Planetary Landscapes

06/23/2026

Webb’s new view of M82, added to archival data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, is giving us a more complete picture of this starburst galaxy. Located 12 million light-years away and undergoing rapid star formation, edge-on spiral galaxy Messier 82 (M82) is a scientifically unique sight to behold, and now NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed previously unseen details. Because Webb can see infrared light, it is able to peer through clouds of dust and gas to see the shape of this edge-on galaxy, as well as approximately 16.5 million of its stars. M82’s rapid star formation, thought to be the result of its merger with another galaxy, will only be a (relatively) brief period in its history. Ironically, the extreme star formation is causing plumes of material to be ejected above and below the disk of the galaxy - something that will disrupt future stellar birth.

Many of the features of this galaxy were blocked dust and gas at visible wavelengths of light. Webb is capturing never-before-seen detail, including the galaxy’s uniquely distorted disk, likely a result of the galaxy merger - and a staggering number of stars. These 16.5 million are likely only a small portion of the total number of stars that might reside in a galaxy like M82. Hubble data, in yellow, show tendrils of material, which represent ionized hydrogen gas, close to the galaxy’s disk.

Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Adam Smercina (STScI, Tufts), Thomas Williams (University of Manchester); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI).

06/23/2026

Keogram: The Sky in 2025 | A year-worth of sky in an image… Image Credit & License: Cees Bassa (Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy) https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1511883387641516&set=a.508783484618183

Keogram: The Sky in 2025 (APOD: 2026 Jun 21)
Image Credit & License: Cees Bassa (Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy)
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260621.html

Explanation: What if you could see the entire sky -- all at once -- for an entire year? That, very nearly, is what is pictured here. Every 15 seconds during 2025, an all-sky camera took an image of the sky over the Netherlands. Central columns from these images were then aligned and combined to create the featured keogram, with January at the top, December at the bottom, and the middle of the night running vertically just left of center. What do we see? Most obviously, the daytime sky is mostly blue, while the nighttime sky is mostly black. The twelve light bands crossing the night sky are caused by the glow of the Moon. The thinnest part of the black hourglass shape occurs during the summer solstice, like today, when days are the longest, while the thickest part occurs at the winter solstice. Equinoxes can also be located in the keogram, for example the northern-spring equinox from one year ago is about three-quarters of the way up.

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Starship Asterisk* • APOD Discussion Page
https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=260621

06/23/2026

Here's an extraordinary view of our Pale Blue Dot and its moon, taken by the HiRISE instrument aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA/ Jpl-Caltech. Univ. Arizona.

06/23/2026

Voyager 2 at Triton | What would it look like to fly past Triton, the largest moon of planet Neptune? Only one spacecraft has ever done this -- and the images of this dramatic encounter have been gathered into a video. In 1989, the Voyager 2 robotic spacecraft shot through the Neptune system with cameras blazing. Triton is slightly smaller than Earth's Moon but has ice volcanoes and a surface rich in frozen nitrogen. The first sequence in the video shows Voyager's approach to Triton, which, with the exception of an overall false green tint, appears in approximately true color. The mysterious cantaloupe terrain seen under the spacecraft soon changed from light to dark, with the terminator of night crossing underneath. After closest approach, Voyager pivoted to see the departing moon, now visible as a diminishing crescent. In 2015, the robotic New Horizons spacecraft famously flew past Pluto, a world of similar size to Triton. Credit: Image Credit: NASA; JPL, Voyager 2, Digital composition: Paul Schenk (LPI, USRA). https://www.facebook.com/reel/1050376517428900

06/23/2026

This is one small part of a 180-degree view of the Gediz Vallis channel that NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured on March 31, 2024. This area was likely formed by large floods of water and debris that piled jumbles of rocks into mounds within the channel and created a long ridge downhill (Gediz Vallis ridge). See the full panorama and more details at http://science.nasa.gov/.../curiosity-views-gediz-vallis.../ Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

06/23/2026

Good morning, Earthlings! Could it be the original home of the aliens in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind?" Located roughly 5,000 to 6,000 light-years away in the constellation Centauri, RCW 85 is a faint hydrogen-alpha emission nebula. Nicknamed the "Devil's Tower Nebula," its striking, tower-like shapes and sharply defined rims are continuously sculpted by energetic stellar winds and intense radiation from embedded newborn stars. Pretty stunning... Have a fantastic day! Credit: sidusmea & Flying_Dutchman. Chile.
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1007645005297410&set=a.149603584434894

RCW 85, The Devil’s Tower Nebula
Credit: sidusmea & Flying_Dutchman
Chile

06/23/2026

Goodnight, Earthlings! Credit: soethje.com. https://www.facebook.com/reel/4496016950650127

06/22/2026

A Giant Among Giants: Olympus Mons on Mars is an immense shield volcano, towering over 21.9 km high according to measurements from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). It surpasses Mount Everest's height above sea level and holds the titles of Mars's largest volcano and the tallest planetary mountain in our Solar System, sharing this distinction with Rheasilvia on Vesta. Here we can see it with the 3 other volcanoes of Tharsis: Ascraeus, Pavonis, and Arsia montes. Credit: UAE - HOPE mission. Credit Processing: Thomas Thomopoulos (and my apologies, Thomas).

06/22/2026

Here's what it was like to experience one of the worst mass extinction events in Earth's history… Credit: NOVA | PBS. https://www.facebook.com/reel/1551224139955979

06/22/2026

I think we found the head of the Turtle rock on Mars :D Or maybe it is a baby condor hatching… Interesting rock formation found by Perseverance at Jezero crater on Sol 1882. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS. Processing credit: Thomas Thomopoulos