Best photos of the Venus-Jupiter conjunction 2026

The two brightest planets in our sky – Venus and Jupiter – have been inching closer each day in the west after sunset for many weeks. And they’ll reach their spectacular closest conjunction this evening and tomorrow evening, June 8-9. Enjoy these photos of this beautiful event as seen from around the world.

Venus is the brightest light in these photos, followed by Jupiter. And in the more recent of these images, found toward the top of the article, you might also see planet Mercury near the horizon. Plus, many of the shots also feature Castor and Pollux – the brightest stars in Gemini the Twins – near Jupiter.

Thank you to all the talented photographers that have submitted their stunning images with us! Would you like to share your photo with us? Submit it here.

See photos of Venus and Jupiter on June 7

The brightest planets on June 6

Planetary duo on June 5

Venus and Jupiter on June 4

More photos of the planets on June 3

More images from June 2

More photos of Venus and Jupiter

A stunning view form the Southern Hemisphere

The moon passed Venus and Jupiter in May

Between May 18–20, skywatchers around the world captured a beautiful sight in the night sky as the moon appeared near Venus and later close to Jupiter. This video is a collection of images shared from different countries, showing how people across the globe experienced the same celestial event from their own perspective. Watch in the player above or on YouTube.

Bottom line: The Venus-Jupiter conjunction for 2026 is here! Enjoy these stunning photos from around the world as the sky’s brightest planets have been drawing closer.

Read more: Venus-Jupiter conjunction: Sky’s 2 brightest planets to meet

The post Venus-Jupiter conjunction 2026. Wow! Best photos here first appeared on EarthSky.

Sun news June 8: Auroras tonight? Strong storm watch issued

Today’s top story: Aurora watchers across high latitudes should be on alert! A coronal mass ejection (CME) launched by an M1.8 (moderate) flare on June 6 is bearing down on Earth. Arrival is expected by midday UTC today. Both NOAA and the UK Met Office have issued a G3 (strong) geomagnetic storm watch. That means auroras could possibly dance at mid-northern latitudes. However, there’s a chance that the bulk of the material will just miss Earth, so the ultimate severity of this storm is a close call. Let’s see what happens!

Past 24 hours of sun news

(11 UTC June 7 – 11 UTC June 8)

Flare activity

Over the past day, solar activity returned to low levels. In total, the sun fired 14 C-class (common) flares. No M-class or X-class (strong) events occurred. Notably, the period was quieter than the preceding 24 hours, which featured the M1.8 eruption from AR4461.

• Strongest flare: C7.2 from an as-yet-unnumbered region near the eastern horizon at 2:36 UTC on June 8. As a C-class event, it produced no radio blackout. Other notable events included a C4.5 at 5:00 UTC on June 8 and a C3.3 from AR4456 at 4:19 UTC on June 7.
• Lead flare producers: Activity was spread broadly across the disk. Flares originated from multiple regions, including AR4455, AR4458, AR4459, AR4462 and AR4464. No single region dominated.

Sunspot regions: key players

Over the past day, 8 numbered active regions spanned the full Earth-facing solar disk. AR4456 remains the most magnetically complex region on the disk. It experienced minor decay during the period. But it still carries the highest complexity available: beta-gamma-delta. It produced the C3.3 flare and remains the primary candidate for stronger activity.

Blasts from the sun?

No new Earth-directed CMEs were observed during this period. The CME from June 6 remains the dominant story.

Past 24 hours in space weather

Solar wind

Solar wind conditions reflected a waning coronal hole high-speed stream. Speeds peaked at moderately high early in the period and then declined a little. Meanwhile, the total interplanetary magnetic field stayed moderate. A significant enhancement in solar wind speed, density and magnetic field strength is expected by early to mid UTC on June 8 as the CME shock arrives.

Bz and magnetic coupling

The Bz component fluctuated between mildly northward and southward. As a result, only modest geomagnetic coupling occurred. But that is about to change. When the CME arrives, the Bz orientation will determine the storm’s severity. A strongly southward Bz would open the floodgates for auroral displays.

Earth’s magnetic field

Over the past day, Earth’s magnetic field ranged from quiet to unsettled (Kp 2–3). No G-scale geomagnetic storm thresholds were reached. But the calm will not last. The CME is on its way.

What’s ahead? Sun–Earth forecast

Flare activity forecast

Forecasters expect low-to-moderate levels through June 10. M-class flare odds hold at 55%. AR4456 (beta-gamma-delta) remains the primary candidate for stronger activity. And AR4458 and AR4462 contribute as well. AR4455 adds its flare history to the mix.

A slight chance (10%) exists for an X-class event, mainly from the increasingly complex AR4456 in the northwest.

Geomagnetic activity forecast

• June 8: The main event. The CME from June 6 should arrive by early to mid UTC. G1–G2 (minor to moderate) storming is likely to begin by mid-day. Then conditions could escalate to G3 (strong) during the latter half. Kp could reach 7–9 if the CME’s magnetic field tilts strongly southward. Auroras could reach as far south as northern France, and as far north as Adelaide in Australia or Christchurch in New Zealand, in the Southern Hemisphere.
• June 9: G1–G2 storming may linger into the early hours as CME effects gradually diminish. Then conditions should ease to unsettled-to-active levels. Aurora chances decrease but may persist for observers at higher latitudes: northern Canada, Scandinavia and Alaska.
• June 10: Expect unsettled-to-active conditions as residual CME influences continue to wane. Quiet conditions should gradually return. But a new coronal hole may start becoming geoeffective later on June 11. That could bring a renewed increase in geomagnetic activity.

The sun in recent days

Sun images from our community

We sometimes feature sun images obtained using hydrogen-alpha filters. Read why.

Bottom line: Sun news for June 8, 2026: G3 storm watch issued! CME incoming. Auroras might reach New York and London. Get those cameras ready!

Submit your photos here.

View community photos here.

The post Sun news: Auroras tonight? Strong storm watch issued first appeared on EarthSky.

Look for Venus and Jupiter this evening. They’re the sky’s 2 brightest planets and will be shining together in the west after sunset. They’ll be closest tonight and tomorrow (June 8 and 9). This video shows you where to look, when to look and what you’ll see as these 2 bright planets undergo their spectacular conjunction. Join EarthSky’s Deborah Byrd to find out more. And submit your Venus-Jupiter photo to EarthSky’s community page! Watch the video in the player above, or on YouTube.

June evenings: Charts for Venus, Jupiter and Mercury

Our charts are mostly set for mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. To see a precise view – and time – from your location, try Stellarium Online.

After the conjunction

Read more: Venus-Jupiter conjunction: Sky’s 2 brightest planets to meet

Video: the best of the night sky for June 2026

Join EarthSky’s Marcy Curran in a video preview of stars, constellations and visible planets for the month of June 2026. Don’t miss Venus and Jupiter as a dazzling duo in the evening sky. Plus there’s a meteor shower and the full Strawberry Moon. Check it out! Watch in the player above, or on YouTube.

June 10 before dawn: Daytime Arietids

Read more: Arietids, most active daytime meteor shower

June 10 and 11 mornings: Moon near Saturn

Our charts are mostly set for mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. To see a precise view – and time – from your location, try Stellarium Online.

June 15: New supermoon

Want more? Here are 4 keys to understanding the moon’s phases.

June 15: Mercury at greatest elongation from the sun

June 16 after sunset: Moon, Venus, Jupiter and Mercury

Our charts are mostly set for mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. To see a precise view – and time – from your location, try Stellarium Online.

June 17 after sunset: Spectacular! Moon, Venus, Jupiter and Mercury

Read more: Earthshine is a lovely glow on the unlit portion of the moon

Our charts are mostly set for mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. To see a precise view – and time – from your location, try Stellarium Online.

June 18 and 19 evenings: Moon, Venus and Regulus

Read more: Leo the Lion and its easy-to-see backward question mark

June 21: 1st quarter moon

Want more? Here are 4 keys to understanding the moon’s phases.

June Solstice

Read more: June solstice in 2026: All you need to know

June 22 and 23 evenings: Moon and Spica

Read more: Virgo the Maiden represents a harvest goddess

Our charts are mostly set for mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. To see a precise view – and time – from your location, try Stellarium Online.

June 26 and 27 evenings: Moon near Antares

Read more: Massive ruby red Antares is the Scorpion’s Heart

June 28 evening: Moon near Teapot

Read more: Teapot of Sagittarius points to Milky Way center

June 29: Full Strawberry Moon

June 30 evening: Moon near Teapot

Read more: Sagittarius the Archer and its famous Teapot

Our charts are mostly set for mid-latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. To see a precise view – and time – from your location, try Stellarium Online.

June evening planets

June morning planets: Northern Hemisphere

June stars

If you’re out stargazing on any June evening, look for these stars and constellations overhead in the sky.

Boötes the Herdsman

The Big Dipper and Little Dipper

Hercules the Hero and the Hercules Cluster

Have fun exploring the sky!

Our charts are mostly set for the northern half of Earth. To see a precise view – and time – from your location, try Stellarium Online.

Sky dome map for visible planets and night sky

Read more: Guy Ottewell explains sky dome maps

Heliocentric solar system visible planets and more

Read more: Guy Ottewell explains heliocentric charts.

Some resources to enjoy

For more videos of great night sky events, visit EarthSky’s YouTube page.

Don’t miss anything. Subscribe to daily emails from EarthSky. It’s free!

Visit EarthSky’s Best Places to Stargaze to find a dark-sky location near you.

Post your own night sky photos at EarthSky Community Photos.

Visit Stellarium-Web.org for precise views from your location.

Bottom line: Visible planets and night sky guide. Today’s the big day! Look for brilliant Venus and bright Jupiter very close together in the west after sunset.

The post Visible planets and night sky guide for June first appeared on EarthSky.

• People have reported a mysterious humming sound around the world since the 1970s. It’s called The Hum.
• Scientists have proposed possible explanations. But there may not be a single answer for the phenomenon.
• The Hum might originate from human-made sources or nature. Sometimes, it might even originate within the hearers’ own ears or heads.

Science news, night sky events and beautiful photos, all in one place. Click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter.

The Hum is weird and mysterious

Have you ever been bothered by a strange humming sound you couldn’t identify? Many people have. Scientists call it simply The Hum. It’s a low-frequency sound, sometimes felt as a vibration. People have heard it both indoors and outdoors, especially at night. An estimated 2-4% of the world’s population has heard it. That’s some 250 million people! And it’s been going on for decades, at least, with still no firm answer as to the source.

And now researchers at the University of Munich in Germany and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Norway have provided a scientific update on the mystery, published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One on March 27, 2026.

And science writer Idun Haugan has written about the phenomenon and the new study in the June 2, 2026, Norwegian SciTech News.

Haugan isn’t one of the researchers … but she’s heard The Hum herself. She said that theories about it are wide-ranging, from both human-produced and natural sources, to wilder conspiracy theories. Or even sounds produced by the human ear itself.

Feed: "Norwegian SciTech News"By: Idun Haugan on Tuesday, June 2, 2026

— Longtail News (@longtail-news.bsky.social) 2026-06-03T11:03:10.180954+00:00

1st and global instances of The Hum

So when did this unusual phenomenon first begin to be reported? As noted in Haugan’s article, the first known cases were in Bristol, England, in the 1970s. At the time, the theory was that large industrial fans were to blame. They were in the warehouse of a large department store. But a few years later, the store closed … and The Hum continued.

And The Hum didn’t stay in Bristol. People later said they heard it elsewhere in the U.K., including Hythe, Plymouth, Southampton, Swansea and even London. But scientists still didn’t know what was causing it.

Since then, The Hum has been heard in many other locations. People reported it in the U.S. in the 1990s. Taos, New Mexico and Kokomo, Indiana, are the first known locations. And then it went global. The unusual sound popped up in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and several cities in Europe, including Oslo, Norway.

Most often, people report it in densely populated areas.

The Taos Hum was called the Ultimate Hum in the 1990s. Two percent of the population could hear it, with frequencies between 32 and 80 Hertz.

The Hum World Map and Database Project

In 2012, Glen MacPherson in Canada started the The World Hum Map and Database Project. He had previously heard The Hum himself when he lived on the West Coast. But when he relocated to another city, still on the West Coast, he no longer heard it. As Haugan mentions:

He became so interested in the sound phenomenon that he started the interactive The World Hum Map and Database Project in 2012, which collects data from places and people where the sound has been noted.

Various theories

Scientists have offered many theories for the phenomenon. These include both human-made and natural sounds. And of course, there are the usual conspiracy theories, too: in this case, aliens or the CIA.

Human technology can make various low-frequency sounds. Some examples are ventilation systems, heat pumps, traffic noise and windmills. Another is high-pressure gas pipelines. In nature, waves and wind can also produce these sounds.

Even the jet stream was suggested as a cause in 1973. But that was quickly dismissed as “absolute nonsense.”

But why does this particular hum seem to stand out? Why did it seemingly begin in one place and then expand to other locations. Or was it there before and just not noticed?

As noted by Haugan in her Norwegian SciTech News article, the new study began in Germany in an attempt to find answers. She wrote:

The Hum has attracted the interest of hearing and audiology researchers worldwide. Markus Drexl, an NTNU professor [working in neuromedicine and balance disorders], is among this self-selected group. He and two Ph.D. research fellows and a postdoc have conducted a study of 28 people in Germany who experience hearing an unexplained buzzing or humming.

2 main hypotheses

For the study, the researchers tested two hypotheses. The first is that The Hum can be measured in both human-made infrastructure and in nature. These are sounds that can be measured. Markus Drexl explained:

We know that there are people who hear low-frequency sounds that can actually be measured, even if other people don’t hear them. But it’s not so easy to find the source of these sound waves, because it’s a struggle to localize low-frequency sounds.

The researchers tested the 28 study participants to see if they had exceptionally good hearing. Only two of them had better than average gearing at low frequencies. Drexl told Idun Haugan:

Even though the group we tested was small, it still means that the hypothesis of having especially good hearing for low-frequency sounds does not hold for most people.

Low-frequency tinnitus?

Another possibility suggests some people might have a kind of low-frequency tinnitus. Tinnitus is an internal sound in the ear or head. It is commonly known as “ringing in the ears.” Many people experience it. But these sounds can’t be measured objectively.

So it’s possible that some people who hear The Hum might actually have a form of tinnitus. Drexl said:

Based on our results, although we haven’t ruled out cases of physical external sound sources, we suggest that subjective tinnitus in the low-frequency range is often the cause of hearing pulsations of low-frequency sound perceptions.

Coming from inside our own heads?

Our ears can hear sound. And they can also produce sound as well. The cochlea in the inner ear produces weak sounds. These sounds have different frequencies, but are typically between about 500 and 5000 Hertz. Could that be an explanation for The Hum? As Drexl noted to Haugan:

Most of us don’t hear these sounds. However, a few people can actually hear the sounds that the ear itself produces. And these sounds can be measured objectively.

One hypothesis was that the participants in our group could hear oto-acoustic emissions at low frequencies. That’s why we tested whether they had them.

But the results of the testing for that hypothesis was negative.

The human auditory system

Before we can figure out The Hum, Drexl thinks, we need to understand more about the human auditory system overall. He told Idun Haugan:

What we know about the hearing system is mainly based on how we capture and process sound with higher frequencies. We know less about how the auditory system handles and processes low-frequency sound, or infrasound.

If we want to conduct a thorough assessment of low-frequency sounds and infrasound, we first need a better understanding of how sensory systems process low-frequency sound and infrasound.

Have you ever heard this unusual hum or anything similar? Tell us in the comments below!

Bottom line: For decades, people around the world have reported hearing The Hum. What is it? A new study helps narrow down possible answers.

Source: On the potential sources of a low-frequency sound percept that only a few can perceive

Via Norweigian SciTech News

Via Wikipedia

Read more: 7 weird things space does to the human body

The post What is The Hum? Scientists provide an update first appeared on EarthSky.

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World Oceans Day 2025

World Oceans Day has fallen around June 8 every year since 1992. It’s a day to honor our connection to Earth’s oceans – even if we don’t live near a beach – and to learn what we can do to protect ocean habitats. This year, it’s celebrated on June 8.

World Oceans Day 2026 has the theme of REIMAGINE.

The day is meant to shed light on the wonder of the ocean and how it’s our life source, supporting humanity and every other organism on Earth.

Here’s a calendar of events around the world.

2026’s theme

According to World Oceans Day:

Reimagining a better future is the first step to building it.

For too long, we have treated the ocean as something vast, distant, and separate from us. We created that distance ourselves. The ocean has always flowed through us, in the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the climate that makes our lives possible. Now we are being called to reimagine that relationship. For the first time in a generation, humanity has chosen to govern a significant part of our shared ocean together. The entry into force of the BBNJ Agreement is not the end of negotiation but the beginning of a transformation that no treaty alone can complete.

‘Reimagine’ asks us to close that distance together. To move from passive inheritors of the ocean’s generosity to active guardians of its future. To govern not just beyond our borders but beyond our blind spots, beyond the habits of taking, operating in silos, and the belief that the way things have been is the way they must remain.

Why Earth’s oceans are so important

Earth’s oceans are critical to human survival. Indeed, more than half the oxygen in our atmosphere is generated via photosynthesis by phytoplankton and seaweed in oceans. In addition, millions of people depend on fish and other marine animals for food. Research on some marine organisms has led to the development of new medications. Moreover, ocean currents, known as global conveyor belts, help regulate Earth’s climate.

Perhaps the best reason we’ve seen to honor and protect Earth’s oceans comes from the 2013 video below, featuring Sylvia Earle, who is a National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence and perhaps the world’s most recognized living oceanographer. In the video below, among other things, Earle says:

I think of the ocean as the blue heart of the planet.

In addition, she says:

We, too, are sea creatures.

History of World Oceans Day

Canada made the original proposal for World Oceans Day in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Subsequently, the day was unofficially celebrated on June 8 until 2008, when the United Nations officially recognized it. Since then, The Ocean Project and the World Ocean Network have coordinated World Oceans Day internationally. These organizations say they have had greater success and global participation each year.

We know that human activities have adversely affected the health of oceans: pollution, over-fishing, seawater acidification due to increased carbon dioxide, ocean warming and habitat destruction. There is so much to do to repair the damage.

So, what can you do to help?

There are things you can do on your own, on this day or any other. For example, if you live near an ocean, perhaps join a shoreline cleanup.

Even if you’re not near the sea, you can encourage your seafood retailers and favorite seafood restaurants to source their seafood more sustainably (Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program is a terrific resource).

And we can all reduce our use of plastics with reusable shopping bags and refillable water bottles, and by using biodegradable products over plastic.

Watch NASA’s perpetual ocean video 2

Longing for the ocean? Check out this video with photos from the EarthSky community.

Bottom line: World Oceans Day is a day to honor our connection to Earth’s oceans and to learn what we can do to protect ocean habitats. Celebrate World Oceans Day in 2026 on June 8.

The post Celebrate World Oceans Day today, June 8, 2026 first appeared on EarthSky.

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Thank you, EarthSky community

The EarthSky community has many talented astrophotographers who capture stunning images of the deep sky. We gathered some of our favorite deep-sky photos from May 2026 for you to enjoy. Do you have images of your own to share? You can submit them to EarthSky here. We’d love to see them and share them!

Deep-sky photos of diffuse nebulae

Planetary nebulae

Star clusters

Deep-sky photos of distant galaxies

Bottom line: Without a doubt, you’ll enjoy this gallery of deep-sky photos from May 2026 by our EarthSky community. If you have a great photo to share, send it in, too. We love to see them!

Share your recent Earth or sky photo at EarthSky Community Photos.

Read more: Messier objects are fuzzy patches in the night sky

The post Best deep-sky photos of May 2026 from the EarthSky community first appeared on EarthSky.

• NASA has created a second perpetual ocean video, building on the incredibly popular original video from 2011.
• The new video traces some of the strongest currents, showing surface ocean currents in white and deeper ocean currents in dark blue.
• The video helps scientists understand the characteristics of these currents better and ultimately understand how heat is transported globally in the ocean.

NASA published this original article on February 27, 2025. Edits by EarthSky.

See the perpetual ocean video

This is a visualization of ocean currents around the world. Scientists use NASA’s ocean model, Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO), to visualize the currents. The ECCO ocean circulation model incorporates observations from spacecraft, buoys and other in situ measurements to keep the model accurate. ECCO is a joint project between NASA/ JPL and MIT. The model output used here is from ECCO-2 and covers the years 2021-2023.

In 2011, ECCO2 was used to create a visualization called Perpetual Ocean. Perpetual Ocean continues to be extremely popular, but it only shows ocean currents on the surface.

In this new visualization, we use the ocean’s 3D velocity field to visualize some of the strongest ocean currents. We release virtual particles in the ocean and allow them to move with the ocean’s 3D velocity field. Each particle has a trail so we can see its direction of movement better. The particles initialized above 600 meters (1,970 feet) in depth have a trail length of three days, those initialized deeper than 600 meters have a trail length of six days. The particle trails help identify the strongest currents in the world that are squeezed in narrow belts on the western side of each ocean basin. These are called western boundary currents.

The looping meanders in the boundary currents sometimes form turbulent rings (eddies) that can trap cold or warm waters in their centers and then separate from the main flow. In general, the western boundary currents are warm and salty.

Read more: Celebrate World Oceans Day today, June 8, 2026

A closer look off the coast of Japan

The visualization starts from a global rotating view. Then, it slows down to see the Western Boundary Current along the western edge of the Pacific Ocean along the coasts of Australia and Asia. We zoom in to show the Kuroshio Current off the coast of Japan. Along the Japanese coast, the current exhibits large meanders that can persist for many months in more or less the same location. The Kuroshio Current has a temperature range of 20 to 25 degrees Celsius (68 to 77 F). Its salinity can change seasonally with an average value of 34.5.

Zeroing in on the Indian Ocean and the southern tip of Africa

We then zoom out and move over the Indian Ocean. The Indian Ocean exhibits large variations in salinity. The western Indian Ocean is quite salty (>36) due to overflow inputs from seas such as the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. The East Indian Ocean is fresher (~35) due to river inputs from India. The Indonesian Throughflow is quite fresh (33-34) and carries freshwater from the Pacific.

We then zoom into the southern tip of Africa. The exchange of water from the Indian Ocean to the South Atlantic occurs here. The Agulhas Current is another Western Boundary current following the slope of the continental shelf closely. The continental shelf along the east coast of southern Africa is quite narrow and steep. This sloping topography stabilizes the Agulhas Current so that it shows no wide meanderings of the type familiar in other boundary currents such as the Kuroshio.

The Agulhas Current overshoots the African continent, moving into the South Atlantic. It then retroflects back to the Indian Ocean. At the retroflection, shedding of warm (20 to 25 degrees C or 68 to 77 F) and salty (~35.5) rings happens. The eddies detached from the current have a lifetime of more than two years traveling across the South Atlantic Ocean. These eddies are what we call the Agulhas Rings.

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The perpetual ocean video aims for North America

Another Western Boundary Current, called the Gulf Stream, comes into view along the east coast of North America. The Gulf Stream forms at the Florida Straits. It’s one of the fastest currents on Earth with surface speed of up to 2.5 meters per second (5.6 mph).

In the Gulf Stream, cold cores (mostly anticyclonic ones) form when the Gulf Stream meanders eastward, leaving the coast of North Ameraica (off Cape Hatteras in North Carolina). The eddy can be as large as 1,000 km (600 miles) across. Zooming into the Gulf Stream, we can see that the warm surface water (>25 degrees C or 77 F) moves poleward (white particle trails). The Gulf Stream is generally the warmest and saltiest western boundary current. There’s a return current (blue particle trails) underneath at a depth below 500 meters (1,640 feet) moving southward carrying cold waters from the pole.

The loop currents in the Gulf of Mexico are very large eddies persisting in the Gulf. They bring the warm and highly saline Caribbean water into the Gulf. As we zoom out from the Gulf Stream, the salinity version shows that the Atlantic is generally much saltier than the Pacific.

Models like ECCO-2 help scientists to understand the characteristics of these currents better and ultimately understand how heat is transported globally in the ocean.

Bottom line: Watch a mesmerizing perpetual ocean video that shows the movements of the currents and eddies that churn off the eastern coasts of the continents.

Via NASA

The post NASA’s Perpetual Ocean 2 video will mesmerize you first appeared on EarthSky.

ISS leak worsens, as astronauts shelter then return

At 13:04 UTC on June 5, 2026, NASA ordered astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to put on their spacesuits, take shelter and prepare for evacuation. The instruction came as Russian crewmembers attempted to repair 2 worsening air leaks on their side of the station.

Less than two hours later, Mission Control said the sheltering astronauts – two U.S. astronauts, a French astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut – could exit the “safe haven” of their Crew Dragon escape craft. That’s because the repair attempt had been paused to allow new measurements to be assessed, NASA said.

Air is leaking from a transfer tunnel module on the Russian side of the ISS, known as PrK. It’s been a known issue since 2019, and NASA and Russia’s space agency Roscosmos have long been debating the cause and potential fixes. NASA officials reportedly said in a late-2024 meeting that the leak could lead to “a catastrophic failure.”

As reported by Reuters, Roscosmos said on Friday, June 5, that their cosmonauts had fixed one of the two leaks. The second leak remains. Roscomos said:

The situation poses no threat to the safety of the crew or on-board systems. The pressure aboard the ISS is stable and being maintained at the intended level.

This week, the ISS leak was seen as worsening

NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens wrote on X Friday that:

The cracks have always been a concern that NASA watches very closely.

And a senior NASA official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the leaks worsened on Monday, escalating from a pound (.45 kg) of air per day to two pounds (.9 kg).

That’s what drove this repair attempt and the evacuation precautions. Stevens continued:

Following new leaks, Roscosmos has elected to proceed with a more extensive repair operation on Friday, June 5. Out of an abundance of caution, NASA has directed all four of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-12 members and NASA astronaut Chris Williams to assume an elevated safety posture in the Dragon spacecraft while the repair is underway.

But within a few hours, the repair attempt was paused. Stevens explained in a follow-up post:

Roscosmos has paused Friday’s structural repair efforts inside the Zvezda service module transfer tunnel, known as PrK, as more measurements and data is assessed. Given this development, NASA has instructed the crew members inside the Dragon spacecraft to end the safe haven procedures and return to planned operations aboard the International Space Station. We look forward to working with Roscosmos on a collaborative approach to address the leaks.

When will ISS be deorbited?

The assembly of the International Space Station officially began on November 20, 1998, with the launch of its first module, a Russian-built control module named Zarya. It has been continuously inhabited for over 25 years.

As of now, 2031 remains the targeted year for the controlled deorbit of the aging space station.

The current operational plan transitions the station out of service at the end of December 2030, with the actual descent and destructive reentry through Earth’s atmosphere scheduled to take place in early 2031.

NASA and its international partners have already actively set this plan into motion:

• The deorbit vehicle: NASA officially selected SpaceX to develop and build the specialized “U.S. Deorbit Vehicle” (a heavily modified Dragon spacecraft). This vehicle will dock with the ISS and use massive amounts of propellant to safely guide the station down over an open ocean area.
• Why not sooner? Despite the recent escalation of the air leaks in the Russian Zvezda module’s PrK tunnel, NASA and Roscosmos management maintain that the structural risks are manageable. They plan to continue operating the station safely for the remainder of the decade while commercial replacements are built.
• Go on to 2032? While some members of Congress have occasionally floated the idea of extending operations until 2032 to prevent a gap in low-Earth orbit research, the official international agreement and technical timeline firmly target 2031 for the final splashdown.

Bottom line: The International Space Station has a leak. On Friday, NASA told the astronauts to shelter and prepare for an evacuation. What happened? Read about the ISS leak.

Read more: Could the space station leak lead to ‘catastrophic failure’?

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The post ISS leak: Astronauts briefly shelter as leak worsens first appeared on EarthSky.

• The Small and Large Magellanic Clouds are dwarf satellite galaxies of our Milky Way galaxy.
• Scientists had thought the Small Magellanic Cloud was rotating, but a new study has found that its stars are racing outwards.
• It seems it’s being ripped apart by the gravity of its neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud.

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Our galactic neighbor is slowly coming apart

The Small and Large Magellanic Clouds are dwarf satellite galaxies orbiting our Milky Way galaxy. Visible with the unaided eye from the Southern Hemisphere, these galaxies appear serene neighbors in southern skies. But on June 2, 2026, scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam in Germany said that the gravitational pull from the Large Magellanic Cloud is actually ripping the Small Magellanic Cloud apart.

Scientists looked at more than 10 years of observations from the VISTA Survey of the Magellanic Clouds. This allowed them to measure the motions of millions of stars inside the Small Magellanic Cloud. These movements showed the dwarf galaxy was not rotating as once thought. Instead, the galaxy’s stars are racing away from the center. Even the inner stars appear to be heading toward the exit.

Lead author Sreepriya Vijayasree of AIP said:

The results reveal large-scale tidal expansion throughout the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy and challenge long-standing assumptions that the Small Magellanic Cloud behaves like a rotating disk. The study shows that the internal motions of stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud are dominated not by orderly rotation, but by gravitational disturbances caused by repeated encounters with the Large Magellanic Cloud over billions of years.

The researchers submitted their study in the Letters to the Editor section of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. The journal accepted it for publication on May 21, 2026.

More on the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds

The Large Magellanic Cloud is one of the closest galaxies to us at about 160,000 light-years away. Meanwhile, the Small Magellanic Cloud is a bit farther at about 200,000 light-years away. As some of the closest galaxies to our home galaxy, they stand out as big, misty blobs of light under dark skies.

Scientists estimate the Small Magellanic Cloud contains around 3 billion stars, while the Large Magellanic Cloud houses some 30 billion stars. The Large Magellanic Cloud is in the constellations of Dorado and Mensa. And Tucana the Toucan is home to the Small Magellanic Cloud.

A disruptive galactic neighbor

The idea that the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds have influence over each other isn’t new. Their interactions have given them distorted shapes, bursts of star formation and streams of gas trailing away from the galaxies.

But the infrared observations spanning more than a decade have allowed astronomers to see a clearer picture of the stellar movements. In fact, the astronomers can see that the stars of the Small Magellanic Cloud are moving outward along a southeast–northwest axis. They said that motion was consistent with the gravitational pull exerted by the neighboring Large Magellanic Cloud.

And it’s not just the outer fringes of stars closest to the Large Magellanic Cloud that are heading outward. The stars even at the Small Magellanic Cloud’s center are heading outward and not rotating around a midpoint.

When might the Small Magellanic Cloud disperse entirely? Well, the stars are moving at an average speed of about 38,000 miles per hour (17 km per second). At that pace, the stars would travel several thousand light-years over the course of a few hundred million years. So while the dwarf galaxy will look distorted sooner rather than later, it still won’t look noticeably different anywhere within our lifetimes.

Past disruptions

Beyond the motions of the stars heading outward from the galaxy, the study also uncovered another distinct motion. This additional motion was northward, and astronomers only found it in the older red giant stars.

The researchers think this motion is leftover from an interaction that occurred more than 2 billion years ago. Life isn’t easy when you have pushy neighbors.

Bottom line: Astronomers have found the stars of our galactic neighbor, the Small Magellanic Cloud, are heading outward. This dwarf galaxy is not rotating, but is in the act of slowly coming apart.

Source: The VMC survey. LV. The coherent expansion of the SMC

Via Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam

The post Our galactic neighbor is slowly coming apart first appeared on EarthSky.

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Names for days of the week come from the solar system

Did you know the days of the week are named after objects in our solar system? Sure, Sunday is easy for us to recognize as being named for the sun. And maybe you can even spot Monday as originating from the moon. But how did Mars become Tuesday?

Well, long ago people looked to the sky to keep track of time. The sun rose and set and rose again and people marked a day. The moon was full and then waned until it disappeared and then grew again to full, and people marked a month of time.

Eventually, according to Kristin Heineman of Colorado State University, the ancient Babylonians back in 2300 BCE began dividing those months into seven-day segments. Why seven? Because these astronomers monitored the bright lights that wandered among the stars: the sun, moon and five visible planets. Unlike the stars, these seven objects shift location each day or night.

So, the sun, moon and five visible planets became the representatives for each of the days of the week. And, over millennia, the concept of a seven-day week spread around the globe. As the idea spread to other cultures, the names of the week morphed from the gods the planets were named for to gods in other lore with similar attributes.

Sunday is the sun’s day

Sunday is the day of the week that’s easiest to see as having a direct relationship to a solar system object. The name Sunday honored the brightest object in our daytime sky, the sun. Our English word for the sun comes from the Old English version, Sunnandæg, which means “sun’s day.”

Monday is the moon’s day

Not surprisingly, then, the name Monday comes from “moon’s day.” The moon is the brightest object we can see in the nighttime sky. So not only were months (or should we say moonths?) originally arranged from one full moon to the next, the moon was also honored with a day of the week. The Old English Monandæg, moon’s day, was how we got our English word Monday.

Tuesday is Mars’ day

Tuesday is where the days of the week and planets start to look less straightforward. That’s because people of Germanic languages substituted the Roman gods for their own Norse gods. So Mars, the Roman god of war, was switched for the Germanic peoples’ own god of war, Tyr, or Tiw. And then Tiw’s day evolved to become what we know of as Tuesday.

Wednesday is Mercury’s day

Wednesday was named for Mercury. For Romans, Wednesday was Dies Mercurii, the “day of Mercury.” Germanic people translated the day of Mercury to the day of Woden. Woden, or Odin, was the Norse god of travel and similar to Mercury, the fleet-footed messenger. Over time, “Woden’s day” evolved into Wednesday.

Thursday is Jupiter’s day

Thursday is probably much more readily recognizable as being Thor’s day. Thor is the powerful Norse god of thunder. And the equivalent Roman god was Jupiter, the king of the gods.

Friday is Venus’s day

Friday is in honor of Venus, the brightest planet, which the ancients named for the goddess of love and beauty. For Romans it was Dies Veneris, or “day of Venus”. Germanic peoples connected Venus with the goddess Frigg or Freya, leading to “Frigg’s day,” later shortened to Friday.

Saturday is Saturn’s day

Once we hit the end of the week, we’re back on familiar ground again. Saturday kept its Roman planetary connection almost unchanged. Dies Saturni was the “day of Saturn,” named for the planet Saturn and the Roman god of agriculture and time. Unlike the other weekday names, the English-language version did not swap in a Norse god.

Bottom line: The names for the days of the week come from the solar system bodies that the ancients could see in the sky.

The post Names for days of the week come from the solar system first appeared on EarthSky.