We have been exploring our solar system for over 80s years now, and we have learned so much. This week, we examine a Voyager 2 image of Triton, a Cassini image of Saturn with its moons, a panoramic view of Mars from the Curiosity rover, and our newest exploratory subject: asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson. The asteroid was recently captured by the Lucy mission, which is en route to study the Trojan asteroids at Jupiter. Plus, a gorgeous image of a face-on barred spiral galaxy taken by Hubble.
Credit: NASA/JPL
Monday, 6 October 2025
NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft captured dark streaks produced by geysers visible on the icy surface of Triton's south polar region during its flyby on August 25, 1989.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Tuesday, 7 October 2025
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its black-and-white navigation cameras to capture panoramas at two times of day on April 8, 2023. The panoramas were captured at 9:20 a.m. and 3:40 p.m. local Mars time, then merged together. Color was added for an artistic interpretation of the scene, with blue representing the morning panorama and yellow representing the afternoon one.
At the bottom right of the postcard is Curiosity. The rover’s three antennas and nuclear power source are visible. Trailing behind Curiosity are rover tracks, and beyond those is "Marker Band Valley," a winding region where the rover discovered unexpected signs of an ancient lake. Further below are two hills – "Bolivar" and “Deepdale” – that Curiosity drove between while exploring "Paraitepuy Pass."
Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Maoz (Tel-Aviv University and Columbia University)
Wednesday, 8 October 2025
In this view of the center of the magnificent barred spiral galaxy NGC 1512, the NASA Hubble Space Telescope's broad spectral vision reveals the galaxy at all wavelengths from ultraviolet to infrared. The colors (which indicate differences in light intensity) map where newly born star clusters exist in both "dusty" and "clean" regions of the galaxy.
This color-composite image was created from seven images taken with three different Hubble cameras: the Faint Object Camera (FOC), the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS).
NGC 1512 is a barred spiral galaxy in the southern constellation of Horologium. Located 30 million light-years away, relatively "nearby" as galaxies go, it is bright enough to be seen with amateur telescopes. The galaxy spans 70,000 light-years, nearly as much as our own Milky Way galaxy.
The galaxy's core is unique for its stunning 2,400 light-year-wide circle of infant star clusters, called a "circumnuclear" starburst ring. Starbursts are episodes of vigorous formation of new stars and are found in a variety of galaxy environments.
Credit: NASA/SwRI/Goddard/JHUAPL
Thursday, 9 October 2025
The official names of asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson’s surface features — as identified by the Southwest Research Institute-led Lucy Mission — have been approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Latitude and longitude lines and arrows indicate the names of various features on the surface, which are named after significant paleoanthropological sites and discoveries. The NASA Lucy spacecraft flew past the asteroid on April 20, 2025.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute/CICLOPS
Friday, 10 October 2025
Saturn's biggest and brightest moons are visible in this portrait by Cassini.
Titan (5,150 kilometers across) is Saturn's largest moon and appears at the lower left. Note that some details in the moon's smoggy atmosphere are visible here. Rhea (1,528 kilometers across) is the planet's second-largest moon and is seen above center. Enceladus (505 kilometers across) has the brightest surface in the solar system, reflecting nearly all of the sunlight that falls upon it. Enceladus is just above the rings, right of center.
Titan was on the far side of the planet at the time of this exposure, while the other moons were on the near side, much closer to Cassini.
Also seen here are details in the cloud bands of Saturn's mostly hydrogen atmosphere, variations in brightness across the dazzling rings, and magnificent ring shadows cast upon the northern hemisphere.
The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft's wide-angle camera on Feb. 5, 2005, at a distance of approximately 3.4 million kilometers from Saturn.
Related News
Related Projects
Support the
SETI Institute
Scientists are getting closer in their search for life beyond earth. But with limited federal funding for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, supporters are the reason cutting-edge scientists can keep their eyes on the sky.
){kind=logo}
