Neptune - Blog Posts

Neptune

Neptune is dark, cold, and very windy. It's the last of the planets in our solar system. It's more than 30 times as far from the sun as Earth is. Neptune is very similar to Uranus. It's made of a thick fog of water, ammonia, and methane over an Earth-sized solid center. Its atmosphere is made of hydrogen, helium, and methane. The methane gives Neptune the same blue color as Uranus. Neptune has six rings, but they're very hard to see

The artistic vibes hit hard today so I drew planets as people! This is Uranus on the right and Neptune on the left. Both of them have warm cloaks because of how far they are from the sun! For Uranus I was inspired by the Greek god he was named after, who was the king of the sky and clouds (so many clouds and sky blues in the design.) As for Neptune, we went off of the planets naturally beautiful texture, and I wanted to make her more of a fighter character so we kept that in mind when designing her. These were so fun! I think I want to do more. 😁🔱🪐☁️☁️🌧️

Some little observations:

I swear there has to be a thing with Tauruses and food my mom said I ate more than an average new born she had to put cereal in my bottle and I even out are that

Me and my sister both have gemini moon and my mom would talk to me and my sister all the time (probably while in the womb too) she would also read us books

My mom has Saturn in her 5th house and had problems getting pregnant/was infertile until she start taking some kind of medicine

I have capricorn in the 3rd house and my sister has Sagittarius in the 3rd house, she's older but people always think I'm the older one and it's almost like we're both the big sister. I've taught her how to do things and kinda act like the big sister at times but she also has more common sense and maturity than me at times.

Eros in the 6th house have nice bodies maybe Mercury too

I have a friend who has Neptune opposing her asc and a Scorpio moon and her eyes are big and so pretty she also has dark eyes/eyebags

Ngl as a Scorpio rising/dominant I hold grudges, be mean to me once and don't even dare try talking to me bc I'll hold it against you

I think me and my sister are so much alike because we have Gemini moons. People used to say we looked alike when we we're younger and we're very close. Talking is also a huge part of our relationship and it's like we're on the same level intellectually. We always have good conversations about pop culture, our opinions, politics, etc.

Sorry about not posting often I'm trying 😭

I knew this guy with Uranus conjunct Mars in the 8th house and "it" was huge 😟

Siren in the 6th house have nice bodies

I feel like Jupiter in the first house wanna be thick so badly or they are but they usually have nice bodies

I might have already said this but chiron in the 6th house might have body insecurities or health issues the type to grow up fat then start eating healthy as they grow up or maybe they had bad skin and got into skincare

I hate to say it but it's true pisces placements do be lying especially ones related to the 3rd house/Mercury a friend of mine with Neptune in her first house admitted to lying for fun and an old friend of mine with Neptune in the 3rd house said she'd lie so people wouldn't know stuff about her (Scorpio rising) but I hate saying this because I have pisces/Neptune influence over my chart and I'm not a liar, but it is some of them.

There's definitely a connection between pisces/Neptune people and fishes, mermaids, etc my friend who has Neptune in the first house said she wants a little mermaid birthday party. They do look really good in a mermaid aesthetic, it's giving:

As a Scorpio rising I keep attracting Scorpio moons!!! And I love Gemini risings as a gemini moon and idk bout y'all but I get along better with people with similar placements to mine bc yk people be saying opposites attract...

What's y'all experience with Saturn in the 8th house men? Like what's going on down there? I'm curious 😭😭 I keep meeting guys with that placement I also don't know how to read this placement really, a lot of them seem kinda traumatized and closed off

People with Venus badly aspecting their asc usually think they're unattractive, it's sad

Ok so I have pisces Venus conjunct Uranus in a composite chart with this guy and we like each other but we live in different countries but he literally set the standard for my future bf 😭

On the list of hot voices is mars in the 2nd house. This guy ik has Capricorn mars in the second house and he sounds so smart and like a gentleman but hot at the same time. I also noticed he talks really slowly? Idk but I like it 😋. Sirene, Saturn, and Neptune also aspect his Mercury and neptune is in his 3rd house he has a pisces mercury too. I think pisces/neptune might make your voice nice, I have Neptune aspecting my Mercury and I've been told my voice is soothing. Ok I think Pluto makes a voice hot too because I'm noticing it's Venus, mars, and Neptune that keeps showing up in people's charts who have nice/attractive voices. Saturn can make them sound more mature and Jupiter can make them sound funny/be funny. Jupiter voices also sound deep and pisces/Neptune influence makes someone good with their words/poetic.

Idk if I'd say Scorpios look sexy/mysterious but I do try 😭😭 it's so hard though bc that's not who I am naturally I'm trying to just be myself though, I do notice I am just more reserved/quiet but that's when I'm not around friends or people I actually wanna talk to (Virgo 11th house) bc I don't really become friends with just anybody

I've noticed the connections I've had where the composite chart rising was Scorpio be deep/seem deep I love these relationships as a Scorpio/Pluto dom!!! I feel like we click and can talk about deep things like trauma easily

Idk the thing about tauruses and food is kinda right bc one thing about me...imma eat 😭 and I have a friend who's a Taurus moon who loves food

Let me tell you, having my Aphrodite and Lilith in Virgo and a pisces Venus the one thing I'm gonna do...is wear green, crystals, seashells, blue, etc ITS GONNA EAT EVERYTIME idc same with black but in terms of color? It's gonna be green, blue, and sometimes white (I'm still scared to wear white) but I love white too and omg don't get me started on grey and brown!!!! Or MATCHING SETS!? bye I want some juicy couture so bad!!! I love neutrals as much as I hate so say it bc it seems so basic but they're so easy to pair up and they look good together. But I'm trying to get into color and my favorites so far are green, orange, pink?, And blue also neutrals are easy because most likely it's gonna look good. Color can be complicated it's the same with patterns which is why I have a lot of basic tops now 😭.

Another thing I'm gonna do is wear tight clothes or crop tops 😋 and I honestly find it hard to not wear that or shirts that show cleavage now that I got a sewing machine I make everything a lil bit lower 💅🏾 and I love waist beads!! Emphasis on the stomach

And one time someone said "don't you think Tionna (me) looks good in comfy clothes" which is very interesting because taurus placements do look good in comfy clothes

Btw that picture came from Pinterest!

I ended things with a friend of mine because I got this feeling she was jealous of me. One time I brought up how my GPA was 3.7 and she was like really? Mines a 3.9 turns out she was probably lying because apparently freshmans dont have a gpa yet. She would always talk about herself and loved male validation (pick me vibes). The reason why I finally ended it was she basically said guys don't want me (unprovoked). I looked at her chart and our synastry and ofc she was a leo rising with Neptune opposite her asc 😭

Capricorn placements love cracking their bones

Venus in the 3rd might be good at drawing, have pretty hands, or pretty handwriting

Capricorn/Saturn rising men might have really nice bodies and work out probably have muscles

Moon in the 8th house might show cleavage or they should because it looks good. They might also be protective of their body/insecure about it probably try to hide it not the type to let just anyone get in their pants

Venus in the 5th house might have pretty hair, love their hair, or love doing hair. Might be very talented at it. For people attracted to women you might really love their hair.

They might also love to buy makeup, Skincare, etc anything that makes them more beautiful

As a venus in the fifth house in pisces person I LOVE anything beauty related I could stay in stores and the beauty isles forever and my jupiter in the first house probably also amplifies my need and want to be beautiful. I also had this fear of seeming vapid because of my interest in beauty (just putting this out here to see it ppl relate 😭)

I have chiron, medusa, and nessus in the 3rd house (medusa in capricorn and the other two in aquarius) and I always hated "jokes" like yk those mean ones then they say they're "joking" especially if it's by groups of ppl because it makes me feel like I'm getting picked on 🙃 and my 8th house moon isn't helping, like I'm sensitive 😭.

No fr though I hate when people do that then they gaslight you by calling you sensitive-

And as a pisces venus, yes I'm delusional...mind your business. I'll like a guy and tell myself he likes me back knowing damn well we never talked and it's all in my head and me wanting him to like me. And yes I'm doing it rn 😍😍 (the tarot cards says he likes me back).

Gemini suns/placements are the definition of quirky. But I noticed there's different types there's the more serious ones (Kanye West) and the more goofy and talkative ones- my bestfriend (she's a gemini rising) and Hailey Elizabeth on YouTube (I love her sm).

I heard that the sign on your 8th and 12th sign are the signs you don't like but that's not the case for me libra was my favorite sign at first and maybe I like geminis because I'm a gemini moon? Idk tell me yall experience

Girl my pisces dominance, sun in the 7th house, and Neptune square sun got me fighting for my life and my sense of identity like how am I supposed to know who I am with everyone's contradicting opinions of me and my unability to trust myself and my own opinion of myself!?!?

This might be obvious but scorpio and aries placements can be very defensive

Pluto in the 2nd house might be greedy especially with food

For people with chiron harshly aspecting their asc how's that self esteem?

Gemini placements have such a fun carefree energy and a lot of it, very energetic

Sorry about the very late post 😭

All the Boys love Mandy Lane💋

I was watching the movie All the Boys love Mandy Lane and I was thinking of astrology, ofc 🤭. this movie was giving venus-pluto aspects, scorpio venus, or venus-lilith. All the aspects that indicate people being dangerously obsessed with someone. The movie is about a hot girl staying at some guys ranch house with some friends and people start going missing. They show that the killer is her old best friend who is obsessed with her. In the beginning we see him basically kill a guy who was trying to pursue her. SPOLIER ALERT: Now we do see that she was in on killing everyone in the ranch. But she betrays her best friend by breaking their promise, she kills him and goes on to act like the victim. It's not the best movie but it's a somewhat accurate example of what people with these placements can experience.

A list of some placements I think that can relate: lilith in 1st house, pluto-venus aspects, lilith-asc, scorpio venus, pluto in the first house, pluto-asc, scorpio rising, maybe Medusa placements like prominent Medusa or Medusa in the 1st house, pluto dominant, maybe Neptune placements

Neptune and confusion

Neptune/pisces in a chart can talk about confusion, manipulation, and being delusional. And I started to think, as a pisces venus and pisces dominant person more about this. This made me think of body dysmorphia now I'm not saying if you're pisces dominant you have body dysmorphia. But I have noticed some form of confusion around the appearance. They might be insecure about their body or face or think they look different constantly. Especially in mirrors/photos. I remember when I was really insecure, my sister showed me a picture of myself and I said "wow, she's pretty who's that?" I genuinely did not know that was me 😭. And this is only one example/way it can manifest. They might've been manipulated a lot and the house might show where this happens.

The Solar System!

bonus Pluto!

Our Amazing Solar System

Hello, I'm Harridan and welcome to my blog /|\^•x•^/|\

My interests include:

Nature

• I'm not a professional photographer, but I do like to occasionally take pictures for fun – I also love space and biology

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

Horror

• Psychological, surreal, body horror, and psychedelic are my favourites

Sci-fi and Fantasy

• And other nerd stuff like D&D, anime/cartoons, and indie horror games

Astrology

• I'm a Sun/Neptune/Lilith dominant with a 12th house stellium

Aries Lilith/7th House

Scorpio Venus

12th House Stellium

12th House Stellium pt.2

Dark Houses (4th, 6th, 8th, 12th)

If brokenness is a form of art I must be a poster child prodigy...

A Tour of Storms Across the Solar System

Earth is a dynamic and stormy planet with everything from brief, rumbling thunderstorms to enormous, raging hurricanes, which are some of the most powerful and destructive storms on our world. But other planets also have storm clouds, lightning — even rain, of sorts. Let’s take a tour of some of the unusual storms in our solar system and beyond.

Tune in May 22 at 3 p.m. for more solar system forecasting with NASA Chief Scientist Jim Green during the latest installment of NASA Science Live: https://www.nasa.gov/nasasciencelive.

1. At Mercury: A Chance of Morning Micrometeoroid Showers and Magnetic ‘Tornadoes’

Mercury, the planet nearest the Sun, is scorching hot, with daytime temperatures of more than 800 degrees Fahrenheit (about 450 degrees Celsius). It also has weak gravity — only about 38% of Earth's — making it hard for Mercury to hold on to an atmosphere.

Its barely there atmosphere means Mercury doesn’t have dramatic storms, but it does have a strange "weather" pattern of sorts: it’s blasted with micrometeoroids, or tiny dust particles, usually in the morning. It also has magnetic “tornadoes” — twisted bundles of magnetic fields that connect the planet’s magnetic field to space.

2. At Venus: Earth’s ‘Almost’ Twin is a Hot Mess

Venus is often called Earth's twin because the two planets are similar in size and structure. But Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system, roasting at more than 800 degrees Fahrenheit (430 degrees Celsius) under a suffocating blanket of sulfuric acid clouds and a crushing atmosphere. Add to that the fact that Venus has lightning, maybe even more than Earth. 

In visible light, Venus appears bright yellowish-white because of its clouds. Earlier this year, Japanese researchers found a giant streak-like structure in the clouds based on observations by the Akatsuki spacecraft orbiting Venus.

3. At Earth: Multiple Storm Hazards Likely

Earth has lots of storms, including thunderstorms, blizzards and tornadoes. Tornadoes can pack winds over 300 miles per hour (480 kilometers per hour) and can cause intense localized damage.

But no storms match hurricanes in size and scale of devastation. Hurricanes, also called typhoons or cyclones, can last for days and have strong winds extending outward for 675 miles (1,100 kilometers). They can annihilate coastal areas and cause damage far inland.

4. At Mars: Hazy with a Chance of Dust Storms

Mars is infamous for intense dust storms, including some that grow to encircle the planet. In 2018, a global dust storm blanketed NASA's record-setting Opportunity rover, ending the mission after 15 years on the surface.

Mars has a thin atmosphere of mostly carbon dioxide. To the human eye, the sky would appear hazy and reddish or butterscotch colored because of all the dust suspended in the air. 

5. At Jupiter: A Shrinking Icon

It’s one of the best-known storms in the solar system: Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. It’s raged for at least 300 years and was once big enough to swallow Earth with room to spare. But it’s been shrinking for a century and a half. Nobody knows for sure, but it's possible the Great Red Spot could eventually disappear.

6. At Saturn: A Storm Chasers Paradise

Saturn has one of the most extraordinary atmospheric features in the solar system: a hexagon-shaped cloud pattern at its north pole. The hexagon is a six-sided jet stream with 200-mile-per-hour winds (about 322 kilometers per hour). Each side is a bit wider than Earth and multiple Earths could fit inside. In the middle of the hexagon is what looks like a cosmic belly button, but it’s actually a huge vortex that looks like a hurricane.

Storm chasers would have a field day on Saturn. Part of the southern hemisphere was dubbed "Storm Alley" by scientists on NASA's Cassini mission because of the frequent storm activity the spacecraft observed there. 

7. At Titan: Methane Rain and Dust Storms

Earth isn’t the only world in our solar system with bodies of liquid on its surface. Saturn’s moon Titan has rivers, lakes and large seas. It’s the only other world with a cycle of liquids like Earth’s water cycle, with rain falling from clouds, flowing across the surface, filling lakes and seas and evaporating back into the sky. But on Titan, the rain, rivers and seas are made of methane instead of water.

Data from the Cassini spacecraft also revealed what appear to be giant dust storms in Titan’s equatorial regions, making Titan the third solar system body, in addition to Earth and Mars, where dust storms have been observed.

8. At Uranus: A Polar Storm

Scientists were trying to solve a puzzle about clouds on the ice giant planet: What were they made of? When Voyager 2 flew by in 1986, it spotted few clouds. (This was due in part to the thick haze that envelops the planet, as well as Voyager's cameras not being designed to peer through the haze in infrared light.) But in 2018, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope snapped an image showing a vast, bright, stormy cloud cap across the north pole of Uranus.

9. At Neptune: Methane Clouds

Neptune is our solar system's windiest world. Winds whip clouds of frozen methane across the ice giant planet at speeds of more than 1,200 miles per hour (2,000 kilometers per hour) — about nine times faster than winds on Earth.

Neptune also has huge storm systems. In 1989, NASA’s Voyager 2 spotted two giant storms on Neptune as the spacecraft zipped by the planet. Scientists named the storms “The Great Dark Spot” and “Dark Spot 2.”

10. It’s Not Just Us: Extreme Weather in Another Solar System

Scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope made a global map of the glow from a turbulent planet outside our solar system. The observations show the exoplanet, called WASP-43b, is a world of extremes. It has winds that howl at the speed of sound, from a 3,000-degree-Fahrenheit (1,600-degree-Celsius) day side, to a pitch-black night side where temperatures plunge below 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (500 degrees Celsius).

Discovered in 2011, WASP-43b is located 260 light-years away. The planet is too distant to be photographed, but astronomers detected it by observing dips in the light of its parent star as the planet passes in front of it.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

What’s Up For September 2018?

Outstanding views Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars with the naked eye!

You'll have to look quickly after sunset to catch Venus. And through binoculars or a telescope, you'll see Venus's phase change dramatically during September - from nearly half phase to a larger thinner crescent!

Jupiter, Saturn and Mars continue their brilliant appearances this month. Look southwest after sunset.

Use the summer constellations help you trace the Milky Way.

Sagittarius: where stars and some brighter clumps appear as steam from the teapot.

Aquila: where the Eagle's bright Star Altair, combined with Cygnus's Deneb, and Lyra's Vega mark the Summer Triangle. 

Cassiopeia, the familiar "w"- shaped constellation completes the constellation trail through the Summer Milky Way. Binoculars will reveal double stars, clusters and nebulae. 

Between September 12th and the 20th, watch the Moon pass from near Venus, above Jupiter, to the left of Saturn and finally above Mars! 

Both Neptune and brighter Uranus can be spotted with some help from a telescope this month.

Look at about 1:00 a.m. local time or later in the southeastern sky. You can find Mercury just above Earth's eastern horizon shortly before sunrise. Use the Moon as your guide on September 7 and 8th.

And although there are no major meteor showers in September, cometary dust appears in another late summer sight, the morning Zodiacal light. Try looking for it in the east on moonless mornings very close to sunrise. To learn more about the Zodiacal light, watch "What's Up" from March 2018.

Watch the full What’s Up for September Video: 

There are so many sights to see in the sky. To stay informed, subscribe to our What’s Up video series on Facebook.

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Chasing the Shadow of Neptune’s Moon Triton

Our Flying Observatory

Our flying observatory, called SOFIA, carries a 100-inch telescope inside a Boeing 747SP aircraft. Scientists onboard study the life cycle of stars, planets (including the atmosphere of Mars and Jupiter), nearby planetary systems, galaxies, black holes and complex molecules in space.

AND on Oct. 5, SOFIA is going on a special flight to chase the shadow of Neptune's moon Triton as it crosses Earth’s surface!

In case you’re wondering, SOFIA stands for: Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy.

Triton

Triton is 1,680 miles (2,700 km) across, making it the largest of the 13 moons orbiting Neptune. Unlike most large moons in our solar system, Triton orbits in the opposite direction of Neptune, called a retrograde orbit. This backward orbit leads scientists to believe that Triton formed in an area past Neptune, called the Kuiper Belt, and was pulled into its orbit around Neptune by gravity. 

The Voyager 2 spacecraft flew past Neptune and Triton in 1989 and found that Triton’s atmosphere is made up of mostly nitrogen...but it has not been studied in nearly 16 years!

Occultations are Eclipse-Like Events

An occultation occurs when an object, like a planet or a moon, passes in front of a star and completely blocks the light from that star. As the object blocks the star’s light, it casts a faint shadow on Earth’s surface. 

But unlike an eclipse, these shadows are not usually visible to the naked eye because the star and object are much smaller and not nearly as bright as our sun. Telescopes with special instruments can actually see these shadows and study the star’s light as it passes near and around the object – if they can be in the right place on Earth to catch the shadow.

Chasing Shadows

Scientists have been making advanced observations of Triton and a background star. They've calculated exactly where Triton’s faint shadow will fall on Earth! Our SOFIA team has designed a flight path that will put SOFIA (the telescope and aircraft) exactly in the center of the shadow at the precise moment that Triton and the star will align. 

This is no easy feat because the shadow is moving at more than 53,000 mph while SOFIA flies at Mach 0.85 (652 mph), so we only have about two minutes to catch the shadow!! But our SOFIA team has previously harnessed the aircraft’s mobility to study Pluto from inside the center of its occultation shadow, and is ready to do it again to study Triton!

What We Learn From Inside the Shadow

From inside the shadow, our team on SOFIA will study the star’s light as it passes around and through Triton’s atmosphere. This allows us to learn more about Triton’s atmosphere, including its temperature, pressure, density and composition! 

Our team will use this information to examine if Triton’s atmosphere has changed since our Voyager 2 spacecraft flew past it in 1989. That’s a lot of information from a bit of light inside a shadow! Similar observations of Uranus in 1977, from our previous flying observatory, led to the discovery of rings around that planet!

International Ground-Based Support

Ground-based telescopes across the United States and Europe – from Scotland to the Canary Islands – will also be studying Triton’s occultation. Even though most of these telescopes will not be in the center of the shadow, the simultaneous observations, from different locations on Earth, will give us information about how Triton’s atmosphere varies across its latitudes. 

This data from across the Earth and from onboard SOFIA will help researchers understand how Triton’s atmosphere is distorted at different locations by its high winds and its strong tides!

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Planets: As Seen by Voyager

The Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft explored Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune before starting their journey toward interstellar space. Here you’ll find some of those images, including “The Pale Blue Dot” – famously described by Carl Sagan – and what are still the only up-close images of Uranus and Neptune.

These twin spacecraft took some of the very first close-up images of these planets and paved the way for future planetary missions to return, like the Juno spacecraft at Jupiter, Cassini at Saturn and New Horizons at Pluto.

Jupiter

Photography of Jupiter began in January 1979, when images of the brightly banded planet already exceeded the best taken from Earth. They took more than 33,000 pictures of Jupiter and its five major satellites. 

Findings:

Erupting volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io, which has 100 times the volcanic activity of Earth. 

Better understanding of important physical, geological, and atmospheric processes happening in the planet, its satellites and magnetosphere.

Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere with dozens of interacting hurricane-like storm systems.

Saturn

The Saturn encounters occurred nine months apart, in November 1980 and August 1981. The two encounters increased our knowledge and altered our understanding of Saturn. The extended, close-range observations provided high-resolution data far different from the picture assembled during centuries of Earth-based studies.

Findings:

Saturn’s atmosphere is almost entirely hydrogen and helium.

Subdued contrasts and color differences on Saturn could be a result of more horizontal mixing or less production of localized colors than in Jupiter’s atmosphere.

An indication of an ocean beneath the cracked, icy crust of Jupiter's moon Europa. 

Winds blow at high speeds in Saturn. Near the equator, the Voyagers measured winds about 1,100 miles an hour.

Uranus

The Voyager 2 spacecraft flew closely past distant Uranus, the seventh planet from the Sun. At its closest, the spacecraft came within 50,600 miles of Uranus’s cloud tops on Jan. 24, 1986. Voyager 2 radioed thousands of images and voluminous amounts of other scientific data on the planet, its moons, rings, atmosphere, interior and the magnetic environment surrounding Uranus.

Findings:

Revealed complex surfaces indicative of varying geologic pasts.

Detected 11 previously unseen moons.

Uncovered the fine detail of the previously known rings and two newly detected rings.

Showed that the planet’s rate of rotation is 17 hours, 14 minutes.

Found that the planet’s magnetic field is both large and unusual.

Determined that the temperature of the equatorial region, which receives less sunlight over a Uranian year, is nevertheless about the same as that at the poles.

Neptune

Voyager 2 became the first spacecraft to observe the planet Neptune in the summer of 1989. Passing about 3,000 miles above Neptune’s north pole, Voyager 2 made its closest approach to any planet since leaving Earth 12 years ago. Five hours later, Voyager 2 passed about 25,000 miles from Neptune’s largest moon, Triton, the last solid body the spacecraft had the opportunity to study.

Findings: 

Discovered Neptune’s Great Dark Spot

Found that the planet has strong winds, around 1,000 miles per hour

Saw geysers erupting from the polar cap on Neptune’s moon Triton at -390 degrees Fahrenheit

Solar System Portrait

This narrow-angle color image of the Earth, dubbed ‘Pale Blue Dot’, is a part of the first ever ‘portrait’ of the solar system taken by Voyager 1. 

The spacecraft acquired a total of 60 frames for a mosaic of the solar system from a distance of more than 4 billion miles from Earth and about 32 degrees above the ecliptic.

From Voyager’s great distance, Earth is a mere point of light, less than the size of a picture element even in the narrow-angle camera.

“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.” - Carl Sagan

Both spacecraft will continue to study ultraviolet sources among the stars, and their fields and particles detectors will continue to search for the boundary between the Sun's influence and interstellar space. The radioisotope power systems will likely provide enough power for science to continue through 2025, and possibly support engineering data return through the mid-2030s. After that, the two Voyagers will continue to orbit the center of the Milky Way.

Learn more about the Voyager spacecraft HERE.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

Solar System: Things to Know This Week

Almost every day, we receive a message from a spacecraft more than 10.6 billion miles (about 17 billion km) away.

At that unimaginable distance, it takes the radio signal almost 16 hours to arrive. The spacecraft is Voyager 2, which launched 40 years ago this month. It's still operating, sending back dispatches from the dark reaches well beyond the orbit of Pluto. Even now, scientists are still actively exploring the outer boundaries of the solar system using Voyager 2, decades after its "Grand Tour" of the giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune revealed their splendors like never before. This week, we recall 10 highlights from one of the most epic voyages in human history.

1. A Journey of 10 Billion Miles Begins With the First Step

Voyager 2 set out from Earth on Aug. 20, 1977. Even though it launched before its twin spacecraft, Voyager 1, it carried the '2' moniker because mission planners knew its trajectory would bring it to Jupiter after Voyager 1's arrival there.

2. The Grand Tour

Voyager 2's trajectory was special because it took advantage of a rare orbital alignment to fly by all four gas giant planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. It was the first, and so far the only, spacecraft to carry out a close-up reconnaissance of Uranus and Neptune.

3. Not-So-Gentle Giant

Voyager 2 flew by Jupiter in April 1979, capturing striking images of the planet's volcanic moon Io and its violent storms larger than the entire Earth.

4. Saturn's Not the Only One

Jupiter has its own ring system, and Voyager 2 provided the first pictures.

5. An Ocean Under Ice

During its Jupiter encounter, Voyager 2 obtained close-up looks at Jupiter's moon Europa, including linear cracks and other features which first led scientists to realize Europa probably hides a vast sea of liquid water beneath an icy shell, the first known world outside Earth that could have an ocean.

6. Ringworld, the Prequel

Voyager 2 zoomed through the Saturn system in August 1981. It saw hints of mysterious features that the Cassini mission would later reveal in stunning detail, including Enceladus, with its bright surface that suggested geologic activity, and Saturn's intriguing hexagonal jet stream.

7. Swiftly by a Tilted Planet

In January 1984, Voyager offered humanity its first detailed look at the seventh planet, Uranus, the only one tilted on its side relative to the Sun. Voyager images revealed 11 new moons, including Juliet, Puck, Cressida, Rosalind and Ophelia. The moon Miranda presented a bizarre landscape that left scientists debating its origins for years. Voyager also captured views of the planet's lacy rings, and found that it is the coldest in the solar system, at minus 353 degrees Fahrenheit (59 Kelvin).

8. In Neptune's Blue Realm

After picking up a gravitational speed boost at each previous planetary encounter, by the time Voyager reached Neptune it shot through the entire system of Neptunian rings and moons in a matter of hours. Voyager saw a titanic storm in Neptune's windy atmosphere, discovered new moons, and revealed active geysers erupting on Triton's frigid surface.

9. Postcards From the Edge

Although their cameras are no longer functioning, other key scientific instruments on board both Voyager spacecraft are still collecting data. Voyager 1 is exploring the boundary between the Sun's realm and interstellar space. Voyager 2 hasn't traveled quite as far. In September 2007, it crossed the termination shock (where the speed of the solar wind of charged particles drops below the speed of sound) at a point about 84 Astronomical Units from the Sun (more than twice the distance to Pluto). See https://go.nasa.gov/2uwrndb

10. Ride Along

Voyager's mission is far from over. Engineers estimate the spacecraft will have enough power to operate into the mid-2020s. You can ride along at www.jpl.nasa.gov/voyager, or by following @NASAVoyager on Twitter and by downloading our free 3-D space simulation software, Eyes on the Solar System at eyes.nasa.gov.

One more thing: Inspired by the messages of goodwill carried on Voyager's Golden Record, you're invited to send a short, uplifting message to Voyager and all that lies beyond it via social media. With input from the Voyager team and a public vote, one of these messages will be selected for us to beam into interstellar space on Sept. 5, 2017—the 40th anniversary of Voyager 1's launch. Post your message on social media with the tag #MessageToVoyager by Aug 15. Details: www.jpl.nasa.gov/voyager/message/

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Magnetospheres: How Do They Work?

The sun, Earth, and many other planets are surrounded by giant magnetic bubbles.

Space may seem empty, but it’s actually a dynamic place, dominated by invisible forces, including those created by magnetic fields.  Magnetospheres – the areas around planets and stars dominated by their magnetic fields – are found throughout our solar system. They deflect high-energy, charged particles called cosmic rays that are mostly spewed out by the sun, but can also come from interstellar space. Along with atmospheres, they help protect the planets’ surfaces from this harmful radiation.

It’s possible that Earth’s protective magnetosphere was essential for the development of conditions friendly to life, so finding magnetospheres around other planets is a big step toward determining if they could support life.

But not all magnetospheres are created equal – even in our own backyard, not all planets in our solar system have a magnetic field, and the ones we have observed are all surprisingly different.

Earth’s magnetosphere is created by the constantly moving molten metal inside Earth. This invisible “force field” around our planet has an ice cream cone-like shape, with a rounded front and a long, trailing tail that faces away from the sun. The magnetosphere is shaped that way because of the constant pressure from the solar wind and magnetic fields on the sun-facing side.

Earth’s magnetosphere deflects most charged particles away from our planet – but some do become trapped in the magnetic field and create auroras when they rain down into the atmosphere.

We have several missions that study Earth’s magnetosphere – including the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission, Van Allen Probes, and Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (also known as THEMIS) – along with a host of other satellites that study other aspects of the sun-Earth connection.

Mercury, with a substantial iron-rich core, has a magnetic field that is only about 1% as strong as Earth’s. It is thought that the planet’s magnetosphere is stifled by the intense solar wind, limiting its strength, although even without this effect, it still would not be as strong as Earth’s. The MESSENGER satellite orbited Mercury from 2011 to 2015, helping us understand our tiny terrestrial neighbor.

After the sun, Jupiter has by far the biggest magnetosphere in our solar system – it stretches about 12 million miles from east to west, almost 15 times the width of the sun. (Earth’s, on the other hand, could easily fit inside the sun.) Jupiter does not have a molten metal core like Earth; instead, its magnetic field is created by a core of compressed liquid metallic hydrogen.

One of Jupiter’s moons, Io, has intense volcanic activity that spews particles into Jupiter’s magnetosphere. These particles create intense radiation belts and the large auroras around Jupiter’s poles.

Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, also has its own magnetic field and magnetosphere – making it the only moon with one. Its weak field, nestled in Jupiter’s enormous shell, scarcely ruffles the planet’s magnetic field.

Our Juno mission orbits inside the Jovian magnetosphere sending back observations so we can better understand this region. Previous observations have been received from Pioneers 10 and 11, Voyagers 1 and 2, Ulysses, Galileo and Cassini in their flybys and orbits around Jupiter.

Saturn’s moon Enceladus transforms the shape of its magnetosphere. Active geysers on the moon’s south pole eject oxygen and water molecules into the space around the planet. These particles, much like Io’s volcanic emissions at Jupiter, generate the auroras around the planet’s poles. Our Cassini mission studies Saturn’s magnetic field and auroras, as well as its moon Enceladus.

Uranus’ magnetosphere wasn't discovered until 1986 when data from Voyager 2’s flyby revealed weak, variable radio emissions. Uranus’ magnetic field and rotation axis are out of alignment by 59 degrees, unlike Earth’s, whose magnetic field and rotation axis differ by only 11 degrees. On top of that, the magnetic field axis does not go through the center of the planet, so the strength of the magnetic field varies dramatically across the surface. This misalignment also means that Uranus’ magnetotail – the part of the magnetosphere that trails away from the sun – is twisted into a long corkscrew.

Neptune’s magnetosphere is also tilted from its rotation axis, but only by 47. Just like on Uranus, Neptune’s magnetic field strength varies across the planet. This also means that auroras can be seen away from the planet’s poles – not just at high latitudes, like on Earth, Jupiter and Saturn.

Does Every Planet Have a Magnetosphere?

Neither Venus nor Mars have global magnetic fields, although the interaction of the solar wind with their atmospheres does produce what scientists call an “induced magnetosphere.” Around these planets, the atmosphere deflects the solar wind particles, causing the solar wind’s magnetic field to wrap around the planet in a shape similar to Earth’s magnetosphere.

What About Beyond Our Solar System?

Outside of our solar system, auroras, which indicate the presence of a magnetosphere, have been spotted on brown dwarfs – objects that are bigger than planets but smaller than stars.

There’s also evidence to suggest that some giant exoplanets have magnetospheres. As scientists now believe that Earth’s protective magnetosphere was essential for the development of conditions friendly to life, finding magnetospheres around exoplanets is a big step in finding habitable worlds.  

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We Just Identified More Than 200 New (Potential) Planets

The Kepler space telescope is our first mission capable of identifying Earth-size planets around other stars. On Monday, June 19, 2017, scientists from many countries gathered at our Ames Research Center to talk about the latest results from the spacecraft, which include the identification of more than 200 potential new worlds! Here’s what you need to know:

We found 219 new planet candidates.

All of these worlds were found in a patch of sky near the Cygnus constellation in our Milky Way galaxy. Between 2009 and 2013, Kepler searched more than 200,000 stars in the region for orbiting planets. The 219 new planet candidates are part of the more than 4,000 planet candidates and 2,300 confirmed planets Kepler has identified to date.

Ten of these worlds are like our own.

Out of the 219 new planet candidates, 10 are possibly rocky, terrestrial worlds and orbit their star in the habitable zone – the range of distances from a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of a rocky planet.

Small planets come in two sizes.

Kepler has opened up our eyes to the existence of many small worlds. It turns out a lot of these planets are either approximately 1.5 times the size of Earth or just smaller than Neptune. The cool names given to planets of these sizes? Super Earths and mini-Neptunes.

Some of the new planets could be habitable. 

Water is a key ingredient to life as we know it. Many of the new planet candidates are likely to have small rocky cores enveloped by a thick atmosphere of hydrogen and helium, and some are thought to be ocean worlds. That doesn’t necessarily mean the oceans of these planets are full of water, but we can dream, can’t we?

Other Earths are out there.

Kepler’s survey has made it possible for us to measure the number of Earth-size habitable zone planets in our galaxy. Determining how many planets like our own that exist is the big question we’ll explore next.

The hunt for new planets continues.

Kepler continues to search for planets in different regions of space. With the launch of our Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in 2018, we’re going to search for planets nearest the sun and measure the composition of their atmospheres. In the mid-2020s, we have our sights on taking a picture of small planets like Earth with our Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST).

*All images of planets are artist illustrations.

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Solar System: Things to Know This Week

It’s the time of year for summer break, swimming, and oh, yes storms. June 1 marks the beginning of hurricane season on the Atlantic coast, but we’re not alone. Our neighboring planets have seen their fair share of volatile weather, too (like the Cassini spacecraft’s view of the unique six-sided jet stream at Saturn’s north pole known as “the hexagon”). 

This week, we present 10 of the solar system’s greatest storms.

1. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

With tumultuous winds peaking at 400 mph, the Great Red Spot has been swirling wildly over Jupiter’s skies for at least 150 years and possibly much longer. People saw a big spot on Jupiter as early as the 1600s when they started stargazing through telescopes, though it’s unclear whether they were looking at a different storm. Today, scientists know the Great Red Spot has been there for a while, but what causes its swirl of reddish hues remains to be discovered. More >

2. Jupiter’s Little Red Spot

Despite its unofficial name, the Little Red Spot is about as wide as Earth. The storm reached its current size when three smaller spots collided and merged in the year 2000. More >

3. Saturn’s Hexagon

The planet’s rings might get most of the glory, but another shape’s been competing for attention: the hexagon. This jet stream is home to a massive hurricane tightly centered on the north pole, with an eye about 50 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth. Numerous small vortices spin clockwise while the hexagon and hurricane spin counterclockwise. The biggest of these vortices, seen near the lower right corner of the hexagon and appearing whitish, spans about 2,200 miles, approximately twice the size of the largest hurricane on Earth. More>

4. Monster Storm on Saturn 

A tempest erupted in 2010, extending approximately 9,000 miles north-south large enough to eventually eat its own tail before petering out. The storm raged for 200 days, making it the longest-lasting, planet-encircling storm ever seen on Saturn. More >

5. Mars’ Dust Storm 

Better cover your eyes. Dust storms are a frequent guest on the Red Planet, but one dust storm in 2001 larger by far than any seen on Earth raised a cloud of dust that engulfed the entire planet for three months. As the Sun warmed the airborne dust, the upper atmospheric temperature rose by about 80 degrees Fahrenheit. More >

6. Neptune’s Great Dark Spot

Several large, dark spots on Neptune are similar to Jupiter’s hurricane-like storms. The largest spot, named the “Great Dark Spot” by its discoverers, contains a storm big enough for Earth to fit neatly inside. And, it looks to be an anticyclone similar to Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. More >

7. Sun Twister 

Not to be confused with Earth’s tornadoes, a stalk-like prominence rose up above the Sun, then split into about four strands that twisted themselves into a knot and dispersed over a two-hour period. This close-up shows the effect is one of airy gracefulness. More >

8. Titan’s Arrow-shaped Storm 

The storm blew across the equatorial region of Titan, creating large effects in the form of dark and likely “wet” from liquid hydrocarbons areas on the surface of the moon. The part of the storm visible here measures 750 miles in length east-to-west. The wings of the storm that trail off to the northwest and southwest from the easternmost point of the storm are each 930 miles long. More >

9. Geomagnetic Storms

On March 9, 1989, a huge cloud of solar material exploded from the sun, twisting toward Earth. When this cloud of magnetized solar material called a coronal mass ejection reached our planet, it set off a chain of events in near-Earth space that ultimately knocked out an entire power grid area to the Canadian province Quebec for nine hours. More >

10. Super Typhoon Tip

Back on Earth, Typhoon Tip of 1979 remains the biggest storm to ever hit our planet, making landfall in Japan. The tropical cyclone saw sustained winds peak at 190 mph and the diameter of circulation spanned approximately 1,380 miles. Fortunately, we now have plans to better predict future storms on Earth. NASA recently launched a new fleet of hurricane-tracking satellites, known as the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS), which will use the same GPS technology you and I use in our cars to measure wind speed and ultimately improve how to track and forecast hurricanes. More >

Discover more lists of 10 things to know about our solar system HERE.

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Solar System: Things to Know This Week

Making every night science movie night with these amazing videos.

1. Pure Beauty 

Our star sprouting coronal loops courtesy of the NASA sun team. See the full video: https://go.nasa.gov/2p47Lt2

2. Where’s the last place you'd expect to find enough ice to bury a city? 

Answer: Mercury, the closest planet to the sun. Watch the video: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11184

3. The Mars Fleet 

Only Earth has more satellites studying it. Full video: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4414

4. A Star-Studded Cast

Check out NASA's satellite fleet of Earth observers. See the video: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12586

5. Jupiter in Ultra HD 

Thanks, Hubble Space Telescope! See the video: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12021

6. A Tear Jerker 

Our Cassini spacecraft starts her 4.5-month Grand Finale this week. Full video: https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/7628

7. Faster Than the Speed of Sound

Winds on Neptune travel faster than the speed of sound. Full video: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11349

8. A Musical Number

This one features the planet Uranus doing pop and lock. Full video: https://youtu.be/CWuWoiHmXUs

9. Up Close and Personal 

Thanks to our New Horizons mission, we’ve been able to get up close and with Pluto. Full video: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12080

10: The Treasure Trove

TRAPPIST-1 is a treasure trove of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a distant star. Full video: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/details.php?id=1459

Discover more lists of 10 things to know about our solar system HERE.

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Travel Posters of Fantastic Excursions

What would the future look like if people were regularly visiting to other planets and moons? These travel posters give a glimpse into that imaginative future. Take a look and choose your destination:

The Grand Tour

Our Voyager mission took advantage of a once-every-175-year alignment of the outer planets for a grand tour of the solar system. The twin spacecraft revealed details about Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – using each planet’s gravity to send them on to the next destination.

Mars

Our Mars Exploration Program seeks to understand whether Mars was, is, or can be a habitable world. This poster imagines a future day when we have achieved our vision of human exploration of the Red Planet and takes a nostalgic look back at the great imagined milestones of Mars exploration that will someday be celebrated as “historic sites.”

Earth

There’s no place like home. Warm, wet and with an atmosphere that’s just right, Earth is the only place we know of with life – and lots of it. Our Earth science missions monitor our home planet and how it’s changing so it can continue to provide a safe haven as we reach deeper into the cosmos.

Venus

The rare science opportunity of planetary transits has long inspired bold voyages to exotic vantage points – journeys such as James Cook’s trek to the South Pacific to watch Venus and Mercury cross the face of the sun in 1769. Spacecraft now allow us the luxury to study these cosmic crossings at times of our choosing from unique locales across our solar system.

Ceres

Ceres is the closest dwarf planet to the sun. It is the largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, with an equatorial diameter of about 965 kilometers. After being studied with telescopes for more than two centuries, Ceres became the first dwarf planet to be explored by a spacecraft, when our Dawn probe arrived in orbit in March 2015. Dawn’s ongoing detailed observations are revealing intriguing insights into the nature of this mysterious world of ice and rock.

Jupiter

The Jovian cloudscape boasts the most spectacular light show in the solar system, with northern and southern lights to dazzle even the most jaded space traveler. Jupiter’s auroras are hundreds of times more powerful than Earth’s, and they form a glowing ring around each pole that’s bigger than our home planet. 

Enceladus

The discovery of Enceladus’ icy jets and their role in creating Saturn’s E-ring is one of the top findings of the Cassini mission to Saturn. Further Cassini discoveries revealed strong evidence of a global ocean and the first signs of potential hydrothermal activity beyond Earth – making this tiny Saturnian moon one of the leading locations in the search for possible life beyond Earth.

Titan

Frigid and alien, yet similar to our own planet billions of years ago, Saturn’s largest moon, Titan has a thick atmosphere, organic-rich chemistry and surface shaped by rivers and lakes of liquid ethane and methane. Our Cassini orbiter was designed to peer through Titan’s perpetual haze and unravel the mysteries of this planet-like moon.

Europa

Astonishing geology and the potential to host the conditions for simple life making Jupiter’s moon Europa a fascinating destination for future exploration. Beneath its icy surface, Europa is believed to conceal a global ocean of salty liquid water twice the volume of Earth’s oceans. Tugging and flexing from Jupiter’s gravity generates enough heat to keep the ocean from freezing.

You can download free poster size images of these thumbnails here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/visions-of-the-future/

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How Well Do you Know Neptune?

Dark, cold and whipped by supersonic winds, Neptune is the last of the hydrogen and helium gas giants in our solar system. More than 30 times as far from the sun as Earth, the planet takes almost 165 Earth years to orbit our sun! In fact, in 2011, Neptune completed its first orbit since its discovery in 1846.

Here are a few things you might not know about the windiest planet:

If the sun were as tall as a typical front door, the Earth would be the size of a nickel and Neptune would be about as big as a baseball.

Neptune orbits our sun, a star. Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun at a distance of about 4.5 billion km (2.8 billion miles) or 30.07 AU. 

One day on Neptune takes about 16 hours (the time it takes for Neptune to rotate or spin once)

Neptune makes a complete orbit around the sun (a year in Neptunian time) in about 165 Earth years (60,190 Earth days)

Neptune has six rings

Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited Neptune

Neptune has 13 moons. They are named after various sea gods and nymphs in Greek mythology

Did you know that Neptune has storms?

Similar to Jupiter, Neptune has storms that create gigantic spots in its atmosphere…well, it did. When Voyager 2 flew past Neptune in 1989, it tracked and imaged the “Great Dark Spot” — a storm larger than the entire Earth! When the Hubble Space Telescope imaged Neptune the spot had disappeared, only to be replaced with two smaller storms, which in turn also disappeared.

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