MARTIAN STORMS - Seen In 1977 By The Viking 2 Orbiter

Galaxy Trio Arp 286:

NGC 5566 (bottom), NGC 5569 (left), & NGC 5560 (center)

Crab Pulsar at the core of the Crab Nebula

Hubble Spots a Secluded Starburst Galaxy : This image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescopes Advanced Camera for Surveys

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Uranus’ icy moon Miranda wowed scientists during the Voyager encounter with its dramatically fractured landscapes.

via reddit

Just so you know, you can always watch the Earth live from the ISS. Its really relaxing to me

A Black Hole Choir : The blue dots in this field of galaxies, known as the COSMOS field, show galaxies that contain supermassive black holes emitting high-energy X-rays.

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Jupiter’s south pole, taken by Cassini

Juno Arrives at Jupiter Today!

Today on the 4th of July, 2016 (barring any tragic occurrence with the engine firing) NASA’s Juno spacecraft will enter into orbit around Jupiter.

It’s been traveling since 2011 and carries thick shielding to protect its instruments from the dangerous fields of radiation surrounding the planet.

Juno’s not the first spacecraft to go to Jupiter, but it will be the closest. I like to imagine that Juno will look like a scene from Alien: Isolation where you get to look out the window and see that massive gas giant below you.

The goals of this mission are essentially thus: investigate the weather, atmosphere and magnetosphere on Jupiter.

Moving into a grander context, as answers start to come in and we learn more about Jupiter’s nature we hope to learn more about the questions we must be asking in order to investigate the formation of our very solar system on a deeper level.

Of course with any luck and a lot of hard work, we will be able to build a more harmonious theory of how a star system forms, and the things that go into the construct of a massive gas giant.

(Image credit: NASA and JPL)

First Post!

Launching in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1.... L I F T O F F!!