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hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Hourly Cosmos
@hourlycosmos.bsky.social
10K followers 13 following 6.8K posts
Photo sharing bot for planetary and deep space images.

Run by @kevinmgill.bsky.social

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hourlycosmos.bsky.social
ESP_022607_1725 - From UAHiRISE (NASA) (uahirise.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/efdMrG
November 28, 2025 at 3:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Plumes - From Gordan Ugarković (ugordan.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/8wsQRV
Galileo SSI image. Full resolution green frame combined with 1/2 resolution red and violet frames and processed to approximate natural color. As with the majority of Galileo images, this observation employed a lossy compression scheme due to the high gain antenna problem so compression artifacts are abundant. C9ISSRFMON02.
November 28, 2025 at 2:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Spiral Jetty - From Bill (ridingrobots.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2jFXcNV
Robert Smithson created the stone artwork "Spiral Jetty" 50 years ago at Rozel Point peninsula, on the shore of the Great Salt Lake. Its spiral shape is easy to see from above, but it looks like a straight line when seen from ground level. The Milky Way also has a spiral shape, but we see it as a straight line from our vantage point inside its disc. Sept. 10, 2020
November 28, 2025 at 1:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Opportunity 4-26-17 s4712 - From Jason Major (jpmajor.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/29xkiRk
November 28, 2025 at 12:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Close-up with the Rosette Nebula (RGB Colour) - From Rolf Wahl Olsen - https://flic.kr/p/UYaQwE
Visible here is a small portion of the large Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237), centered on its central cluster of stars; NGC 2244. This large round nebula lies some 5000 light years away and can be found in the constellation Monoceros near Orion. In optical wide field images the entire nebula appears strikingly similar to the petals of a red rose, hence the name. The image is constructed from exposures in three very narrow (3nm) wavelength bands corresponding to the emission profiles of ionised Hydrogen, Oxygen and Sulphur to form the resulting detailed and brightly coloured scene. The combined images in each filter were assigned to their natural colour channels using a PixelMath expression in PixInsight. This enables a synthetic 'natural' colour image to be created from the narrowband data. Several striking shapes can be seen here, many of which resemble animals of various kinds. In particular the figure of a leaping Cheetah is very obvious near the centre. These dark shapes are denser clouds of dust and gas, slowly being eroded away by the intense ultraviolet radiation from the young stars in the central cluster. These stars have themselves condensed out of the nebula relatively recently. The brightest cluster members, HD 46223 and HD 46150, are massive O-type stars with stellar winds and radiation powerful enough to have cleared the nebula's central cavity around the cluster. Image details: Date: 15th, 16th, 18th and 19th March 2017 Exposure: Ha OIII SII: 290:130:110 mins, t...
November 27, 2025 at 11:00 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
curiosity sol 44 mastcam R "Jake Matijevic" rock - From 2di7 & titanio44 - https://flic.kr/p/ddkRxG
"Courtesy NASA/JPL -Caltech" processing 2di7 & titanio44
November 27, 2025 at 10:01 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
CP18_37_21_1 - From Brian Swift (bswift.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/24gPPre
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Brian Swift
November 27, 2025 at 9:00 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
ESP_021523_1825 - From UAHiRISE (NASA) (uahirise.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/ef3x73
November 27, 2025 at 8:01 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Asteroid Itokawa closeup - From Gordan Ugarković (ugordan.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/6ueXBb
TBD. Credit: ISAS / JAXA / Gordan Ugarkovic
November 27, 2025 at 7:00 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
CP18_47_13_1 - From Brian Swift (bswift.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2eNGuhQ
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Brian Swift
November 27, 2025 at 6:00 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Saturn-W00066643-Feb-25-RAW - From Ian Regan - https://flic.kr/p/9qzy4X
Storm on Saturn
November 27, 2025 at 5:00 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
July 1 Titan Monitoring Campaign Observation - From Val Klavans (valklavans.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/cqjKMs
RGB Color Composite of Titan and Saturn These images were taken on July 01, 2012 and received on Earth July 02, 2012. The camera was pointing toward TITAN at approximately 1,724,144 miles (2,774,741 kilometers) away, and the images were taken using the CL1, RED, GRN, BL1, and CL2 filters. Credit: NASA / JPL / SSI / composite by Val Klavans
November 27, 2025 at 4:00 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Mars - The Rock of Love - Nasa's Curiosity SOL 3746 - From Andrea Luck (andrealuck.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2oi1fvh
Download full size image here: www.flickr.com/photos/192271236@N03/52700970666/sizes/o/ Here another image of this rock: flic.kr/p/2oi8EAY (zooming out) Credit: Nasa/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/AndreaLuck Info: Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) This image was taken by MAHLI onboard NASA's Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 3746 (2023-02-19T06:30:03.000Z) Feel free to share, giving the appropriate credit and providing a link to the original image or tweet: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
November 27, 2025 at 3:00 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
The relativistic jet of giant elliptical galaxy M87 - From Rolf Wahl Olsen - https://flic.kr/p/atvFrm
This image shows a luminous jet emerging from the centre of giant elliptical galaxy M87. The visible features of the jet corresponds very well with the Hubble image. Relativistic jets are extremely powerful jets of plasma which emerge from presumed massive objects at the centres of some active galaxies, notably radio galaxies and quasars. Their lengths can reach many thousand light years. The jet of M87 extends at least 5000 light years from the galactic nucleus and is made up of matter ejected from the galaxy by a super-massive black hole in its centre. It is believed that the twisting of magnetic fields in the accretion disk collimates the outflow along the rotation axis of the central object, so that when conditions are suitable, a jet will emerge from each face of the accretion disk. The light we see is produced by electrons twisting along magnetic field lines in the jet, a process known as synchrotron radiation, which gives the jet its bluish tint. This contrasts with the reddish glow from the combined light of billions of ageing stars in the galaxy itself. The mechanics behind both the creation of relativistic jets and their composition are still a matter of much debate in the scientific community. Image details: Date: 08/04/2010 Exposure: 57 x 30.5s with 10” Newton/ToUCam Pro SC1 No filters, no guiding
November 27, 2025 at 2:00 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
moon and Jupiter - From Brian Swift (bswift.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/dNGSX9
November 27, 2025 at 1:01 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Perseverance Parachute Uplook Camera A - From Simeon Schmauß (stim3on.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2qMq1hb
Instrument: PARACHUTE UPLOOK CAMERA A EAE_0000_0666952761_962EDR_N0000000EDLC00020_0000LUJ01 LMST: Sol-00000M15:50:28.80543 Start time: 2021-02-18 20:40:52 UTC Height above ellipsoid: 10166 m Height above landing: 12402 m Speed: 1518 km/h This image was processed to approximate the colors that the human eye would see. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Simeon Schmauß CC BY
November 27, 2025 at 12:00 PM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Deimos before dawn | Perseverance Navcam Left | Sol 1433 - From Simeon Schmauß (stim3on.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2r6neAK
NASA’s Perseverance rover captured this view of Deimos, the smaller of Mars’ two moons, shining in the sky at 4:27 a.m. local time on March 1, 2025, the 1,433rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. In the dark before dawn, the rover’s left navigation camera used its maximum long-exposure time of 3.28 seconds for each of 16 individual shots, all of which were combined onboard the camera into a single image that was later sent to Earth. In total, the image represents an exposure time of about 52 seconds. The sun was about 13° below the horizon when this image was captured. The raw image was corrected for bias using an exposure taken earlier in that night. Remaining line noise was corrected using a custom filter and hot pixels (likely from radiation hits) were removed. The image was then debayered, denoised and color processed to approximate what the human eye would have seen if it was sensitive enough. Finally, this version was also corrected for lens distortion and leveled for the horizon. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Simeon Schmauß
November 27, 2025 at 11:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
AM 0347-442 - From Judy Schmidt (geckzilla.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2g5BZFF
An irregular dwarf galaxy for today. It's kind of faint, and a bit difficult to brighten sufficiently above the noise floor, but now that I've done it I see a bit of star formation going on. I don't know why I just don't expect to see star formation in these galaxies, but it's almost always happening. Data from the following proposal is used to create this image: Establishing HST's Low Redshift Archive of Interacting Systems All channels: ACS/WFC F606W North is 12.44° counter-clockwise from up.
November 27, 2025 at 10:01 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
The Vastness of the Dunes - From UAHiRISE (NASA) (uahirise.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2rC2F1c
This impressive observation is near the North Pole of Mars, in a region known as Vastitas Borealis. Our rationale for this observation is to monitor for any seasonal changes. Image cutout is less than 1 km (under 1 mi) top to bottom with North to the right and the spacecraft altitude was 318 km (197 mi). For full observation details including images with scale bars, visit the source link. www.uahirise.org/ESP_076448_2530 NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
November 27, 2025 at 9:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Circumpolar stars over the AAT - From Ángel López-Sánchez - https://flic.kr/p/e2dJPt
Circumpolar stars over the AAT on a dark winter night. 11 Aug 2012. Siding Spring Observatory. NSW Australia
November 27, 2025 at 7:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Mimas & Unlit Rings - From Gordan Ugarković (ugordan.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/boUiUT
Cassini NAC IR1/UV3 color. 2011-01-31 UTC. Distance: 260 000 km Phase angle: 9 deg
November 27, 2025 at 5:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Saturn and Uranus using the FPI camera of 2dF @ 3.9m AAT - From Ángel López-Sánchez - https://flic.kr/p/cQiGHb
En español: mirar aquí: angelrls.blogalia.com/historias/72248 The 2dF (Two Degrees Field) instrument at the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope allows to position up to 400 optical fibers in any object anywhere within a “two degree field” of the sky. The FPI (Focal Plane Imager) camera of the 2dF is an auxilar instrument which allows to accurately center stars in the optical fibers. The CCD of the FPI camera has a size of 512x512 pixels. The FPI camera was not designed to obtain scientific data or to observe planets, and it does not allow to change any optical filter. This image shows how the planets Saturn and Uranus are seen using the FPI camera of 2dF. The images were obtained while finishing the next 2dF configuration. In both cases, the frames were reduced (bias and flatfield corrected) and aligned using IRAF. The stacking of the different frames was achieved using the Lynkeos software. The false colours were finally obtained using Photoshop, the images are actually in grey scale. The image of Saturn was obtained on 6 July 2012 at 10:15 UT. This was a "first night setup" of 2dF at the AAT, and Steve Chapman (the night assistant) and me had some free time while finishing the configuration of the first plate after completed the "poscheck" procedure. Ten images of 0.003 seconds were combined to get the final image. However, we probably took ~30 images, but only saved those with good quality (that is, low seeing). The image of Uranus and its Moons was...
November 27, 2025 at 4:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
SNR J0509.5-6731 - From Judy Schmidt (geckzilla.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2heTvq9
A supernova remnant with a smooth outer shell in hydrogen emission, and a clumpy inner x-ray shell. The hydrogen emission is shown here in red, while the clumpy x-ray emission is shown in blues, greens, and pinks. I almost didn't finish this, because what I was doing was almost exactly the same as had already been done beautifully, and I try not to redo things. It ended up quite interesting however when I realized there were multiple frames from different years that could be used to show the expansion of the bubble over time. An animation of that is here: flic.kr/p/2heWSpn Hubble proposals used: The Proper Motion of Supernova Remnant E0509-67.5 Single-Degenerate or Double-Degenerate? The Case for a Third Epoch Observation of the Confirmed Ia Supernova Remnant 0509-67.5 A Search for Surviving Companions of Type Ia Supernovae in the Large Magellanic Cloud Hubble Heritage 2.0 Chandra data: Red: .10-.70 keV Green: .70-1.0 keV Blue: 1.00-5.00 keV (Obs IDs 776, 7635, 8554) Hubble data: Red screen: ACS/WFC F658N Red: WFC3/UVIS F814W Green: WFC3/UVIS F555W Blue: WFC3/UVIS F475W North is up.
November 27, 2025 at 3:00 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Candor and Ophir Chasmae 2015-07-19 - From Aster Cowart (terrasabaea.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/LXVNxA
Image of the Candor Chasma (bottom right) and Ophir Chasma (center), two large canyons in the north-central portion of the Valles Marineris system. Image Credit: ISRO / ISSDC / Justin Cowart
November 27, 2025 at 2:01 AM
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
The relativistic jet of giant elliptical galaxy M87 - From Rolf Wahl Olsen - https://flic.kr/p/atvFrm
This image shows a luminous jet emerging from the centre of giant elliptical galaxy M87. The visible features of the jet corresponds very well with the Hubble image. Relativistic jets are extremely powerful jets of plasma which emerge from presumed massive objects at the centres of some active galaxies, notably radio galaxies and quasars. Their lengths can reach many thousand light years. The jet of M87 extends at least 5000 light years from the galactic nucleus and is made up of matter ejected from the galaxy by a super-massive black hole in its centre. It is believed that the twisting of magnetic fields in the accretion disk collimates the outflow along the rotation axis of the central object, so that when conditions are suitable, a jet will emerge from each face of the accretion disk. The light we see is produced by electrons twisting along magnetic field lines in the jet, a process known as synchrotron radiation, which gives the jet its bluish tint. This contrasts with the reddish glow from the combined light of billions of ageing stars in the galaxy itself. The mechanics behind both the creation of relativistic jets and their composition are still a matter of much debate in the scientific community. Image details: Date: 08/04/2010 Exposure: 57 x 30.5s with 10” Newton/ToUCam Pro SC1 No filters, no guiding
November 27, 2025 at 12:00 AM