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NASA is tracking a small asteroid named 2023 DW, roughly 164 feet in diameter, which has a very low (approx. 1-in-770) chance of impacting Earth on February 14, 2046.

It is currently considered a "1" on the Torino scale, indicating an extremely unlikely event with no immediate cause for public concern.

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NASA has released a new set of ultra–high-resolution images of Jupiter, providing one of the most detailed views ever captured of the planet’s dynamic atmosphere.

The images reveal sharply defined cloud bands stacked in complex layers, immense storm systems spanning thousands of kilometers, and continuous turbulence driven by extreme atmospheric energy, far exceeding anything observed on Earth.

Beyond their visual impact, these images offer significant scientific insight. Subtle color variations correspond to differences in chemical composition, including ammonia, methane, and other trace compounds, allowing researchers to better map Jupiter’s atmospheric structure. The distinct banding patterns also trace powerful jet streams that regulate the planet’s global climate and drive its chaotic weather.

Notably, the Great Red Spot remains prominent, a long-lived anticyclonic storm that has persisted for over 300 years.

Continued observation of this feature, alongside newly resolved atmospheric details, helps scientists refine models of gas giant dynamics and deepen understanding of planetary weather systems across the solar system.

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Astronomers have discovered the exoplanet TOI-1452 b, about 100 light-years away, that appears to be a strong candidate for a global “water world.” Roughly 70% larger than Earth and orbiting a red dwarf within a binary star system, the planet shows physical characteristics that differ markedly from rocky terrestrial planets. Observations from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), supported by ground-based follow-ups, indicate a density and atmospheric profile consistent with an extensive, planet-wide ocean rather than exposed continents.

If confirmed, this scenario implies a world where water could extend hundreds of kilometers beneath the surface, reshaping assumptions about planetary diversity and habitability. Such environments are of particular interest because liquid water is central to astrobiology, offering parallels to conditions thought to exist on early Earth. Findings like these expand the scope of the search for life, highlighting that potentially habitable environments may arise in forms far different from familiar terrestrial analogues.

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At its closest approach to Earth on December 19, 2025, the comet will be about 170 million miles away, almost twice as far from us as we are from the Sun.

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This is a video of the Artemis 2 upper stage separation as the Artemis astronauts go into lunar orbit.

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Artemis 2 has reached its furthest ever distance that any human has ever traveled from Earth. #nasa #artemis

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The International Space Station is over 254 miles above Earth's surface, allowing Astronauts to witness stunning views of our home planet.

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The first flower grown in space was a Zinnia (Zinnia hybrida), which bloomed on the International Space Station (ISS) in January 2016 as part of NASA's Veggie experiment.

Cultivated by astronaut Scott Kelly, these flowers were chosen to test how plants grow in microgravity, providing insights for future long-duration missions to Mars.

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NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captured stunning, detailed infrared images of Uranus, highlighting its faint rings, seasonal north polar cap, and atmospheric storms.

Using NIRCam, Webb resolved 11 of the 13 known rings—including the faint, inner Zeta ring—and captured 14 of its 27 known moons, revealing a dynamic ice giant. #space #NASA #astronomy

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The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured a "smiling" galaxy cluster, SDSS J1038+4849, featuring two bright orange "eyes" (galaxies) and a "smile" arc.

This cosmic emoticon is created by strong gravitational lensing, where the immense gravity of the cluster bends and distorts light from background galaxies, forming the smile shape. #astronomy #space

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This image of Earth was taken by the Artemis II crew inside the Orion capsule on their way to the Moon.

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The first photograph of the Sun was taken on April 2, 1845, by French physicists Hippolyte Fizeau and Léon Foucault.

Using a 12 cm daguerreotype plate, they captured the image at approximately 9:45 a.m. with an exposure time of 1/60th of a second, successfully revealing distinct sunspots along with the edge of the solar disk.

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Astronaut Mark Kelly once smuggled a full gorilla suit on board the International Space Station.

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The Pillars of Creation are towering, finger-like structures of gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula, M16, located 6,500 light-years from Earth.

The pillars are a "stellar nursery" where new stars are born within the dense clouds. The Hubble Space Telescope captured the iconic image in 1995, and again in 2014 for a wider, sharper view.

This photo was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

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Mimas is one of Saturn's innermost moons, famous for its heavily cratered surface, particularly the massive Herschel Crater, which gives it a resemblance to the Star Wars Death Star.

Discovered by William Herschel in 1789, it's a small, icy body composed mostly of water ice with a low density, and it orbits Saturn in just under 23 hours.

Despite its seemingly inert, frozen appearance, recent analysis of its orbital wobble suggests Mimas harbors a young, subsurface ocean, making it a surprising candidate for potential habitability.

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NASA's Curiosity rover has captured rare, "mother-of-pearl", iridescent clouds on Mars, as announced in early 2025.

These high-altitude (60-80 km) twilight clouds, composed of frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice), display vivid red-green hues due to sunlight scattering.

They allow researchers to understand how carbon dioxide freezes into ice at altitudes where it wasn't expected.

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This is a plume erupting from Enceladus, a small icy moon orbiting Saturn. These geysers launch water vapor and ice hundreds of kilometers into space, sourced from a subsurface ocean hidden beneath its frozen shell.

When the Cassini spacecraft passed through these plumes, it detected organic molecules, salts, and signs of chemical energy—key ingredients associated with life.

Enceladus is one of the rare ocean worlds that actively ejects material into space, offering direct access to its interior. Despite being only about 500 kilometers across, it may host one of the most compelling environments for life beyond Earth.

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NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captured stunning, detailed infrared images of Uranus, highlighting its faint rings, seasonal north polar cap, and atmospheric storms.

Using NIRCam, Webb resolved 11 of the 13 known rings—including the faint, inner Zeta ring—and captured 14 of its 27 known moons, revealing a dynamic ice giant.

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At the center of this Hubble Space Telescope image lies the galaxy cluster SDSS J1038+4849, located more than 4.5 billion light-years from Earth. The arrangement of galaxies and gravitational lensing arcs gives the cluster a striking resemblance to a smiling face.

Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble

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The three stars in Orion's Belt are Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. These massive, hot blue supergiant stars appear in a nearly straight line at the center of the Orion constellation.

Orion's belt is also known as the Three Kings or Three Sisters and act as a celestial navigation guide.

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The first flower grown in space was a Zinnia (Zinnia hybrida), which bloomed on the International Space Station (ISS) in January 2016 as part of NASA's Veggie experiment.

Cultivated by astronaut Scott Kelly, these flowers were chosen to test how plants grow in microgravity, providing insights for future long-duration missions to Mars.

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The “Exposed Cranium” Nebula, formally designated PMR 1, lies about 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Vela. It represents a massive star in the final stages of its evolution. As the star exhausts its nuclear fuel, it begins to expel its outer layers into space, forming vast, billowing clouds of gas and dust.

Recent observations in both near- and mid-infrared wavelengths reveal a striking dark channel slicing through the center of the nebula. This feature resembles the longitudinal fissure that divides the human brain into two hemispheres. Astronomers suggest that powerful jets from the dying star may be carving this channel, forcing material outward from the inner regions. While the nebula’s outer shell is composed primarily of simple hydrogen, the inner clouds contain more chemically complex material, reflecting the star’s advanced evolutionary stage. #space #astronomy

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NASA has delayed the crewed Artemis 2 moon mission to at least April 2026 due to a helium flow issue in the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket’s upper stage.

The rocket is being rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for repairs, pushing back the previous March 6 target date.

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Seen from a distance of 1.5 billion kilometers, Earth appears as a faint pale blue speck beneath the sweeping rings of Saturn in this image taken by the Cassini spacecraft. From this vantage point in the outer Solar System, our planet is reduced to a tiny point of light suspended in the vastness of space.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

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Shown here are the galaxies NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, together known as the Antennae Galaxies. Located about 60 million light-years from Earth—a relatively short distance in cosmic terms—this pair is among the most closely studied examples of interacting galaxies visible in the night sky.

Roughly a billion years ago, their powerful gravitational pull drew them into an unusually close encounter. While individual stars within the galaxies seldom collide, vast clouds of interstellar gas do crash into one another, triggering intense bursts of new star formation.

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Located roughly 400 light-years away, PDS 70 is a youthful stellar system—only about 5.4 million years old—centered on a K-type star. Astronomers have directly observed at least two developing gas giants, PDS 70b and PDS 70c, embedded within a dense circumstellar disk of dust and gas. Because these planets are still accreting material, the system offers a rare snapshot of planetary growth in progress.

Often described as an emerging analogue to a newborn solar system, PDS 70 provides valuable insight into how giant planets form and interact with their natal disks. Observations show the surrounding material actively feeding the planets, helping researchers study the early stages of planetary assembly and system evolution.

Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/Benisty et al.

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Captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, this image highlights the Egg Nebula’s striking contrasts of illumination and shadow, created by material recently expelled from its central star. Situated about 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, the nebula surrounds a star hidden behind a thick veil of dust—evoking the appearance of a bright core embedded within a darker shell. Hubble’s resolution reveals fine structural details that offer insight into how evolving stars shed matter and shape their surrounding environments.

Credit: NASA, ESA, Bruce Balick (University of Washington)

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Earth had some close calls...

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This time-lapse sequence, captured with the NACO instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, tracks the motion of stars over nearly two decades as they orbit the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

Credit: ESO/MPE

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Astronomers have discovered the exoplanet TOI-1452 b, about 100 light-years away, that appears to be a strong candidate for a global “water world.” Roughly 70% larger than Earth and orbiting a red dwarf within a binary star system, the planet shows physical characteristics that differ markedly from rocky terrestrial planets. Observations from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), supported by ground-based follow-ups, indicate a density and atmospheric profile consistent with an extensive, planet-wide ocean rather than exposed continents.

If confirmed, this scenario implies a world where water could extend hundreds of kilometers beneath the surface, reshaping assumptions about planetary diversity and habitability. Such environments are of particular interest because liquid water is central to astrobiology, offering parallels to conditions thought to exist on early Earth. Findings like these expand the scope of the search for life, highlighting that potentially habitable environments may arise in forms far different from familiar terrestrial analogues.

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NASA is tracking a small asteroid named 2023 DW, roughly 164 feet in diameter, which has a very low (approx. 1-in-770) chance of impacting Earth on February 14, 2046.

It is currently considered a "1" on the Torino scale, indicating an extremely unlikely event with no immediate cause for public concern.

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NASA captured the exact moment that a star was born. #space

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This is Saturn's hexagonal storm compared to the United States of America. The storm is located around the north pole of Saturn. #space

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Scientists have captured the first ever photo of an electron's whizzing orbit within a hydrogen atom, thanks to a unique new microscopy technique.

You are able to see a real probability distribution of an electron cloud of the hydrogen atom. #physics

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In a dark sky location, you can see around 2,500 to 3,000 stars at once with the naked eye, compared to only a few dozen in a city. The Milky Way appears as a distinct, hazy, luminous band stretching across the horizon.

Beyond countless stars, observers can see planets, constellations, the Andromeda Galaxy, the Orion Nebula, and even phenomena like zodiacal light and airglow.

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The "Cosmic Vine" is a massive, 13-million-light-year-long chain of 20 galaxies discovered by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in late 2023, located in the early universe (when the universe was just over 1.5 billion years old).

This ancient structure, existing within a dark matter filament, is crucial for understanding how large galaxies and galaxy clusters form, showing massive, star-formation-stopped (quiescent) galaxies even in the early cosmos, challenging previous theories.

It's a key component of the larger cosmic web, revealing how gravity built the universe's largest structures.

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On November 14, 1984, Astronaut Dale Gardner flew untethered to a defective satellite to capture it while hurtling around Earth's orbit.

Gardner utilized a Manned Manuevering Unit (MMU), a mobile jet-powered backpack, to maneuver to the satellite untearhered. #space

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Rolls Royces's plans to build nuclear reactors on the Moon in 2029 have been halted, potentially indefinitely, due to expired government contracts and lack of potential partners.

The project would send a nuclear reactor to the Moon to power a permanent lunar settlement.

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These images are part of a series of authentic photographs captured inside some of the most breathtaking cave systems on New Zealand’s North Island.

The glowing blue organisms seen here are Arachnocampa luminosa, commonly known as New Zealand glowworms, a species found nowhere else on Earth. Their distinctive blue bioluminescence is produced through a chemical reaction within their bodies and is used to lure insects into silk strands that hang from cave ceilings like natural traps.

As visitors move through the caves, the glowworms shift position and their brightness subtly fluctuates, creating a dynamic, star-like display that makes the experience visually stunning and immersive.

Photographed by @txmrae

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The image captures a small frog launched high into the air, silhouetted against the intense orange fireball and rolling smoke of a Minotaur V rocket launch. The photograph was taken by one of NASA’s remote, sound-triggered cameras stationed near the launch pad at Wallops Flight Facility.

These cameras are programmed to fire rapid bursts of images the instant they detect the thunderous roar of rocket engines. In one extraordinary frame, the system inadvertently caught the frog mid-flight as the rocket ignited.

NASA later confirmed the photograph is completely authentic and has not been digitally altered. According to experts, the frog was most likely resting in a pool of water from the launch pad’s high-volume deluge system, which is used to reduce acoustic energy and shield the pad from extreme heat. When the rocket engines ignited, the immense pressure wave blasted the amphibian upward into the air.

As for the frog’s fate, NASA released a characteristically dry statement:
“The photo team confirms the frog is real and was captured in a single frame by one of the remote cameras used to photograph the launch.

The condition of the frog, however, is uncertain.”

Later findings show that the frog did not make it, a picture can be found on the second image.

Credit: NASA Wallops Flight Facility / Chris Perry

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This is the Mystic Mountain Nebula. This turbulent cosmic pinnacle lies within a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7500 light-years away in the southern constellation of Carina. The image marks the 20th anniversary of Hubble's launch and deployment into Earth's orbit.

Streams of charged particles from hot newborn stars in the nebula are shaping and compressing the pillar, causing new stars to form within it. Streamers of hot ionised gas can be seen flowing off the ridges of the structure, and wispy veils of dust, illuminated by starlight, float around its peaks. The pillar is resisting being eroded by radiation.

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‍NASA now says March is the earliest window for a launch of the Artemis II mission after it found a liquid hydrogen leak during a wet dress rehearsal this week.

The space agency had been targeting a February. 8 launch date for the mission, which will send four astronauts on a crewed 10 day journey around the moon.

"To allow teams to review data and conduct a second wet dress rehearsal, NASA now will target March as the earliest possible launch opportunity for the flight test," said NASA.

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Here are 6 exoplanets that scientists consider potentially capable of harboring life:

Proxima Centauri b is the closest known exoplanet to Earth at just 4.2 light-years away and orbits within the habitable zone of a red dwarf star. It is roughly Earth-sized and may be capable of supporting liquid water.

TRAPPIST-1e is one of seven Earth-sized planets in the TRAPPIST system located about 40 light-years away and sits firmly in the habitable zone. It is considered one of the most promising candidates for habitability.

Kepler-186f is an Earth-size planet located about 500 light-years away that orbits within the habitable zone of its star. It was the first Earth-sized exoplanet discovered in a habitable region.

LHS 1140 b is a dense super-Earth located about 40 light-years away that orbits within the habitable zone of a red dwarf star. It is one of the best targets for future atmospheric studies.

K2-18b is an exoplanet about 124 light-years away that orbits within the habitable zone of its star and has water vapor detected in its atmosphere. It is likely a sub-Neptune rather than a rocky planet.

Gliese 12 b is a Venus-size exoplanet located about 40 light-years away that orbits near the inner edge of the habitable zone. It is a key target for studying whether Earth-sized planets can retain their atmospheres.

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