It has been a challenging few days. When breaking news hits, it can be easy to fall into the trap of refreshing and doomscrolling. I just want to remind you that staying informed does not need to trump your mental wellness. If you are finding yourself overwhelmed by the news relating to Israel and Palestine, please take a step back. With that in mind, I thought we’d leave planet Earth today for our header and look at some recent news relating to space.

Does Venus have lightning? It’s a question you may have never wondered about. I know I hadn’t. But Science Friday spent time this past week talking about a debate that planetary scientists have been having for 40 years, relating to whether signals we’re seeing from Venus, known as “whistler waves” are indicative of lightning.

This week, the moon will cross into the path of the sun for an annular eclipse, visible from much of the US. An annular eclipse leaves some of the sun’s disk exposed, leading it to be called a “ring of fire” eclipse. Next April, there will be a chance in the US to see a total solar eclipse — mark your calendars now.

While much of the recent attention on space telescopes has come from the James Webb telescope, the European Space Agency’s Gaia telescope is doing impressive work, indexing stars in our galaxy — recently cataloging 500,000 new ones.

Finally, I wanted to share some photos from the Royal Observatory Greenwich’s annual astronomy photo of the year competition. (The header image is not from the competition, but is a picture of Jupiter’s clouds taken by the Juno probe – an image that’s been my desktop background for years – worth seeing in its full resolution.)

The universe is an incredible place. I hope you can take some time to appreciate the beauty and wonder in it. Be kind and thoughtful today. Cheers.