Patches of Snow on the Red Planet

In early Martian summer, at the time NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this image, the dunes are almost free of their seasonal ice cover. via NASA https://ift.tt/2HncivW

Complex Jupiter

How complex is Jupiter? NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter is finding the Jovian giant to be more complicated than expected. Jupiter’s magnetic field has been discovered to be much different from our Earth’s simple dipole field, showing several poles embedded in a complicated network more convoluted in the north than the south. Further, Juno’s radio measurements show that Jupiter’s atmosphere shows structure well below the upper cloud deck — even hundreds of kilometers deep. Jupiter’s newfound complexity is evident also in southern clouds, as shown in the featured image. There, planet-circling zones and belts that dominate near the equator decay into a complex miasma of continent-sized storm swirls. Juno continues in its looping elliptical orbit, swooping near the huge planet every 53 days and exploring a slightly different sector each time around. via NASA https://ift.tt/2sDDDot

Moon Setting Behind Teide Volcano

These people are not in danger. What is coming down from the left is just the Moon, far in the distance. Luna appears so large here because she is being photographed through a telescopic lens. What is moving is mostly the Earth, whose spin causes the Moon to slowly disappear behind Mount Teide, a volcano in the Canary Islands off the northwest coast of Africa. The people pictured are 16 kilometers away and many are facing the camera because they are watching the Sun rise behind the photographer. It is not a coincidence that a full moon rises just when the Sun sets because the Sun is always on the opposite side of the sky from a full moon. The featured video was made last week during the full Milk Moon. The video is not time-lapse — this was really how fast the Moon was setting. via NASA https://ift.tt/2xDDY0a

Jupiter Season, Hawaiian Sky

Volcanic activity on the Big Island of Hawaii has increased since this Hawaiian night skyscape was recorded earlier this year. Recent vents and lava flows are about 30 kilometers to the east, the direction of the blowing smoke and steam in the panoramic view of the Kilauea caldera with Halemaumau crater taken from Volcanoes National Park. Still, this year Jupiter is bright in late spring to early summer skies. High in the south it is easily the brightest celestial beacon in the scene where the central bulge of the Milky Way seems to rise above vapors and clouds. Yellowish Antares is the bright star near the end of the dark rivers of dust seen toward the center of our galaxy. Near the horizon, stars Alpha and Beta Centauri and the compact Southern Cross shine through the almost too bright volcanic smoke. via NASA https://ift.tt/2JaxfMv

Jovian Jet Stream

See a jet stream speeding through Jupiter’s atmosphere in this new view taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft. via NASA https://ift.tt/2Lb4CPM