NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

April 27, 2024

All Sky Moon Shadow

If the Sun is up but the sky is dark and the horizon is bright all around, you might be standing in the Moon's shadow during a total eclipse of the Sun. In fact, the all-sky Moon shadow shown in this composited panoramic view was captured from a farm near Shirley, Arkansas, planet Earth. The exposures were made under clear skies during the April 8 total solar eclipse. For that location near the center line of the Moon's shadow track, totality lasted over 4 minutes. Along with the solar corona surrounding the silhouette of the Moon planets and stars were visible during the total eclipse phase. Easiest to see here are bright planets Venus and Jupiter, to the lower right and upper left of the eclipsed Sun.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?

Mick Jagger lands at Nasa’s Mission Control

27 April 2024 • 3:58am

Rolling Stones lead Mick Jagger has taken the tour of Nasa’s famed Johnson Space Centre Mission Control, a favourite of tourists in Houston.

After visiting the Nasa Space Centre, he posted pictures on Friday of the visit on Instagram with the words: “Thanks @nasa for being so welcoming to us and great to be shown around by astronauts Josh Cassada, Bob Hines and Jessica Meir.’’

The Rolling Stones are back in Houston for another concert there, at the NRG Stadium on Sunday, in one of several visits the group has made to the Texas city since their first concert there in the 1960s.

In the photos, the Mission Control centre has a sign welcoming him. Sir Mick, 80, is seen with a VR headset to explore the moon virtually, with a spacecraft simulator and with the astronauts.

The weekend concert is the first in a 16-city tour of the US and Canada for the Stones’ Hackney Diamonds album.

The Stones have sold more than 200 million records worldwide, making them the second best-selling artists of all time behind only The Beatles.

Hackney Diamonds, the group’s newest album, came out last October.

It was the band’s first album of new songs since 2005’s A Bigger Bang, leading to Sir Mick joking that they had “been lazy”, despite being on tour almost every year for the past decade.

Last year, Sir Mick suggested the Stones catalogue may eventually be given to charity instead of being sold.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal about a sale of the band’s post-1971 tracks, he said: “The children don’t need $500 million to live well, come on,” before suggesting that it may go to charity, adding – “You maybe do some good in the world.”

Jagger is father to eight children, ranging in age from six to 52.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/04/27/mick-jagger-tours-nasa-mission-control/