I'm feeling a bit retro today, so let's have some jazz.
You all have probably heard that Elon Musk is targeting a Moon colony before the Mars colony. The interesting part to me is that he is talking about an economic model for a Moon colony, which I'm going to write about more in due course. But in the meantime...
Rocket shockwaves, crossing in front of the Sun.
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) June 15, 2026
Amazing detail as a Falcon leaves Earth from Florida. Cool to clearly see the rocket exhaust turbulence and shape, and even sunspots.
From the Mach cone half-angle equation sin(μ) = 1/M, it looks like the @SpaceX Falcon is already… pic.twitter.com/vRGKMc0Fte
Part of that economic model is the observation that it is orders of magnitude cheaper to build satellites, like Musk's data center satellites, on the moon and deliver them to Earth than to launch them from Earth. Things are going to get interesting.
What are all those streaks in the sky? A galaxy, many satellite trails, and a few meteors. First, far in the distance, the majestic band of our Milky Way Galaxy runs down the left. Mirroring it on the right are several parallel trails of Earth-orbiting Starlink satellites. Many… pic.twitter.com/CDud9ZBjcA
— NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (@apod) June 14, 2025
Some things are already interesting.
M51 Whirlpool galaxy in canes Venatici constellation by Hubble telescope #NASA #ESA pic.twitter.com/3ualT5spvP
— Julio Maiz (@maiz_julio) June 16, 2025
Andromeda, for instance.
M31 Andromeda galaxy by Ben's astrophotography. pic.twitter.com/oVS8mqUooi
— Julio Maiz (@maiz_julio) June 15, 2025
If I ask Grok for more details, will it be Cliff's notes?
Cliffs in the Carina Nebula by James Webb telescope #NASA #ESA pic.twitter.com/EezFKyT5nV
— Julio Maiz (@maiz_julio) June 18, 2025
I think we've done the Tarantula Nebula before, but this is cool.
NGC2070 Tarántula nebula in the Large megallanic cloud by James Webb telescope #NASA pic.twitter.com/wotBqSs4Lb
— Julio Maiz (@maiz_julio) June 18, 2025
JWST is primarily an infrared telescope, but Hubble can manage at least near infrared, to good effect.
M42 Great Orion nebula in infrared by Hubble telescope #NASA pic.twitter.com/Uq60zQ2HyJ
— Julio Maiz (@maiz_julio) June 19, 2025
Olaf Stapleton wrote a book called Star Maker. I liked it a lot. But this is a real star maker.
Spectacular: N79, a nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud
— World and Science (@WorldAndScience) June 14, 2025
The region forms stars twice as efficiently as the famous Tarantula Nebula. Captured in mid-infrared, Webb’s view uncovers glowing gas, dust, and hidden newborn stars.
(Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, O. Nayak, M. Meixner) pic.twitter.com/fUgwbJcsvy
The blue stars here are youngsters too.
Speckled with young, blue stars, the spiral galaxy NGC 4100 stretches across this Hubble image.
— Hubble (@NASAHubble) June 17, 2025
This view was captured with the Advanced Camera for Surveys, which was installed during an astronaut servicing mission in 2002: https://t.co/usjnzrNc9x pic.twitter.com/JCrv2m9l0Q
I remember pictures of the Cat's Eye Nebula in my textbook when I took astronomy a million years ago. It was nothing like this.
NGC6543 Cat's eye nebula in Draco constellation by Hubble #NASA pic.twitter.com/MI3CZt4TxD
— Julio Maiz (@maiz_julio) June 19, 2025
Some flashy excitement this week.
Now, this is pretty cool, if not very showy. There are parts of the universe that have almost no stars for millions of light-years. But they're not completely empty. Space telescopes are letting us see that there are stars even in the voids, often for the first time.
Researchers from the @IAC_Astrofisica and the CAVITY project have studied a rare merger between two dwarf galaxies occurring deep within a cosmic void, an extremely underpopulated region of the Universe.
— Erika (@ExploreCosmos_) June 16, 2025
This event, involving galaxies with a combined mass of less than a… pic.twitter.com/3eyiuUflCB
Some picture postcards from far away.
More postcards from the planets! 📸🪐
— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) June 14, 2025
Views sent home in recent weeks by NASA spacecraft all across the solar system.
- Jupiter as seen by the Juno mission. Image processed from raw JunoCam data by Raihan Mohammad https://t.co/NsryeNwVbI
- A Martian landscape from the… pic.twitter.com/VLoZBLRXp2
Boom.
NASA Insight lander records the sound of multiple meteorites hitting the surface of Mars pic.twitter.com/vglZF0FFdZ
— Latest in space (@latestinspace) June 14, 2025
A lot of what the space telescopes are showing us is using light from different frequencies, so that the images are new and quite beautiful.
Same galaxy, different light.@NASAHubble’s latest image of barred spiral galaxy NGC 1385 looks different from a past release thanks to the use of different filters that reveal fresh details in color and composition.
— Space 360 (@Space360HQ) June 12, 2025
See the previous image: https://t.co/LwVB3wTssa pic.twitter.com/cmIhj4UGUl
More baby pictures.
A spiral galaxy ablaze with new beginnings, captured as only @NASAHubble can.
— Space 360 (@Space360HQ) June 15, 2025
NGC 685, a barred spiral 64 million light-years away, glows with young blue stars and pockets of pink gas where new stars are born. https://t.co/Ebnew8EiZr pic.twitter.com/7emg0i3grE
And a few more.
Pillars of Creation in Eagle Nebula in Serpens constellation by James Webb telescope #NASA #ESA pic.twitter.com/6gEufchRkX
— Julio Maiz (@maiz_julio) June 16, 2025
Let's finish up with a view from above.
New timelapse from the ISS
— Black Hole (@konstructivizm) June 14, 2025
Astronaut Johnny Kim shares his debut video from orbit. 68 seconds of beauty from 402 kilometers.
Continents pass under the station, the lights of megacities flash, and the aurora borealis shimmers in the atmosphere. Green flashes in the Asia region… pic.twitter.com/272yJseYr5
My cat is absolutely determined to keep me from working. But I defeated him temporarily. And that's it for this week. Come back next week for more Sky Candy.
