The Curiosity rover drilled into a 12.9 kg (28.6 lb) rock on Mars on April 26, 2026. The rock got stuck to the drill bit and it took 5 days to shake off.
Credit: Space com | footage courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech | edited by Steve Spaleta
🎵 Arthur Benson, Pitfall
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Source
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G_JNXTGHs9Q&pp=iggUQAFKEFA2NkVJZi05QzUyRXlnWGg%3D
You can find raw data from the mission, here:
1.5.26
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NASA/JPLCaltech/LANL/CNES/CNRS/IRAP/IAS/LPG /j. Roger
Processed by landru79
https://bsky.app/profile/landru79.bsky.social/post/3mldxg5lbv222
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Official post from NASA:
This image was taken by Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4888 (2026-05-07 15:28:41 UTC).
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/CNRS/IRAP/IAS/LPG
Looks like 2 dragons 🐉(Pareidolia)
https:// x. com/astro_Pettit/status/2053487053241758068
Saturn’s moon Tethys appears to float between two sets of rings in this view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, but it’s just a trick of geometry. The rings, which are seen nearly edge-on, are the dark bands above Tethys, while their curving shadows paint the planet at the bottom of the image.
Tethys (660 miles or 1,062 kilometers across) has a surface composed mostly of water ice, much like Saturn’s rings. Water ice dominates the icy surfaces in the the far reaches of our solar system, but ammonia and methane ices also can be found.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Nov. 23, 2015. North on Tethys is up. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 40,000 miles (65,000 kilometers) from Tethys. Image scale is 2.4 miles (4 kilometers) per pixel.
Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Thee month was pretty quiet (particularly welcome during the Artemis II launch), picking up towards the end of the month. Overall, sunspot numbers were in the lowest three months since 2022 – continuing the decline in solar activity!
brief blips in the video are eclipses (As the satellite pass behind Earth)
Credit Ryan French with Jhelioviewer https://x.com/RyanJFrench/status/2053938854919541005
"I flew potatoes on Expedition 72 for my space garden, an activity I did in my off-duty time. This is an early purple potato, complete with spot of hook Velcro to anchor it in my improvised grow light terrarium.
Potatoes are one of the most efficient plants based on edible nutrition to total plant mass (including roots). Recognized by Andy Weir in his book/movie "The Martian," potatoes will have a place in future exploration of space. So I thought it good to get started now!"
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Q: How did it compare to growing potatoes on Earth? Does the potato know how to send the plant above the soil and the roots/tuber down into the soil in microgravity?
Answer from Don Pettit:
the roots would grow in all directions absent gravity, and all plants I have ever grown in space have grown far slower than they would have on Earth
Source with audio
https:// x. com/astro_Pettit/status/2051791000046096792?s=20
At end of April,Curiosity’s drill bit got stuck in a rock, leading to unprecedented efforts to free it & an unprecedented look at surface hidden from view for millions or maybe billions yrs
Spoiler alert: nothing crawled out
◀️Before-▶️After
Credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/NeV-T
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More from Mars Guy
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cxb56lGR38
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MSL 4881 ML
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/NeV-T
Gigapan - gigapan.com/gigapans/239014
GIGAmacro -https://viewer.gigamacro.com/view/pt9sNQlHCOIm8xh3?x1=13933.00&y1=-6448.00&res1=14.51&rot1=0.00
Flickr - www.flickr.com/photos/nev-t/
Reid Wiseman
The galaxy's dark "brim" is ring of dust and cold gas encircling a vast ball of stars.
Dark Energy Camera spies the faint glowing features of Messier 104, known as the Sombrero Galaxy
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Messier 104, nicknamed the Sombrero Galaxy, is a popular target for amateur observing and astronomical research. Its recognizable extended halo, as well as a faint stellar stream, are captured in exquisite detail in this image from the Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera, mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF NOIRLab.
The Sombrero galaxy (Messier 104) is a galactic masterpiece that captivates scientists and astronomy enthusiasts alike. Its intricate system of globular star clusters lends insight into stellar populations, and astronomers are intrigued by the supermassive black hole at its center. Its distinctive visual features and relative brightness make it a favorite among amateur astronomers. The fascinating story of its discovery, involving three esteemed astronomers, has earned it a spot on one of the most important lists of deep sky objects. Today, it stands as one of the most iconic galaxies in the night sky.
Messier 104 resides approximately 30 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo (see finder chart). Spanning an impressive 50,000 light-years across, it is among the largest objects of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. Despite its grandeur, it appears relatively dim in the night sky — just
RED SIDE:
"Let's change the game little bit here, in this vid i put Most known suns we discover in human scale to compare it in big city,which can gave u Perspective how big each of them are. Made with Unreal Engine 5.6"
Credit RED SIDE YouTube, full video
A lot of clickbait gets thrown around about Apophis, so I wanted to look at the actual numbers. I used Python and the NASA JPL Horizons API to pull the surface-corrected geocentric distance for the April 2029 flyby.
At its closest approach, it will be roughly 32,112 km from the surface comfortably missing us (it's a 0 on the Torino scale), but passing right through the GEO satellite belt (35,786 km).
Because it's a rubble-pile asteroid, Earth's tidal forces will actually cause "asteroid quakes" and physically change its surface and orbit. It's basically a free "laboratory in the sky" for planetary defense. ISRO, ESA, and NASA are actually coordinating their missions (like RAMSES and OSIRIS-APEX) to watch this happen in real-time.
If you want to read more about the physics behind the close approach and the missions, I wrote a full breakdown on my science blog here: Apophis Flyby
''May 10, 2026
Nelson, New Zealand
Canon 6D 200mm f3.5 70x20sec iso1600. DSS Siril Startools''
Image:
Location of star-forming region in M51
This image locates a star-forming complex in one of the spiral arms of Messier 51 (M51), measuring almost 800 light-years across. M51 is located about 27 million light-years away from Earth. The thick cloud of star-forming gas, in which clumps collapsed to form each of the individual star clusters, is shown here in red and orange colours that represent infrared light emitted by ionised gas, dust grains, and complex molecules such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
Many of the bright dots that can be seen within the clouds are star clusters. The massive young stars within cast powerful radiation on the gas clouds that surround them, creating the cyan illumination shown here. Eventually, the combination of radiation, stellar wind and the supernova explosions of the most massive of these stars will disperse the gas clouds, putting an end to the star formation in this part of M51.
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Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope together with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have looked deeply at thousands of young star clusters in four nearby galaxies, studying clusters at different stages of evolution. Their findings show that more massive star clusters emerge more quickly from the clouds they are born in, clearing away gas and filling the galaxy with ultraviolet light. The result gives us a better understanding of star formation in galaxies, as well as how and where planets can form.
CREDIT ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Pedrini, A. Adamo (Stockholm University) and the FEAST JWST team
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Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope together with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have looked deeply at thousands of young star clusters in four nearby galaxies, studying clusters at different stages of evolution. Their findings show that more massive star clusters emerge more quickly from the clouds they are born in, clearing away gas and filling the galaxy with ultraviolet light. The result gives us a better understanding of star formation in galaxies, as well as how and where planets can form.
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Astronomers have long known that understanding how star clusters come to be is key to unlocking other secrets of galactic evolution. Stars form in clusters, created when clouds of gas collapse under gravity.
As more and more stars are born in a collapsing cloud, strong stellar winds, harsh ultraviolet radiation and the supernova explosions of massive stars eventually disperse the cloud, ending star formation before all the gas is used up.
Once the cloud of gas a star cluster was born in is gone, its light can bear down on other star-forming regions in the galaxy, too. This process is called stellar feedback, and it means that most of the gas in a galaxy never gets used for star formation. Researching how star clusters develop, then, can answer questions about star formation at a galactic scale.
Studies of the closest star-forming regions, in the Milky Way galaxy and the dwarf galaxies that orbit it, allow us to dissect star clusters in the smallest details, but our position in the disc of our galaxy means only a few such regions are visible to us.
By observing nearby galaxies, astronomers can survey thousands of star-forming regions and characterise entire populations of star clusters at many stages of evolution – a feat made possible with the launch of space telescopes, most prominently the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Both kinds of investigation are necessary to truly understand how star formation takes place in galaxies.
More
Paper
"AZM Martinsberg Austria
If u catch the right moment, u can still see some beautiful solar prom. Tuesday morning, a fiery loop was definitely the highlight.
image 8.10 UT (4/f-7 Sundancer 2) GIF 7.41 UT 55min"
https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=232753
NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured this view of Thebe, the second largest of Jupiter’s inner moons, during a close pass on May 1, 2026. The spacecraft’s Stellar Reference Unit (SRU) captured this image from a distance of approximately 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) at a resolution of about 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) per pixel.
Thebe resides at the outer edge of Jupiter’s faint ring system and is believed to play a role in the formation of the planet’s “gossamer” ring through the shedding of dust.
While the SRU’s primary function is to image star fields for navigation, its high sensitivity in low-light conditions makes it a powerful secondary science instrument. The SRU has previously been used to discover “shallow lightning” in Jupiter’s atmosphere and to image the planet’s ring system.
A division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott J. Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
https://science.nasa.gov/photojournal/nasas-juno-misson-captures-jupiter-moon-thebe/
Sky & landscape were composited using Sony 135GM lens. 2 photos taken at same time & focal length were processed separately & then merged.
The sky using an equatorial mount w 54 frames, 30s tracking exposures, & composition was rotated. This image has a more artistic element.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/casastronomy/permalink/26646358791692974/?rdid=Z0r7w4yDV8wmSXu0#
Bright fireball fragments over Pacific Ocean after crossing Vancouver Island, Canada
A bright fireball entered the atmosphere above Vancouver Island, Canada, at 07:12 UTC (00:12 PDT) on April 29, 2026, before fragmenting above the Pacific Ocean west of Yuquot. NASA placed the object’s speed at 29.5 km/s, or about 106 200 km/h (65 900 mph), and its final visible altitude at 62 km (38.6 miles).
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The American Meteor Society (AMS) received 135 reports from users in British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington, as well as 15 videos.
The analysis showed the meteor first became visible at 90.6 km (56.3 miles) altitude above Oktwanch Peak on Vancouver Island. It moved southwest for about 89 km (55 miles) through the upper atmosphere before fragmenting at 62 km (38.6 miles) altitude above the Pacific Ocean. The end point of the calculated path is about 32 km (20 miles) west of Yuquot.
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Model-derived estimates suggest the object was likely a fragment from a comet about 0.6 m (2 feet) in diameter with a mass of about 454 kg (1 000 pounds).
Observers reported green, blue-green, white, orange, or red colors, with several reports describing a brief terminal flash or visible fragmentation. Reported durations were mostly around 1.5 to 3.5 seconds.
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Several AMS reports described persistent trains lasting 1 to 5 seconds, including glowing or spark-like trails behind the fireball. Reports from Seattle, Olympia, Newport, Spokane, Nanaimo, Oak Harbor, Qualicum Beach, and other locations noted terminal flashes, scattered particles, or brief fragmentation-like features.
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You can find all the videos here: American Meteor Society https://m.youtube.com/@americanmeteorsociety4298/videos
Reports and videos https://fireballs.amsmeteors.org/event/2026/3168