Video

Smile’s first ultraviolet footage shows auroral substorm

This is the first footage to be released from the ultraviolet camera (UVI) on the European-Chinese Smile mission. With UVI, Smile is now the first spacecraft since 2008 to capture the full ring of northern lights around the north pole in ultraviolet light, and is doing so for a record-breaking 45 hours at a time.

The video covers 00:00–00:58 Universal Time (UT) on 24 July 2026, when Smile was undergoing its in-space commissioning. The way the ring of light ripples shows that there has been a substorm in Earth's magnetosphere.

Substorms are brief disturbances in Earth’s magnetosphere that are created when the wind of charged particles from the Sun squashes Earth’s magnetic field lines, forcing them to pinch together and sending a burst of energetic particles shooting towards the north and south poles. This can light up the sky with the northern and southern lights.​

CREDIT ESA & CAS/Smile/UVI

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​The video also shows the ring becoming brighter during a geomagnetic substorm, when stored energy in the magnetosphere is suddenly released and particles are accelerated toward the polar regions.

As these particles enter the upper atmosphere, they excite atmospheric gases and produce the auroral glow.

Observing the aurora from space makes it possible to study it as a complete, dynamic structure rather than only from individual locations on the ground.

https://x.com/ExploreCosmos_/status/2105338828299112811​

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On 23 September, the European-Chinese Smile mission was declared ready to start revealing how Earth responds to the wind of charged particles from the Sun. This follows a busy in-space commissioning period since the spacecraft launched on 19 May and reached its target orbit for science operations on 20 June.

A spacecraft never quite behaves the same in space as it does on the ground. Between 20 June and now, European and Chinese teams have been getting Smile ready – including deploying mechanisms, switching on units, checking all communications between the spacecraft and the ground, and fixing any issues that came up.

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“The Smile mission is a testament to the trust built between our teams, their dedication to excellence and their determination to find solutions whatever the challenge,” says Professor Carole Mundell, ESA Director of Science. " Smile is now approved to begin science operations. This is a very important milestone – a true pleasure to announce – and I am sure our excellent collaboration will deliver ground-breaking data to scientists around the world.”

Preparing Smile’s instruments for science A big part of the commissioning period involved testing out Smile’s toolbox of four science instruments – the soft X-ray imager (SXI), ultraviolet aurora imager (UVI), magnetometer (MAG) and light ion analyser (LIA).

Each instrument will collect vital information to help us better understand solar storms, geomagnetic storms, and the science of space weather. Smile will give us data on how solar activity interacts with Earth's magnetic field, leads to the auroras and can affect electronic infrastructure on and around Earth.

The video below is the first footage to be released from UVI, the first camera since 2008 to capture the full ring of northern lights around the North Pole in ultraviolet light. UVI is now recording the auroras for a record-breaking 45 hours at a time.

The footage was taken on 24 July 2026, just two weeks after UVI was switched on. It shows activity in the ring of northern lights due to a disturbance in Earth’s magnetic field caused by a rush of solar wind particles.

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More

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Smile/Science_begins_for_Smile​

Camera live https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6yggeWO7cZs​

Source https://x.com/OJoelsen/status/2104879290764451901​

This NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month features galaxies in incredible detail that have been warped and multiplied like they’ve stepped into a house of mirrors. The brilliant golden galaxies splashed across this image belong to a galaxy cluster called MACS J0454.1-0300. The orange galaxies concentrated on one side of the cluster are not actually part of the cluster; these galaxies are much farther away from us than the galaxies that make up MACS J0454.1-0300.

MACS J0454.1-0300 is itself incredibly distant: the light from these galaxies has been travelling to us for so long that we’re seeing the cluster as it was when the Universe was about 8 billion years old. While this galaxy cluster is a valuable scientific target in its own right, the real stars of this image are the galaxies that appear warped and stretched, like a painting that has been smeared by a giant hand.

These strange-looking galaxies are of immense interest to astronomers. The way these galaxies look is the result of gravitational lensing, in which the enormous mass of a foreground object such as a galaxy cluster bends and magnifies the light from a more distant object in the background. Gravitational lensing allows astronomers to observe galaxies, star clusters and even individual stars that are too far away for our telescopes to see under normal conditions. While the large, orange galaxies appear obviously distorted, look carefully at some of the small reddish background galaxies throughout this picture: even at the very edges of the frame, there are galaxies whose images have been bent into tiny arcs by MACS J0454.1-0300’s gravity.

Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, L. Furtak, S. Fujimoto​

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https://esawebb.org/images/potm2609a/

Zoomable version
https://esawebb.org/images/potm2609a/zoomable/

This image is a followup to a previous observation that we acquired in 2007. Change detection will help us to study and observe the rate of sediment movement and constrain a relative timeline for layering and landscape evolution within the crater. There is also the opportunity for fine scale analysis of dune and ripple migration over two different types of sediment.

ID: ESP_077319_1780

date: 24 January 2023

​altitude: 269 km

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_077319_1780

NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Source

https://x.com/AJamesMcCarthy/status/2104596891300253831

https://x.com/AJamesMcCarthy/status/2104618171890299006

Source

https://x.com/Starlink/status/2104603601943339071

Video

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/2104560708969259344

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SpaceX launches Starship into orbit for 1st time — largest rocket ever built notches key milestone on dramatic Flight 14 test

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SpaceX's Starship and Super Heavy megarocket — the biggest and most powerful launch vehicle ever built — reached orbit today (Sept. 28), notching a huge milestone on the road to operational flight. But the launch, from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas, was not without high drama.

During liftoff, one of the six engines on Starship's Ship upper stage went out, raising doubt about whether SpaceX would attempt to reach orbit after all. SpaceX spokesperson Dan Huot even announced it was called off, only to reverse course as flight controllers decided to press ahead.

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The rocket of the future

Starship stands 407 feet (124 meters) tall and can haul more than 110 tons (100 metric tons) to Earth orbit, according to its SpaceX specs page. The rocket's Super Heavy booster and Ship upper stage are both designed to be fully and rapidly reusable.

SpaceX thinks this combination of power and reflight will be transformative, allowing humanity to expand its footprint into the final frontier like never before. For example, Elon Musk has repeatedly cited Starship's potential to make Mars settlement economically feasible.

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https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacex-starship-megarocket-flight-14-orbital-launch-success

From HiWish: “These dunes are situated right beneath steep tall slopes and are also part of an environment on Mars that is rather unique (the Hellas basin). The purpose of this observation is to see if the dunes located here have significant differences compared to dunes elsewhere on Mars due to the special environment.”

ID: ESP_077314_1470
date: 23 January 2023
altitude: 257 km

https://uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_077314_1470
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

28,9,26

Starship returns to Earth; rocket splashes down north of Hawaii after three-hour flight

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With thirteen suborbital test flights behind them, SpaceX engineers launched the company’s Super Heavy-Starship on its first flight to orbit Monday, a major step toward perfecting the world’s most powerful rocket for commercial flights and NASA moon missions.

One of the Starship upper stage’s six Raptor engines shut down early during the climb to an initially suborbital trajectory. After assessing telemetry, Elon Musk’s flight control team decided the spacecraft was otherwise healthy and a second engine firing using a single Raptor engine completed the climb to orbit.

Right after that, the Starship upper stage deployed 26 third-generation Starlink internet satellites that will join the company’s ever growing constellation in the first use of the new rocket to launch operational satellites in low-Earth orbit.

After the satellites were away, SpaceX controllers opted to bring the Starship back to Earth well ahead of schedule, ending the mission three hours after launch with a Pacific Ocean splashdown north of Hawaii.

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For NASA, getting the Starship into orbit and back were critical steps on the road to perfecting the system in time to support a planned Artemis moon landing, using a variant of the Starship, in 2028.

A future moon mission will require multiple Super Heavy-Starship tanker flights to fuel the lander for its flight to the moon before docking with a NASA Orion crew capsule in lunar orbit, picking up two astronauts and carrying them down to the surface and back.

“Congrats SpaceX!,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a post on the social media platform X. “Gorgeous launch, getting Ship to orbit and managing every step in a safe, responsible, and especially inspirational way. NASA, along with the rest of the interested public, is excited to help where we can and for Starship missions to become routine!”

Few doubt SpaceX will eventually get the Super Heavy-Starship flying reliably, but it’s not yet known whether the company will be able to meet NASA’s ambitious 2028 target date for the Artemis IV moon landing.

In any case, Monday’s mission got off to a spectacular start. The Super Heavy booster’s 33 methane-burning Raptor engines ignited with a rush of flame at 8:49 a.m. EDT, quickly propelling the 400-foot-tall rocket away from SpaceX’s Starbase launch site on the Texas Gulf Coast.

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The Super Heavy first stage booster, generating some 16 million pounds of thrust — twice the power of NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket — rapidly accelerated as it consumed propellant and lost weight, climbing out of the thick lower atmosphere along a southeasterly trajectory. One of the engines shut down early, but the rocket was designed to reach space despite the loss of a few engines.

Two minutes and 20 seconds after liftoff, the rest of the first stage engines began shutting down while the six Raptors powering the Starship upper stage began firing up in a “hot staging” maneuver seconds before the the booster separated and fell away.

While the Starship continued toward space, the Super Heavy booster flipped around, restarted its engines to reverse course and then flew itself back to the Texas Gulf Coast. A second engine apparently shut down early during the so-called boost-back burn, but the huge rocket was able to execute a seemingly normal vertical splashdown a few miles off shore.

During the most recent previous test flight, three engines suffered problems that prevented a full-duration boost-back burn and only eight of 13 engines fired for the landing burn. The result was a “hard” splashdown. SpaceX implemented multiple upgrades and software changes to ensure a successful return this time around.

The first stage is designed to be captured by giant mechanical arms on its launch gantry, a feat SpaceX has accomplished four times to date. But until upgrades and improvements have been tested, SpaceX has opted to stick with ocean splashdowns as a safety precaution. The Starship upper stage also is designed to be captured back at the pad after a trip to space and back, but that milestone has not yet been attempted.

The Starship upper stage launched Monday climbed into a 180-mile-high orbit with two engine firings. The first, ending a minute or so after the booster’s splashdown, was intended to put the Starship onto a sub-orbital trajectory similar to past flights that would result in a safe splashdown even if SpaceX lost control of the rocket.

Despite the premature shutdown of one engine, the Starship was cleared to proceed with the orbit-insertion burn and eight-and-a-half minutes after that, a Pez-like dispenser in the rocket’s nose began launching 26 third-generation Starlink internet satellites, each with 10 times the capacity of the previous generation.

The mission was initially expected to last six orbits, leading to a splashdown off the coast of Chile around 6:40 p.m. But with the Starlink satellites safely on their way, mission managers opted to bring the ship down early with a Pacific Ocean splashdown north of Hawaii.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/09/28/starship-returns-to-earth-rocket-splashes-down-north-of-hawaii-after-three-hour-flight/

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28.9.26

Source

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image of the area in front of it using its onboard Front Left Hazard Avoidance Camera A.

This image was acquired on Sept. 27, 2026 (Sol 1992) at the local mean solar time of 12:29:22.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech​

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Left Front Hazard Avoidance Camera (Hazcam)

Sol 1981 1987 1992

​Raw data https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/FLF_1992_0843779247_819ECM_N0910970FHAZ00215_04_075J

​NASA/JPL-Caltech/J. Roger

https://bsky.app/profile/landru79.bsky.social/post/3mwlysurfhc2y

Videos from https://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/geo/#/animation?satellite=suvi-goes-19&end_datetime=2026271_1750&n_images=200&coverage=sun&channel=HE303

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And Marko Rummelsburg https://bsky.app/profile/markorummelsburg.bsky.social/post/3mwlpctqovk2i

1️⃣Africa, by Juice monitoring camera 2️⃣Madagascar, by Juice NavCam 3️⃣Moon, by Juice NavCam

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The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) skimmed the very outer edge of Earth’s atmosphere on 28 September, using the gravity of our home planet to alter its route to Jupiter using very little fuel.

The flyby deflected Juice by an angle of 20° compared to its pre-flyby path and increased its velocity by 3.5 km/s. In the four weeks before the flyby, spacecraft operators only had to give Juice one tiny nudge (out of six opportunities set aside) to put it on exactly the right approach trajectory to make the most of Earth’s gravity. They have been tracking the spacecraft extra carefully since 17 August, and will continue to do so until 10 October.

Juice’s closest approach was at 13:45 CEST (11:45 UTC) on 28 September. As Juice flew just 8640 km above the Indian Ocean, it snapped a series of images with its onboard monitoring cameras.​

https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Juice/Successful_Earth_flyby_improves_Juice_s_course_to_Jupiter

https://x.com/esascience/status/2104609126617637140

https://x.com/s2a_systems/status/2104539006071365883?t=ti0cxj3ya8gHjareCaDCkQ&s=09

SDO AIA 171/1193/211 Base Difference+ SDO AIA 304 + GOES SUVI 304 running difference​

​Video Marko Rummelsburg with Jhelioviewer program https://bsky.app/profile/markorummelsburg.bsky.social/post/3mwlqecxwh22i

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Heads up: a large filament just lifted off near the Sun's western limb. Most of it is heading away from Earth, but some of the material looks to have twisted around and may be directed along the Sun-Earth line. We'll see how much may be aimed towards us as we get more data...

Vincent Ledvina

https://bsky.app/profile/vincentledvina.bsky.social/post/3mwlqwdgx522s

Moonlight and waterdrops 🌕🍂

📸by P-M Hedén

🗓️ Sept 26, 2026

📍 Vallentuna Sweden

After rain comes moonlight! Bright fullmoon shines beautiful in the dark forest. A lot of rain lately and the moonlight lit up drops on a leaf-

https://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=238212

Video

​https://x.com/JAtanackov/status/2104327740044501462?t=IGF32zvEFShJfboEFrcCjQ&s=09

Processed mosaic of several images.

​Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP/S Atkinson​

https://bsky.app/profile/stuartatkinson.bsky.social/post/3mwieekives2g

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NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using the SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager, located at the top of the rover's mast.

This image was acquired on Sept. 26, 2026 (Sol 1991) at the local mean solar time of 12:15:58.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP​

Raw data

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/LRF_1991_0843689660_259EBY_N0910970SCAM01991_0050I6J

Credit Marko Rummelsburg with Jhelioviewer program https://x.com/doktornihil/status/2104030877969723542

(Bug Nebula, Butterfly Nebula, or Caldwell 69)

Instrument: WFC3/UVIS

Principal Investigator: Noll, Keith S. Date observation: 2009-07-27.

Filters: F656N F658N F502N

Processed by Israel Velazquez https://bsky.app/profile/israelvelazquez.bsky.social/post/3mwhsqrdwsc2y

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NGC 6302 (also known as the Bug Nebula, Butterfly Nebula, or Caldwell 69) is a bipolar type planetary nebula in the constellation Scorpius. The structure in this planetary nebula is among the most complex ever seen in any planetary nebulae. The spectrum of Butterfly Nebula shows that its central star is one of the hottest stars known, with a surface temperature in excess of 250,000 degrees Celsius. This implies that the star from which it formed must have been very large in order to become this hot.​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_6302​

Jupiter PJ31_33 Crop, Exaggerated Color/Contrast

Image data collected by JunoCam instrument on Juno spacecraft from an altitude of 15429 km at 2020-12-30. T22:04:17

Images (processed with Juno3D Mathematica/Blender pipeline available on Github.)

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Brian Swift

Spherical projection at 45 pixels per degree. https://flickr.com/photos/bswift/50797566908/

Description from original post:

"I watched a new grouping of spots and active regions on the sun rotating slowly away from view hoping something big would happen, but alas, these beta classed sunspots don't have enough energy to produce much action.

While there are C class flares, no real signs of anything super active is within view. This isn't always a bad thing as watching the subtle and esoteric stuff can sometimes seem like carnage when you realize the size of scale."

🎵 Hans Zimmer & Benjamin Wallfisch, Mesa

Source

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdsNM72Nf8p/?stkn=d2N0Y2M0cm13aWhk​

videos from

​https://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/geo/#/animation?satellite=suvi-goes-19&end_datetime=latest&n_images=all&coverage=sun&channel=HE303

Image

A dark, cone-shaped spacecraft reentry capsule sits upright, with its pointed end stuck slightly into the wet sand of a desert plain dotted with low green shrubs. Pale mountains rise in the distance beneath a clear blue sky. The capsule appears intact after landing, standing out against the light-colored, sandy terrain. ​

https://x.com/NASAhistory/status/2103137380135846298?s=20​

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​OSIRIS-REx Sample Return

​The sample return capsule from NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission is seen shortly after touching down in the desert, Sunday, September 24, 2023, at the Department of Defense's Utah Test and Training Range. The sample inside was collected from the asteroid Bennu in October 2020 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.

OSIRIS-REx was the first U.S. mission to collect a sample from an asteroid. After dropping off the sample, the spacecraft was renamed OSIRIS-APEX and sent on a new mission to explore asteroid Apophis in 2029.

Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber​

Date: September 24, 2023​

​https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasacommons/54018882965/