Planetary Landscapes

10/23/2026

Endless... Goodnight, Earthlings! Credit: soethje.com https://www.facebook.com/reel/4675167506143961

10/22/2026

This Hubble image is extraordinary. It shows a protoplanetary disk seen in silhouette against the Orion Nebula. This is Proplyd 114-426, a prominent dark protoplanetary disk seen in silhouette against the bright backdrop of the Orion Nebula (Messier 42). It is is located approximately 1,344 to 1,500 light-years away from Earth.

The Solar System would have looked just like that 4.5 billion years ago...Planet formation is a hazardous process. This image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows a dust disk around an embryonic star in the Orion Nebula being 'blowtorched' by a blistering flood of ultraviolet radiation from the region's brightest star. Within such a disk are the seeds of planets.

The doomed system looks like a hapless comet, with a wayward tail of gas boiling off the withering, pancake-shaped disk...We were luckier 4.5 billion years ago.
Credit: NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope/ J. Bally (University of Colorado) and H. Throop (SWRI).

10/22/2026

How can this slime mold solve a maze... without a brain? https://www.facebook.com/reel/1492489742706329

10/22/2026

☀️ The Sun may play a small role in triggering earthquakes on Earth, and researchers think heat could be part of the connection...

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☀️ The Sun may play a small role in triggering earthquakes on Earth, and researchers think heat could be part of the connection.

Earthquakes are driven mainly by tectonic forces. Stress builds along faults until rocks suddenly slip. But scientists have long wondered whether smaller environmental effects can push an already stressed fault closer to failure.

A 2025 study tested whether solar heating could be one of those effects.

Researchers combined records of sunspot activity, surface temperatures and earthquakes. When temperature was added to their forecasting models, predictions improved, particularly for shallow earthquakes.

The proposed mechanism starts at Earth's surface.

Changes in solar heating alter atmospheric temperatures. That can affect rock properties and influence rainfall, snowmelt and underground water movement.

These changes can slightly modify pressure and stress in the upper crust. Rocks may become more prone to fracturing, while changes in water pressure can alter forces acting on faults.

This fits with the result that the strongest improvement appeared for shallow earthquakes, where temperature and hydrological changes should matter most.

The researchers also found seasonal variations in seismicity and timing relationships between solar activity and earthquakes consistent with delayed heat transfer through Earth's surface environment.

But this does not mean solar flares directly cause major earthquakes.

The effect appears small compared with tectonic stress, and the proposed Sun-earthquake connection remains debated. Other studies have failed to find a consistent global relationship between solar activity and earthquakes.

For now, the work suggests solar heat may act as one of many subtle triggers on faults close to slipping, rather than being a primary cause.

📃 RESEARCH PAPER
📌 Junqueira Saldanha et al., “The role of solar heat in earthquake activity,” Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science (2025)

10/22/2026

Earth's curvature and the sun glint over the ocean. Another stunning view of our ocean planet from space. Happy World Oceans Day! Credit Image: ESA's astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

10/22/2026

Always amazing...SpaceX’s CRS-35 Dragon spacecraft docked with the International Space Station on Oct. 15, 2026, carrying more than 6,000 pounds of supplies. Credit: NASA.
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10/22/2026

The moons of Saturn are amazing. Pan looks like a ravioli...Absolutely incredible shape. Pan is the innermost named moon of Saturn. It might be small, but it has an important role to play. This walnut-shaped moon is approximately 35 kilometers across and 23 km wide and orbits within the Encke Gap in Saturn's A Ring. Pan is a ring shepherd and is responsible for keeping the Encke Gap free of ring particles. I wish you all a fantastic day! Credit image: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI / Ian Regan (Cassini mission).

10/22/2026

Rhea in Saturn's Rings | Goodnight, Earthlings! Credit Image: NASA/Cassini mission.

10/21/2026

A cosmic "black eye" shines from 17 million light-years away! M64 (or the Black Eye galaxy) resides in the constellation Coma Berenices. Credit Image: NASA Hubble Space Telescope.