Well lit and close to Earth this summer, Mars and Saturn got the crisp glamor shots that they so richly deserve, courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope.

On June 27, Saturn’s orbit brought it into opposition with the Earth, meaning that the two planets were fully aligned with the sun, and as a consequence Saturn could reflect a maximum amount of sunlight back towards Earth. Hubble — NASA’s cheeky interstellar paparazzo and a non-sentient satellite containing imaging hardware — observed the planet on June 6, 2018, while it was about 870 million miles from Earth.

Due to Saturn’s tilt toward the Earth at this moment in its orbit, Hubble was able to very clearly image all of the bands and gaps that comprise Saturn’s rings: Moving inward from the outermost ring, these are known as the A ring, the Encke Gap, the Cassini Division, the B ring, and the C ring with the Maxwell Gap.

After a long search, a cosmic mystery has an answer. Astronomers have made the very first unambiguous detection of a radioactive molecule in space — an isotope of aluminium, found in the heart of a rare nova.

Scientists have long been searching for ²⁶ AlF — or Aluminium monofluoride — containing ²⁶ Al, but a direct observation has been exceptionally illusive.

We’ve known about the presence of ²⁶ Al in space for decades. In 1984, NASA’s HEAO 3 satellite data was used to identify gamma-ray radiation originating from the beta decay of the isotope. According to these observations, there’s roughly two solar masses of ²⁶ Al in the Milky Way.

This discovery and its method will now pave the way for the discovery of other galaxies that have been cannibalized by other larger galaxies.

The researcher discovers conclusive proof of a galaxy that was cannibalized by neighbouring Andromeda.

See the Earth from 20 miles (32 km) above in this breathtaking 360° footage captured from a weather balloon.

Weird.

A major decline in sunspots could leave the solar system exposed.

Why are astronauts making bubbles in space?

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Today we’re celebrating the 60th Anniversary of NASA — National Aeronautics and Space Administration with current NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and former NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden.