Our Cosmic Neighbourhood

ISS_for_Earth_science / credit NASA

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a massive galaxy cluster glowing brightly in the darkness. Despite its beauty, this cluster bears the distinctly unpoetic name of PLCK_G308.3-20.2. Galaxy clusters can contain thousands of galaxies all held together by the glue of gravity.

Asteroid Ryugu, an ancient space rock roughly 300 million km from Earth, is now home to three Earth-born inhabitants bouncing across its bouldery surface. In the early morning of 3 October 2018, the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) gently fell to the asteroid’s surface, joining its Japanese siblings, the MINERVA-II rovers 1-A and 1-B. / Copyright MASCOT/DLR/JAXA

This image shows an oblique view in the Cerberus Fossae system on Mars. In the foreground is a larger crater, its dark appearance attributed to sands blown in to the crater by winds. Cutting across the scene from left to right are some of the fractures of the Cerberus Fossae system. The main image was taken on 27 January 2018 during orbit 17813 by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA’s Mars Express. Copyright ESA/DLR/FU Berlin