed in orange and purple by the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). For scale, a model of our Solar System at just one million years old appears at the bottom right, with Jupiter’s orbit shown in cyan.
Each system centers on a newborn star, formed from collapsing clouds of gas and dust flattened into spinning protoplanetary disks. From these disks, planets—and sometimes additional stars—begin to emerge.
Across a larger sample of 98 systems, Gaia detected subtle stellar motions pointing to hidden companions. Seven are consistent with planetary-mass objects, eight with brown dwarfs, and sixteen with additional stars. Gaia’s predicted positions for these companions are marked in cyan, offering new clues to how planetary systems assemble in their earliest stages.
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