NASA Image of the Day

Saxophone in Space (Mi, 30 Apr 2025)
Astronaut Ronald E. McNair, STS-41B mission specialist, used some of his off-duty time aboard the space shuttle Challenger to play his saxophone.
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Hubble Spots a Squid in the Whale (Tue, 29 Apr 2025)
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy Messier 77, also known as the Squid Galaxy.
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Seeing the Cygnus Loop in a New Way (Mon, 28 Apr 2025)
The Cygnus Loop (also known as the Veil Nebula) is a supernova remnant, the remains of the explosive death of a massive star.
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Hubble Visits Glittering Cluster, Capturing Its Ultraviolet Light (Fri, 25 Apr 2025)
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the globular cluster Messier 72 (M72).
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All Hands for Artemis III (Thu, 24 Apr 2025)
A NASA spacesuit glove designed for use during spacewalks on the International Space Station is prepared for thermal vacuum testing inside a one-of-a-kind chamber called CITADEL (Cryogenic Ice Testing, Acquisition Development, and Excavation Laboratory) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on Nov. 1, 2023.
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NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Images Asteroid Donaldjohanson (Wed, 23 Apr 2025)
The asteroid Donaldjohanson as seen by the Lucy Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (L’LORRI). This is one of the most detailed images returned by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft during its flyby. This image was taken at 1:51 p.m. EDT (17:51 UTC), April 20, 2025, near closest approach, from a range of approximately 660 miles (1,100 km). The spacecraft’s closest approach distance was 600 miles (960 km), but the image shown was taken approximately 40 seconds beforehand. The image has been sharpened and processed to enhance contrast.
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Sunshine on Earth (Tue, 22 Apr 2025)
The sun's glint beams off a partly cloudy Atlantic Ocean just after sunrise as the International Space Station orbited 263 miles above on March 5, 2025.
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Fuzzy Rings of a Dying Star (Mon, 21 Apr 2025)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has taken the most detailed image of planetary nebula NGC 1514 to date thanks to its unique mid-infrared observations. Webb shows its rings as intricate clumps of dust. It’s also easier to see holes punched through the bright pink central region.
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Hubble Spies Cosmic Pillar in Eagle Nebula (Fri, 18 Apr 2025)
This towering structure of billowing gas and dark, obscuring dust might only be a small portion of the Eagle Nebula, but it is no less majestic in appearance for it. 9.5 light-years tall and 7000 light-years distant from Earth, this dusty sculpture is refreshed with the use of new processing techniques.
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Space Shuttle Discovery Lifts Off (Thu, 17 Apr 2025)
The space shuttle Discovery launches from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, heading through Atlantic skies toward its 51-D mission. The seven-member crew lifted off at 8:59 a.m. ET, April 12, 1985.
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Scrub Jay at the Vehicle Assembly Building (Wed, 16 Apr 2025)
A scrub jay perches on a branch near the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 22, 2020.
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Testing NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) (Tue, 15 Apr 2025)
On March 18, 2025, NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) arrived at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for thermal vacuum testing at the X-ray and Cryogenic Facility (XRCF), which simulates the harsh conditions of space.
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Sculpted by Luminous Stars (Mon, 14 Apr 2025)
This new image showcases the dazzling young star cluster NGC 346. Although both the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope have released images of NGC 346 previously, this image includes new data and is the first to combine Hubble observations made at infrared, optical, and ultraviolet wavelengths into an intricately detailed view of this vibrant star-forming factory.
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Apollo 13 Launch: 55 Years Ago (Fri, 11 Apr 2025)
NASA astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert launch aboard the Apollo 13 spacecraft from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 11, 1970.
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Linear Sand Dunes in the Great Sandy Desert (Thu, 10 Apr 2025)
In northwest Australia, the Great Sandy Desert holds great geological interest as a zone of active sand dune movement. While a variety of dune forms appear across the region, this astronaut photograph features numerous linear dunes (about 25 meters high) separated in a roughly regular fashion (0.5 to 1.5 kilometers apart).
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Expedition 73 Crew Launches to International Space Station (Wed, 09 Apr 2025)
A Soyuz rocket launches to the International Space Station with Expedition 73 crew members aboard, Tuesday, April 8, 2025, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
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Sixty Years in Canberra: NASA’s Deep Space Network (Tue, 08 Apr 2025)
This March 4, 2020, image shows Deep Space Station 43, a 70-meter-wide (230-feet-wide) radio antenna at NASA’s Deep Space Network facility in Canberra, Australia. The facility celebrated its 60th anniversary on March 19, 2025, while also breaking ground on a new radio antenna. The pair of achievements are major milestones for the network, which communicates with spacecraft all over the solar system using giant dish antennas located at three complexes around the globe.
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Gateway’s First Habitation Module Arrives Stateside (Mon, 07 Apr 2025)
From the mountains of Turin to the deserts of Arizona, a core element of Gateway, humanity’s first lunar space station, is now one step closer to the Moon.
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NASA Astronaut Jonny Kim (Fri, 04 Apr 2025)
NASA astronaut Jonny Kim poses for a portrait while wearing a spacesuit on July 17, 2024. In his first mission, Kim will serve as a flight engineer during Expedition 72/73 on the International Space Station.
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Artemis II Insignia Honors All (Thu, 03 Apr 2025)
The four astronauts who will be the first to fly to the Moon under NASA's Artemis campaign – NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen – have designed an emblem to represent their mission that references both their distant destination and the home they will return to.
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X-ray Clues Reveal Destroyed Planet (Wed, 02 Apr 2025)
In about 5 billion years, our Sun will run out of fuel and expand, possibly engulfing Earth. These end stages of a star’s life can be utterly beautiful – as is the case with this planetary nebula called the Helix Nebula. Astronomers study these objects by looking at all kinds of light. This images show X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (magenta), optical light data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (orange, light blue), infrared data from the European Southern Observatory VISTA telescope (gold, dark blue), and ultraviolet data from GALEX (purple) of the Helix Nebula.
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Studying Ice for the Future of Flight (Tue, 01 Apr 2025)
Thomas Ozoroski, a researcher at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, takes icing accretion measurements in October 2024 as part of transonic truss-braced wing concept research. Researchers at NASA Glenn conducted another test campaign in March 2025.
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Artemis II Core Stage Integration – Complete! (Mon, 31 Mar 2025)
Teams with NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems and primary contractor Amentum integrate the SLS (Space Launch System) Moon rocket with the solid rocket boosters onto mobile launcher 1 inside High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Sunday, March 23, 2025. Artemis II is the first crewed test flight under NASA’s Artemis campaign and is another step toward missions on the lunar surface and helping the agency prepare for future human missions to Mars.
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Turning Vanes inside the Altitude Wind Tunnel (Fri, 28 Mar 2025)
In this February 1944 publicity photo, men stand in front of turning vanes inside the Altitude Wind Tunnel (AWT) at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory. The AWT was the only wind tunnel capable of testing full-size aircraft engines in simulated altitude conditions. A large wooden drive fan, located on the other side of these vanes, created wind speeds up to 500 miles per hour.
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NEO Surveyor Instrument Enclosure Inside Historic Chamber A (Thu, 27 Mar 2025)
The instrument enclosure of NASA's Near-Earth Object Surveyor is prepared for critical environmental tests inside the historic Chamber A at the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston in December 2024.
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Norman Rockwell Commemorates Gemini Program with Grissom and Young (Wed, 26 Mar 2025)
Astronauts John Young and Gus Grissom are suited for the first flight of the Gemini program in March 1965. NASA loaned Norman Rockwell a Gemini spacesuit in order to make this painting as accurate as possible.
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NASA’s Spirit Rover Gets Looked Over (Tue, 25 Mar 2025)
This plaque commemorating the STS-107 space shuttle Columbia crew looks over the Mars landscape after the Mars Exploration Rover, Spirit, landed and deployed onto the red planet on Jan. 4, 2004. The plaque, mounted on the high-gain antenna, is shown while the rover underwent final checkout March 28, 2003, in the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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Like Sands Through the Hourglass… (Mon, 24 Mar 2025)
Shimmering ejections emitted by two actively forming stars make up Lynds 483 (L483). High-resolution near-infrared light captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows incredible new detail and structure within these lobes, including asymmetrical lines that appear to run into one another. L483 is 650 light-years away in the constellation Serpens.
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Making Ripples (Fri, 21 Mar 2025)
A dolphin's dorsal fin cuts through the water in the Launch Complex 39 Area turn basin at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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Hubble Sees a Spiral and a Star (Thu, 20 Mar 2025)
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features a sparkling spiral galaxy paired with a prominent star, both in the constellation Virgo. While the galaxy and the star appear to be close to one another, even overlapping, they’re actually a great distance apart.
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Welcome Home, Crew-9! (Wed, 19 Mar 2025)
NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, left, Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, second from left, and NASA astronauts Nick Hague, second from right, and Suni Williams, right are seen inside a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft aboard the SpaceX recovery ship MEGAN shortly after having landed in the water off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Hague, Gorbunov, Williams, and Wilmore are returning from a long-duration science expedition aboard the International Space Station.
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NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 Members Pose for Portrait (Tue, 18 Mar 2025)
NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 members pose together for a portrait inside the vestibule between the International Space Station and the SpaceX Dragon crew spacecraft.
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NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 Launch (Mon, 17 Mar 2025)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov onboard, Friday, March 14, 2025, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-10 mission is the tenth crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. McClain, Ayers, Onishi, and Peskov launched at 7:03 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy to begin a six-month mission aboard the orbital outpost.
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Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse (Fri, 14 Mar 2025)
A NASA photographer captured a time-lapse image of the lunar eclipse and blood moon above the Space Environments Complex at NASA’s Glenn Research Center at Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, OH on March 14, 2025.
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Uranus Discovered 244 Years Ago (Thu, 13 Mar 2025)
Uranus was the first planet found with the aid of a telescope. It was discovered on March 13, 1781, by astronomer William Herschel, although he originally thought it was either a comet or a star. Herschel tried unsuccessfully to name his discovery Georgium Sidus after King George III. Instead, the planet was named for Uranus, the Greek god of the sky, as suggested by astronomer Johann Bode.
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