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Explanation: This Rosetta spacecraft selfie was snapped on October 7th, 2014. At the time the comet-chasing spacecraft was about 472 million kilometers from planet Earth, but only 16 kilometers from the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Looming beyond the spacecraft near the top of the frame, dust and gas stream away from the comet's curious double-lobed nucleus. Bright sunlight glints off one of Rosetta's 14 meter long solar arrays. In fact, two exposures, one short and one long, were combined to record the dramatic high contrast scene using the CIVA camera system on Rosetta's still-attached Philae lander. Its chosen primary landing...

This video, hosted by Marcus House, covers a packed week of space news with a primary focus on SpaceX's Starship program and other aerospace developments. Starship and SpaceX Updates: Flight 14 Recap: The video highlights Flight 14, noting the successful deployment of Starlink satellites and the excellent performance of the new curved heat shield tiles (1:49 - 3:42). Flight 15 Double Catch: SpaceX is preparing for a daring double-catch attempt—retrieving both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage during the next flight, targeted for November (3:44 - 4:49). NASA Artemis Milestones: Updated plans for the Artemis human lunar...

NASA Confirms SpaceX's Starship Refueling Estimate! | 17:21 Ellie in Space | 232K subscribers | 1,683 views | October 23, 2026

Explanation: Looking toward the north from Mullion, New South Wales, Australia, the Andromeda Galaxy never gets more than a few degrees above the horizon. During the southern hemisphere spring, Andromeda is highest in the sky around midnight though. And in this telephoto scene from October 10/11, multiple exposures were used to reveal the spiral galaxy in tantalizing detail as it climbed above rolling Australian hills. Also known as M31, the Andromeda Galaxy is one of the brightest objects in the Messier catalog, but is only visible to the unaided eye as a small, faint, fuzzy patch. Digitally tracked and stacked...

The first Starship built for astronauts may already be standing inside the Starfactory. We think we found it. And today we take you through it, deck by deck, from the docking port in the nose down to the airlock that opens onto the Moon. NASA released a new Moon Base update, with the plan for a permanent base at the lunar south pole, and Starship just picked up one more cargo contract for the Moon. At Starbase, the service platform is off Pad 2, the chopsticks are rehearsing for Flight 15, and SpaceX showed us, for the first time, what...

Blue Origin Works Towards Bringing New Glenn Back Online This Year - Weekly Spaceflight News | 9:23 Avid Space | 251K subscribers | 1,148 views | October 22, 2026

Explanation: Star light, star bright: is there a green star out tonight? Other than the Sun, all stars are so far from Earth that they appear as points in the sky. They are mostly white, but sometimes noticeably red or blue. This color typically relates to the temperature: blue stars are hotter than red stars. What about other colors? The featured image is an illustration showing WD J1330+6435, a white dwarf star, surrounded by an accretion disk with gas and rocks orbiting the star. White dwarfs are small, faint stars that are left over when a star like the Sun...

NASA fired up an RS-25 rocket engine at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi on Oct. 21, 2026. It was a hot-fire test of developmental RS-25 engine No. 10001. The test was planned to last 500 seconds (8 minutes, 20 seconds), with the engine reaching up to 111% of its rated power level. The firing is part of ongoing testing to support NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which will carry astronauts toward the moon on future Artemis missions. Four RS-25 engines power the core stage of each SLS rocket. Credit: NASA | edited by Space.com Hot Fire! NASA Tests Powerful...

Explanation: Jinkies, look at all those ghosts! It took 100 hours of observation and a special oxygen filter for today’s image to capture three faint nebulas hidden in the Cassiopeia constellation. IC 59 and IC 63, the original Ghosts of Cassiopeia, haunt the region near multi-star system γ Cassiopeia. Energetic light from γ Cassiopeia causes the hydrogen gas in IC 59 and 63 to glow red. Their dust reflects and scatters some blue-ish white starlight. Newly discovered Objects 1, 2, and 3 appear as blue phantoms, revealing the presence of ionized oxygen. But ionized by what? Like at the bow...

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a "Starfall" return capsule and 31 other payloads on the company's Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission. The rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on October 20, 2026 at 7:04 a.m. EDT (1104 GMT). [19th complete flight for this booster] Blastoff! SpaceX launches 'Starfall' return capsule and 31 more payloads, nails landing | 9:20 VideoFromSpace | 2.17M subscribers | 42,825 views | October 20, 2026 Full Story: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacex-starfall-return-capsule-launch-bandwagon-5-rideshare-mission

Explanation: This is an unusual rainbow. For one thing, the rainbow is not complete, appearing only in a sunlit fan -- but that by itself is not very unusual. What is most unusual is the fake location of the Sun. The Sun appears to be toward the front, just below those hills -- but it is not. That is not how rainbows work. Rainbows involve a backward reflection from falling rain, so that the Sun must really be behind you. In this case, gaps between clouds near the setting Sun allowed rays to cross the entire sky and appear to...

Explanation: Explanation : What is Treble Clef? This unusual radio structure extends over 2 million light-years and resembles a common musical symbol -- but has its visible light hidden by our own Milky Way Galaxy. Examined in 2004, the nature of VLSS J0318.9+5755, dubbed Treble Clef, remained unknown. Recent observations by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and eROSITA, however, have led to the hypothesis that the Treble Clef central cloud of charged particles was originally expelled by a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy. After the radio emission from those particles faded, they may have been reinvigorated by...

Explanation: Yes, but have you ever experienced the Eagle Nebula with your ears? The famous nebula M16 is best known for the feast it gives your eyes, highlighting bright young stars forming deep inside dark towering structures. These light-years long columns of cold gas and dust are some 6,500 light-years distant toward the constellation of the Serpent (Serpens). Sculpted and eroded by the energetic ultraviolet light and powerful winds from M16's cluster of massive stars, the cosmic pillars themselves are destined for destruction. But the turbulent environment of star formation within M16, whose spectacular details are captured in this combined...

Explanation: Put on your red/blue glasses and float next to the jagged and double-lobed nucleus of Churyumov-Gerasimenko, also known as Comet 67P . The stereo anaglyph was created by combining two images from the Rosetta spacecraft's narrow angle OSIRIS camera taken on July 25, 2015 from a distance of 184 kilometers. Numerous jets are emanating from the small solar system world's active surface near its closest approach to the Sun. The larger lobe is around 4 kilometers in diameter, joined to a smaller, 2.5 kilometer diameter lobe by a narrow neck. Rosetta's mission to the comet ended in September 2016...

Explanation: Blasting into the predawn sky on Tuesday, October 13, a Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft are headed for low Earth orbit in this stunning timelapse video captured from Indian Harbour Beach, Florida. Starting with a launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Falcon and Dragon are chasing the International Space Station on NASA's 35th Commercial Resupply Services mission. On cue, the space station itself enters the frame from the top. Almost 8 seconds into the 30 second timelapse. the bright streak of the ISS appears heading "down" toward the horizon. The first and...

Explanation: The city lights outshine the stars in the City That Never Sleeps. Who would have thought that the Milky Way could be visible in this sky? This image was taken with a filter that blocks most visible light, capturing instead only light in the near-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum (with lower energy than visible light). The astrophotographer's clever setup blocks most of the light pollution from the city: old incandescent light bulbs and some neon lights are still bright in the near-infrared, but fluorescent and LED light bulbs are not. Of course, stars are also bright in the...

Explanation: What a cosmic coincidence! In today’s image, Mars joins the Beehive cluster (M44 or Praesepe) below an auroral curtain and above a horizon of happy little trees near Lansjärv, Sweden. An eruption off the Sun reached Earth on October 10th, 2026 causing strong disturbances in Earth’s magnetic field. Energetic particles from the eruption collide with and energize the molecules in Earth’s atmosphere, which release that extra energy as the colorful aurora captured here. Auroras, or guovssahasat in North Sámi, is traditionally viewed with respect by the Sámi people indigenous to Sweden and other Arctic regions. Coincidentally, Mars appeared closest...

So, what is NASA up to with their SR-71? What Is NASA Doing With Its Old Blackbird? | 27:01 Scott Manley | 1.87M subscribers | 304,352 views | October 13, 2026

Explanation: This stairway in Chile brings you only a little bit closer to heaven. But ooh, the sky above it makes you wonder. For example, you may wonder about the dark lane of our own Milky Way galaxy rising behind the expansive Atacama Desert in Chile, the band of zodiacal light on the upper left, the green and red airglow just above the horizon, the star Spica in the zodiacal light stripe, and, at the very top on the right, the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy. The Desert Staircase sculpture is in the foreground, and this image was timed to catch...

Explanation: How many moons can you see? The best answer is five: four orbiting Jupiter and Luna orbiting Earth. This multi-moon picture was possible because Earth's Moon moved directly in front of Jupiter last week. The featured image is a series of exposures near alignment taken from Westchester, New York, USA. The sunlit crescent of Earth's Moon, on the lower left, is overexposed, while the Moon's night side, on the upper right, is faintly illuminated by Earthshine. Lined up nearly vertically above our Moon, listed from bottom to top, are Jupiter's bright Galilean satellites: Ganymede, Io, Callisto, and Europa. Callisto,...