Soyuz and 3 ISS Crewmembers Return Home – The Expedition 25 crew landed safely in Kazakhstan at 11:46 p.m. EST Thursday (Friday 10:46 a.m. Kazakhstan time). The trio — Doug Wheelock, Shannon Walker and Soyuz Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin — undocked in the Soyuz TMA-19 at 8:23 p.m. ending their 5-1/2 month stay at the International Space Station. Staying behind on the orbiting laboratory are Expedition 26 Commander Scott Kelly and Flight Engineers Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka. -Nancy Atkinson / Universe Today

J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets! – It seems oddly appropriate to be writing about astrophysical jets on Thanksgiving Day, when the New York football Jets will be featured on television. In the most recent issue of Science, Carlos Carrasco-Gonzalez and collaborators write about how their observations of radio emissions from young stellar objects (YSOs) shed light one of the unsolved problems in astrophysics; what are the mechanisms that form the streams of plasma known as polar jets? Although we are still early in the game, Carrasco-Gonzalez et al have moved us closer to the goal line with their discovery. -Mike Simonsen / Universe Today

Astronomers thankful for return of Jupiter’s belt – NASA just released a new image of Jupiter that confirms what amateur astronomers discovered a few days ago: Jupiter’s Southern Equatorial Belt is coming back! -Phil Plait / Bad Astronomy

Nov 17/18 to 24/25 Meteors – We are now entering a transition period as we leave behind November’s showers (such as the Leonids and Taurids) and look forward to December’s offerings (Geminids and Sigma Hydrids). The nights tabulated below mark the 61st consecutive night with a video meteor detection. -Carl Hergenrother

[more stories]

Videos

Photos

Launch Pad 39-A

The Moon

The Moon from the ISS

Erupting Volcano

Gallery Pick of the Day

Fresh starbirth infuses the galaxy NGC 6503 with a vital pink glow in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy, a smaller version of the Milky Way, is perched near a great void in space where few other galaxies reside. Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA

The photo above is “Pick of the Day” from one of the three galleries: Astronomy Gallery, Space Shuttle Gallery and Space Station Gallery.

Bright fireball in Ursa Major with Aurora Borealis and Mars (middle right edge) - Credit: Bjørnar G. Hansen

In addition to capturing a bright Geminid fireball, Bjørnar also managed to fit Aurora Borealis and Mars (middle right edge) into a single shot.

Although the predicted Geminid peak has passed and the activity will be dropping in the next 24-48 hours, it may be worth spending just one more night outside, as some say that fireballs tend to appear at the end of meteor showers.

For more information about the Geminid meteor shower follow #MeteorWatch, @NewburyAS, @ksastro on twitter. For the latest photos and images, see the Meteorwatch Gallery (and follow @MeteorWatchPix).