Earth getting bigger, seen from cameras on the European Service Module on 10 April, as the Artemis II mission approaches its conclusion. Orion seen on left with a solar array wing across top of the image.

💻 #WatchLive: the final stages of the #Artemis II mission from 23:30 BST/00:30 CEST on youtube.com/watch?v=nfhD...

Expected times in CEST:
🚀01:33 Separation of European Service Module
🌠01:53 Crew Module reentry begins
🪂02:03 Parachute deployment
💦02:07 Splashdown

@exploration.esa.int

Crescent (partially illuminated) Moon and Earth facing the Sun. The Sun is just out of frame to the right leaving flares of light reaching out toward the left. NASA/Artemis II/Kevin M. Gill

This might be one of my favorites from Artemis II. A cinematic alignment of the Moon and Earth, each cradled within the warmth of sunbeams.

Taken from behind the Moon on April 6th.

flic.kr/p/2s6BABn

On a black background of space, a blue and white Earth just before 'setting' behind the Moon, in foreground, seen from Artemis II, 6 April 2026

Totality seen from lunar orbit, the Moon eclipses the Sun, revealing a view few humans have ever witnessed, a dark disc surrounded by a pale solar corona.

✅ #Artemis II update: 'Earthset', 6 April 2026, and 'totality', 7 April, seen from lunar orbit, the Moon eclipses the Sun, a view few humans have ever witnessed (pics: NASA)

🔗 www.nasa.gov/gallery/jour...

@exploration.esa.int l

Loving seeing the Artemis II lunar far side photos – and Mare Orientale def the star of the show.

For comparison to the crew’s ‘bird’s eye’ view, here’s a pastel sketch I did at the eyepiece in 2022 showing how tricky it is to see the Orientale basin on the limb from 🌍 (with good libration!).

Crescent Earth. NASA/Artemis II/Kevin M. Gill

Another crescent Earth from the Artemis II crew, taken yesterday (April 4th).

flic.kr/p/2s5Ztj2

Astronomical space art ideally shows something of what is known about the subject as well as what it is about the subject one finds visually appealing. This is a scan of an illustration in the classic book 'The Conquest of Space' by Willy Ley and Chesley Bonestell. Earth is covering the Sun, with Bonestell's very narrow version of the Zodiacal Light extending from behind Earth on both sides. The moonlit Earth shows Africa and the reflection of the Moon on the oceans. A suggestion of cloud detail shows a latitudinal detail bias that was common in his Earth portrayals. In the orientation of the visual elements this painting, done a lifetime ago, carried forward a vision that has just been seen by human eyes and photographed with state of the art equipment. #Sciart

Space art in its roots has been an effort to anticipate sights that future space travelers may one day see. In the late 1940s Chesley Bonestell painted a moonlit Earth that appeared in 'The Conquest of Space'. This modest work shows a view broadly similar to that revealed in the new Artemis photo.

So cool to see the first libration zone images of the Moon from the Artemis II crew. Have been looking forward to these! 🌔

That’s the Mare Orientale on the left limb of the Moon with the Lacus Veris & Lacus Autumni showing up well. Grimaldi much further onto the disc than we’re used to on Earth!

#Artemis II update: our European Service Module's main engine performed the translunar injection so precisely that flight controllers in Houston decided to cancel the first of three outbound trajectory correction burns on the way to the Moon 🥳

Impact Flash! - NASA Science You and your telescope can join a global network of amateur astronomers documenting meteors hitting the moon.

Amateur astronomers! Do you have a small telescope (4”+ aperture) & ability to record video at 25fps? There’s an opportunity on Monday/Tuesday to support the Artemis II citizen science looking for impact flashes from meteoroids hitting the Moon. See here for more: science.nasa.gov/citizen-scie...

Spectacular high-resolution image of our home planet viewed through the Orion Crew Module window by the Artemis II astronauts as they continue their journey to the Moon on Flight Day 2, 3 April 2026 (pic: NASA)

A full disc image of Earth, as seen from the Orion Crew Module. The planet is a pale blue, swirling with white clouds and glowing slightly lighter blue in place from reflected light. At lower left, a large brown landmass is Africa, with Spain and Portugal with twinkling lights where the planet curves. At top right, auroras glow in a thin green glow, just barely separated from the planet's surface. Earth is set against the black of space (pic: NASA/R.Wiseman)

😮 Awesome views from Day 2 of #Artemis II this morning.

@exploration.esa.int @esaearth.esa.int

A photograph of the Space Launch System rocket launching against a sea and sky backdrop rising on a cloud of steam and smoke. Two large lightning towers appear in the foreground. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

Huge congrats to NASA on the launch of Artemis II. 🚀🌔

Great to see the UK playing its part too, with Goonhilly providing tracking support from the Lizard, the Airbus teams in Stevenage who developed parts of the ESM and Slough-based John Crane providing specialized components for the prop systems.👏

From the heart of Cornwall, @goonhilly.org is gearing up to support NASA's Artemis II mission, providing critical lunar communications tracking as astronauts venture back to the Moon. 📡🌒

It's a great example of the UK's contribution to global space exploration. 🚀

Read more 👇

A picture of a granular starry sky over a large outcrop of granite rock. Large boulders of weather-worn granite appear as dim silhouettes in the bottom left corner of the frame while the constellation of Orion sits above the horizon on the right. Travelling diagonally across the centre of the frame, from bottom left to top right, is the faint band of diffuse light from the winter Milky Way.

Orion, Sirius and the faint band of the winter Milky Way over Bonehill Rocks, Dartmoor last night.

40 years ago last night ESA’s first interplanetary mission, Giotto, zipped past Comet Halley. It paved the way for missions like Rosetta, and is a great example of the UK’s tremendous space science heritage, having been built at Filton in Bristol, with UK PIs on some of the science instruments too.

ESA analysing fireball over Europe on 8 March 2026 At approximately 18:55 CET (17:55 UTC) on Sunday 8 March 2026, a very bright fireball moving from the southwest to the northeast was observed by many people in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, an...

🔍 What we know so far

Fragments are reported to have reached the ground in Koblenz‑Güls (Germany). There are no injuries reported.
Due to its timing and direction, the object was likely not detectable by current large-scale sky surveys.

🔗 www.esa.int/Space_Safety...

🚨 UPDATE: fireball over Europe – 8 March 2026

At 18:55 CET on Sunday, 8 March, a very bright fireball streaked across the skies of Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, glowing for around six seconds before fragmenting. 🧪🔭

🎥 Allsky7

A photo of a 3m high light box at a conference showing a JWST NIRCam/MIRI image of the Pillars of Creation with pink, brown and white masses of swirling nebulosity against an orange and purple starry backdrop.

A photo of the U.K. Space Agency stand at Space-Comm Expo Europe showing crowds on the stand and a 3m high light box featuring a high-res Solar Orbiter image of the Sun.

A photo of a light box showing a Euclid mission image of a star forming region. Blue white, brown and yellow tendrils of gas swirl across a starry black background peppered by numerous distant galaxies.

Ready for day two of Space-Comm Expo Europe! Come and visit the @ukspaceagency.bsky.social stand to speak to our programme teams and see our lightboxes highlighting some of the great space missions that the UK is at the heart of.

Artist's impression of the Euclid spacecraft. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab (spacecraft); NASA, ESA, CXC, C. Ma, H. Ebeling and E. Barrett (University of Hawaii/IfA), et al. and STScI (background)

Learn more about the UK's involvement in the mission 👉 gov.uk/government/c...

Euclid and Hubble images of the Cat's Eye Nebula. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESA Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA/Q1-2025, J.-C. Cuillandre & E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay), Z. Tsvetanov

Hubble and ESA's Euclid have teamed up to reveal the Cat's Eye Nebula in extraordinary new detail.🌌

The Euclid mission is imaging vast swathes of the sky to help explore dark matter and energy, with an instrument onboard funded by £37 million from the UK Space Agency.

👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

We are pleased to announce that Rebecca Evernden has been appointed as Director of the new UK Space Agency. Rebecca is passionate about maximising the UK’s space potential, having worked in space… | ... We are pleased to announce that Rebecca Evernden has been appointed as Director of the new UK Space Agency. Rebecca is passionate about maximising the UK’s space potential, having worked in space for...

We are pleased to announce that Rebecca Evernden has been appointed as Director of the new UK Space Agency.

Rebecca is passionate about maximising the UK’s space potential, having worked in space for ten years.

Read more 👉
linkedin.com/feed/update/...

🔭 Great #citizenscience opportunity here for amateur astronomers.

More info at: leighfletcher.substack.com/p/supporting...

It seems likely that a bright fireball on the morning of the 12th dropped meteorites in Bavaria, says meteor.asu.cas.cz/cz/post/boli... based on data from special cameras: the body came in slowly and at a shallow angle, so the potential strewnfield is huge and thus a systematic search not viable.

Richard Carrington.

🚨 Exciting news! 🚨

Here is the first known picture of the 19th Century astronomer Richard Carrington – who had the largest geomagnetic storm in history named after him.

It was found by our assistant archivist Kate Bond thanks to some brilliant detective work.🕵️‍♀️ 👉️ ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

A significant #SolarFlare is currently underway on the Sun! The flare was so bright, it has caused saturation and diffraction patterns in images captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. Early data also seems to suggest the flare was eruptive.

Great NZ fireball footage here with a superb example of a persistent train.

NZ friends: if you saw it or caught it on camera do send in a report as the info can help localise any potential meteorite fall. ☄️

Unlocking Space for Agriculture The UK Space Agency is funding two four‑month pilot projects, using satellite data and digital tools to help farmers make more informed decisions, boost productivity and care for the environment.

🚜 🛰️ @ukspaceagency.bsky.social is supporting two innovative projects that will use satellite data and digital tools to help farmers make more informed decisions, boost productivity and care for the environment.

space.blog.gov.uk/2026/01/20/u...
@ukspace.bsky.social @nfudc.bsky.social

A montage of 6 photos showing bright green patches of aurora appearing and changing close to a bright band of red and green auroral curtain which occupies most of the bottom right of the frame.

Here’s a time series of the evolution of what I suspect are proton aurora at the edge of Monday night’s display. These were incredibly dynamic features and you can kind of see how blurred they are in these 10s exposures.

A photograph of trees silhouetted by a diffuse curtain of green and red aurora.

A wide angle image of auroral curtains and ribbons appearing as red and green swathes of rippling light across a starry sky.

A wide angle view of a red and green auroral display showing rippling red and green curtains and bright red rays over a silhouetted hillside.

A wide angle view of a red and green auroral display over a silhouetted hillside. Clouds backlit by auroral light are creeping into the right hand side of the frame.

Still working my way through the processing of Monday night’s aurora photos. The three wide shots were all taken with a 14mm lens on a full frame DSLR showing just how extensive the display was. #NorthernLights

Thanks, Luis!