2023 December 16

Gamma Cas & Ghost Nebula © Antoine Grelin

Apollo 11 Launch

NASA's monster garage, 1980.

Saturn has a mysterious hexagon at its north pole that has refused to give up its secrets, probably because neither Voyager 1 nor Cassini was able to plunge that deep and survive. Harvard scientists Rakesh Yadav and Jeremy Bloxham might have finally started to figure out what causes this peculiar feature. They believe that vortexes occur at the planet’s north pole because of atmospheric flows deep within the gas giant, and that these vortexes pinch an intense horizontal jet near the equator—which is what warps the storm into a hexagon. It still looks unnatural though.....!!!

The California Nebula, NGC 1499 // Alex Weinstein

The bright star to the right is Menkib (ξ Persei), whose name comes from the Arabic phrase mankib al Thurayya meaning "shoulder of the Pleiades".

IC 4628: The Prawn Nebula ©

NASA Hubble Space Telescope - The ‘Swan Nebula’

Astronomical photographs, Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, 1890-1920

Saturn and its amazing rings, observed by the Cassini probe on this day in 2004.

Cosmic Cliffs in Carina © JWST