The powerful NSF Inouye Solar Telescope has just delivered absolutely mind-blowing observations of its first X-class solar flare. On 8 August 2024, the telescope managed to capture one of the most powerful flares our Sun is capable of producing – at a remarkable resolution of just four Earths across. This level of detail reveals some of the finest structures we’ve …
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It looked like a shadow at first — but after several minutes, a rare species of deep-sea shark had swum by an underwater camera 54 times, delighting researchers. The Miami Herald reported on the events, which happened in the Caribbean’s Cayman Islands. A group of scientists, conducting the area’s “first systematic investigation” of deep-sea biodiversity, lowered their camera to a …
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A giant solar tornado and a massive plasma eruption were just raging on the surface of the sun at the same time — and a researcher has captured both in one spectacular image. Although the solar events are unrelated, both are the result of disturbances in the sun’s invisible magnetic field, with some plasma forced into a tornado shape and …
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More About Psyche The Psyche mission is led by ASU. Lindy Elkins-Tanton of the University of California, Berkeley is the principal investigator. A division of Caltech in Pasadena, JPL is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California, provided the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis. ASU leads …
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Headed for a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, the Psyche spacecraft successfully calibrated its cameras by looking homeward. On schedule for its 2029 arrival at the asteroid Psyche, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft recently looked back toward home and captured images of Earth and our Moon from about 180 million miles (290 million kilometers) away. The images were obtained during one …
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Sprites, also called red sprites, are TLEs that occur high above thunderstorm clouds or cumulonimbus, triggered by intense electrical activity in the thunderstorms. While sprites themselves are not everyday events, further study of the image revealed that what Ayers caught wasn’t a sprite, but a rarer TLE called a gigantic jet. A gigantic jet happens above thunderstorms, firing powerful bursts …
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This is one of the sharpest, clearest panoramas ever captured by NASA’s Perseverance rover, showing what it’s really like on the surface of Mars The mosaic was stitched together using 96 images taken by Perseverance at a location known as ‘Falbreen’. NASA’s Perseverance rover has enabled scientists to hear sound on Mars for the first time. Credit: Dima Zel / …
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Aboard the International Space Station (ISS), NASA astronaut Don Petit took this stunning image in a long exposure capture. Within just one photo, Petit revealed many different events that could be seen from low-Earth orbit, from star trails to orbiting Starlink satellites to the glow of city lights on Earth. What is it? On the ISS, Petit had a view …
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There’s nothing quite like the heart-pounding thrill of watching a high-speed train blast by. A video posted by TikToker Harissa Boy (@harissa_boy) shows the mighty velocity of the Shinkansen train zooming through a Japanese rail station as awe-inspired onlookers watch, with a catchy, sped-up synth remix of Jacques Offenbach’s famous can-can song Galop Infernal. Shinkansen is the Japanese term for …
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Quick facts What it is: The Hubble Ultra Deep Field, revisited by the James Webb Space Telescope Where it is: Close to the Big Dipper in the night sky When it was shared: Aug. 1, 2025 The James Webb Space Telescope‘s (JWST) latest extragalactic survey has revealed fainter and more distant objects than ever before, some dating back to the …
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