Saturn’s hexagonal polar jet stream is the shining feature of almost every view of the north polar region of Saturn. via NASA http://ift.tt/2prpfwB

This 360-degree mosaic from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover looks out over a portion of the Bagnold Dunes, which stretch for several miles. via NASA http://ift.tt/2p4yfvJ

This illustration shows a hypothetical planet covered in water around the binary star system of Kepler-35A and B. With two suns in its sky, Luke Skywalker’s home planet Tatooine in “Star Wars” looks like a parched, sandy desert world. In real life, we know that two-star systems can indeed support planets. via NASA http://ift.tt/2p9yXmD

In the north, Enceladus’ surface appears to be about as old as any in the solar system. The south, however, is an entirely different story. via NASA http://ift.tt/2p5HPcO

Machining for NASA’s Orion spacecraft, scheduled to fly on the second integrated flight with agency’s Space Launch System rocket, is well underway at Ingersoll Machine Tools in Rockford, Illinois. The new deep space spacecraft will take humans farther into the solar system than we have ever traveled before. via NASA http://ift.tt/2qANEQE

Areas near the equator are frequently cloudy, obscuring the view of Earth’s surface from space. April 7, 2017, was no different. On that day, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this natural-color image of clouds over the Gilbert Islands. via NASA http://ift.tt/2oYkeLf

A engine section structural qualification test article for NASA’s new rocket, the Space Launch System, is loaded onto the barge Pegasus at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The test article now will make its way from Michoud to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for structural loads testing. via NASA http://ift.tt/2qc60YS

Cassini Captures Closest Images of Saturn’s Atmosphere via NASA http://ift.tt/2ozjMHC

On Saturday April 22, 2017, Expedition 51 Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency photographed Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft as it approached the International Space Station. Using the station’s robotic Canadarm2, Cygnus was successfully captured by Pesquet and Commander Peggy Whitson at 6:05 a.m. EDT Saturday morning. via NASA http://ift.tt/2qf1WWY

It’s springtime and the deployed primary mirror of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope looks like a spring flower in full bloom. Once launched into space, the Webb telescope’s 18-segmented gold mirror is specially designed to capture infrared light from the first galaxies that formed in the early universe. via NASA http://ift.tt/2oDRs37