APOD: 2025 November 23 Б The Observable Universe
23.11.2025

How far can you see? Everything you can see, and everything you could possibly see, right now, assuming your eyes could detect all types of radiations around you -- is the observable universe. In light...

Mars Global Surveyor: Aerobraking
11.09.1997

Completing a 10 month journey, another spacecraft from Earth arrives at Mars today. The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) is scheduled to fire its main rocket engine for 22 minutes at 6:17 p.m.

The Observable Universe
16.03.2022

How far can you see? Everything you can see, and everything you could possibly see, right now, assuming your eyes could detect all types of radiations around you -- is the observable universe. In light...

Barsoom
17.07.1995

"Yes, I have been to Barsoom again ..." begins John Carter in Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1913 science fiction classic "The Gods of Mars". In Burroughs' novels describing Carter's adventures on Mars, "Barsoom" is the local name for the red planet.

Ganymede: Moonquake World
4.09.1995

Ganymede probably undergoes frequent ground shaking events not unlike terrestrial earthquakes. Ganymede, the largest moon of Jupiter and the Solar System, has a thick outer coating of water ice. Passing Voyager spacecraft found...

Open Cluster M50
28.01.1997

Many stars form in clusters. Two types of star clusters are visible in our Milky Way Galaxy: open clusters and globular clusters. Open clusters like M50, shown above, typically contain hundreds of stars, many of which are bright, young, and blue.

Europa's Ice Rafts
10.04.1997

The surface of Jupiter's moon Europa has shifted. Photographs released yesterday of Europa's surface taken by the spacecraft Galileo show that the smooth moon's icy surface is sometimes like a giant scrambled jigsaw puzzle. Pieces of Europa's surface, identifiable above, have rafted to new locations.

Far Side of the Moon
8.10.1998

Locked in synchronous rotation, the Moon always presents its well-known near side to Earth. But from lunar orbit, Apollo astronauts also grew to know the Moon's far side. This sharp picture from Apollo...

Twilight in a Western Sky
31.03.2018

A slender crescent Moon and inner planets Venus and Mercury never wander far from the Sun in planet Earth's skies. In the fading evening twilight of March 18, they line up near the western horizon in this atmospheric skyscape.

Pluto Not Yet Explored
12.02.1996

Cold, distant, Pluto is the only planet in our Solar System which has not been visited by a spacecraft from Earth. The story goes that the legend "Pluto Not Yet Explored" on a US postal stamp depicting the tiny, mysterious world inspired a JPL employee to develop plans for a Pluto flyby.