Hourly Cosmos
@hourlycosmos.bsky.social
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Photo sharing bot for planetary and deep space images. Run by @kevinmgill.bsky.social Content providers added with permission.
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hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Hills and a sea of sand - sol 1192 - From Thomas Appéré (thomasappere.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2kb1YK5
En ce début de matinée sur Mars, les rayons d'un soleil rasant étirent les ombres et soulignent les reliefs. Cette mer de sable est la dune Namib, haute de cinq mètres et partie intégrante des dunes de Bagnold. Les images satellites ont révélées qu'elles se déplacent d'environ un mètre par année terrestre. En arrière-plan s'élèvent les contreforts du Mont Sharp, collines hautes de plusieurs dizaines à centaines de mètres. Cette photographie a été prise par le rover Curiosity en décembre 2015.
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Juno — Great Red Spot Flyover #1 - From Ian Regan - https://flic.kr/p/WKUzye
Made from the ground up from the raw JunCam B&W image strips.
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Hubble Gazes at a Cosmic Megamaser - From Goddard Space Flight Center - https://flic.kr/p/Q8i3dC
This galaxy has a far more exciting and futuristic classification than most — it hosts a megamaser. Megamasers are intensely bright, around 100 million times brighter than the masers found in galaxies like the Milky Way. The entire galaxy essentially acts as an astronomical laser that beams out microwave emission rather than visible light (hence the ‘m’ replacing the ‘l’).

A megamaser is a process that involves some components within the galaxy (like gas) that is in the right physical condition to cause the amplification of light (in this case, microwaves).  But there are other parts of the galaxy (like stars for example) that aren’t part of the maser process.

This megamaser galaxy is named IRAS 16399-0937 and is located over 370 million light-years from Earth. This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image belies the galaxy’s energetic nature, instead painting it as a beautiful and serene cosmic rosebud. The image comprises observations captured across various wavelengths by two of Hubble’s instruments: the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS).

NICMOS’s superb sensitivity, resolution, and field of view gave astronomers the unique opportunity to observe the structure of IRAS 16399-0937 in detail. They found it hosts a double nucleus — the galaxy’s core is thought to be formed of two separate cores in the process of merging. The two components, named IRAS 16399N and IRAS 16399S for the northern and southern pa...
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
1980-10-21 Saturn V1 OGB - From Ian Regan - https://flic.kr/p/2j4ooRe
Voyager images (restored)
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
0398MH0193000000R0_DXXX - From 2di7 & titanio44 - https://flic.kr/p/g2pLjp
"Courtesy NASA/JPL /Caltech/MSSS" processing 2di7 & titanio44
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Cyclonic Swirl in the North Equatorial Belt - Juno - From Aster Cowart (terrasabaea.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/WEWTJu
JunoCam image of the North Equatorial Belt from an altitude of 3600 km, moderately contrast enhanced and white balanced. This image captures a region of cyclonic motion in the North Equatorial Belt, which appears to be causing ripples in clouds to its west.
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Dulovo Crater - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter - From Aster Cowart (terrasabaea.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2kfsBAq
Eroded ejecta deposits associated with the 18 km wide Dulovo Crater. This crater is located near the southern rim of the 1500 km wide Isidis impact basin. The impact site is near the Martian dichotomy boundary, which separates the ancient terrain of Mars' southern hemisphere from the much younger lowlands of the northern hemisphere. The northern lowlands are thought to have once hosted an ocean, evidence of which might be recorded in Dulovo's ejecta. 

The crater's ejecta is a type called fluidized ejecta, which contains flow-like structures. This type of ejecta is thought to have formed in rocks rich in low-melting point materials, such as dry ice or water ice. Erosional remnats of the fluidized ejecta are visible has high-standing lobes of material running through image center. The more rugged rock, which is likely older rock buried and preserved by the ejecta sheet, appear to contain clay minerals.

This image was created using the CRISM imaging spectrometer. Each pixel of a CRISM image contains a 500 point spectrum, from which a color can be reconstructed. This reconstructed color was overlaid on a higher-resolution image taken with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Context Camera (CTX), which simultaneously took a photo while CRISM was collecting data. 

This image was taken on January 2, 2007. It uses CRISM observation FRT00003B63 and CTX observation P03_002044_1836_XI_03N275W.

Image Credit: NASA / JPL / JHUAPL / MSSS / Justin Cowart
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
When Jovian Light and Dark Collide - From NASA Marshall Space Flight Center - https://flic.kr/p/SwVmRr
This image, taken by the JunoCam imager on NASA’s Juno spacecraft, highlights a feature on Jupiter where multiple atmospheric conditions appear to collide.

This publicly selected target is called “STB Spectre.” The ghostly bluish streak across the right half of the image is a long-lived storm, one of the few structures perceptible in these whitened latitudes where the south temperate belt of Jupiter would normally be. The egg-shaped spot on the lower left is where incoming small dark spots make a hairpin turn.

The image was taken on March 27, 2017, at 2:06 a.m. PDT (5:06 a.m. EDT), as the Juno spacecraft performed a close flyby of Jupiter. When the image was taken, the spacecraft was 7,900 miles (12,700 kilometers) from the planet.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/ Roman Tkachenko

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Opportunity Microscopic Imager Sol 3502 - Mount Tempest - From 2di7 & titanio44 - https://flic.kr/p/ikXyqg
"Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech" processing 2di7 & titanio44
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Mickey Mouse Spotted on Mercury! - From Goddard Space Flight Center - https://flic.kr/p/bXjnXB
NASA image acquired: June 03, 2012

This scene is to the northwest of the recently named crater Magritte, in Mercury's south. The image is not map projected; the larger crater actually sits to the north of the two smaller ones. The shadowing helps define the striking "Mickey Mouse" resemblance, created by the accumulation of craters over Mercury's long geologic history.

This image was acquired as part of MDIS's high-incidence-angle base map. The high-incidence-angle base map is a major mapping activity in MESSENGER's extended mission and complements the surface morphology base map of MESSENGER's primary mission that was acquired under generally more moderate incidence angles. High incidence angles, achieved when the Sun is near the horizon, result in long shadows that accentuate the small-scale topography of geologic features. The high-incidence-angle base map is being acquired with an average resolution of 200 meters/pixel.

The MESSENGER spacecraft is the first ever to orbit the planet Mercury, and the spacecraft's seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation are unraveling the history and evolution of the Solar System's innermost planet. Visit the Why Mercury? section of this website to learn more about the key science questions that the MESSENGER mission is addressing. During the one-year primary mission, MESSENGER acquired 88,746 images and extensive other data sets. MESSENGER is now in a yearlong extended mission, during which plans call fo...
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Secuencia eclipse anular del 3 de octubre de 2005 - From Ángel López-Sánchez - https://flic.kr/p/2y5tSr
Secuencia del Eclipse Anular del 3 de octubre de 2005, visible desde Madrid. Más datos, en la historia del blog.
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Satellite Views Powerful Winter Storm Battering Mid-Atlantic and New England - From Goddard Space Flight Center - https://flic.kr/p/k43euL
The monster winter storm that brought icing to the U.S. southeast moved northward along the Eastern Seaboard and brought snow, sleet and rain from the Mid-Atlantic to New England on February 13. A new image from NOAA's GOES satellite showed clouds associated with the massive winter storm stretch from the U.S. southeast to the northeast.

Data from NOAA's GOES-East satellite taken on Feb. 13 at 1455 UTC/9:45 a.m. EST were made into an image by NASA/NOAA's GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The clouds and fallen snow data from NOAA's GOES-East satellite were overlaid on a true-color image of land and ocean created by data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites.The image showed that the clouds associated with the storm were blanketing much of the U.S. East Coast.

At 3:11 a.m. EST, a surface map issued by the National Weather Service or NWS showed the storm's low pressure area was centered over eastern North Carolina. Since then, the low has continued to track north along the eastern seaboard. By 11 a.m. EST, precipitation from the storm was falling from South Carolina to Maine, according to National Weather Service radar. 

By 11 a.m. EST, the Washington, D.C. region snow and sleet totals ranged from 3" in far eastern Maryland to over 18" in the northern and western suburbs in Maryland and Virginia. NWS reported that snow, sleet and rain were sti...
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Jupiter 30th June 1979 (Voyager 2) - From Ian Regan - https://flic.kr/p/975fV5
Voyager 2 narrow angle view, taken on 30th of June, 1979.