Where might we find life in our solar system? Icy worlds Europa and Enceladus are two possibilities, shown here in images from Cassini and JWST. Mars holds the possibility of past life, especially in light of the discovery of siderite-filled rocks hinting at a thick atmosphere when there was still liquid water on the surface. Life is unlikely to be found on Mercury, but that hasn't stopped us from sending spacecraft to understand the close, hot, tiny world. Plus, a distant spiral galaxy allows us to learn about our own galaxy!
Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA
Monday, 16 June 2025
This image of the spiral galaxy NGC 3344, located about 20 million light-years from Earth, is a composite of images taken through seven different filters. They cover wavelengths from the ultraviolet to the optical and the near-infrared. Together, they create a detailed picture of the galaxy and allow astronomers to study many different aspects of it.
Credit: NASA, ESA, JPL, SSI, Cassini Imaging Team
Tuesday, 17 June 2025
Is Enceladus a potential home for life? Scientists are studying this icy moon and its plumes for clues. The discovery of phosphorus, an essential element for life, on Enceladus fuels the exciting possibility of microbial life in its hidden ocean. This small world (505 km in diameter) in the depths of the outer solar system could be one of the first places where we find evidence that life emerged, too.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Wednesday, 18 June 2025
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover sees its tracks receding into the distance at a site nicknamed “Ubajara.” At this site, Curiosity discovered siderite, a mineral that may help explain the fate of the planet’s thicker ancient atmosphere.
Siderite is an iron carbonate mineral. Its discovery in rocks beneath the surface suggests that carbonate may be masked by other minerals in near-infrared satellite analysis. If other sulfate-rich layers across Mars also contain carbonates, the amount of stored carbon dioxide would be a fraction of that needed in the ancient atmosphere to create conditions warm enough to support liquid water. The rest could be hidden in other deposits or lost to space over time.
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, G. Villanueva (NASA/GSFC), S. Trumbo (Cornell Univ.), A. Pagan (STScI)
Thursday, 19 June 2025
JWST's NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera) captured this picture of the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. JWST identified carbon dioxide on the icy surface of Europa that likely originated in the moon’s subsurface ocean. This discovery has important implications for the potential habitability of Europa’s ocean. The moon appears mostly blue because it is brighter at shorter infrared wavelengths. The white features correspond with the chaos terrain Powys Regio (left) and Tara Regio (centre and right), showing enhanced surface carbon dioxide ice.
Credit: ESA/BepiColombo/MTM
Friday, 20 June 2025
The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission captured this beautiful view of Mercury’s rich geological landscape on 23 June 2022 as the spacecraft flew past the planet for a gravity assist manoeuvre.
Parts of the Mercury Planetary Orbiter can also be seen, notably the magnetometer boom running from bottom left to top right, and a small part of the medium-gain antenna at bottom right. The magnetometer boom roughly follows the ‘terminator’– the boundary between the night and day side of the planet.
This image's lighting conditions differ from those recorded by NASA’s MESSENGER mission to Mercury for this region, enhancing the differences between smooth terrains and older rough terrains. Large impact craters, including a 200 km wide multi-ringed basin partly hidden by the magnetometer boom, can also clearly be made out, along with other geological features.
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