🪐 Over the years, the Curiosity rover has captured a multitude of images of the Red Planet—and one might think we would have long since grown accustomed to its alien landscapes.
Yet, Mars continues to surprise us with its stark beauty. A prime example is this mesmerizing formation known as Miraflores.
It stands 6 meters tall.
The cosmic Eye of Sauron: a radio view of the Milky Way's center and Sagittarius A*
Credit: MeerKAT Telescope and Heywood et al. 2022
Dive into this stunning radio portrait of our galactic heart! The vibrant colored regions blaze with intense radio emission at 1.28 GHz, painting a dynamic map of energetic activity across the core of the Milky Way. Right at the center, a brilliant hotspot marks Sagittarius A*—the supermassive black hole that anchors our entire galaxy. This spectacular view spans less than 6.5 square degrees of sky—roughly the area of 13 full moons side by side—revealing the hidden drama unfolding in our cosmic backyard.
Since the 1980s, the Sahara has shrunk by roughly 8%. Satellite data show widespread greening, a pattern that is playing out across the planet.
Around 50% of Earth's vegetated land has become significantly greener, an area roughly three times the size of the United States.
The dominant driver is not rainfall or land use change, it is rising atmospheric CO2.
Higher CO2 lets plants photosynthesize more efficiently, they lose less water, they tolerate heat and dryness better.
The effect is strongest along desert margins, across the Sahel, the Middle East, Australia's interior and the southern edge of the Sahara.
Rising CO2 is making the deserts, and the planet as a whole, greener.
Approaching the Pillars of Creation
The Pillars of Creation are part of the Eagle Nebula, located in the constellation Serpens, 7,000 light-years away. Composed of molecular hydrogen and interstellar dust, they are the birthplace of new stars. The leftmost pillar is approximately 4 light-years tall.