Venus Blows Off Some Steam

Tall plumes of white vapor rise from the rocky Venusian surface in this April 19, 1977, artist’s concept. via NASA https://ift.tt/ei2GK9z

Hubble Captures a Cosmic Cloudscape

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals clouds of gas and dust near the Tarantula Nebula, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud about 160,000 light-years away. via NASA https://ift.tt/IHw3ovp

Artemis II Rocket Booster Stacking Complete

Engineers with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems complete stacking operations on the twin SLS (Space Launch System) solid rocket boosters for Artemis II by integrating the nose cones atop the forward assemblies inside the Vehicle Assembly Building’s High Bay 3 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. The twin solid boosters will help support the remaining rocket components and the Orion spacecraft during final assembly of the Artemis II Moon rocket and provide more than 75 percent of the total SLS thrust during liftoff from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Pad 39B. via NASA https://ift.tt/5vkBtN3

Our Pale Blue Dot

This updated version of "the Pale Blue Dot," made for the photo's 30th anniversary in 2020, uses modern image-processing software and techniques to revisit the well-known Voyager view while attempting to respect the original data and intent of those who planned the images. via NASA https://ift.tt/8KHBvwI

A Stellar Bouquet

This composite image contains the deepest X-ray image ever made of the spectacular star forming region called 30 Doradus. By combining X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue and green) with optical data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (yellow) and radio data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (orange), this stellar arrangement comes alive. via NASA https://ift.tt/gVWwmdF

Giving NASA's CADRE a Hand

One of three small lunar rovers that are part of a NASA technology demonstration called CADRE (Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration) is prepared for shipping in a clean room at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on Jan. 29, 2025. via NASA https://ift.tt/RHI3Xre

A Rainbow-colored “Feather” in the Martian Sky

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this feather-shaped iridescent cloud just after sunset on Jan. 27, 2023, the 3,724th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Studying the colors in iridescent clouds tells scientists something about particle size within the clouds and how they grow over time. These clouds were captured as part of a follow-on imaging campaign to study noctilucent, or "night-shining" clouds, which started in 2021. This scene made up of 28 individual images captured by the rover's Mast Camera, or Mastcam. via NASA https://ift.tt/OwBN1Rl