The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this true-color image of a river of smoke passing over the Greenland Sea. The smoke most likely arose from fires in Canada and Alaska.

Newly received pics

Newly arrived pics from New Horizons

Tour one of the most geologically diverse regions on Rosetta’s comet

M4 is a globular cluster in the constellation Scorpius. It is fairly close to us at about 7000 light years and is home to many white dwarfs as well as a planet, PSR B1620-26 b.

Photo by Yuri Beletsky

In 1771 Charles Messier and his assistant Pierre Méchain published a catalog of objects they had found while searching for comets. His catalog was intended to help other comet hunters avoid these objects, little did he know that his list would become one of the most popular guides to backyard astronomers hundreds of years later. Most of these images show how the M objects would appear in a 4" telescope.

More images from this week's New Horizons mission are forcing scientists to rethink how icy worlds work.

This animated flyover of the Norgay mountains and Sputnik plains on Pluto are based on the freshly-delivered close-approach images from the New Horizons flyby. See features just a single kilometre big as you experience what it would be like to hitch a ride on the spacecraft as it skimmed past the dwarf planet.

In the latest data from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, a new close-up image of Pluto reveals a vast, craterless plain that appears to be no more than 100 million years old, and is possibly still being shaped by geologic processes.

I'm just here to share this little snippet of awe with you. I hope you can appreciate it as much as I did.

This animation combines various observations of Pluto over the course of several decades.

Newly released photo from New Horizons yesterday's flyby

Newly released photo from New Horizons yesterday flyby

Pluto is a dwarf planet now, but pluto has a heart and still loves us. New Horizons saw pluto's love for us today

“Hello #Pluto! We’re at closest approach. Congrats to all! Follow our story & view new images using #PlutoFlyby.”

NASA said it was giving Instagram an hour-long head start on the first image, posting it to the social media service before officially releasing it on its public website.

It doesn't look that red in this pic. Changes color every now and then.