Spiral galaxy IC 5201 sits 40 million light-years from us in the Crane constellation. As with most spirals we see, it has a bar of stars slicing through its center. To source
Archive | Image of the day
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View of NASA's CYGNSS Hurricane Mission Launch From Chase Plane
Hurricane forecasters will soon have a new tool to better understand and forecast storm intensity. A constellation of eight microsatellites, called NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System mission, or CYGNSS, got a boost into Earth orbit aboard an Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rocket, deployed from an L-1011 aircraft. To source
Color Variations on Mount Sharp, Mars
The foreground of this scene from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover shows purple-hued rocks near the rover’s late-2016 location on lower Mount Sharp. The scene’s middle distance includes higher layers that are future destinations for the mission. To source
HTV-6 Cargo Craft Approaches Space Station
Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA shared this photograph of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kounotori H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-6) as it approached the International Space Station. Kimbrough and Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet successfully captured the spacecraft using the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm. To source
The Coolest Landscape on Mars (or Earth)
Many Martian landscapes contain features that are familiar to ones we find on Earth, like river valleys, cliffs, glaciers and volcanos. To source
Sunrise With Solar Array
Astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency captured this photograph from the International Space Station on Nov. 25, 2016, and shared it on social media, writing, “Sunrises. We experience 16 sunrises every 24 hours on the International Space Station as it takes us 90 minutes to do a complete orbit of our planet flying […]
Linear Dunes, Namib Sand Sea
An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) used a long lens to document what crews have termed one of the most spectacular features of the planet: the dunes of the Namib Sand Sea. To source
Oceanic Nonlinear Internal Solitary Waves From the Lombok Strait
On November 1, 2016, NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over Indonesia, allowing the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board to capture a stunning true-color image of oceanic nonlinear internal solitary waves from the Lombok Strait. To source
Sahara Desert From the Space Station's EarthKAM
Middle school students programmed a camera aboard the International Space Station — the Sally Ride EarthKAM — to photograph this portion of the Sahara desert in western Libya on October 3, 2016. The Expedition 50 crew set up the EarthKAM gear in the Harmony module’s Earth-facing hatch window, to allow students to photograph targets on […]
Chaos at Hyperion
The moon Hyperion tumbles as it orbits Saturn. To source
Hidden Figures Premiere and Award Ceremony
Actress Octavia Spencer, left, who plays Dorothy Vaughan in the film “Hidden Figures” and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, right, greets NASA “human computer” Katherine Johnson, at a reception to honor NASA’s “human computers” on Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, at the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton, VA. To source
Rift in Antarctica's Larsen C Ice Shelf
On Nov. 10, 2016, scientists on NASA’s IceBridge mission photographed an oblique view of a massive rift in the Antarctic Peninsula’s Larsen C ice shelf. Icebridge, an airborne survey of polar ice, completed an eighth consecutive Antarctic deployment on Nov. 18. To source
NASA's Webb Telescope Clean Room 'Transporter'
What looks like a teleporter from science fiction being draped over NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, is actually a “clean tent.” The clean tent protects Webb from dust and dirt when engineers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center transport the telescope out of the relatively dust-free cleanroom and into the vibration and acoustics testing areas. […]