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During NASA’s final mission to the moon in 1972, better known as Apollo 17, astronauts explored a region of the moon called Taurus-Littrow Valley. In this image from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been taking photos since 2009, you can see ridged hills called scarps and the valley floor on what we’ve now learned is a seismically active moon. When astronauts Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt drove across these on their Lunar Roving Vehicle to collect samples, they didn’t know at the time that moonquakes created these geologic features.
Zooming out, we can view the moon face more broadly, including a highlighted region in the north called Mare Frigoris. Mare (pronounce it like you’re at an Italian restaurant ordering frutti di mar-eh) are the moon’s darker areas, and on clear nights you can often even see them from Earth. Scientists used to think these once-volcanic mare were dormant, but new research indicates they’re as geologically active as the rest of the moon. The only constants in this universe are change and Dean Martin’s “That’s Amor-eh.”
We hear so much about exploring Mars, but there are other interesting worlds out there, too. Take Venus. You’d think that our other neighbor would receive some attention, but maybe Venus needs a makeover: Its surface averages some 864 degrees Fahrenheit (hot enough to melt lead, not to mention spacecraft) and gets blasted with acid rain. Rough neighborhood! The European Space Agency’s Venus Express spacecraft studied the planet for several years and took this ultraviolet-light photo of the dense cloud cover that permanently envelops Venus.
You’ve likely had a few looks at Orion, the constellation with the row of three large stars that make up the mythical hunter’s belt. You might not have seen the reflection nebula hidden within, called NGC 2023 and captured here by the ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Located just 1,500 light years from Earth, this reflection nebula works sort of like fog around the headlights of a car, except instead of fog this light show is made of interstellar dust surrounding a young and extremely hot star. This means that in several million years there could be a new addition to Orion’s belt.
Come together: Here is galaxy cluster SPT0615 in the constellation Pictor, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope and one of the first such clusters in which astronomers observed gravitational lensing. These galactic gatherings are so massive they actually warp the light that travels near them. Scientists rely on gravitational lensing to study the components of the cluster and figure out how far they are from the Earth.
Venus may be unwelcoming, but Mars is no picnic either. The HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this bizarre landscape. The orbiter had imaged this area in 2017, but it ended up looking rather different in this photo from 2018 after a dust storm engulfed the entire planet. But the wind ultimately blew away a lot of the dust, leaving behind this jagged, cratered scene.
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