After exploring Mars for more than a year, China's Tianwen-1 space probe has successfully taken images covering the entire Red Planet, China's National Space Administration (CNSA) announced on June 29. Tianwen-1, which translates to "quest for heavenly truth," consists of six separate spacecraft: an orbiter, two deployable cameras, lander, remote camera, and Zhurong rover. The images in question were taken by the orbiter while circling Mars 1,344 times, capturing images of the Red Planet from every angle while Zhurong explored the surface. in the statement, CNSA said the probe has now completed all of its tasks, which included taking medium-resolution images covering the entire planet.

Tianwen-1 was launched on July 23, 2020, amidst the turmoil of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

One look at the Planetary Decadal Survey for 2023–2032, and you will see some bold and cutting-edge mission proposals for the coming decade. Examples include a Uranus orbiter and probe (UOP) that would study Uranus' interior, atmosphere, magnetosphere, satellites, and rings; and an Enceladus orbiter and surface lander to study the active plumes emanating from Enceladus' southern polar region. Not to be outdone, China is also considering a nuclear-powered Neptune Explorer to explore the ice giant, its largest moon (Triton), and its other satellites and rings.

The mission was the subject of a study conducted by researchers from the China National Space Agency (CNSA), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the China Atomic Energy Authority, the China Academy of Space Technology, and multiple universities and institutes.

Whether to spend money on outer space exploration or to apply it to solve serious problems on Earth, like climate change and food shortages, is a contentious debate. But one argument in favor of space exploration highlights benefits that do, in fact, help study, monitor and address serious concerns like climate change and food production.

As access to space increases, the potential for terrestrial benefits directly tied to space exploration grow exponentially.

For example, agriculture has been improved significantly through the application of space-based advances to terrestrial challenges. It is now increasingly likely that food items have been produced with the assistance of space-based technologies, like freeze-dried foods, or through the use of crop monitoring from space-based observatories.

Think only professional astronomers will have access to the James Webb Space Telescope? Think again!

Three citizen scientists—members of the public—have discovered new astronomical objects that Webb will soon view. One of these volunteers is a co-investigator on a winning Webb proposal.

Later today, NASA, in partnership with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, will release the first full-color images and spectroscopic data from the James Webb Space Telescope. But long before then, citizen scientists at Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 were working hard to find new nearby objects that Webb could follow-up. The citizen scientists who discovered Webb targets all work on this citizen science project.

"Even though the process was occasionally painstaking, it was worth it," said Arttu Sainio, who discovered a new object that Webb will examine. Sainio's discovery is a "brown dwarf," a ball of gas too cool to be considered a star, a key to understanding exoplanets. "I end up discovering hundreds of brown dwarf candidates and many of them have been followed up and researched." Citizen scientists Melina Thevenot and Dan Caselden also discovered brown dwarfs Webb will study.

Some stars save the best for last.

The dimmer star at the center of this scene has been sending out rings of gas and dust for thousands of years in all directions, and NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has revealed for the first time that this star is cloaked in dust.

Two cameras aboard Webb captured the latest image of this planetary nebula, cataloged as NGC 3132, and known informally as the Southern Ring Nebula. It is approximately 2,500 light-years away.

Webb will allow astronomers to dig into many more specifics about planetary nebulae like this one—clouds of gas and dust expelled by dying stars. Understanding which molecules are present, and where they lie throughout the shells of gas and dust will help researchers refine their knowledge of these objects.

This observation shows the Southern Ring Nebula almost face-on, but if we could rotate it to view it edge-on, its three-dimensional shape would more clearly look like two bowls placed together at the bottom, opening away from one another with a large hole at the center.

This landscape of "mountains" and "valleys" speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA's new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.

Called the Cosmic Cliffs, Webb's seemingly three-dimensional picture looks like craggy mountains on a moonlit evening. In reality, it is the edge of the giant, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, and the tallest "peaks" in this image are about 7 light-years high. The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the center of the bubble, above the area shown in this image.

The blistering, ultraviolet radiation from the young stars is sculpting the nebula's wall by slowly eroding it away. Dramatic pillars tower above the glowing wall of gas, resisting this radiation. The "steam" that appears to rise from the celestial "mountains" is actually hot, ionized gas and hot dust streaming away from the nebula due to the relentless radiation.