To the naked eye, Jupiter will appear as a very bright "star." Here's what it looked like earlier this week as seen through a skylight in a lava tube at Craters of the Moon National Monument.
With a small telescope, or even binoculars, Jupiter's largest moons are also visible. Learn more about the giant planet at solarsystem.nasa.gov/jupiter
Even better? On Thursday, Sept. 29, our #JunoMission spacecraft will make a close flyby of one of Jupiter's most intriguing moons, Europa: go.nasa.gov/3SEL49a
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In clear skies, the planet Jupiter will be visible as a brilliant "star" in the east after sunset. With binoculars, the planet's largest moons can be seen as points of light nearby. One of those points is Europa. Within hours, our #JunoMission will be there.🧵 1/6
That little dot is actually a complex, intriguing world. Europa is about size of Earth's Moon. Beneath its cold outer shell of ice, scientists think it hides a global ocean of liquid water. The evidence came from several NASA spacecraft that flew by Jupiter over the years... 2/6
...and one in particular, the Galileo mission, which orbited the planet and observed Europa and its magnetic field up close. solarsystem.nasa.gov/galileo 3/6
It's 2/2/22! For this day of 2️⃣s, here are some iconic pairs in our solar system. Some asteroids come in twos, such as Ida & Dactyl, as seen by the Galileo spacecraft. This year, our #DARTMission will perform its test at another pair, Didymos & Dimorphos: go.nasa.gov/3ofmhes
Two small moons of Saturn, Janus & Epimetheus, share very similar orbits around the planet, and they regularly swap positions. This series of images was captured by Cassini. go.nasa.gov/3giKM6T
Pluto and its largest moon Charon, seen here by the #NewHorizonsMission, are sometimes described as a double planet, since they orbit around the common center of gravity between them. go.nasa.gov/3giWoH0
Luck favors the prepared! The #DARTMission has lifted off to begin its journey to a double asteroid, where it will test techniques to deflect an asteroid if someday one presents a hazard to Earth. Ride along here and at nasa.gov/dart
The #DARTMission spacecraft has separated from the @SpaceX rocket, and is on its way to the Didymos double asteroid system, where it is expected to arrive late next year.
There was a flurry of activity on the surface of the Sun this week, including large solar flares and storms. Here, @NASASun’s Solar Dynamics Observatory in Earth orbit captured an especially active solar region on Nov. 2. 1/4
The Sun launched multiple coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that sent waves of charged particles toward Earth. The SOHO spacecraft caught one as it blasted out into the solar system. 2/4
When these particles arrived at Earth, its magnetic field directed them toward the north & south poles, where they lit up the atmosphere with auroras. These geomagnetic storms were so powerful that people far from the poles got to see the show. This view was captured in Utah. 3/4
Congratulations to the Ingenuity #MarsHelicopter team on the first powered flight on another planet!
How far could robotic rotorcraft like Ingenuity take us in space exploration? Far. Very far.
Let’s talk about titans and dragonflies. 1/4
Saturn’s moon Titan is bigger than Mercury! With a soupy atmosphere thicker than Earth's and only 1/7th the gravity, it’s the perfect place to explore with a flying rover. 2/4
The surface is loaded with enigmatic features like dunes of weird carbonaceous material and mountains of ice-rock. It even has boulders and pebbles created by liquid methane, as seen in this image from @esa's Huygens probe that landed on Titan. 3/4