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Planetary Picture of the Day - Week of August 28, 2023

Planetary Picture of the Day - Week of August 28, 2023

Sep 6, 2023
Tags: PPOD
Planetary Picture of the Day

Planetary Picture of the Day
Week of August 28, 2023

Welcome to our weekly recap of our Planetary Picture of the Day (PPOD)!
A funny comic, a stunning comet, and a swirling cyclone.
 

 

Monday, August 28, 2023

illustration of two aliens in a comic strip. Alien 1 tells Alien 2: "I'll grab the human. You take the cat." the next panel is Alien 1 carrying the human and Alien 2 is injured with cat scratches.
Credit: Close Encounters Studios

Not as Planned...
Some Monday morning humor. Cat owners understand.

 

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Beautiful image of a bright light shooting up against a dark blue background
Credit: Michael Jäger

Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard
Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard was a long-period comet discovered by G. J. Leonard at the Mount Lemmon Observatory in Tucson, Arizona. While the comet's orbit was calculated at 80,000 years, calculations once the comet was closer to the Sun showed that it would be on an outward trajectory after September 2022, leaving our solar system. This photo of the comet and its extensive tail was captured remotely from Namibia on 25 December 2021.

 

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Image of a lone lava block on the red surface of Mars.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill

Lava Block
A literally cool lava block at Gale crater, Mars, as taken on Sol 3803 by NASA Curiosity's Mastcam. On Earth, lava blocks are generally older rocks that are fractured into angular pieces during an explosive eruption. They can travel upwards of 20km from their parent volcano.

 

Thursday, August 31, 2023

images of Saturn's moons in the distance above and below Saturn's rings.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Cassini Imaging Team/Jason Major

Saturnian Moons
Three of Saturn's moons -- Tethys, Enceladus, and Mimas -- are captured in this group photo from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Tethys (1,062 kilometers across) appears above the rings, while Enceladus (504 kilometers across) sits just below the center. Mimas (396 kilometers across) hangs below and off to the left of Enceladus.

The image is a color-composite from calibrated raw Cassini image data.

 

Friday, September 1, 2023

Image of a yellow and beige swirl on the surface of the planet.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Navaneeth Krishnan

Cyclone on Jupiter
This false-color image was created from raw data taken using the JunoCam onboard NASA's Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter and features a northern circumpolar cyclone in artistically enhanced detail. Taken during perijove - closest approach to Jupiter - number 46.

 

 

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