NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

March 12, 2025

NGC 772: The Fiddlehead Galaxy

Why does this galaxy look like a curly vegetable? The Fiddlehead spiral galaxy likely gets its distorted spiral appearance from a gravitational interaction with its close-by elliptical companion NGC 770, seen just below. Cataloged as NGC 772 and Arp 78, the Fiddlehead spans over 200,000 light years, is a nearby 100 million light years beyond the stars of our Milky Way galaxy, and is visible toward the constellation of the Ram (Aries). But in the featured image, the Fiddlehead appears to have another companion one with a long and fuzzy tail: Comet 43P/Wolf-Harrington. Though the comet appears to be aimed straight at the massive galaxy, it is actually much closer to us, residing only light minutes away well within our Solar System. The comet will never reach the distant spiral galaxy, nor is it physically related to it. By a fortunate trick of perspective, though, these two cosmic wonders briefly share the same frame taken late last year from Calern, France.

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

NASA's SpaceX Crew-10, Starlink doubleheader: What to know about today's twin liftoffs from Cape

Updated 8:41 a.m. ET March 12, 2025

It's launch day for NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 astronauts — followed by a SpaceX Starlink liftoff less than three hours later!

First, SpaceX is targeting 7:48 p.m. EDT to launch Crew-10's Falcon 9 rocket from pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Crew members will take seats aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule for their journey to the International Space Station, which will set up the return to Earth of Crew-9 — including Boeing Starliner astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.

After soaring skyward along a northeasterly trajectory, the Falcon 9 first-stage booster will trigger Space Coast sonic booms by returning for a landing 7 minutes, 39 seconds after liftoff at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

Then at 10:20 p.m., SpaceX will launch a second Falcon 9 on the oft-postponed Starlink 12-21 mission from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The Crew-10 launch target has a pristine forecast from the Space Force's 45th Weather Squadron.

Odds of "go for launch" weather clock in at greater than 95% — but the squadron noted a moderate risk of poor conditions along the rocket's ascent recovery corridor over the Atlantic Ocean.

Check back for live Crew-10 FLORIDA TODAY Space Team launch coverage updates on this page, starting about 3:30 p.m.

When the NASA+ live webcast begins about 3:45 p.m., look for it posted below next to our countdown clock.

Our blog coverage will roll directly into the Starlink mission.

https://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2025/03/12/nasa-spacex-crew-10-launch-today-what-to-know-before-cape-canaveral-florida-kennedy-space-center/82260997007/

https://www.nasa.gov/mission/nasas-spacex-crew-10/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RTehiOVIDw&pp=ygUMbmFzYSBjcmV3IDEw

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CREW-10 MISSION

March 12, 2025 7:48 p.m. ET

SpaceX and NASA are targeting no earlier than Wednesday, March 12 for Falcon 9’s launch of Dragon’s 10th operational human spaceflight mission (Crew-10) to the International Space Station from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Launch is targeted for 7:48 p.m. ET, with a backup opportunity available on Thursday, March 13 at 7:26 p.m. ET.

SpaceX’s live webcast of this mission will begin about one hour and 20 minutes prior to liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app.

The Dragon spacecraft supporting this mission previously flew NASA’s Crew-3, Crew-5, and Crew-7 missions to and from the space station.

Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

During their time on the orbiting laboratory, the crew will conduct new research to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and to benefit humanity on Earth.

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=crew-10

Starlink Mission

March 12, 2025 10:20 p.m. ET

SpaceX is targeting Wednesday, March 12 for a Falcon 9 launch of 21 Starlink satellites, including 13 with Direct to Cell capabilities, to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Liftoff is targeted for 10:20 p.m. ET, with backup opportunities available until 2:20 a.m. on Thursday, March 13.

If needed, additional launch opportunities are also available on Thursday, March 13 starting at 9:53 p.m. ET

A live webcast of this mission will begin about five minutes prior to liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app.

This is the 22nd flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched CRS-24, Eutelsat HOTBIRD 13F, OneWeb 1, SES-18 and SES-19, and 17 Starlink missions.

Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=sl-12-21

NASA Glenn Accepts Aviation Award for “NEAT” Facility

Mar 12, 2025

Each year, Aviation Week (AW) Network recognizes a limited number of innovators who achieve extraordinary accomplishments in the global aerospace arena with AW’s prestigious Laureate Award.

These innovators represent the values and vision of the global aerospace community and change the way people work and move through the world.

On March 6, NASA’s Glenn Research Center accepted an AW Laureate Award in commercial aviation for NASA’s Electric Aircraft Testbed (NEAT) located at NASA Glenn’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio.

NEAT allows government, industry, and academia to collaborate and conduct testing of high-powered electric powertrains, which generate power and propel aircraft forward.

The goal is to transform commercial flight by creating more sustainable, fuel-efficient commercial aircraft.

NEAT enables ground testing of cutting-edge systems prior to experimental flight testing.

As a result, researchers can troubleshoot issues that only occur at altitude and improve them earlier in the design cycle, which both accelerates the path to flight and makes it safer.

A number of “firsts” have been accomplished in the electric aircraft testbed.

NASA and GE Aerospace completed the first successful ground tests of a high-power hybrid electric aircraft propulsion system at simulated altitude in 2022.

A megawatt-class electric machine was tested at NEAT by a university team led by The Ohio State University and the University of Wisconsin, under NASA’s University Leadership Initiative.

Under the Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration project, magniX tested its high-power megawatt-class powertrain with a goal to achieve approximately 5% reduced fuel use.

Systems tested at NEAT from General Electric and magniX will be flown on modified passenger aircraft currently being reconfigured for flight testing.

https://www.nasa.gov/newsletters/aerospace-frontiers/nasa-glenn-accepts-aviation-award-for-neat-facility/

NASA Releases its Spinoff 2025 Publication

Mar 12, 2025

The work NASA conducts in space leads to ongoing innovations benefiting people on Earth.

Some of these latest technologies, which have been successfully transferred from NASA to the commercial sector, are featured in the latest edition of NASA’s Spinoff 2025 publication now available online.

The publication features more than 40 commercial infusions of NASA technologies, including research originated at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

Bringing Hybrid Power to the Rescue

A NASA-funded hybrid power system makes drones more capable in disasters.

With Small Business Innovation Research funding from NASA Glenn, Parallel Flight Technologies of La Selva Beach, California, was able to test its hybrid propulsion technology, enabling longer-running, remotely piloted aircraft for use in agricultural and rescue applications. See the full Spinoff article for more information.

Hubble Battery Tech Holds Power on Earth

Nickel-hydrogen technology is safe, durable, and long-lasting – and now it’s affordable, too.

Nickel-hydrogen batteries store renewable energy for power plants, businesses, and homes, thanks to innovations from Fremont, California-based EnerVenue, informed by papers published by NASA Glenn about the technology’s performance on the Hubble Space Telescope, International Space Station, and more.

Spinoff 2025 also features 20 technologies available for licensing with the potential for commercialization.

https://www.nasa.gov/newsletters/aerospace-frontiers/nasa-releases-its-spinoff-2025-publication/

https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Other%20Spinoff%20Resources

https://nypost.com/2025/03/12/us-news/nasa-spent-20m-in-biden-dei-push-that-brought-anti-racist-trainings-to-agency-report/

https://openthebooks.substack.com/p/f85d34b3-d8ee-4242-8cc7-6cd4624f1a63

https://www.theblaze.com/news/blaze-news-investigates-nasa-whistleblowers-expose-dei-playbook-that-risked-moon-mission-safety

NASA spent $20M in Biden DEI push that brought ‘anti-racist’ trainings to agency: report

March 12, 2025, 6:00 a.m. ET

NASA forked over more than $20 million in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) grants and contracts during the Biden administration, shelling out for “implicit bias” trainings, talks with so-called “anti-racist” authors, “gender-affirming” workplace guidelines and an aggressive, left-wing media presence.

Prodded by executive action from former President Joe Biden, NASA officials also implemented a strategic plan to suffuse all agency operations with DEI, altering criteria for recruitment, performance evaluations and promotions.

The taxpayer-watchdog group Open The Books revealed the politicization of the space agency in a report published Wednesday, which shares a trove of documents obtained from various public records requests.

“NASA’s mission is too risky to get distracted by identity politics,” Open The Books CEO John Hart told The Post.

“Newtonian physics and atmospheric re-entry do not care about antiracism talks and gender ‘affirmation’ policies. NASA has an opportunity to take one small step toward fiscal responsibility and one giant leap toward common sense.”

The $11.7 million in grants and $8.3 million in contracts represent just a fraction of the agency’s $25 billion annual budget, though former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson advanced Biden’s equity agenda far beyond the reach of those spending items.

NASA’s Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity kicked off their DEI agenda in earnest during the final months of President Trump’s first term.

Email records obtained by the watchdog group reveal that the office invited left-wing author and professor Ibram X. Kendi to give a talk to NASA employees in August 2020 titled “Mission to Inclusion: Cultivating an Antiracist Workplace.”

It’s unclear how much Kendi was paid for the lecture. Two years later, the star anti-racist guru got $5,000 for a similar discussion with hundreds of National Institutes of Health (NIH) employees, which was disclosed previously by Open The Books.

Trump’s NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, a former Republican congressman, also dipped his toe into DEI by adding “inclusion” to the agency’s list of core values in 2020.

NASA in the past only touted “safety,” “integrity,” “teamwork” and “excellence” as vital principles.

But Biden kicked the costly DEI initiative into high gear with a Day One executive order on “advancing racial equity,” reversing action by Trump that had halted the identity-focused trainings and barred race- and sex-focused grants and contracts.

Some of the developmental sessions that came as a result were titled “Diversity All In” and the “The Power of Inclusion,” with the latter involving a three-hour-long course to help “engage men to advance women in leadership positions.”

Lefty authors were also invited back for talks, while books on “unconscious bias” and workplace diversity were made a part of professional development.

“In order to move toward a more inclusive society, the primary beneficiaries of privilege—namely European-American, heterosexual, Christian men—must recognize the advantages they are automatically granted,” states one of those agency-touted books, “Diversity Beyond Lip Service: A Coaching Guide for Challenging Bias.”

“While white men must recognize their privilege, the rest of us must recognize that for them, this new accountability will come with a sense of loss and discomfort,” writes author La’Wana Harris.

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Another 2021 book discussion featured author Uju Asika speaking about her book “Bringing Up Race: How to Raise a Kind Child in a Prejudiced World,” to “positively open up the lines of communication on anti-racism,” an email obtained by Open The Books shows.

“As a woman of color in today’s Brexit and Trump climate, you have to stay woke,” Asika writes, while elsewhere calling out those who are “whitewashing America’s past.”

“This doesn’t mean you have to cancel Thanksgiving, but your child should understand why a Native American might not want to sit at your feast,” Asika goes on. “Explain that for many, Turkey Day is a day of mourning.”

Other facets of implementing Biden’s DEI prerogatives included “workplace gender” plans that placed “transitioning” NASA workers in “the restroom, locker room or other facility that they feel most comfortable using.”

“[T]he transitioning employee should not be asked or required to use an alternate facility in order to accommodate” employees who took issue, the guidelines declared.

Recruitment efforts also honed in on so-called “underserved communities” or potential employees with disabilities — while “the process of selecting top leaders” was slated for an update “to better reflect DEIA principles and practices.”

In performance evaluations, employees were graded on the degree to which they “emphasize[d] social justice and inclusion,” fostered “diversity dialogues,” affirmatively asked for, participated in and incorporated DEI trainings into their roles or promoted “the development and advancement of underrepresented groups through nominating and selecting diverse team members for professional development courses, speaking engagements, and training opportunities,” according to Open The Books’ report.

Not even tech workers were spared from the aggressive approach, with officials working “to harness existing data systems, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to analyze DEIA-relevant data.”

In 2023, NASA hosted a “Diversity Equity Inclusion and Accessibility [DEIA] Day” that contracted an array of DEI-obsessed businesses to coach their employees.

The event took place at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, the site supporting the Apollo missions that first put men on the moon.

One of the event’s vendors, Decide Diversity, developed a “Table of Diversity” that labeld employees by their races, gender identities, sexual orientations and other markers to spark workplace conversations.

It appears NASA fully embraced the effort, with the creator of the table, Demetria Miles-McDonald, trumpeting her “partnership” with the agency last year.

The Post has reached out to NASA reps for comment.

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NASA Tracking Three Plane-Sized Asteroids Approaching Earth Today

Mar 12, 2025 at 9:16 AM EDT

NASA is monitoring three aircraft-sized asteroids that will zoom past the Earth later today at around 19,000 to 22,200 miles per hour.

The space rock known as "2025 DL22" will make the closest approach of the three asteroids, soaring past our planet at a distance of about 1.79 million miles, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said on its website.

The asteroid could be anywhere between around 66 to 151 feet in diameter, according to the JPL's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).

Another plane-sized space rock, known as the "2025 DY5" and measuring about 92 feet across, will zip past our planet this afternoon at a distance of around 2.32 million miles from the Earth.

A subsequent asteroid, known as "2025 DC22" and estimated to be around 76 feet across, is also expected to make a close approach in the early evening today at a distance of about 2.2 million miles, according to NASA.

Back in February, updated data from the CNEOS showed the impact probability of the asteroid known as "2024 YR4" in 2032 was 3.1 percent, which was "the highest impact probability NASA has ever recorded for an object of this size or larger," the national space agency said at the time.

However, further studies on the asteroid's trajectory later that month brought the chance of Earth impact on December 22 in 2032 further down to 0.004 percent.

The data "found there is no significant potential for this asteroid to impact our planet for the next century," NASA said in a blog post on February 24.

The space agency noted that "NASA has significantly lowered the risk of near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4 as an impact threat to Earth for the foreseeable future" and "the range of possible locations the asteroid could be on Dec. 22, 2032, has moved farther away from the Earth."

A "very small chance," however, still remains for asteroid 2024 YR4 to impact the Moon on that date and that probability is currently 1.7 percent, according to NASA.

Asteroids are small rocky masses left over from the formation of the solar system around 4.6 billion years ago. They are found concentrated in the main asteroid belt, orbiting around the sun between the paths of Mars and Jupiter.

The orbits of asteroids bring them within 120 million miles of the sun. Most near-Earth objects (NEOs) are asteroids that range in size from about 10 feet to almost 25 miles across.

"The majority of near-Earth objects have orbits that don't bring them very close to Earth, and therefore pose no risk of impact," NASA notes.

However, a small portion of them, known as potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs), do require closer monitoring.

Estimated to be around 460 feet in size, PHAs have orbits that bring them as close as within 4.6 million miles of the Earth's orbit around the sun, NASA explains.

"Not all NEOs are potentially hazardous, but all hazardous objects are NEOs," Martin Barstow, a professor of astrophysics and space science at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, previously told Newsweek.

Despite the number of PHAs in our solar system, none of them are likely to hit Earth any time soon.

"The 'potentially hazardous' designation simply means over many centuries and millennia the asteroid's orbit may evolve into one that has a chance of impacting Earth.

We do not assess these long-term, many-century possibilities of impact," Paul Chodas, manager of the CNEOS, previously told Newsweek.

https://www.newsweek.com/asteroids-nasa-approach-earth-2025-dl22-dy5-dc22-2043476

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroid-watch/next-five-approaches/

How Do We Know the Earth Isn’t Flat? We Asked a NASA Expert: Episode 53

Mar 11, 2025

This was a magical revelation for the Greeks and the Egyptians, who were able to see from the motions of the stars and the way the Sun moved.

They saw the way the Sun’s shadow worked in different places. And they figured, well, that’s only possible if the Earth is round.

And they took that information and it extended into the time of the great mariners that explored our Earth by ships.

They made the first orbit of Earth by sea, and they knew the Earth was round, allowing them to go across one ocean and come back home the other way.

If the Earth were flat, they would have sailed off the end. And so we knew that.

But then, at the dawn of the space age, in the late 50s and 60s, we were able to see for ourselves that our beautiful home is a gorgeous round object known as a sphere.

And that was really special. It put ourselves into context of our solar system and our universe.

We have a big round Sun and a beautiful round Earth and a round Mars.

And today we use the roundness of Earth, the spherical Earth, to use methods in space geodesy to figure out where we are, where we’re going.

I haven’t been lost in years. That’s pretty good.

What’s happening to the Earth, what’s happening to our oceans as we take the pulse of our planet and consider other worlds beyond as we explore those.

So as we get ready to go back to the Moon with women and men and explore other worlds, the roundness of our solar system and our universe is a special thing.

And we should embrace that as we understand why our planet isn’t flat.

https://www.nasa.gov/earth/how-do-we-know-the-earth-isnt-flat-we-asked-a-nasa-expert-episode-53/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB06dUoGGRI

Remarkable Collection of Historic NASA Space Photos to be Auctioned

Mar 11, 2025

Parisian auction house Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr will offer collectors an opportunity to purchase early space photographs, including some previously unseen photos captured by NASA astronauts in space and on the Moon.

The collection, For All Mankind: The Artistic Legacy of Early Space Exploration, features 450 vintage NASA photographs from the collection of space historian Victor Martin-Malburet. His acclaimed collection has been showcased in major museum exhibitions and includes iconic images and forgotten treasures.

For All Mankind includes some fantastic lots. Although Bonhams is currently previewing just 10 lots ahead of the auction next month, it has shown off some heavy hitters.

The only photograph of Neil Armstrong on the Moon during Apollo 11, as captured by Buzz Aldrin in July 1969, is expected to sell for between $19,000 and $27,000.

There is also the first-ever photo taken on the Moon of the Earth rising, which the auctioneers expect to sell for up to $19,000.

Buzz Aldrin’s self-portrait during Gemini XII, the first selfie in outer space, is expected to fetch between $8,700 and $13,000.

Other historically significant photos up for grabs include the first full-disk photo of Earth, which was taken during Apollo 17, Neil Armstrong’s historic first shot of the Moon’s surface, the famed “Man on the Moon” portrait of Buzz Aldrin, Ed White’s first space walk, and more.

Martin-Malburet began amassing his impressive collection after he went to an auction dedicated to space exploration as a teenager. He attended the event with his father, a contemporary art collector.

“I was awestruck by the famous photograph of Buzz Aldrin on the Moon, with the Lunar Module reflected in his visor,” Martin-Malburet recalls.

“What could be more disruptive than the moment when humans left their planet for the first time and set foot on another world?

At a time when photography was still analog, the prints produced by ANSA were the treasures brought back from the unknown by the astronauts — for all mankind.”

Sabine Cornette de Saint Cyr, head of the sale, adds, “The Apollo astronauts captured humanity’s greatest dream through their cameras.

Their photographs will forever symbolize the beginning of our expansion into the Universe. Today, space exploration is once again a burning topic.”

“It was only natural for Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr to present these undisputed masterpieces of the 20th century to collectors, as they continue to fascinate and enrich our imagination,” she concludes.

The Victor Martin-Malburet Photographs collection will be auctioned online by Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr Paris from April 14 through 28.

https://petapixel.com/2025/03/11/remarkable-collection-of-historic-nasa-space-photos-to-be-auctioned/

https://www.bonhams.com/auction/30739/for-all-mankind-the-artistic-legacy-of-early-space-exploration-victor-martin-malburet-collection/

Mysterious radio signals are coming from ‘unprecedented’ part of space, scientists say

Wednesday 12 March 2025 06:22 EDT

Mysterious radio pulses are coming from somewhere scientists have never seen before.

For a decade, something has been sending blasts of radio emissions towards us every two hours, roughly from the Big Dipper constellation.

But work over those years using multiple telescopes has finally revealed where they might be coming from.

The long radio blasts appear to be emitted from a pair of dead stars, researchers believe.

Scientists believe the two stars – a red dwarf and a white dwarf – are in orbit around each other so tightly that their magnetic fields interact with each other.

When they bump together, every two hours, it sends out a blast of radio signals.

Previously, astronomers had only traced such long radio pulses to neutron stars.

But the new study suggests for the first time that they can come from the movement of stars that are locked together in a binary system, too.

Those pulses are short flashes of radio signals that can last anywhere between seconds and minutes.

They are akin to – but slightly different from – fast radio bursts, a similar phenomenon that fascinates astronomers and still remains mysterious.

“The radio pulses are very similar to FRBs, but they each have different lengths,” Kilpatrick said.

“The pulses have much lower energies than FRBs and usually last for several seconds, as opposed to FRBs which last milliseconds.

There’s still a major question of whether there’s a continuum of objects between long-period radio transients and FRBs, or if they are distinct populations.”

https://www.the-independent.com/space/radio-signals-star-pulses-b2713567.html

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02491-0

Spinning Effect Restored to Planet Earth Sculpture Outside Mission: SPACE

March 11, 2025

The planet Earth sculpture outside of Mission: SPACE is finally spinning once again.

The exterior of Mission: SPACE has undergone years-long refurbishment. During this process, the Earth sculpture that sits outside the front of the attraction was removed in August 2023 and returned in March 2024.

After its return, it still sat stagnant for many months. The planet hadn’t spun since late 2021/ early 2022, until last August when the spinning effect was finally restored.

However, we reported last month that the spinning effect had once again stopped working. That has since changed, as of Tuesday, March 11, the planet is spinning once again.

The planet’s design contains swirls of blue and white. In front of it is the Mission: SPACE logo with a space shuttle seemingly passing across the planet.

You can view the planet’s spinning effect in our video below.

https://wdwnt.com/2025/03/spinning-effect-restored-to-planet-earth-sculpture-outside-mission-space/

Wispy comet photobombs 'rare' planetary parade above Chile's Atacama Desert

March 5, 2025

The dark skies of Chile's Atacama Desert are perfect for skywatching, especially when a parade of six planets and a comet grace the night sky all at once.

In February 2025, conditions were just right to catch a "planetary party" above the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Paranal Observatory.

In new photos of this planet parade, the wispy glow of our own Milky Way galaxy is accompanied by Saturn, Neptune, Venus, Uranus, Jupiter and Mars as they make their way through the night sky.

A bright moon lights up the desert beneath the planets and stars in the sky, while comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) is just visible above the horizon.

ESO released two images of an equirectangular projection of the "planetary party." In this type of image, a spherical image is flattened or "unrolled" into a rectangular image.

The brightest object left of center is the moon, while the faint, wispy tail of comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) can be seen at the far left, just to the right of one of the observatory's telescopes.

Along the right side of the image, the long arc of the Milky Way can be seen. In an annotated version of the photo, ESO provided labels for all of the objects in the sky.

In a statement accompanying the photo, ESO notes that the planets do not follow the same arc of the Milky Way, but instead follow an imaginary line known as the ecliptic.

The ecliptic traces the path that Earth and the other planets follow as they orbit the sun.

The Milky Way does not follow the ecliptic, however. As noted in ESO's statement, this is because the ecliptic plane that Earth and the other planets follow around the sun is tilted around 60 degrees relative to the plane of the Milky Way.

"If the Milky Way could somehow be shrunk down to lie flat on a table, our solar system would be jutting out like a pin stuck in it at an odd angle," ESO wrote in the statement.

In addition to the equirectangular projection, ESO also released two fisheye projections of the planetary parade. These show the night sky more closely to how they would be seen by an observer looking straight up.

In a labeled version of this projection, the starkly different planes of the ecliptic and the Milky Way are much more visible.

If you're looking for a telescope or binoculars to observe the night sky, our guides for the best binoculars deals and the best telescope deals now can help.

Our guides on the best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography can also help you prepare to capture the next skywatching sight. And don't miss our helpful tips on how to photograph the planets.

https://www.space.com/stargazing/wispy-comet-photobombs-rare-planetary-parade-above-chiles-atacama-desert-photos

https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2510c/

>>22747448

correction

>March 5

<March 12

World's largest iceberg runs aground in South Atlantic after 1,200-mile journey

March 12, 2025

Earth's largest iceberg has run aground off the coast of South Georgia Island, a common rendezvous spot for large icebergs, new satellite images show.

Measuring 1,240 square miles (3,460 square kilometers), the Antarctic iceberg A-23A has come to a grinding halt after a long and winding journey across the Scotia Sea, also known as "iceberg alley."

Satellite images taken at the beginning of March show the iceberg parked on a shallow underwater shelf off the coast of South Georgia Island, which is a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic Ocean and the largest of nine islands that make up the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands.

The new images of A-23A were taken by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite.

Earlier observations suggest the iceberg's northward drift slowed suddenly in late February, according to a statement from NASA's Earth Observatory.

"I think the big question now is whether the strong current will trap it there as it melts and breaks up or whether it will spin around to the south of the island like previous bergs," Josh Willis, an oceanographer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in the statement. "Time will tell."

Ocean currents have carried other notable icebergs to this same region, including the trillion-ton A-68A, which was even bigger than A23A, measuring 2,200 square miles (5698 square km) at its largest.

Initially stranded in December 2020, A-68A quickly broke into two main pieces that continued to fracture and eventually disintegrated over the course of three months, adding 152 billion metric tons of fresh water to the northern Scotia Sea around South Georgia.

A-23A has travelled more than 1,200 miles (2,000 km) north from its home in the Southern Weddell Sea, where it calved from Antarctica's Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in 1986.

After several decades, the iceberg broke away from the seafloor and began to drift in the early 2020s.

Since stranding near South Georgia Island, several small ice fragments have already chipped away from A-23A, as seen in the new satellite images.

"When icebergs make it this far north, they eventually succumb to the warmer waters, winds and currents that make this ocean area a challenge for all seafarers," NASA officials said in the statement.

While there is no permanent human population on the remote island, South Georgia supports abundant life, from seals and penguins to tiny phytoplankton.

Fresh water melting from the bottom of the iceberg could affect the local ocean environment and flora and fauna along the island's shoreline.

Satellites will continue to monitor the iceberg and any ice fragments that break off into the ocean.

https://www.space.com/the-universe/earth/worlds-largest-iceberg-runs-aground-in-south-atlantic-after-1-200-mile-journey-satellite-photos

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/154022/iceberg-grinds-to-a-stop-off-south-georgia-island