Feb 22 - Hexagonal Mars Dune Field

February 22 Hexagonal Mars Dune Field by:

Help EarthSky keep going ...  If each of you donated $1, we could end this fund-raiser today. Can you help? We need you. Click to donate and learn more.  Unusual dune field on a crater floor in Terra Cimmeria on Mars. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University. Weird hexagonal dune field seen on Mars Mars has sand dunes, as Earth does. But now, NASA's Odyssey orbiter has revealed something odd: a large dune field shaped roughly like a hexagon. The finding is expected to provide more clues as to how dunes form in Martian winds. Read more. Japan's Hayabusa2 lands on distant asteroid The Hayabusa2 spacecraft touched down briefly and successfully on asteroid Ryugu Friday morning, 200 million miles (300 million km) from Earth. It successfully fired a bullet into the asteroid to puff up dust for sample collection. Read more. Rosetta's comet sculpted by stress The Rosetta space mission revealed a comet as 2 icy balls apparently stuck together billions of years ago. Now scientists say the comet's double-lobed structure guided its evolution. Read more. Rosetta's comet - aka 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko - as captured in March 2016, when the spacecraft was about 200 miles (329 km) away. Image via ESA.

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Tonight … Moon and Spica rise at late evening The moon is in a waning gibbous phase now. You'll have to stay up fairly late Friday evening to view it and the star Spica - brightest light in the constellation Virgo - rising into your eastern sky.

Rainbow and anticrepuscular rays over English coast "A delightful rainbow which particularly caught my eye as it framed the anticrepuscular rays on the horizon," said Alec Jones on February 22. Submit your photo to EarthSky here! Did a friend forward EarthSkyNews to you? Click here to get your own subscription!

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