The Soul Nebula Pictured, Bright Massive Stars Near The Center Of W5, The Soul Nebula, Are Exploding

Curiosity looks for damage to its wheels.

Source

That’s it. That’s the best tweet. We can all go home now.

Mars used to be much more Earth-like than we once thought. The Curiosity rover recently discovered high levels of manganese oxide, which can only exist in oxygen-rich environments. This means Mars used to have as much oxygen as Earth and plenty of water on its surface. Source Source 2

Shadow 

The US’s GOES-16 weather satellite (still in its testing/non-operational phase) sent back this series of photos taken every 5 minutes today, showing the shadow of the moon marching across the continent. Video shared originally here: 

https://twitter.com/UWSSEC/status/899707692364836866

http://www.ssec.wisc.edu

-JBB

Here’s a comic on something flaming hot!

This week’s comic: Firewall Theory

http://www.sciencealert.com/try-to-escape-a-black-hole-and-you-ll-be-burnt-to-a-crisp-new-paper-cautions

https://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/relativity-space-astronomy-and-cosmology/black-holes/black-hole-information-paradox-an-introduction/

so this happened

TRAPPIST - 1 by Guillem H. Pongiluppi

New Hubble Portrait of Mars (which will be at its closest to us on 30 May)

On May 12, 2016, the Hubble Space Telescope captured this vivid photo of Mars, when the planet was closer to Earth than usual and approaching the opposition (when the sun and Mars will be on exact opposite sides of Earth).  Mars is especially photogenic during opposition because it can be seen fully illuminated by the sun as viewed from Earth. Mars will reach opposition on May 22.

Furthermore, the closest approach to Earth for the year will occur on 30 May, when Mars will be at a distance of 75.28 million km (46.78 million miles) from us. For comparison, the average distance between the two is 225 million km. These two events so close together make the coming week(s) the best time to observe the red planet with a telescope. You can already notice it in the night sky (check for your location) as one of the brightest dots with a red-orange glow near the Moon. 

Read about the Hubble’s image here.

Image credits: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), J. Bell (ASU), and M. Wolff (Space Science Institute)

“Breakfast on Mars” by Simon Kono.