Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
@jupforjupiter.bsky.social
260 followers 390 following 90 posts
Structural Planetary Geologist | Postdoc researcher | Asteroid 32027 | Playing too much video 🎮 | She/her/Dr. | 🇭🇰 | 🐈‍⬛🐈 jupiterhansen.com
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
jupforjupiter.bsky.social
Check out our new paper in Science Advances!
🧪🔭🪐
We show that Vesta’s giant equatorial troughs—Divalia Fossae—likely formed from spin axis reorientation and despinning as a long-term consequence of the two massive impacts near the south poles. 🪨⚒️

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reorientation and despinning of 4 Vesta formed the Divalia Fossae
The Divalia Fossae are formed by tectonic stresses from reorientation and despinning of Vesta caused by large impacts.
www.science.org
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
kevinmgill.bsky.social
Sol 4683 MAHLI image of a rock that’s been cleared of dust by the DRT brush. Taken by the Mars Curiosity Rover. White balanced color.

flic.kr/p/2rydD5Z
A rock.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
theplanetaryguy.bsky.social
A few hours ago, Comet 3I/ATLAS passed about 28 million km from Mars.

This was the best opportunity we'll have to image the interstellar visitor from spacecraft.

When those data are available, I'll share them!
A screenshot from NASA's Eyes on the Solar System, showing the relative positions of 3I/ATLAS and Mars as of about 1700 Central time today.
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
rappcats.bsky.social
New arrival Penny is 7 yrs old and the sweetest thing. She didn't stay shy long - she's going to do great! Stay tuned, we'll soon see if Penny likes laps. ❤️
#cats #cat #pets #va #nova #virginia
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
coreyspowell.bsky.social
Our galaxy is full of rogue planets, worlds that live in darkness without a parent star. And now we've caught one as it forms, scooping up gas at a rate of 6 billion tons a second. 🧪🔭

www.eso.org/public/news/...
Nebula where new stars are forming. Marked is Cha 1107−7626, a planetary-mass object with a disk.
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
theplanetaryguy.bsky.social
Almost exactly 30 years ago, the first extrasolar planet was identified orbiting a main-sequence star.

Now, not only can we directly image planets orbiting other stars, but we can see planets *being born*

Imagine what the next 30 years will bring.
A bright ring surrounds a star, with three smaller, dimmer blobs inboard of the outer ring. At least two of those dimmer blobs are exoplanets.
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
colinmacpherson.bsky.social
Spectacular concentric zoning and twinning of large titanaugite in essexite (nepheline monzogabbro) from Lennoxtown, Scotland. Plagioclase inclusions within the phenocryst align with zoning just as proximal groundmass plagioclase align with its edge. #ThinSectionThursday 🧪⚒️
Large clinopyroxene (titanaugite) crystal takes up much of field of view. Tin plane cuts from top left to bottom right separating twins showing different interference colours. Multiple concentric zones apparent in finer oscillation of interference colours. Plagioclase and olivine groundmass surrounds the phenocryst.
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
andrewjonesspace.bsky.social
CNSA has released an image of Tianwen-2 in deep space using a robotic arm, giving us a proper look at the spacecraft and return capsule for delivering samples from near Earth asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa. Tianwen-2 has been in space for 125 days, is 45 million km from Kamoʻoalewa.
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
tthomopoulos.bsky.social
Mars - Emirates Mars Mission - orbite 645

Enhanced RGB with F635, F546 and F437 filters / crop

Image credit : Emirates Mars mission/MBRSC/EXI/Thomas Thomopoulos
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
uahirise.bsky.social
HiPOD: Informative Layers

This image shows layering near the base of the South Polar layered deposits (SPLD). Radar observations of these deposits and their northern counterparts show that they are rich in water ice.

uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_06...
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
#Mars
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
theplanetaryguy.bsky.social
Saturn, rising behind its largest moon Titan.

This scene is a composite of images taken by the Cassini spacecraft on 31 March 2005. At the time, Cassini was 7,000 km from Titan and 1.2 million km from Saturn.

Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI/Ian Regan/Val Klavans
In the foreground is Saturn's giant moon Titan, its hazy, peach-coloured atmosphere extending into space. Behind is Saturn itself, its upper hemisphere crossed by the shadows of its vast ring system.
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
cambriancam.bsky.social
Here is the trilobite Angelina sedgwickii from the Lower Ordovician (Tremadocian) Dol-cyn-afon Formation from Wales, U.K. This trilobite is slightly distorted due to tectonic forces. It is a great teaching piece to discuss structural geology.
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
drnwillburger.bsky.social
The 3,000-year-old gold Shropshire sun pendant was dicovered in 2018.
Crafted with incredible skill and decorated with intricate geometric patterns, it symbolizes the importance of the sun in Bronze Age society.
As scientific analysis has indicated, the pendant...🧵1/2

📷 me

#archaeology 🏺
A gold half-disc pendant decorated with intricate geometric patterns of triangles and lines, displayed upright against a dark background with a soft circular light in the distance.
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
hourlycosmos.bsky.social
Io Revisited, a Glow in the Dark - From Gordan Ugarković (ugordan.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/7epZCx
Several processed views of Io taken by Cassini on January 2nd, 2001 from a distance of 10.29 million km and at a phase angle of 73 degrees.

The bottom left image row shows two distinct plumes visible in the ultraviolet - the Tvashtar plume near north pole and the Pele plume near the equator and on the nightside. 

The base of Pele's plume also prominently shows its thermal glow in the deep infrared filter, similar to views recently obtained by the New Horizons spacecraft. 

The bottom right image clearly demonstrates this is not an imaging artifact as the eruption glow is visible in all infrared filters, dimming in intensity toward shorter wavelengths.

Cassini narrow-angle filtered composites, magnified 3 times.
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
davidho.bsky.social
Having AI crammed down our throats is bullshit, but machine learning has some real uses in science. This awesome page shows experimental cyclone track forecasts from Google DeepMind and Google Research's AI weather models, along with forecasts from ECMWF. 😍

deepmind.google.com/science/weat...
A dark-themed weather tracking map from Google Weather Lab: Cyclones (Preview) showing hurricane/cyclone models in the Atlantic Ocean as of Friday, September 19, 2025, at 08:00. The map includes ensemble forecast tracks and storm markers extending from the mid-Atlantic toward Western Europe. Multiple colorful lines (green, orange, blue, purple, yellow) represent different storm model ensembles and possible tracks, with clusters of paths pointing toward Ireland, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Portugal. The cyclone originated east of the Caribbean, with its projected paths fanning northeastward across the Atlantic. Colored circles mark storm intensity along the tracks, numbered (e.g., 1, 2, 6) corresponding to categories. A second storm is visible off the Pacific coast of Mexico with clustered ensemble markers. The left panel lists model options (Observed, Our experimental model, WeatherNext Gen, WeatherNext Graph, ECMWF ENS, ECMWF HRES), a legend for storm markers, tracks, ensemble tracks, cones, and wind speed colors. At the bottom, sliders indicate initialization time (Fri, Sep 19, 2025, 08:00) and lead time (+6 days, Fri, Sep 26, 2025, 02:00). The background map highlights North America, the Atlantic Ocean, Western Europe, and parts of Africa.
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
uahirise.bsky.social
HiPOD: Eroded in Deuteronilus

The mound in this image is slightly removed from most of the other plateaus, and the lobate debris aprons surrounding it is highly degraded.

More: uahirise.org/hipod/ESP_06...

NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
#Mars #science #NASA
Image cutout shows a large and highly eroded plateau on the surface of Mars. The terrain surrounding the terrain is much flatter and smooth than the mesa. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
realhopejahren.bsky.social
Keep sciencing. We are living through a time when looking at a rock and wondering how old it is qualifies as an act of resistance.
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
mineralcup.bsky.social
#MinCup Round 2 Match 4:
It’s a battle of mineralogical oddities as organic mineral #Carpathite battles against vs #Tugtupite, a mineral that looks like reindeer blood!

Vote: www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r2...

Results: www.mineralcup.org/2025/results...
Vote in Round 2 Match 4 — Mineral Cup
Click here to vote in Carpathite vs Tugtupite Photo credits: Michael Roarke
www.mineralcup.org
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
spahn711.bsky.social
Utah is a special place. Even when you're just driving between destinations, the views are top-tier.
A road curves between orange cliffs that jut up into the air a bit like Pride Rock from the Lion King. In the distance is a vast hill of various colors. Partly cloudy skies are overhead.
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
akasci.bsky.social
Asteroid Donaldjohanson just got some new names for its various surface features.

The names were proposed by the NASA Lucy mission team to the IAU based on various paleoanthropological sites and discoveries.

science.nasa.gov/solar-system...
#PlanetSci
Pic of asteroid Donaldjohanson with annotations for recognized names of its geologic features.

Few annotations added by me.

Names include:
Afar Lobus (Lobe)
Olduvai Lobus (Lobe)
Windover Collum (Neck)
Hadar Regio (Region)
Minatogawa Regio (Region)

Narmada (Crater)
Mingo (Crater)
Luzia Dorsum (Ridge)
Cashel Saxum (Boulder)
Kennewicks Saxum (Boulder)
Boxgrove Saxum (Boulder)

Credit: NASA Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
drcarpineti.bsky.social
The final target for the Hayabusa2 mission is a tiny asteroid. We knew it was small, it turns out is much smaller than expected. Not much bigger than the spacecraft

What's killing me is the size comparison with Ryugu, the first target of Hayabusa2! So wee! 🔭🧪

www.iflscience.com/hayabusa2s-t...
Models of the two asteroids are compared. Ryugu is 900 meters across, while 1998 KY26 is 11 so Ryugu looks massive against the speck that is the other space rock. An artist's impression of Japan’s Hayabusa2 space mission touching down on the surface of the asteroid 1998 KY26. the craft is almost as big as the asteroid
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
callanbentley.bsky.social
One of the samples that I was working on today, a hefty slab of "Duke Stone" metaignimbrite from the Piedmont of North Carolina. This is the rock that was used to build the Gothic architecture of Duke University. Made in a pre-Appalachian volcanic eruption, it got squeezed as Pangaea was assembled.⚒️
Reposted by Jupiter Hansen (Cheng)
planetdr.bsky.social
MD down here screaming “we know we’re below the Mason-Dixon Line but please take us with you”
luckytran.com
IT'S OFFICIAL: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York State, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and New York City have formed the Northeast Public Health Collaborative.

The collaborative will issue their own vaccine recommendations and coordinate public health efforts.
Map of Regional Public Health Coalitions

Northeast Public Health Collaborative (Blue)

West Coast Health Alliance (Yellow)