Here's why we love NASA around here. The agency tends to hire those overachieving types that aren't just happy to command an International Space Station; they also complete the first triathlon in space while they're at it.

Moon rocks are really rare things, and pretty much all of the samples collected by lunar missions are in the hands of the world's governments. But there is another source, and it has coughed up this big lunar rock which will hit the auction block in New York next month.

Even rightly so, too often the Apollo program dominates the narrative of early lunar exploration. The Soviet Union ran its own lunar program in the 1960s and '70s, and it was so successful early on that it looked like the Moon would be Soviet territory. The first ever man-made object to land on its surface in 1959 was the Soviet-launched Luna 2. The first image of the lunar far side came during a flyby by Luna 3 the same year. In 1966, Luna 9 transmitted the first pictures from the surface of the Moon, and Luna 10 would enter into its orbit. In 1968, a handful of turtles and other simple organisms even made the first circumlunar voyage aboard Zond 5. But Apollo 8 swept the rug out from the Soviet's feet; three astronauts going into orbit in December of that year all but assured the world that the political victory of landing on the Moon would go to the Americans. So the Soviets reshaped their lunar program, choosing to focus on inexpensive robotic mission that put science goals at the core.

By the looks of this video, Monday night would not have been a very jovial night to spend on Jupiter. Two amateur astronomers spotted a bright white flash for a few seconds just inside Jupiter's eastern limb, which was probably a fireball a hundred miles in diameter caused by an asteroid or comet impacting Jupiter's atmosphere. Ka-POW!