Read about the recent stunning image of Jupiter’s moon, Io, obtained by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on Dec 30, 2023!

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Jupiter’s first Galilean moon, Io, is one of the most fascinating objects in the entire solar system, exhibiting hundreds of volcanoes that send molten lava hundreds of miles into space, some of which come raining back down onto the small moon’s surface. While Io was explored in depth with NASA’s Galileo spacecraft during the late 1990s and early 2000s, Io hasn’t been imaged up close since then. But NASA’s Juno spacecraft recently broke this dry spell when it passed within 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of Io’s surface on December 30, 2023, capturing stunning images of active volcanic plumes and several lava fields.

Image of Jupiter’s moon Io, obtained by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on Dec 30, 2023, with its night side being illuminated by reflected sunlight bouncing off Jupiter, also called “Jupitershine.” (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS Image processing by Emma Wälimäki © CC BY)

While this encounter was less than 1,000 miles from Io’s surface, Juno previously snapped images of Io in October 2023, though at just over 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometers). The Juno team made another close flyby only days ago, also coming within 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) of Io’s surface, and these images should be released soon.

NASA’s PACE mission stands for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud and ocean Ecosystem.

OSIRIS-REx principal investigator Dante Lauretta told New Scientist that asteroid Bennu may have been “an ancient ocean world.”

The MMU was the highlight of the STS-41B mission as demonstrated by the stunning mission photographs that graced the cover of Aviation Week & Space Technology, not once, not twice, but three times.

“Hoot” Gibson, the flight’s pilot, shot the photograph featured on the February 20, 1984, issue of the magazine from the crew cabin. Gibson remembered he was the only one on the crew that “had absolutely nothing to do” as McCandless made his way out into space, so he picked up a Hasselblad camera and began documenting the events. When he first looked through the camera’s viewfinder, he could not believe what an incredible sight it was to see McCandless untethered, floating above the Earth. Gibson wanted to capture what he was seeing and remembered how meticulous he was. For each photograph he took three light meter readings and checked the focus four times. In the crew’s photography training he learned that an off-kilter horizon looked wrong and was not pleasing to the eye. That presented a slight problem because Challenger was at a 28.5-degree inclination, so he “tilted the camera to put the horizon level in the pictures.”

A dense galaxy is much different than it appears.

Universe breaks physics laws all on its own.

Mars once teemed with water.

According to Russian media reports, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko is set to make history on Sunday as he will surpass the world record for the longest cumulative time spent in space.

Kononenko, who is currently on his fifth space mission, will clock a total of 878 days, 11 hours, 29 minutes, and 49 seconds in orbit by 11:30:08 Moscow time (0830:08 GMT), breaking the previous record held by his fellow countryman Gennady Padalka, who retired in 2017.

The 59-year-old Kononenko, also the commander of the Roscosmos cosmonaut corps, will extend his record until September 23, when he is scheduled to return to Earth after completing his current expedition. By then, he will have spent 1,110 days in space, equivalent to nearly 2 1/2 years.