The Hubble Space Telescope, which has been observing the outer planets for 10 years, recently celebrated its OPAL (Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy) program’s 10-year anniversary. The mission shared stunning images of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, providing valuable insights into cloud dynamics in the gas giant’s atmosphere.
Saturn, with a tilt of 26.7 degrees, presents an oblique view of its rings from Earth about half the time and an edge-on view the other half. This phenomenon will become less frequent as Saturn aligns with the Sun again in 2025.
NASA’s solar eclipse experiments have yielded promising results, including confirming that eclipses generate ripples in Earth’s atmosphere called atmospheric gravity waves. The Artemis Moon missions have been delayed due to hardware issues, with the Orion capsule’s heat shield being a primary concern.
The BepiColombo mission has completed its fifth Mercury flyby and will enter orbit around Mercury in 2026 after adjusting its trajectory and speed through several passes. Meanwhile, the XXM-Newton space telescope is celebrating its 25th anniversary of operations, highlighting key discoveries such as X-ray auroras at Jupiter’s magnetic poles.
The Planetary Society has released a special issue of The Planetary Report reviewing the past year in pictures, featuring data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Additionally, StarTalk host Neil deGrasse Tyson joined Bill Nye for podcast episodes discussing space science and advocacy.
To expand space exploration, the society is hosting a virtual book club meeting on “Reentry: SpaceX, Elon Musk, and the Reusable Rockets that Launched a Second Space Age.” Any gift to the year-end campaign will power The Planetary Society’s mission to explore worlds, find life, and defend Earth.
Source: https://www.planetary.org/the-downlink/anniversaries-abound