Spain's 121-year wait ends with a shadow and a cathedral

Spain's 121-year wait ends with a shadow and a cathedral

On August 12, 2026, the Moon totally eclipsed the Sun and cast its shadow across Siberia, Greenland, Iceland, Spain, and Portugal. Today's featured image captures two total solar eclipses from Zaragoza, Spain: one framing the Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar, the other shimmering in the Ebro River below. For a few extraordinary moments, the corona had its starring role — and Spain had its first major total solar eclipse since 1905.

Gobble's Take: A cathedral that's survived centuries still looks more dramatic with the Sun switched off.

Source: NASA News Releases

Artemis II: the mission where "not landing" is the whole point

NASA's Artemis II will send four astronauts on a roughly ten-day journey around the Moon and back to Earth aboard the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft. No lunar landing — that's by design. The mission's entire purpose is to validate spacecraft systems and life-support operations beyond low Earth orbit, laying the groundwork for everything that follows.

Gobble's Take: Going all the way to the Moon and coming straight back sounds anticlimactic — until you remember nobody's done it in decades.

Source: Perplexity Search (evergreen)

Webb looks at the Lion Nebula and makes Hubble feel old

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has turned its gaze on NGC 2392, nicknamed the Lion Nebula. Hubble already imaged this planetary nebula back in 2000. Webb's new look is the latest reminder that the universe rewards a second opinion.

Gobble's Take: Same object, two telescopes, twenty-six years apart — and it somehow gets stranger every time.

Source: Perplexity Search (evergreen)

In Case You Missed It

Yesterday's top stories:

• China's Tianwen-2 finally catches Kamoʻoalewa
• MIT's space exploration page highlights lunar missions and payloads
• The new era of exploration dropped the one-superpower script