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NASA’s TESS Mission Hopes to Find Exoplanets Beyond Our Solar System : The worlds orbiting other stars are called “exoplanets,” and they come in a wide variety of sizes, from gas giants larger than Jupiter to small, rocky planets about as big around as Earth or Mars. This rocky super-Earth is an illustration of the type of planets future telescopes, like NASA’s TESS, hope to find outside our solar system. (via NASA)

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2024 June 23

The Colors of Saturn from Cassini Image Credit: NASA, ESA, JPL, ISS, Cassini Imaging Team; Processing & License: Judy Schmidt

Explanation: What creates Saturn’s colors? The featured picture of Saturn only slightly exaggerates what a human would see if hovering close to the giant ringed world. The image was taken in 2005 by the robot Cassini spacecraft that orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017. Here Saturn’s majestic rings appear directly only as a curved line, appearing brown, in part from its infrared glow. The rings best show their complex structure in the dark shadows they create across the upper part of the planet. The northern hemisphere of Saturn can appear partly blue for the same reason that Earth’s skies can appear blue – molecules in the cloudless portions of both planet’s atmospheres are better at scattering blue light than red. When looking deep into Saturn’s clouds, however, the natural gold hue of Saturn’s clouds becomes dominant. It is not known why southern Saturn does not show the same blue hue – one hypothesis holds that clouds are higher there. It is also not known why some of Saturn’s clouds are colored gold.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240623.html

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Autumn Alley, Germany …..by Michael Boehmlaend

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2024 September 8

M31: The Andromeda Galaxy Image Credit: Subaru (NAOJ), Hubble (NASA/ESA), Mayall (NSF); Processing & Copyright: R. Gendler & R. Croman

Explanation: The most distant object easily visible to the unaided eye is M31, the great Andromeda Galaxy. Even at some two and a half million light-years distant, this immense spiral galaxy – spanning over 200,000 light years – is visible, although as a faint, nebulous cloud in the constellation Andromeda. A bright yellow nucleus, dark winding dust lanes, and expansive spiral arms dotted with blue star clusters and red nebulae, are recorded in this stunning telescopic image which combines data from orbiting Hubble with ground-based images from Subaru and Mayall. In only about 5 billion years, the Andromeda galaxy may be even easier to see – as it will likely span the entire night sky – just before it merges with, or passes right by, our Milky Way Galaxy.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240908.html

Images of Saturn, Tethys, and Mimas taken by Cassini on July 16 2005.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill

(via 500px / …… by Fabrizio Riccardo Castorina)

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