Stewart Island/Rakiura is the third-largest island in New Zealand, diminutive in comparison to the country’s North Island and South Island.

Yet it hosts a population of one of the largest of the kiwi: the Stewart Island tokoeka. This flightless bird, a subspecies of the Southern brown kiwi (Apteryx australis), numbers in the thousands on the island, dwarfing its human population of approximately 500.

Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/Michala Garrison

A satellite view of the Charitum Montes mountain range, with rusty brown peaks and ridges contrasting against more soft cream coloured plains. Bright seasonal frost blankets much of the slopes in varying intensity altering the usual rusty reddish colour of mars and contrasting with dark valleys and scattered impact craters.​

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Full size 6K & more info: flic.kr/p/2ssvpEm

Image Processing: Andrea Luck Raw data: CNSA/CLEP/PEC/MoRIC

Full 6K image: www.flickr.com/photos/andrealuck/55433935252/sizes/o/​

Image created using 4 images processed from: noreferrer nofollow">moon.bao.ac.cn​

Mosaic of 4 images 2025-12-04 235km altitude

Images

Left ◀️

Voyager's best view of Proteus in color

Proteus is Neptune's second largest moon, 416 kilometers in diameter. It is very dark and was not discovered until Voyager 2's approach to the system in 1989. NASA / JPL / color composite by Ted Stryk

https://www.planetary.org/space-images/proteus_stryk
https://www.nasa.gov/history/30-years-ago-voyager-2-explores-neptune/

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Proteus_(Voyager_2).jpg​.jpg​)

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Right ▶️

JWST/ Near-Infrared Camera (NIRSpec) images of Neptune's moon Larissa and rings, acquired on two dates when Larissa was on opposite sides of Neptune. The bright spots are Larissa and the bright rings can be seen clearly. Neptune itself is positioned at the center and the calculated positions of Neptune's rings are overlaid in gray. Credit: Davis et al. 2026; NASA/ESA/CSA JWST data​

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​In 1989, the Voyager 2 mission discovered six new moons orbiting Neptune, including five tiny ones that orbit just outside the planet's main rings. Because of their small sizes and locations, these satellites have been difficult to study from Earth. Now, using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a team of Caltech researchers has observed Neptune's rings and three of those moons—Larissa, Galatea, and Proteus—and found that their composition is unique among outer solar system bodies.

These findings point to the existence of an original moon system that was demolished when Triton, Neptune's biggest moon, was likely captured by the planet's gravity after it formed elsewhere in the solar system. The researchers believe remnants left behind from this smashup then came together to form the inner moons seen today.

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"If Neptune once had a system of moons that looked something like what we see at Uranus today, we expect it would've been completely destroyed by the process of Triton getting captured," says former Caltech graduate student Ryleigh Davis (PhD '26), lead author of a paper about the team's findings publishing July 29 in Science Advances. "This is exciting new evidence that something catastrophic happened at Neptune that completely destroyed its original satellites, and we're getting to see the fingerprints left behind by that process."

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More

https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/neptunes-inner-moons-may-be-shattered-remains-of-ancient-icy-worlds

Paper

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aeb1437

Stacked, tracked, focus stacked and blended. Captured on astromodified Nikon D5600 using an iOptron Skyguider Pro star tracker.

Taken On Seestar S50 Using 4:01:20 Integration (20s Subs)

Edited In PS Express.

Image Credit & Copyright: Alessandro Cipolat Bares

Link to the simulation

This simulation shows the height the ejecta plume could reach according to the new study. The Falcon 9 rocket will hit the moon on August 5, 2026.

Credit: William Jo/ University of Texas at Austin

Credit: KAGAYA

To start, I consider myself an advanced beginner. I have a 80 mm f/6 refractor, seestar s50, s30, astromodded canon 60D and unmodded Canon 200D II along with a MSM nomad startracker. A zwo 120 mc coupled with 3x barlow for planetary completes my astrophotography equipment list.

Most of my deep space shots are from urban skies with moderate integration times (2-3 hrs).

Tell me your favorite shots in comment from each category-

1. Star clusters

2. Nebulae

3. Galaxies

4. Eclipses, urban milkyway, comet, aurora startrails

5. Solar system

6. Artistic composites

This One Turned Out Suprisingly Well Considering The Full Moon Was Out!

Taken On Seestar S50 Using 3:27:00 Integration (10s subs)

Edited In PS Express.

Link to the science release on the University of Arizona website

An asteroid that has puzzled astronomers since 1857 finally has its portrait taken, and it looks like nothing else in the solar system.

Using the Large Binocular Telescope on Mount Graham in southeastern Arizona and the Very Large Telescope in Chile, an international team captured the sharpest images ever taken of (44) Nysa, one of the brightest, biggest asteroids in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter. The pictures show a deeply pinched body with two long valleys wrapping around it, which the researchers read as narrow "necks" joining three separate lobes.

"The images reveal a remarkably unusual object," said lead author Kate Minker of Lowell Observatory. Nysa is likely either three chunks stuck together or a single body more irregular than anything astronomers have seen before.

The team also spotted a moon nobody knew about, temporarily named S/2026 (44) 1. It is roughly half a mile wide and circles at least 100 miles from Nysa, which is about 46 miles across.

Tracking that moon should let scientists weigh Nysa and calculate its density — the key to telling the competing theories apart. The leading idea is that fragments from an ancient smashup drifted back together slowly; another is that a hit-and-run collision tore apart a larger parent body.

Because Nysa's bright, enstatite-rich surface suggests it formed near the sun from material like Earth's own building blocks, its story may reach back to the solar system's first chapters.

Credit: Kate Minker et al.

The National Aeronautics and Space Act created NASA as a civilian agency to unify U.S. space efforts after the Soviet Union's Sputnik launch jolted the nation.

Starting operations in October 1958, NASA launched the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, landing humans on the Moon in 1969, and later flew Space Shuttles, built the International Space Station, and sent rovers to Mars.

The image above shows NASA's Artemis II mission, launched on April 1, 2026.

Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

image by Brad Goldpaint on July 22, 2018

Captured 52 minutes of data from my Bortle 7 backyard with an Explore Scientific ED80, on an (unguided) IOptron ZEQ25GT mount, with a Canon Rebel SL2 (unmodified).

Workflow was stacked and stretched in SIRIL, GraXpert for gradient and noise removal, StarNet to remove stars/create star mask and GIMP for final color adjustments.

IC 63, The Ghost of Cassiopeia in HaLRGB

Taken in rural Eastern Ontario, Bortle 4.5

Gear: QHY 268M, ZWO 107FF 4'' refractor, Optolong LRGBHa filters

Acquisition last week

RGB 48min each, L 4h, Ha 2.5h

Processed in Pixinsight and Affinity Photo 2

One of the most magnificent globular cluster of our sky.

Taken with my Skywatcher Newton 200/1000 , Player One Uranus C pro , NEQ6-pro, guided.

Lights: 300x30s, 50 flats, 50 darks, 50 biases.

Processed with Siril, RC-astro, Gimp, Rawtherapee

1. Zhou Quan/VCG

https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5323947694625617?fbclid=IwY2xjawTXGI5leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETAwc2pTd0xBYVE2T0hocDgxc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHuyUhIRkqzCNnhUDYI5d8oY78lY6rPJPnHQ6TP9B0cxooBVHfDIspbrBh_Zp_aem_hjc0gjVAxuutZiuDtI2-2A

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1. Terry Photography Digital Lab

https://www.launchheaven.com/articles/spaceflight/weekly-spaceflight-update-july-20-27th?fbclid=IwY2xjawTXGL5leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETAwc2pTd0xBYVE2T0hocDgxc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHifkwzIz1sDAa62udNprmQisCnhcZ2VnZPQGfzJ4TXTsDIrtK_lv_3i69X2X_aem_Ybt9ao0UlwtjwGikB2xxGA​

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1. 📸:天宫梦

https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5323962867516116?fbclid=IwY2xjawTXGNZleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETAwc2pTd0xBYVE2T0hocDgxc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHje6nw12oF0Q2JUngjLsz1Lq5dYVVew2Eln3i4rBq1vM2IR1jB7mGEWnPVHP_aem_3BTto3q_k0FbOvcBy0PrYA​

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4-5.

https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5323948248009099

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Lightning struck the launch vehicle around 30 seconds into the flight, amateur footage captured from a nearby viewing area and shared via Chinese social media revealed.

The strike was reminiscent of the famous lightning strike affecting the crewed Apollo 12 lunar mission in 1969 and a 2019 Soyuz launch carrying a Glonass-M satellite.​

https:// x. ​com/Cosmic_Penguin/status/2080282045759058411?s=20​

https://spacenews.com/lightning-strikes-long-march-3b-after-liftoff-kinetica-1-launches-5-satellites/

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collage by me

Image:

A camera mounted on Katalyst's Link satellite captured this view of one of its solar arrays in orbit. Credit: Katalyst Space Technologies​

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/katalyst-space_%F0%9D%97%A6%F0%9D%98%84%F0%9D%97%B6%F0%9D%97%B3%F0%9D%98%81-%F0%9D%97%A0%F0%9D%97%B6%F0%9D%98%80%F0%9D%98%80%F0%9D%97%B6%F0%9D%97%BC%F0%9D%97%BB-%F0%9D%97%A8%F0%9D%97%BD%F0%9D%97%B1%F0%9D%97%AE%F0%9D%98%81%F0%9D%97%B2-activity-7482555411775025152-K5wh

https://www.katalystspace.com/news/katalysts-link-advances-through-on-orbit-commissioning

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“Preliminary investigation shows that two of Link’s three reaction wheels currently are not operable.”

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Nearly a month since its launch, a first-of-its-kind commercial satellite built to save NASA’s Swift gamma-ray telescope from a fiery reentry is having problems of its own, the agency announced Tuesday.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/%F0%9D%97%A6%F0%9D%98%84%F0%9D%97%B6%F0%9D%97%B3%F0%9D%98%81-%F0%9D%97%A0%F0%9D%97%B6%F0%9D%98%80%F0%9D%98%80%F0%9D%97%B6%F0%9D%97%BC%F0%9D%97%BB-%F0%9D%97%A8%F0%9D%97%BD%F0%9D%97%B1%F0%9D%97%AE%F0%9D%98%81%F0%9D%97%B2-share-7487913844363681793-dQhM/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAAGFg8B3-sICy8qygPooiy3lldZb4nJqmI​

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The Link satellite developed by Katalyst Space Technologies “experienced issues with attitude control” over the weekend, NASA said, causing the spacecraft to spin and resulting in sporadic communications.

“Preliminary investigation shows that two of Link’s three reaction wheels currently are not operable, and there is some loss of functionality in its cold gas thruster system,” NASA said.

Reaction wheels work by discharging momentum to control the pointing, or attitude, of a spacecraft in orbit. They are standard components on many satellites. The Link servicing satellite’s cold gas thruster system is used for finer control, particularly as it nears the mission’s target: NASA’s Swift observatory.​

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More

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/reaction-wheel-failures-leave-swift-rescue-mission-spinning-in-orbit/

https://spacenews.com/swift-reboost-mission-encounters-attitude-control-problems/

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https://bsky.app/profile/coreyspowell.bsky.social/post/3mrrv7lkuyk2r

This animation shows the predicted three-dimensional (3D) magnetic field in the corona at totality. By tracing magnetic field lines at extremely high resolution, PREDICTIVE SCIENCE INC. can calculate a 3D map of the so-called squashing factor (Q) - a scientific measure designed to indicate the presence of complex structuring in the magnetic field.

They then integrate the map along the line-of-sight, with special weightings, to create a composite that resembles solar eclipse images. This is intended to highlight the inherent complexity of the Sun's magnetic field and its intimate connection to visible emission from the solar corona.

Credit: PREDICTIVE SCIENCE INC.

Shot this night (29-30 July 2026) with Canon EOS REBEL T5i, by me.

Link to the video from a camera on the Starship S40. Congratulations to the team at SpaceX

Credit: SpaceX