#voyage of the moons

[odinsblog]

voyage of the moons

[polyglittery]

I love our future god-queen.

[weirdlookindog]

Georges Méliès' concept art for Le voyage dans la lune, 1902

[illustratus]

A Voyage to the Moon (The Adventures of Baron Munchausen) by Gustave Doré

[ellieisbored3537]

[nicolas-dejardin]

“La rêverie est le clair de lune de la pensée.” Jules Renard

[nemfrog]

"A specal color reconstruction of the eruption of the volcano Loki pn the Iovian satellite Io. The picture was taken by the Voyager I from a range of about half a million kilometers." March 5, 1979.

Voyage to Jupiter. 1980. Scientific and Technical Information Branch NASA.

[notyoujamie]

[theofficialastronomy101]

The Earth As Seen From

[sleepyminty]

I love how gacha games depicted the spacecraft voyager as starchildren full of wonders and curiosities. With the difference that r1999 voyager inspired from the golden record whereas fgo voyager inspired from le petit prince. Also fun fact NASA launch two Voyagers to space

[thepastisalreadywritten]

With the addition of Saturn, the James Webb Space Telescope has finally captured all four of our Solar System's giant worlds.

JWST's observations of the ringed planet, taken on 25 June 2023, have been cleaned up and processed, giving us a spectacular view of Saturn's glorious rings, shining golden in the darkness.

By contrast, the disk of Saturn is quite dark in the new image, lacking its characteristic bands of cloud, appearing a relatively featureless dim brown.

This is because of the wavelengths in which JWST sees the Universe – near- and mid-infrared.

These wavelengths of light are usually invisible to the naked human eye, but they can reveal a lot.

For example, thermal emission – associated with heat – is dominated by infrared wavelengths.

When you're trying to learn about what's going on inside a planet wrapped in thick, opaque clouds, studying its temperature is a valuable way to go about it.

Some elements and chemical processes emit infrared light, too. Seeing the planets of the Solar System in wavelengths outside the narrow range admitted by our vision can tell us a lot more about what they have going on.

Saturn

As we saw last week, when we clapped eyes on the raw JWST Saturn images, the observations involved filters that dimmed the light of the planet, while allowing light from the rings and moons to shine brightly.

This is so a team led by planetary scientist Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester in the UK can study the rings and moons of Saturn in more detail.

They hope to identify new ring structures and, potentially, even new moons orbiting the gas giant.

The image above shows three of Saturn's moons, Dione, Enceladus and Tethys, to the left of the planet.

Although dim, the disk of the planet also reveals information about Saturn's seasonal changes.

The northern hemisphere is reaching the end of its 7-year summer, but the polar region is dark. An unknown aerosol process could be responsible.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere around the edges of the disk appears bright, which could be the result of methane fluorescence, or the glow of trihydrogen, or both. Further analysis could tell us which.

Jupiter

Jupiter was the first of the giant planets to get the JWST treatment, with images dropping in August of last year – and boy howdy were they stunning.

The spectacular detail seen in the planet's turbulent clouds and storms was perhaps not entirely surprising.

However, we also got treated to some rarely seen features: the permanent aurorae that shimmer at Jupiter's poles, invisible in optical wavelengths, and Jupiter's tenuous rings.

We also saw two of the planet's smaller, lesser-known moons, Amalthea and Adrastea, with fuzzy blobs of distant galaxies in the background.

"This one image sums up the science of our Jupiter system program, which studies the dynamics and chemistry of Jupiter itself, its rings, and its satellite system," said astronomer Thierry Fouchet of Paris Observatory in France, who co-led the observations.

Neptune

Observations of Neptune arrived in the latter half of September 2022.

Because Neptune is so very far away, it tends to get a little neglected; you're probably used to seeing, if anything, the images taken by Voyager 2 when it flew past in 1989.

JWST's observations gave us, for the first time in more than 30 years, a new look at the ice giant's dainty rings – and the first ever in infrared.

It also revealed seven of Neptune's 14 known moons, and bright spots in its atmosphere.

Most of those are storm activity, but if you look closely, you'll see a bright band circling the planet's equator.

This had never been seen before and could be, scientists say, a signature of Neptune's global atmospheric circulation.

Uranus

Uranus is also pretty far away, but it's also a huge weirdo. Although very similar to Neptune, the two planets are slightly different hues, which is something of a mystery.

Uranus is also tipped sideways, which is challenging to explain too.

JWST's observations, released in April 2023, aren't solving these conundrums.

However, they have revealed 11 of the 13 structures of the incredible Uranian ring system and an unexplained atmospheric brightening over the planet's polar cap.

JWST has a lot to say about the early Universe; but it's opening up space science close to home, too.

As its first year of operations comes to an end, we can't help but speculate what new wonders will be to come in the years ahead.

Top: Jupiter - Neptune / Bottom: Uranus - Saturn

Credit: NASA

[moghedien]

the Outers are the funniest dramatic bitches out there because they're always 100% on the same page with everything immediately, no matter how weird or unexpected. like there is no question or hesitation from any of them in whether they're gonna steal baby Hotaru and run off with her and raise her as her lesbian throuple parents, its as if they had all discussed this as a possible outcome already and its just all going according to plan

but also they will be 100% on their same page with their actions and have also reached the character growth that makes them accept they are on the same team as the Inners and they need to work together rather than sacrifice themselves needless.

But also they are NOT giving Usagi their new address

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

[vintagecandy]

Liès, The Sun, based on the sun that swallows the train in The Impossible Voyage! See The Moon here.

[tolbachik-art]

Just a small warmup painting of Neptune, and a mostly made up Triton!

Just for some insight, my upcoming pieces I'll be working are: on a flag for a friend's youtube series, a late birthday piece for my friend (pen broke Literally in the middle of it), a piece I promised for a friend, and *then* I can get into some of my other personal pieces I've had on backlog!

Thanks again for your continued patience!

As always, there will be an image ID in the alt text, and in the reblogs.

[moon-kissed-films]

Stills from the silent short film Le Voyage Dans la Lune "A Trip to the Moon" (1902).