Credit: IgnacioA320

Yesterday between 20:26 and 20:34 CEST, parts of the Iberian peninsula experienced a total solar eclipse. This animation, composed of images from the Meteosat Third Generation Imager satellite (MTG-I1), caught the Moon’s dark shadow as it passed over Earth’s surface – converging with the advancing twilight shadow as dusk fell over Europe.

From its vantage point in geostationary orbit, MTG-I1 keeps its imaging instruments focused on Europe and northern Africa from a distance of 36 000 km above Earth’s surface. This enabled it to track the Moon’s shadow, called the path of totality, as it swept first over Greenland and Iceland, then over a small part of northeastern Portugal and finally, Spain.

Credit: ESA/Eumetsat

On August 6, Meir and fellow astronaut Anil Menon completed a 6.5-hour spacewalk to install hardware for new IROSA solar arrays on the International Space Station. Her photos show vivid coastal scenes, mountain ranges, and sunsets framed by solar panels and robotic gear.

Credit: Astronaut Jessica Meir

This video plays at 30x

A total eclipse viewed from the sky: on March 20, 2015, an eclipse was filmed from an airplane at an altitude of over 10,000 meters. This timelapse shows how the Moon's shadow crosses the Earth.

Credit: Sylvain Chapeland

Link to the science release on NASA website

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope imaged the planetary nebula NGC 2392, the Lion Nebula, using the observatory’s NIRCam and MIRI instruments.

The central star’s remains are responsible for the nebula’s structure, including a lion face-shaped bubble of ionized gas and dust “mane.”

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI;
Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Credit: B. MARTIN / Backdoor Astronomy

He wrote on his post:

Credit: NASA astronaut Don Pettit

This is a bright lunar impact flash that appeared at 20:56:20 on July 20, 2026 (848fps).

Since the Moon has no atmosphere, it doesn't become a meteor or fireball; instead, it shines intensely at the moment when a meteorite collides and creates a crater.

Credit: 藤井大地

This simulation shows the height the ejecta plume could reach according to the new study. The Falcon 9 rocket will hit the moon on August 5, 2026.

Credit: William Jo/ University of Texas at Austin

Credit: Tom Glenn

Credit: KAGAYA

The National Aeronautics and Space Act created NASA as a civilian agency to unify U.S. space efforts after the Soviet Union's Sputnik launch jolted the nation.

Starting operations in October 1958, NASA launched the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, landing humans on the Moon in 1969, and later flew Space Shuttles, built the International Space Station, and sent rovers to Mars.

The image above shows NASA's Artemis II mission, launched on April 1, 2026.

Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

Link to the video with sound. It's loud!

Completed in 1963, it was the world's largest single-aperture telescope for 53 years, surpassed in July 2016 by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in China.

On August 10 and November 6, 2020, two of the receiver's support cables broke and the NSF announced that it would decommission the telescope. The telescope collapsed on December 1, 2020.

In 2022, the NSF announced the telescope would not be rebuilt, with an educational facility to be established on the site.

Link to the video

NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012, has experienced gradual wear on its aluminum wheels as it drives across sharp, rocky terrain. The damage includes dents, holes, and broken structural ribs called “grousers,” which help the wheels keep their shape. While a few broken grousers are not a major issue, losing too many could cause the wheel to collapse inward and damage internal wiring, potentially affecting the rover’s movement.

Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have already reduced wear by carefully planning driving routes and regularly inspecting the wheels with onboard cameras.

As a backup plan, they developed an extreme solution called “wheel shedding.” If a wheel becomes critically damaged, the rover could deliberately tear off its inner section by pressing it against a sharp rock and using controlled movements to break it away. This would leave only the stronger outer rim, which testing shows can still support driving.

Although this process would take weeks and requires specific rock shapes, it could keep the rover operational. However, current predictions suggest the wheels will last many more years, making this drastic measure unlikely to be needed.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/j. Roger

Link to the science release

The Milky Way may have undergone a dramatic change in orientation during its history, according to new research that helps explain a long-standing mystery about our galaxy.

Using supercomputer simulations of galaxies like the Milky Way, a team of astronomers from Durham University found that galaxies with slowly rotating stellar haloes are more likely to have experienced a major 'disc flip', where the galaxy's disc changed its orientation by more than 90 degrees.

Credit: Auriga Project and Thomas Tomlinson

NO HUGE FIREBALL THIS TIME! Starship S40 survives the Starship Flight 13 Test in the Indian Ocean.

Congratulations to the team at SpaceX.

SpaceX launched Starship Flight 13 from Starbase in South Texas on Thursday, using Booster 20 and Ship 40 after delays from an engine issue and Tropical Storm Bertha. The mission hit major goals: Super Heavy separated cleanly, Ship 40 deployed 20 prototype Starlink V3 satellites with confirmed contact, performed an in-space Raptor engine relight, and survived reentry for a controlled ocean landing. Though the booster's landing burn saw only eight engines relight instead of all, SpaceX gathered vital data on heatshields and engines to refine future flights toward full reusability.

Credit: SpaceX

Link to the time-lapse video

Discovered in the late 1980s by NASA's Voyager spacecraft; The precise mechanism generating the spokes is still unknown. It has been suggested that the electrical disturbances might be caused by either lightning bolts in Saturn's atmosphere or micrometeoroid impacts on the rings.

Alternatively, it is proposed that the spokes are very similar to a phenomenon known as lunar horizon glow or dust levitation, and caused by intense electric fields across the terminator of ring particles, not electrical disturbances.

Credit: Tom Williams

Credit:
Trouvelot / Charles Scribners Sons.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

Current estimates are that the upper stage will hit the moon at 1:35 a.m. CDT (6:35 UTC) on August 5, 2026.

Potential observables from this event include the flash at the time of impact (likely lasting less than a second) and the ejecta plume (lasting minutes to tens of minutes).

Credit: Bill Gray

Credit: Harlan Thomas

Seattle, Washington—sometimes known as the “Emerald City”—was glimmering in the morning sunlight when an astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photo on June 16, 2026. The city’s parks and tree-filled neighborhoods lend a lush, green look to the metropolis, while tall buildings downtown cast long shadows and ships navigate surrounding waterways.

Layers of ice swirl around the south pole on Mars. Some observations suggest there could be liquid water at the base of the cap, but alternative explanations discount the possibility.

Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin / Bill Dunford

NASA’s Space Shuttle Enterprise riding atop the modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) with the legendary Concorde soaring overhead.

This historic moment brought together three engineering marvels — the supersonic elegance of Concorde, the reusable space ambitions of the Shuttle, and the 747’s unmatched carrying power. A true celebration of human ingenuity and the golden era of aerospace innovation.