Planetary Landscapes

08/28/2026

Alright. I will be on travel again through September 9 and without much internet. So, in the meantime, be good (…), enjoy the PL picture gallery and posts, comment, and I see if I can say hello around September 7 when I get back to civilization. Otherwise, see you on September 10!

Meanwhile… Here is the Butterfly Nebula, captured by the Hubble space telescope | The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often named for flowers or insects. Though its wingspan covers over 3 light-years, NGC 6302 is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C, the dying central star of this particular planetary nebula has become exceptionally hot, shining brightly in ultraviolet light but hidden from direct view by a dense torus of dust.

This sharp and colorful close-up of the dying star's nebula was recorded in 2009 by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3, installed during the final shuttle servicing mission. Cutting across a bright cavity of ionized gas, the dust torus surrounding the central star is near the center of this view, almost edge-on to the line-of-sight. Molecular hydrogen has been detected in the hot star's dusty cosmic shroud. NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 light-years away in the arachnologically correct constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius).

Goodnight, Earthlings, have a good weekend, and see you soon! Image Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble

08/28/2026

Absolutely incredible HiRISE Image of an unnamed crater on Mars. Its colors are enhanced to bring up the various compositions. MRO was approx. 279 kilometers above the surface when this image was taken. The image covers an area of approx. 1 km. I mean, look at the boulders on the slope! Credit: HiRISE/Lunar & Planetary Laboratory, Univ. of Arizona/NASA.

08/28/2026

Fascinating… This ancient astrolabe may not be easy to use, but it's very accurate. Credit: NOVA | PBS. https://www.facebook.com/reel/2314019926007937

08/28/2026

Just in case you didn't understand the power of a flash flood. The answer: be aware of your environment, always, and... high ground. https://www.facebook.com/reel/1825680718866079

08/28/2026

Geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus spraying from fissures in its south polar crust, captured by NASA 's Cassini spacecraft on November 30, 2010. Since then, we have learn that this is likely evidence of a subsurface ocean warmed by hydrothermal vents, and their signature is not inconsistent with the possibility of life. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI.

08/28/2026

Astronomers have found a giant planet hiding in one of the most watched planetary systems in the sky… https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1621827739590821&set=a.252568479850094

🪐 Astronomers have found a giant planet hiding in one of the most watched planetary systems in the sky.

The planet is called Beta Pictoris d, and it orbits a young star about 63 light-years from Earth.

Beta Pictoris was already famous. It has a bright debris disk and two known giant planets, making it a rare nearby laboratory for watching young planetary systems take shape.

But a third planet was hiding there all along.

Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope, astronomers spotted a faint point of light near the much brighter planet Beta Pictoris b.

When they checked old observations, they found the same object in archived data going back 11 years.

An independent team also detected the planet with JWST by searching for molecular fingerprints in its atmosphere, including carbon monoxide, methane and water v***r.

Beta Pictoris d is estimated to be around 2 to 4 times the mass of Jupiter.

It is also extremely faint, about 100 times dimmer than Beta Pictoris b, making it one of the lightest exoplanets ever directly imaged from the ground.

Its orbit may even help explain the sharp inner edge of the system’s dusty debris disk.

One of astronomy’s most studied systems still had a planet hiding in plain sight.

📄 RESEARCH PAPERS
📌 Sutlieff et al., “Direct Imaging Discovery of Giant Exoplanet β Pictoris d: A Decade-Long Game of Hide-and-Seek”, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2026)
📌 Gibbs et al., “Discovery of an Exterior Third Planet Orbiting β Pictoris”, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2026)

08/28/2026

Running up that hill! Yesterday, NASA’s Curiosity rover reached the pinnacle — so far — of its 14-year mission, when it marked an elevation gain of 1 kilometer in its ongoing journey from Gale Crater on Mars up the slope of Mount Sharp. In this portion of a recent panorama, the distant crater floor and northern rim of Gale Crater can be seen through the dusty, summertime air. Scan the full horizon at go.nasa.gov/4d5tZlo Credit: NASA Mars.

08/28/2026

Good morning, Earthlings! How about a breathtaking view of the Antlia Cluster to start the day? The Antlia Cluster (also cataloged as Abell S0636) is a dense and compact group of galaxies located approximately 130 to 140 million light-years away from Earth. Positioned in the southern celestial hemisphere within the faint constellation of Antlia, it stands as the third-closest galaxy cluster to our Local Group, trailing only behind the Virgo and Fornax clusters.

When the light we see today first left the Antlia Cluster 135 million years ago, Earth was in the middle of the Cretaceous Period. At that exact moment in history, dinosaurs were at the absolute peak of their global dominance, long before the asteroid impact that eventually wiped them out. The planet was a warm greenhouse world where the continents were still splitting apart, and the very first flowering plants were just beginning to appear. Looking at this cluster through a telescope is like using a literal time machine, showing us a cosmic bridge of light that is exactly as old as Earth's ancient rulers.

And for the dinosaur nerds in us (…) exactly 135 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous, the planet looked very different. It is a common misconception that Tyrannosaurus rex or Triceratops roamed the Earth at this time; those famous species did not evolve until the very end of the Cretaceous, roughly 70 million years later. Instead, the Earth was ruled by a completely different cast of prehistoric characters.

Credit: Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA - R. Colombari & M. Zamani)

08/28/2026

Goodnight, Earthlings! Credit: Michael Shainblum Photography. https://www.facebook.com/reel/990552040703095

08/27/2026

The spiral galaxy UGC 1810 is currently locked in a violent gravitational battle with a smaller neighbor, a pair collectively known as Arp 273. Located approximately 300 million light-years away in the Andromeda constellation, the galaxy’s distorted shape and brilliant blue outer ring are the results of this collision, which triggered the formation of massive, hot stars within the last few million years. While the older, redder inner core remains threaded with cool dust, UGC 1810 is expected to eventually devour its companion over the next billion years, eventually settling into a standard spiral shape. UGC 1810: Wildly Interacting Galaxy from Hubble (APOD: 2025 Jun 01). Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Processing & Copyright: Domingo Pestana.