Cosmic neighborhood watch

Space Snapshot

When the Artemis II crew got close to the Moon during their April 6 flyby, they captured some amazing images. This intricate view of the lunar farside was created by astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy using stacked photos taken by Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman. The dark feature on the right is the Mare Orientale. Color saturation reveals information about the mineral composition of the Moon’s surface, with blue hues indicating titanium-rich basalts and brown and red tones suggesting iron-rich or weathered material. Image credit: Andrew McCarthy / cosmicbackground.io.

Fact Worth Sharing

Artemis II captured amazing lunar images, but that mission wasn’t alone in studying the Moon. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, India’s Chandrayaan-2, and South Korea’s Danuri are also in lunar orbit, using cameras, spectrometers, and radar to study and map the surface of our celestial neighbor.

Mission Briefings

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman says he is “extremely confident” Artemis III will launch in 2027. The mission will test critical technologies in Earth orbit, including rendezvous and docking between Orion and test versions of SpaceX and Blue Origin lunar landers. A crewed lunar landing is now planned for Artemis IV in 2028. Pictured: The European Service Module for Artemis III undergoing acoustic testing. Image credit: NASA/Jess Ruffa.

NASA has invited India to join its Moon base program. India’s space agency, ISRO, may participate in the NASA-led program to establish a permanent human presence near the lunar south pole, beginning with robotic missions in 2028 and infrastructure development in the 2030s. India is separately planning its own crewed lunar missions and eventual Moon base.

From The Planetary Society

Why did a SpaceX upper stage crash into the Moon? On this week’s Planetary Radio, Jared Head, museum facilitator at Columbia Memorial Space Center and co-host of All Space Considered at Griffith Observatory, breaks down how and why a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage ended up crashing into the Moon. Plus, get an update on the fight to save NASA science. Pictured: A view from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter of the double impact crater caused by the rocket’s impact on the Moon. Image credit: NASA / Goddard / Arizona State University.

Keep up the pressure on Congress. The Senate has voted to pause a harmful rewrite of how the U.S. government funds research, rejecting proposed changes that would have allowed political appointees to decide which science grants are approved regardless of scientific merit. Until the House of Representatives agrees on that same aspect of the bill, the fight’s not over. Join us in advocating to Congress for the protection of science.

Join Sarah Al-Ahmed live from JPL Mission Control. On Aug. 25, Planetary Radio host Sarah Al-Ahmed will sit down with JPL Chief Scientist Jonathan Lunine for "JPL and the Search for Life Beyond Earth," a fireside chat broadcast live from JPL Mission Control as part of the Caltech Alumni Association's Techer Live series. The conversation will cover the missions defining the search for life beyond Earth, from the Perseverance rover's Sapphire Canyon sample to Europa Clipper's ongoing voyage to Jupiter's ocean moon. The livestream is free and open to the public, but registration is limited to 1,000 participants. Reserve your spot here.

What's Up

Super bright Venus dominates the early evening western sky, with yellowish Saturn rising in the east. Before dawn, look for reddish Mars in the east and very bright Jupiter peeking above the eastern horizon shortly before dawn. On Aug. 28, a partial lunar eclipse with 96% of the Moon in Earth’s umbral (dark, central) shadow will be visible from North and South America, with portions of the eclipse visible in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. Learn more in our guide to August’s night skies.

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Wow of the Week

Because it’s our cosmic neighbor, the Moon is a fairly easy target for beautiful, detailed imaging. But the power of the James Webb Space Telescope allows us to view extremely distant objects as though they were right next door. Here you see the Lion Nebula, also known as NGC 2932, in a composite of infrared images taken by JWST. Despite being 10,000 light-years away, the full-size version of this image of the Lion Nebula shows astonishing detail. Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI. Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI).

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