Mars Rotation - via Space Telescope Science Institute

This animation was assembled from a combination of Hubble Space Telescope images of Mars taken from December 28th to 30th, 2024. At the midpoint of the Hubble observations, Mars was approximately 61 million miles from Earth.

Sea Ice Extent 1978-2025

Credit: Mark SubbaRao (NASA/GSFC)

Link: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/5521/

The Sea Ice Index provides a quick look at Arctic- and Antarctic-wide changes in sea ice.

#earth #climate #climatecrisis

Cosmic Tornado

Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, J. DePasquale (STScI), L. Hustak (STScI), G. Bacon (STScI), R. Crawford (STScI), D. Kirshenblat (STScI), C. Nieves (STScI), A. Pagan (STScI), F. Summers (STScI)

Sidereal vs Synodic Month

Animation of Moon Rotation: LRO, Arizona State U., NASA
Infographic: SpaceFM

A sidereal month is the time the Moon orbits the Earth as respect to the background stars.

Primary Mirror Size Comparison Between Webb and Hubble

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

The James Webb Space Telescope primary mirror is 6.5 meters (21 feet 4-inches) across. The Hubble Space Telescope primary mirror is 2.4 meters (8-feet) across.

The PLANETS* to scale not only in size, but also in their tilt and rotation speed - credit Dr. James O'Donoghue @interplanetary.bsky.social

Link: youtu.be/WX6PRDqfLNc

From description:
"To roughly explain the tilts: we think they started out roughly the same in tilt, so either by huge impacts,

Mars Apparent Retrogade Motion as seen from Earth Visually Explained

Apparent Retrograde Motion is when Mars appears to move backward in the sky as seen from Earth. 

Found here: www.reddit.com/r/physicsgif...

#mars #earth #space #orbit #motion #astronomy #science

Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander caught Earth on video as the lander continued its journey to the Moon - Credit: @FireflyAerospace⁣
⁣
Blue Ghost is expected to land on March 2, delivering 10 different NASA science investigations to the Moon’s surface.⁣

Did Earth capture the Moon?

Darren M. Williams, et. al. has revived the capture hypothesis in his recent paper

H/t Tony Dunn (X)

If a binary planet system passed close enough to Earth, it could break up the binary pair capturing one.

Total solar eclipse seen from space - via @europeanspaceagency , data @noaa

These Images are always beautiful!!

Geostationary satellite GOES 16 orbiting 36 000 km away captured images of the rare celestial event happened on 8 april 2024

Ants Solving A Puzzle

Credit: "Comparing cooperative geometric puzzle solving in ants versus humans" (scientific paper, doi.org/10.1073/pnas...,
Tabea Dreyer, Amir Haluts Amos Korman and Ofer Feinerman)

When ants work in groups, their performances rise significantly.

Slow-motion videos of sprites taken from Hiratsuka (Japan) on December 21, 2024 - credit @dfuji1.bsky.social (X, #dfuji1)

Infographic via noaa

Link x.com/dfuji1/statu...

NASA’s Hubble Sees Aftermath of Galaxy’s Scrape with Milky Way

#star #space #largemagellaniccloud #astronomy #milkyway

Animation Comparing Rotation Rates of Jupiter, Saturn, and Brown Dwarf 2MASS J0348-6022

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)

Brown dwarfs are more massive than any of the giant planets in our solar system but less massive than stars.