Mark Hilverda

I jumped out of my seat with a "Woah!" when this image was shown at today's press conference. A clear view of my art on the Mastcam-Z calibration target...on another world...on Mars. So grateful to the entire team. So excited for the science ahead.

This thread is worth exploring and will take you through a magical bookstore full of tomes of wonder. 📚

Saturn gets all the attention with its beautiful rings, but there's several other planets in our Solar System with rings. Like Neptune, as recently imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope. The wide-field views are really stunning too. esa.int/Science_Exploration/…

This stunning wide-field view of Jupiter by the James Webb Space Telescope also captures the planet's rings, northern and southern aurora, and its moons Adrastea and Amalthea. More details here: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/08/…

Last night's lunar eclipse was rained out where I live, but here's what it looked like from the International Space Station where clouds are far below the humans residing there. What a view. esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Image…

A space telescope image of another space telescope 🧐 The Gaia observatory recently captured this view of the James Webb Space Telescope. Webb is ~1.5 million km from Earth and was ~1 million km away from Gaia when this image was taken. esa.int/Science_Exploration/…

Mars has a lot going on in this image. Impact craters, the Jovis Tholus volcano, tectonic faults, river channels and a lava sea. More details here: esa.int/Science_Exploration/…

Weird stuff can happen to a large planet when it orbits really close to its star. Aside from getting toasty warm, it seems tidal forces can deform what would normally be a spherical planet into a shape more like a rugby ball. 🏉🔥 esa.int/Science_Exploration/…

We have some interesting galactic neighbors. This image of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, shows some of the dwarf galaxies that surround it. Many of these are now understood to be passing our galaxy for the first time. Interactive version of the image: esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Image…

Solar particles crashing into our planet's atmosphere create these beautiful, swirling auroras. This view from the International Space Station was captured in August by ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet. esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Image…

The BepiColombo spacecraft flew by Mercury recently and returned some images to us Earthlings yesterday. Here's a couple of the images with helpful labels of some of the geological features. (ESA/JAXA • BepiColombo • 1 October 2021) esa.int/Science_Exploration/…

At first glance I thought this image was a close-up of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus, then I noticed the humans and the stream of liquid water. (ESA • Gorner Glacier in Switzerland) esa.int/Applications/Observi…

Your eyes will likely be naturally drawn toward the centerpiece of this image - a quasar magnified by gravitational lensing. Look at all the other objects. Most of them are galaxies, each one containing billions of stars and likely billions of worlds. esa.int/About_Us/Week_in_ima…

Went to a Rembrandt exhibit and discovered Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy in the process. Incredible attention to detail - like the embroidery on this oil painting “Portrait of a Woman” (1628). First time visiting a museum since the pandemic began and my soul is feeling refreshed.

Beautiful new image of Jupiter's moon Ganymede as imaged by NASA's Juno spacecraft. And it includes a view of the awesome crater chain Enki Catena located near the top right. nasa.gov/feature/jpl/see-the…