From Earth, any observation of Saturn will only see its day time side, as when the planet is on the night side of Earth, it's opposite from the Sun, leaving the Sun-facing side also facing Earth. But this observation from the Cassini probe shows a crescent Saturn. (1/2) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

This is a galaxy seen perfectly side-on. While this is a spiral galaxy the spiral shape can only be seen from above or below, but from the angle we see it, we can only see the side, making it look like a flat glowing line. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

Remember when TVs used to show static? The random white and black patterns was the TV displaying whatever random signals it picked up. As it turns out, about 1% of these signals originated from the Cosmic Microwave Background, the light of the Big Bang. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

What looks like one galaxy is actually two. The round yellowish segment is one, and the blue and red spiral around it is another. What's truly impressive is that without the foreground galaxy blocking the background, we'd never actually be able to see the background. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

An aurora seen from space. This shot of the Aurora Australis, otherwise known as the Southern Lights, was taken from above by the International Space Station. The ISS actually orbits Earth at the same level as the uppermost portions of the aurora. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

The dazzling light of tens of thousands of stars shine in this cluster. This is M69, a globular cluster, which is a group of tens of thousands of tightly packed stars that orbits around the Milky Way, rather than being a proper part of it. It's like a satellite for a galaxy. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

Let's celebrate the USA's 250th with what looks to be North America in space. You can even see the US portion. This is the North America Nebula, named due to its striking resemblance to the North America Continent. It is an emission nebula, a cloud of gas where stars are born. (1/2) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

This striking image features the Medulla Nebula, a brain-shaped nebula. The nebula is a supernova remnant, a type of gas cloud left behind from an explosion at the end of the life a massive star. The supernova that created this nebula occurred about 10,000 years ago. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

An up close look into a barred spiral galaxy courtesy of James Webb. This is NGC 1365, and incredibly huge galaxy that's over 200,000 light-years in diameter. That's twice the size of the Milky Way! (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

A moon surfing the waves of Saturn's rings. This image shows Daphnis, an 8 km diameter moon of Saturn. This moon orbits right between two of the rings, in the Keeler Gap. As Daphnis orbits between the rings, it creates a rippling pattern of waves that follows behind it. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

Is that a hand? In space? This is MSH 15-52, a pulsar wind nebula, but given its striking shape, it has been nicknamed "The Hand of God," as it looks like an arm and a hand reaching out to grab another nebula. (1/3) #Astronomy⚛️🧪🛰️

When two different telescopes work together, you can get amazing results. This image is collaboration between James Webb and another space telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Each telescope sees the universe in a different way, painting a fuller picture when combined. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

A grain of sand held out at arm's length towards the sky will cover up over 10,000 galaxies. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field was an image by Hubble in 2004 with over 10,000 galaxies in the same image. But the area of sky the telescope was looking is only the size of a sand grain. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

A reverse view of an eclipse. In this image of Earth, you might notice the dark round area near the top of the planet. What could it be? It's actually the shadow of the Moon left during an annular solar eclipse in 2012. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

This chart shows Venus' atmosphere. From 45 to 70 km, you get sulfuric acid (H2SO4) clouds. These clouds are dense and surround the entire planet. Any life in this potential "habitable layer" would have to contend with the nasty stuff. Again, not impossible, but not the most likely either. (1/3)

This field of white dwarf stars was captured in 2002 by Hubble and is an important tool in determining the age of the universe. A white dwarf is the remnant of a dead star. They cool at a predictable rate, so by studying these stars, we can determine how old they are. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

A stellar baby photo. At a meager 400 light-years away, the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is one of the closest star-forming regions to us. With help from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope, we can peer through the clouds to see the stars forming inside. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

Today is Hubble's 36th anniversary of launch. This image was released to celebrate Hubble's 30th anniversary in 2020. It shows NGC 2014 (red) and NGC 2020 (blue). Together they are known as the Cosmic Reef. Both are completely different types of nebulae. (1/3) #Hubble 🔭⚛️🧪🛰️

For Earth Day, let's remind ourselves just how small the Earth is. This is The Pale Blue Dot. You see that tiny bluish pixel? That's the Earth in farthest photo ever taken of it. It was taken in 1990 by Voyager 1 as the probe left the Solar System, over 6 billion km from Earth. (1/3) #EarthDay 🔭⚛️🧪🛰️

Two galaxies collide and are born anew. This image is of Arp 107, two galaxies that have collided and are in the process of combining together. While this may sound like the end these galaxies, it's actually a new beginning. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

Artemis II is set to return to Earth in just a few hours. To celebrate, let's take a look at my favorite image taken during the mission. This image captures an Earthset, the Earth setting behind the Moon's horizon. Technically, there's actually no such thing as an Earthset. (1/3) #ArtemisII 🔭⚛️🧪🛰️

With Artemis II on its way to the Moon, let's remember the first time humans landed there. This photo was taken by Michael Collins of Apollo 11 in the command module as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were returning in the lunar module at the end of their mission. (1/2) #ArtemisII 🔭⚛️🧪🛰️

A galaxy ablaze with star formation. NGC 2283 is barred spiral galaxy about 45 million light-years away from Earth. The dense knots of brightly glowing gas is the result of active star formation. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

Earth isn't the only planet with aurorae. Just like Earth's Northern Lights, Saturn's magnetic field diverts charged particles from the Sun to its poles, where the particles collide with gas molecules in the atmosphere to create a light show. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

The Pillars of Creation from a whole new perspective. You've likely seen Hubble's famous "Pillars of Creation" image before, but here's an alternative look at it by the James Webb Space Telescope. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

The James Webb Space Telescope is the most powerful telescope in use. For it to see as far as it does, it needs a massive mirror. Most telescopes, both grounded and space, use mirrors to collect light. The bigger the mirror, the more light collected and the better the image. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

This image is the groundbreaking proof of a long believed astronomical concept. This is the Serpens Nebula, an active star-forming region. Look closely, and you'll spot multiple stellar jets being ejected from the newly formed stars. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

In this deep field image, nearly every light you see is a galaxy rather than a star. While the few bright lights with diffraction spikes are stars in the Milky Way that happen to be in sight, everything else is galaxies far away, which contain billions of stars of their own. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

That's not an abstract painting, it's Jupiter's surface! As a gas giant planet, Jupiter has no solid surface. It's just one big atmosphere. This color-enhanced image from the Juno probe shows the turbulent and dynamic surface of Jupiter's bands and storms in vivid detail. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

This is the Spider Nebula as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope. As JWST sees the world in infrared, the collapsed star at the nebula's center and its surroundings glow brightly, where they would normally be dim in visible light. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️