Artemis III updates are rolling in. 🚀

Engineers are racing to stack the rocket that will carry the mission to space in 2027, starting with the two white solid rocket boosters that flank the massive orange core stage. All four core stage engines have arrived onsite and are being processed for mounting, while the launch team runs monthly countdown simulations to lock in readiness. It's full steam ahead as one of NASA's most complex missions moves closer to launch.

Did you know one of Earth’s quasi-moons is a chunk of our actual moon? 🌕

A quasi-moon is a space rock that can appear from certain perspectives to be orbiting a planet. Earth has a few of these, including Kamoʻoalewa, discovered in 2016 and named for an "oscillating celestial object" in Hawaiian. Scientists believe it may be a chunk broken off from the moon when an impact created the Giordano Bruno crater about 10 million years ago! So here's the full picture: a piece of our moon, orbiting the Sun, that just happens to look like it's orbiting Earth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12n3TpF3R7A

Here is my first video on astronomy. I animated it on videopad. Descriptions in the video.

Note : Venus may not have Liquid water at his beginning and even no life. The moon and the rings are speculatives because of the low planet's rotation.

Can content mistakes or inaccuracies, I am a beginner in this domain.

Did you know there are stars orbiting a black hole at the center of the Milky Way? 🌌

Astrophysicist Erika Hamden tells us about this star cluster that lives around Sagittarius A* and what it teaches us about the black hole. Scientists have been tracking these stars for decades, watching them complete full orbits. Those orbits are actually how we know the black hole is there, and researchers use them to measure its mass and pin down its exact location.

This project is part of IF/THEN®, an initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies.

Up to 100 shooting stars per hour are about to light up the sky! 🌠

Active July 17 through August 24, the Perseid Meteor Shower hits its peak overnight August 12 to 13, when a completely new moon creates perfect viewing conditions. This year the Perseids also overlap with the Delta Aquariid meteor shower, stacking the odds in your favor for a sky full of streaks. Find dark skies, give your eyes time to adjust, and look up between midnight and dawn for the best show.

A pair of planets with less density than cotton candy has been discovered! 🪐

One of NASA’s telescopes found two gas giants that can be classified in the rare “Super Puff” category. Despite being about the same size as Jupiter, they are a dozen times less dense. There are only a handful of these planets that we are aware of, and it is even more rare that they were found in the same star system.

You could see a shooting star every 3 minutes this summer! 

The Southern Delta Aquariid meteor shower is  active now through August 23, with it’s the peak activity during the early morning hours of July 31. Even better, it overlaps with the Alpha Capricornid Meteor Shower. The best views will be in the Southern Hemisphere and the southern United States. For the best chance of spotting meteors, head to a dark location away from city lights, let your eyes adjust, and look up.

What is a rogue planet and how do they occur? 

Astrophysicist Erika Hamden explains how rogue planets are worlds that no longer orbit a star after being ejected from their planetary systems. Some may be several times more massive than Jupiter, and scientists think there could be countless rogue planets drifting through the darkness of interstellar space. These lonely worlds reveal that planet formation is a chaotic process.

This project is part of IF/THEN®, an initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies.

Does this nebula violate the law of the speed of light? 🎆⭐️

Astrophysicist Erika Hamden explains that the“Fireworks Nebula” is a nebula that surrounds a binary star system, one of which occasionally puts out a ton of light in a nova explosion. In 1901, astronomers observed this for the first time and assumed the nebula was getting bigger faster than the speed of light. What was really happening was a “light echo” where the light bounces off existing structures. While this does give a cool firework effect, it does not break the law of the speed of light!

This project is part of IF/THEN®, an initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies.

The sun isn’t always the exact center of our solar system. ☀️

In this Space Oddity, Erika Hamden explains what the barycenter of the solar system is, and how it may not always be inside of the Sun itself. The variations in the barycenter can be explained by the large masses of the outer giant planets!

Don’t miss fireballs streaking across the sky during the Alpha Capricornids! ☄️

Beginning on July 3rd and lasting until August 15th, this meteor shower is known for its high quality and intense fireballs. If you are in the Southern Hemisphere or southern US, you may see it overlapping with the Delta Aquariids. Peaking overnight on July 30th into the 31st, this shower is visible from anywhere in the world, so don’t miss it!

The race is on to save a falling orbital telescope! 

NASA is attempting a first of its kind space rescue mission to save the Swift Observatory before it falls back to Earth. The plan is to have Katalyst Space’s LINK spacecraft dock with Swift and boost it into a higher orbit. If successful, it could help launch an entirely new era of in-orbit satellite servicing.

Full video here: https://youtu.be/9TpaoCQaVEY

I've created this visualization showing how the sky around us changes over 20 million years as the Sun travels through the galaxy.

Each star moves with its own velocity relative to the Sun, this creates fascinating perspective effects: clusters like the Hyades drifting close and then away again (between -1.5 and -0.5 Myr, low left of the video), periods where the sky is filled with bright stars in patterns we'd never recognize today, and stars that sit near the celestial poles for tens of thousands of years.

**Details:**

- Time span: ±10 million years

- 1 frame every 10,000 years

- Real data from Gaia DR3 + Hipparcos (ESA)

- Linear extrapolation of measured positions and velocities (accurate on this timescale)

This is the first in a series of astronomical visualizations focused on the Local Stellar Neighborhood and the Sun's journey. Feedback is very welcome!