Tessera
Folgen

Ryan Kinnett

@rkinnett.bsky.social

Spacecraft systems engineer, amateur astrophotographer, general space nerd

282 Posts2202 Follower236 Folgt
Ryan Kinnett@rkinnett.bsky.social · 3w ago

NGC-7635, the Bubble Nebula in Cassiopeia, ~7100 light-years away. The shell is formed by intense stellar winds, estimated around 4 million mph, emanating from a hot 45-Solar-mass star interacting with regional gas and dust. Imaged from Stony Ridge Observatory on Thursday night. #Astrophotography 🔭

Bild
Ryan Kinnett@rkinnett.bsky.social · last mo.

We discovered this asteroid on Tuesday night after its closest approach to Earth. It missed us by a comfortable 16 million km. Good thing, because it’s hefty, around 180 meters in diameter, big enough to cause catastrophic destruction. And we only found it after it passed. 😳

Ryan Kinnett@rkinnett.bsky.social · last mo.

I co-discovered a near-Earth asteroid last night! Asteroid 2026 Q48 was first sighted by JPL’s automated sky survey, but my follow-up measurements from Stony Ridge Observatory confirmed this object, earning me co-discovery credit. This Apollo-type asteroid crosses Earth’s orbit. #Astronomy 🔭 🧪 ☄️

Ryan Kinnett@rkinnett.bsky.social · last mo.

I co-discovered a near-Earth asteroid last night! Asteroid 2026 Q48 was first sighted by JPL’s automated sky survey, but my follow-up measurements from Stony Ridge Observatory confirmed this object, earning me co-discovery credit. This Apollo-type asteroid crosses Earth’s orbit. #Astronomy 🔭 🧪 ☄️

Don Davis@ddavisspaceart.bsky.social · 2mo ago

51 years ago I painted a trio of Viking related works for NASA HQ including the widely reproduced one of the landing on Mars. I have reimagined the Landing portrayal in updated form using digital methods of visualization and painting. I chose the same angle but with reality replacing anticipation.

This oil painting portrays the Viking 1 landing on Mars, which appeared in countless publications. The story of this work is relayed in an earlier post and is shown here for comparison with the new portrayal of this very view, showing the event as it would have appeared. This 1975 anticipatory painting was done with oils on a gesso smoothed 16 X 20 canvas panel, using traditional art methods including a tracing paper guide featured earlier. This work shows in retrospect my ideal of the 'spirit of space art', showing something of a summary of what is known of the subject while conveying what it is about the subject's known or theorized attributes that I find visually compelling. The new digital painting updates that visual impression with one based on our current knowledge. The new digital work was also done at the same size as this one was for possible printing purposes, 16 by 20 inches at 300 DPI. #Sciart In 1976 the pair of Viking spacecraft orbiter/lander combos were sent to Mars. Before Viking, Mars was still largely a place of our imaginations, an unknown that we wrote stories about then studied from Earth and space. The dominance of cratered terrain on the portions of Mars photographed by Mariners 4, 6 and 7 gave an initially Lunar impression of that world, which changed during the development of the Viking lander after Mariner 9 revealed the planet. The first landing was aimed for a flat flood plain, judged as a decent place to search for life. The landing date was July 4, however the intended site appeared too rough for comfort in the high quality orbiter photos, causing the landing to wisely be delayed. A smoother site further 'down stream' was found using photo and radar data. The landing proceeded quite nominally, a magnificent achievement that apparently accounted for what it had to and made it the first time. The first photo from the surface was a look at a footpad to see how solid the 'footing' appeared. Then a moderate resolution panorama of the surroundings was obtained, first showing the rocks, hills, dunes-and bright sky. The latter was my biggest surprise as a space artist. The adjustments to the color balance of the later photos were gradually narrowed down. The ubiquitous dust is planet wide, suspended in the air and coloring the sky a luminous tan ochre. This digital painting shows the view a meter above the surface seeing the lander briefly kicking up dust less than a second before touchdown with the footpads 1.4 meters high. The landing rockets were designed with many nozzles to disturb the surroundings as little as possible. The nearby disturbed dust resembles in color that of the sky. We are 6 meters away from the center of the lander. field of view is 60 degrees, we are looking Northwest with the Sun and Earth off the frame to the left. This is a digital art update of the pre mission oil painting I did for NASA HQ 1n 1975. #Sciart
Ryan Kinnett@rkinnett.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Last night a friend (pictured) and I imaged the Moon on 5x7” film at Stony Ridge Observatory. This same telescope and a similar camera was used in the mid-1960s to help map the Moon for the Air Force in support of the Lunar Surveyor and Apollo programs. 🧪 🔭 #Astrophotography

BildBildBild
Loren Grush@lorengrush.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Summary from NASA's moon base announcement today: -- Astrolab and Lunar Outpost are making the LTV rovers -- Blue Origin will be landing those rovers -- Firefly's Elytra is transporting drones to the moon www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

NASA Taps Bezos’ Blue Origin, Firefly for Moon Base Contracts

NASA picked Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace and other space firms to send robotic landers, rovers and even drones to the moon as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to jumpstart a lu...

bloomberg.com

Nick Stevens@nick-stevens.com · 5mo ago

vimeo.com/1192785015 Animation crossfading between a canal map of Mars, and a modern CGI map, so you can see how the "canals" line up with real features. By me. 2 views, above North and South poles of Mars.

Historical Mars, Part 2. Antoniadi's canals overlaid on Modern Mars, cross faded..

wo animations of a globe of Mars using Antoniadi’s Mars map labels over a CGI modern Mars, with strengthened colour to show details. Music is "Cloudless", By Cousin Silas, CC licensed.

vimeo.com

Daniel Pomarède@pomarede.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Curiosity Blog, Sols 4886-4892: Ingenuity and Perseverance, Curiosity Style "While we know the monikers Ingenuity and Perseverance are attached to our sister helicopter and rover on the Mars 2020 mission, those characteristics were in full force with Curiosity over the past week." #Mars 🧪🔭

Curiosity Blog, Sols 4886-4892: Ingenuity and Perseverance, Curiosity Style - NASA Science

Written by Michelle Minitti, MAHLI Deputy Principal Investigator

science.nasa.gov

Tony Dunn@tony873004.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Artemis II doesn’t reverse direction like its ground track implies. Far out, its motion is mostly radial (toward Earth), so its small eastward speed is slower than Earth’s rotation, so it appears to drift west. Closer in, tangential speed grows and overtakes Earth’s rotation, so it moves east.