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Explanation: Earlier this week, Earth’s shadow swept across the full Moon in the year’s only total lunar eclipse. This stunning sequence combines images showing the Moon’s path across the night sky. Each lunar image captures our planet’s shadow gradually engulfing the Moon, culminating in its red glow. Sunlight scatters and refracts as it passes through Earth’s atmosphere toward the Moon. Shorter wavelength light (blue and green) scatters more efficiently, leaving red, orange, and yellow hues to paint the lunar surface. Tsé Bit'a'í (”rock with wings”, also known as Shiprock), located in Navajo Nation, provides a powerful volcanic foreground central to...

Explanation: What’s looking back at you isn’t a cosmic eye, but Shapley 1, a beautifully symmetric planetary nebula. Shapley 1, also known as the Fine Ring Nebula or PLN 329+2.1, bejewels the southern sky constellation of the Carpenter's Square (Norma). The nebula is the result of a star near the mass of our Sun running out of fuel and shedding its outer layers. Glowing oxygen from those expelled layers makes up the circular halo. The bright central point is actually a binary: a white dwarf, the remaining stellar core after the outer layers are expelled into space, and another star,...

In space news this week Stoke Space moves one step closer toward the inaugural launch of their Nova rocket, Rocket Lab releases their quarterly report and launches a hypersonic test vehicle, the Artemis II SLS is rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building and NASA announces major changes to the Artemis program. Rocket Lab Releases Update on First-of-Its-Kind Neutron Rocket - Avid Space Spaceflight Update | 4:40 Avid Space | 249K subscribers | 8,755 views | March 3, 2026

Credits: NASA/JPL-CaltechThis image was taken by Right Navigation Camera onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4816 (2026-02-22 11:56:09 UTC).

NASA has repaired its Artemis 2 rocket, apparently keeping things on track for a possible April launch of the first crewed moon mission in more than 50 years. Engineers made a fix that aims to restore consistent helium flow to the upper stage of Artemis 2's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, agency officials announced in an update on Tuesday (March 3). "Work on the rocket and spacecraft will continue in the coming weeks as NASA prepares for rolling the rocket out to the launch pad again later this month ahead of a potential launch in April," NASA wrote in the...

SpaceX is dropping the bomb! Ship 39 is at the test site after a spectacular rollout. But there’s a story they didn’t tell us. Starship Flight 12 is closer than you might think, and Starbase is getting ready for a giant leap! And NASA… is overthrowing its own plans while SLS is still stuck on the ground. Radical change is coming for Artemis, and it’s not at all what you’d expect! SpaceX Starship: Flight 12 Ship 39 Reveals A Secret Trick! | 21:37 What about it!? | 625K subscribers | 19.585 views | March 3, 2026

Explanation: If you could fly over the North Pole of Mars, what would you see? Images from ESA’s Mars Express mission in 2019 were compiled into the featured video which shows just such a trip. First you see below you a landscape tinted orange by rusted iron in the fine soil, with some land appearing darker due to exposed rock. Soon the northern polar cap comes into view, mostly white because of its reflective frozen water. Surrounding the polar cap is the North Polar Basin, a layered depression covered with dust and sand. The frames in the featured video were...

Explanation: How well do you know the night sky? OK, but how well can you identify famous sky objects in a very deep image? Either way, here is a test: see if you can find some well-known night-sky icons in a deep image filled with filaments of normally faint dust and gas. This image contains the Pleiades star cluster, Barnard's Loop, Orion Nebula, Aldebaran, Betelgeuse, Witch Head Nebula, Eridanus Loop, and the California Nebula. To find their real locations, here is an annotated image version. The reason this task might be difficult is similar to the reason it is initially...

Explanation: How does the Moon's appearance change during a total lunar eclipse? The featured time-lapse video was digitally processed to keep the Moon bright and centered during the 5-hour eclipse of 2018 January 31. At first the full moon is visible because only a full moon can undergo a lunar eclipse. Stars move by in the background because the Moon orbits the Earth during the eclipse. The circular shadow of the Earth is then seen moving across the Moon. The light blue hue of the shadow's edge is related to why Earth's sky is blue, while the deep red hue...

Explanation: Fans of the western sky after sunset have lately enjoyed this month's remarkable array of bright planets. Witnessed from some locations, on February 18 planet Mercury even appeared to slide behind the Moon, an event known as a lunar occultation. These two snapshots, taken in early evening skies show before and after telescopic views of the rare disappearance of innermost planet behind young Moon. The top panel finds bright Mercury just visible at the northern (right) edge of the earthshine-illuminated lunar disk. In the bottom panel the bright planet has emerged in darker skies beyond the Moon's sunlit crescent....

Explanation: Normally faint and elusive, the Jellyfish Nebula is caught in this alluring telescopic field of view. Floating in the interstellar sea, the nebula is anchored right and left by two bright stars, Mu and Eta Geminorum, at the foot of the celestial twins. The Jellyfish Nebula itself is right of center, seen as a brighter arcing ridge of emission with dangling tentacles. In fact, this cosmic jellyfish is part of bubble-shaped supernova remnant IC 443, the expanding debris cloud from a massive star that exploded. Light from the explosion first reached planet Earth over 30,000 years ago. Like its...

Following the rollback of the Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft on Wednesday, Feb. 25, experts will discuss the work ahead for the Artemis II test flight around the Moon and provide broader updates on the Artemis campaign. Artemis Update (Feb. 27, 2026) | 1:01:31 NASA | 12.7M subscribers | 30,157 views | Streamed live 2 hours ago

Explanation: What does the universe look like through infrared goggles? Our eyes can only see visible light, but astronomers want to see more. Today’s APOD shows spiral galaxy IC 5332 as seen by two NASA telescopes: Webb in mid-infrared and Hubble in ultraviolet and visible light. To toggle between the two space-based views just slide your cursor over the image (or follow this link). The Hubble image highlights the spiral arms of the galaxy separated by dark regions, whereas the Webb image reveals a finer, more tangled structure. Interstellar dust scatters and absorbs light from the stars in the galaxy,...

NASA Reveals Which Astronaut Had Medical Emergency on ISS | 8:07 Ellie in Space | 220K subscribers | 64,454 views | February 25, 2026

Explanation: Ever wonder what it would look like to crack open the Sun? The Egg Nebula, a dying Sun-like star, can unscramble this question. Pictured is a combination of several visible and infrared images of the nebula (also known as RAFGL 2688 or CRL 2688) taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. The star has shed its outer layers, and a bright, hot core (or "yolk") now illuminates the milky "egg white" shells of gas and dust surrounding the center. The central lobes and rings are structures of gas and dust recently ejected into space, with the dust being dense enough...

Aliens exist — they just haven’t visited Earth, a NASA veteran has claimed. Dr. Gentry Lee has worked at the US space agency since 1968, when he first got involved with the Viking mission to Mars. He has since spent more than half a century designing probes to land on distant planets — but argues Earth has not yet been visited by otherworldly beings. “There exists nothing today that says any alien or any alien machine has ever landed on the planet Earth,” he told the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference in Phoenix. “If you believe...

Explanation: Look up this week and see a whole bunch of planets. Just after sunset, looking west (mostly), planets Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter will all be visible to the unaided eye simultaneously. If you have a telescope, planets Uranus and Neptune can also be seen. In order up from the horizon, the lineup this week will be Venus (the brightest), Mercury, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, and Jupiter (second brightest). It doesn't matter where on Earth you live because this early evening planet parade will be visible through clear skies all around the globe. The planets will appear to be nearly...

Starship Block 3 just entered a new testing phase and SpaceX is preparing Starship Flight 12. NASA’s Starliner Crew Flight Test report classifies the mission as a Type A mishap and confirms no crew will fly again until full requalification. Artemis II faces delay after a liquid hydrogen leak during SLS wet dress rehearsal was resolved, only for a helium repressurization anomaly in the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage to trigger rollback to the VAB. Starship Ready for Its Toughest Test Ever Starliner Years-Old Design Flaw NASA Missed | 14:47 Scientia Plus | 54K subscribers | 11,966 views | February 23,...

Explanation: Have you ever seen the Pleiades star cluster? Even if you have, you probably have never seen it as large and clear as this. Perhaps the most famous star cluster on the sky, the bright stars of the Pleiades can be seen with the unaided eye even from the depths of a light-polluted city. With a long exposure from a dark location, though, the dust cloud surrounding the Pleiades star cluster becomes very evident. The featured 18-hour exposure, taken from Bory Tucholskie, Poland covers a sky area several times the size of the full moon. Also known as the...

Explanation: What if you saw your shadow on Mars and it wasn't human? Then you might be the Opportunity rover exploring Mars. Opportunity explored the Red Planet from 2004 to 2018, finding evidence of ancient water, and sending breathtaking images across the inner Solar System. Pictured here in 2004, Opportunity looks opposite the Sun into Endurance Crater and sees its own shadow. Two wheels are visible on the lower left and right, while the floor and walls of the unusual crater are visible in the background. Caught in a dust storm in 2018, Opportunity stopped responding, and NASA stopped trying...