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Walt Watson Astrophotography @waltwatsonastro.bsky.social · 12h

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) is our nearest neighbor large spiral galaxy. It is bright and large enough (apparent size is 6 moon diameters) to be visible to the naked eye in dark skies.(per Wiki) Exp: 13 hours, updated 10/1/26 #astronomy #astrophotography

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 7h

Two groups of astronauts. The Mercury Seven were the group of seven Anerican astronauts selected in 1959 to fly spacecraft for Project Mercury. The first group of Soviet cosmonauts was formed in February – April 1960, with twenty candidates. Its official name was Air Force Group 1.

The seven original Mercury astronauts participate in U.S. Air Force survival school at Stead Air Force Base in Nevada. Picture from left to right are L. Gordon Cooper, M. Scott Carpenter, John H. Glenn, Jr., Alan Shepard, Virgil I. Grissom, Walter M. Schirra, Jr., and Donald K. Slayton. Portions of their clothing have been fashioned from parachute material, and all have grown beards from their time in the wilderness. The purpose of this training was to prepare astronauts in the event of an emergency or faulty landing in a remote area.

The photo showing most of the first group of Soviet cosmonauts in May 1961 in Sochi – (seated, left to right) Popovich, Gorbatko, Khrunov, Chief Designer Sergei P. Korolev, Gagarin, Cosmonaut Training Center Director Yevgeni A. Karpov, parachute instructor Nikolai K. Nikitin and physician Yevgeni A. Fyodorov; (first row standing, left to right) Leonov, Nikolayev, Rafikov, Zaikin, Volynov, Titov, Nelyubov, Bykovsky and Shonin; (back row standing, left to right) Filatyev, Anikeyev and Belyayev.
Credits: I. Snegirev.

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Chang'e 2, the second Chinese lunar spacecraft, was launched #OTD in 2010. The spacecraft orbited the Moon until June 2011 and flew, with a distance of less than 1 kilometre, by the near-Earth asteroid 4179 Toutatis in December 2012.

Artist's impression of the Chang'e 2 flyby of the asteroid (4179) Toutatis.

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) began operations on October 1, 1958. NASA was created from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and other related organizations, as the result of the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union.

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

The B2FH paper, named after the initials of the authors of the paper, Margaret Burbidge, Geoffrey Burbidge, William A. Fowler, and Fred Hoyl, was published in "Reviews of Modern Physics" #OTD in 1957. It was a landmark paper on the origin of the chemical elements in stellar nucleosynthesis processes

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Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Saturn: July 2, 2014 - From Val Klavans (valklavans.bsky.social) - flic.kr/p/nWLXBi

This is a true color view of Saturn. Saturn's north polar hexagon stands out prominently while the rings encircle the planet.

This composite is made of images that were taken by Cassini's camera system, the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) on July 02, 2014 and received on Earth July 03, 2014. The camera was pointing toward SATURN at approximately 1,815,382 miles (2,921,574 kilometers) away, and the images were taken using the red, green, and blue filters.

Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / Val Klavans
about.me/valerieklavans

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

After more than 12 years in space, ESA's Rosetta spacecraft ended its mission with a controlled impact on the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko #OTD in 2016.

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Themisto (Jupiter XVIII), a small prograde irregular satellite of Jupiter, was initially discovered #OTD in 1975 by American astronomers Charles Thomas Kowal and Elizabeth Roemer. However, not enough observations were made to establish an orbit and it was lost until 2000, when it was rediscovered.

Montage of the rediscovery images of Themisto taken on 21 November 2000 with the 2.2 m U. of Hawaii telescope. The three images, taken 40 minutes apart, are superposed. Themisto (arrows) moves from right to left during that time.
Credit: IMCCE/University of Hawaii

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Tiangong 1, the first Chinese space laboratory module and a prototype space station, was launched from Jiuquan #OTD in 2011. The module was visited by three Shenzhou spacecraft during its two-year operational lifetime.

Visualization of Shenzhou 9 spacecraft docking with Tiangong 1. Credit: CNSA

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The Soviet space station Salyut 6 (DOS-5) was launched #OTD in 1977. It was the first space station to receive regular crews and supplies. It had two docking ports, allowing two spacecraft to visit simultaneously. Between 1977 and 1981, it received six long-term crews and ten short-term crews.

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Justinas Vitkus @justinasvitkus.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Recent painting of a couple of exomoons. #SciArt #spaceart #astronomy #Exoplanets

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ESA Space Science @science.esa.int · 28/09/2026

A successful Earth flyby improves Juice’s course to Jupiter Earlier today, Juice flew just 8640 km above the Indian Ocean and snapped these images with its onboard monitoring cameras. 1️⃣Africa, by Juice monitoring camera 2️⃣Madagascar, by Juice NavCam 3️⃣Moon, by Juice NavCam 🔭 🧪 #planetsci

Mostly black space, most of Earth visible at the top right of the image. Part of a spacecraft visible on the left.

Part of the island of Madagascar in black and white.

A crescent Moon, with about a quarter of the Moon showing. Many craters are visible.

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Luna 19, a Soviet heavy lunar orbiter, was launched from Baikonur #OTD in 1971. The spacecraft studied lunar gravitational field, radiation environment, and made panoramic tv images.

Schematic diagram of the Luna 19 orbiter. Credit: NPO Lavochkin

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The Murchison meteorite, one of the most studied of all meteorites, that belongs to the CM2 group of carbonaceous chondrites, fell in Australia #OTD in 1969. Its silicon carbide particles had been determined to be 7 billion years old – the oldest material found on Earth to date.

Large individual of the Murchison Meteorite with fusion crust. Field Museum of Natural History meteorite collection, Chicago, Illinois, USA. Credit: James St. John

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Ananke (Jupiter XII), a retrograde irregular moon of Jupiter, was discovered #OTD in 1951 by American astronomer Seth Barnes Nicholson on a photograph taken with the 100-inch Hooker telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory. It is the largest (about 29 km) member of the Ananke group of Jovian satellites

Single-exposure W3 band (12 μm wavelength range) image of Jupiter's moon Ananke by the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) on 23 June 2010.

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"Star Trek: The Next Generation" premiered #OTD in 1987 with the two-hour pilot movie "Encounter at Farpoint". TNG is considered one of the greatest sci-fi television series of all time. It won numerous awards, including 18 Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award, and had a lasting impact on popular culture

Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in "Encounter at Farpoint".
Credit: Paramount Pictures

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Dawn, the first spacecraft to orbit two different extraterrestrial bodies, was launched #OTD in 2007. From July 2011 to September 2012, Dawn orbited the asteroid Vesta, then departed towards its second destination, the dwarf planet Ceres, and orbited it from March 2015. The mission concluded in 2018

Artist's concept of NASA's Dawn spacecraft arriving at the dwarf planet Ceres. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

SMART-1, a European Space Agency lunar orbiter designed to test spacecraft technologies for future missions, was launched #OTD in 2003. The primary technology being tested was a solar-powered ion drive. The spacecraft impacted the Moon's surface, as planned, on September 3, 2006.

Artist's impression of ESA's SMART-1 lunar mission.
Credit: ESA

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Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Voyager 2 wide-angle view of Jupiter (July 8, 1979) - From Ian Regan - flic.kr/p/2ebde9P

This was one of the last wide-angle views of Jupiter that Voyager 2 snapped, before the planet became too big to be photographed in a single frame. Jupiter appears truncated due to inconsistent and inaccurate pointing of the probe’s scan platform, which housed the camera systems.

The orange, green, and violet frames were taken early in the morning of July 8, 1979. The planet was 1.35 million miles distant. The dark, fuzzy spot is the shadow of Galilean moon Callisto.

NASA / JPL / Ian Regan

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

#OTD in 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the world’s first planetary defense technology demonstration, successfully impacted the asteroid Dimorphos. The spacecraft's kinetic impact shortened the asteroid’s orbit around its larger parent asteroid, 65803 Didymos, by 32 minutes.

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

#OTD in 1983, a fire broke out in Baikonur before a liftoff of the Soyuz 7K-ST No. 16L spacecraft (later known as Soyuz T-10A) with cosmonauts Vladimir Titov and Gennadi Strekalov. The emergency escape system pulled away the spacecraft six seconds before the launch vehicle exploded, saving the crew.

The emergency escape system pulls away the Soyuz 7K-ST No. 16L spacecraft with two cosmonauts onboard from the burning rocket.

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Albert Einstein's "Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper" paper on the special theory of relativity was published #OTD in 1905. It reconciles Maxwell's equations for electricity and magnetism with the laws of mechanics by introducing major changes to them close to the speed of light.

Albert Einstein in 1904 or 1905. Credit: Lucien Chavan

The first page of Albert Einstein's paper in the "Annalen der Physik"

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NASASpaceflight.com @nasaspaceflight.com · 26/09/2026

Crew 13 has arrived at KSC ahead of their mission scheduled for October 1. Meet the Crew Jessica Watkins - NASA Luke Delaney - NASA Joshua Kutryk - CSA Sergey Teteryatnikov - Roscosmos 📸 Julia Bergeron for NSF

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Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Earth Mariner 10 - 0147-0200 1973-309 - From Aster Cowart (terrasabaea.bsky.social) - flic.kr/p/C9UzZE

8-frame Mariner 10 mosaic of the Earth, acquired between 148-200 UT on November 5, 1973. Mariner 10 was approximately 200,000 km (120,000 mi) from the Earth.

The image is approximately centered on the Gulf of Mexico. North America is hidden under a large weather system that fills most of the top half of the image. The Pacific Ocean covers much of the visible surface.

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China Space Watch @chinaspace.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

HEO's Space Based Imaging captured this shot of China's Tiangong Space Station as it passed over the coast of Hawaii. At 12 cm/px resolution, we can see the expected configuration of the CSS, with its solar array wings deployed and all science modules

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in China, the world's largest filled-aperture radio telescope, saw its first light #OTD in 2016. The telescope was declared fully operational in 2020.

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

#OTD in 1992, the Mars Observer spacecraft was launched. It was to be the first U.S. mission to study Mars since the Viking missions in the 1970s. Contact with the probe was lost on August 22, 1993, two days before planned entry into Mars orbit, for unknown reasons and has not been re-established.

Titan III vehicle launching the Mars Observer spacecraft from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on September 25, 1992. Credit: NASA

Artist's rendering of the Mars Observer. Credit: NASA/JPL

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

#OTD in 2023, the OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule successfully landed at the Utah Test and Training Range with the samples from the surface of the asteroid 101955 Bennu. The main spacecraft maneuvered to a trajectory away from Earth for its extended mission to study asteroid 99942 Apophis.

Members of the recovery team examine the OSIRIS-REx return capsule after landing. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also called Mangalyaan, India's first interplanetary mission, successfully entered orbit around Mars #OTD in 2014. The spacecraft remained operational until April 2022. Image credit: @kevinmgill.bsky.social

Artist's impression of India's Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft over Mars.
Author: Kevin M. Gill

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Georgy Nikolaevich Babakin, Chief Designer at the Lavochkin Design Bureau, with the Luna 16 capsule filled with lunar soil. The capsule containing 101 grams of lunar samples landed in Kazakhstan #OTD in 1970.

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

#OTD in 1999, NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft was lost during its Mars orbit insertion maneuver due to a navigation error caused by a failure to translate English units to metric. The probe entered the Martian atmosphere at an altitude of about 57 kilometers and was destroyed.

Artist's conception of the Mars Climate Orbiter

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

#OTD in 1846, German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle of the Berlin Observatory and his student Heinrich Louis d'Arrest discovered Neptune, the eighth planet from the Sun. They followed predictions made by French astronomer and mathematician Urbain Le Verrier.

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

#OTD in 2014, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft successfully entered orbit around Mars. Its mission was designed to explore Mars' upper atmosphere and ionosphere, and interactions with the solar wind.

Artist's impression of the MAVEN spacecraft

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

The Hinode solar satellite mission, a collaboration between space agencies from Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe, was launched #OTD in 2006. Its goal is to study the interaction between the Sun's magnetic field and its high-temperature ionized atmosphere.

Artist's impression of the Hinode satellite

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

#OTD in 2001, NASA's Deep Space 1 technology demonstration spacecraft flew by comet 19P/Borrelly, the closest approach being 2171 km to the nucleus.

Artist's concept of Deep Space 1 encountering Comet Borrelly

Image of the nucleus of comet 19P/Borrelly taken by the Deep Space 1 probe

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

#OTD in 2018, MINERVA II-1A (HIBOU) and MINERVA II-1B (OWL) hopping rovers were deployed from above the surface of the asteroid 162173 Ryugu, from the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2. Both rovers successfully landed and transmitted images and other data, hopping on the surface after landing.

Artist's impression of the MINERVA hopping rovers

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

The Galileo mission ended #OTD in 2003, when the spacecraft disintegrated in Jupiter's atmosphere. Galileo, in orbit around Jupiter since December 1995, was intentionally targeted to impact the planet to eliminate any chance of contaminating Europa or other jovian satellites.

Artist's concept of Galileo burning up in Jupiter's atmosphere.

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

#OTD 1974, Mariner 10 flew by Mercury for the second time below the planet's southern hemisphere. Some 500 images were returned during the three-day encounter sequence. Unfortunately the lighted hemisphere was almost the same as the first encounter, so a large portion of the planet remained unimaged

Mercury's south pole was photographed by one of Mariner 10's TV cameras as the spacecraft made its second close flyby of the planet September 21, 1974.

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

#OTD in 1979, the third High-Energy Astronomy Observatory (HEAO 3) satellite, designed to survey the celestial sphere for hard X-ray and gamma-ray sources and to measure the composition of cosmic rays, was launched.

Artist's impression of the HEAO 3 satellite

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Soviet Luna 16 spacecraft landed on the Moon in Mare Fecunditatis #OTD in 1970. Using a sample arm and a drill, the mission successfully collected 101 grams of lunar samples and deposited them into a collection capsule. The return capsule landed in Kazakhstan on September 24.

Painting by Aleksei Leonov and Andrei Sokolov "Luna-16"

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Surveyor II spacecraft, aimed for a lunar soft-landing in Sinus Medii, was launched #OTD in 1966. An engine failure two days later caused the spacecraft to tumble and resulted in loss of contact. The lander crashed on the surface of the Moon on September 23.

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Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Jupiter - From Gordan Ugarković (ugordan.bsky.social) - flic.kr/p/BfyQX

This is currently my best guess at a true color image of Jupiter. Color balance is based on recent Earth-based views and also using Hubble images. The image was taken by Cassini on 13 November 2000 and is one of the last single-frame footprints on approach where all three approx. red, green and blue filters exist.

Narrow-angle composite taken from a distance of 44.8 million km and at a phase angle of 18 degrees.

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Catherine Ryan Hyde @catherineryanhyde.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The big, beautiful face-on spiral galaxy M74 in the constellation Pisces. #Astronomy #Astrophotography

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China Space Watch @chinaspace.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Meet Haolong-1, China's future reusable cargo shuttle! At 10m long with folding delta wings, this uncrewed spaceplane launches on a rocket to resupply the Tiangong Space Station—then glides back to Earth to land horizontally on a runway. 🛰️🛬

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

#OTD 1988, Israel launched its first satellite, Ofeq-1, onboard a Shavit rocket from the Palmachim Air Force Base, becoming the eighth country to launch a rocket into space. Due to geographical restraints, it was put into a retrograde orbit. The satellite tested solar cells and radio transmissions.

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

#OTD in 1783, the Montgolfier brothers' balloon launched carrying the first living creatures to fly in a craft: a duck, a rooster, and a sheep. The demonstration was performed at the royal palace in Versailles, before King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette and a crowd. All the animals survived.

A hot air balloon designed by the Montgolfier brothers, with animals on board, takes off from Versailles on September 19, 1783.

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Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Moon - August 19 2021 - From Kevin M. Gill (kevinmgill.bsky.social) - flic.kr/p/2mi8MfS

Composited with earthshine (darker limb) taken on August 10 2021.

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Between April and May 2024, a new crater was formed on the Moon, measuring 222 m in diameter and 43 m deep, after a comet or asteroid the size of a three- to six-story building hit the surface. It was first identified by Robert Wagner, a scientist with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

#OTD in 1977, Voyager 1 took this picture of a crescent-shaped Earth and Moon in a single frame, the first image of its kind. The spacecraft, which began its exploration mission of the outer solar system and beyond two weeks earlier, captured this scene from 11.66 million kilometers from Earth.

This picture of a crescent-shaped Earth and Moon -- the first of its kind ever taken by a spacecraft -- was recorded Sept. 18, 1977, by NASA's Voyager 1 when it was 7.25 million miles (11.66 million kilometers) from Earth. The Moon is at the top of the picture and beyond the Earth as viewed by Voyager. In the picture are eastern Asia, the western Pacific Ocean and part of the Arctic. Voyager 1 was directly above Mt. Everest (on the night side of the planet at 25 degrees north latitude) when the picture was taken. The photo was made from three images taken through color filters, then processed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Image Processing Lab. Because the Earth is many times brighter than the Moon, the Moon was artificially brightened by a factor of three relative to the Earth by computer enhancement so that both bodies would show clearly in the print.

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beyondearthsky.bsky.social @beyondearthsky.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Comet Ikeya–Seki, one of the brightest comets seen in the last thousand years, was discovered independently by Kaoru Ikeya and Tsutomu Seki #OTD in 1965. The comet was a member of the Kreutz sungrazers and passed a perihelion at only 450,000 kilometres from the Sun's surface on October 21, 1965.

Comet Ikeya–Seki near the Sun at perihelion. Credit: F. Moriyama and T. Hirayama

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