Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Monday, 10 August 2026
Visible in this observation is a section of Cerberus Fossae, Mars (width approximately 250 meters), which comprises a series of rifts located in Elysium Planitia just north of the Martian equator. The fossae (Latin plural for a “ditch” or “depression”) are in close proximity and related to the formation of Athabasca Valles, which lies to the west. These rifts are collapse features believed to form by volcanic and tectonic processes.
In this composite image, we can see that the rift is not continuous, but discontinuous and offset. The offset could result from a preexisting subsurface discontinuity, such as a fault.
Credit: NASA/Lauren Dauphin, USGS; Text: Adam Voiland
Tuesday, 11 August 2026
Twice each day, tides ebb and flow through a maze of sandy channels, mudflats, and mangrove forests that flank the 88 islands and islets of Guinea-Bissau’s Bijagós Archipelago (Arquipélago dos Bijagós in Portuguese). Seen from above in this image from Nov. 28, 2025, the process leads to stark changes to the landscape: around low tide, intertidal mudflats and sandflats emerge from the sea, causing islands to grow significantly before shrinking again hours later.
Credit: NSF/NSO/AURA/MPS
Wednesday, 12 August 2026
The highest-resolution image of the Sun’s surface (photosphere) ever captured, taken at 416 nm by the Inouye Solar Telescope. It reveals deformed boundaries of magnetic elements and ultra-fine-scale stripes, both associated with Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Thursday, 13 August 2026
Just 15 minutes after its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft looked back toward the Sun and captured this near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains extending to Pluto's horizon.
The smooth expanse of the informally named icy plain Sputnik Planum (right) is flanked to the west (left) by rugged mountains up to 3,500 meters high, including the informally named Norgay Montes in the foreground and Hillary Montes on the skyline.
To the right, east of Sputnik, rougher terrain is cut by apparent glaciers. The backlighting highlights more than a dozen layers of haze in Pluto's tenuous but distended atmosphere.
Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, M. Reiter; Acknowledgments: M. H. Özsaraç
Friday, 14 August 2026
This James Webb Space Telescope image peers into the Treasure Chest, a glowing cluster of young stars hidden inside the Carina Nebula, about 7,500 light-years from Earth. JWST's infrared vision reveals dozens of newborn stars still wrapped in dust, while powerful radiation from nearby massive stars sculpts the surrounding gas into the shape of an open chest.
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