NASA Image of the Day

Hubble Images a Classic Spiral (Fr, 26 Jul 2024)
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is a wonderfully detailed snapshot of the spiral galaxy NGC 3430 that lies 100 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo Minor.
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From Intern to Astronaut (Thu, 25 Jul 2024)
From left to right, NASA astronaut candidates Anil Menon, Deniz Burnham, and Marcos Berrios pose for a photograph in front of NASA’s Artemis I Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft at Launch Complex 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept. 2, 2022.
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A Saturnian Summer (Wed, 24 Jul 2024)
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of Saturn on July 4, 2020. Two of Saturn's icy moons are clearly visible in this exposure: Mimas at right, and Enceladus at bottom. This image is taken as part of the Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) project. OPAL is helping scientists understand the atmospheric dynamics and evolution of our solar system's gas giant planets. In Saturn's case, astronomers continue tracking shifting weather patterns and storms.
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Astronaut Eileen Collins, NASA’s First Female Shuttle Commander (Tue, 23 Jul 2024)
Astronauts Eileen M. Collins, STS-93 mission commander, and Jeffrey S. Ashby, pilot, peruse checklists on Columbia's middeck.
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Chandra Sees the Peacock’s Galaxy (Mon, 22 Jul 2024)
The barred spiral galaxy NGC 6872 is interacting with a smaller galaxy to the upper left. The smaller galaxy has likely stripped gas from NGC 6872 to feed the supermassive black hole in its center.
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Explorers on the Moon: Apollo 11 Landing (Fri, 19 Jul 2024)
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot, poses for a photo beside the U.S. flag that has been placed on the Moon at Tranquility Base during the Apollo 11 mission landing on July 20, 1969.
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Artemis II Core Stage on the Move (Thu, 18 Jul 2024)
On July 16, 2024, the Artemis II core stage rolled out of the Vertical Assembly Building to the waiting Pegasus barge at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans in preparation for delivery to Kennedy Space Center.
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Acting Center Chief Technologist Dr. Phillip Williams (Wed, 17 Jul 2024)
"I found out years later that seeing me in high school and hearing my experience in college inspired her to major in physics, and so she became the first robotics director at her school. And now she’s a principal. And it just rocked me because I was just being me and trying to share. It seemed like I paid it forward the same way that NASA mechanical engineer made a mark on me.” — Dr. Phillip Williams, Acting Center Chief Technologist, NASA's Langley Research Center
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Apollo 11 Lifts Off (Tue, 16 Jul 2024)
Apollo 11 launches from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 9:32 a.m. EDT, July 16, 1969. Aboard the Apollo 11 spacecraft were astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, command module pilot; and Buzz Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot. Apollo 11 was the United States' first lunar landing mission. While Armstrong and Aldrin descended in the Lunar Module "Eagle" to explore the Sea of Tranquility region of the Moon, Collins remained in lunar orbit.
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NASA Meatball Painting on Kennedy's VAB (Mon, 15 Jul 2024)
Painting of the NASA logo, also called the meatball, continued on the 525-foot-tall Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 29, 2020.
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The Penguin and the Egg (Fri, 12 Jul 2024)
The distorted spiral galaxy at center, the Penguin, and the compact elliptical at left, the Egg, are locked in an active embrace. This near- and mid-infrared image combines data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), and marks the telescope’s second year of science. Webb’s view shows that their interaction is marked by a glow of scattered stars represented in blue. Known jointly as Arp 142, the galaxies made their first pass by one another between 25 and 75 million years ago, causing “fireworks,” or new star formation, in the Penguin. The galaxies are approximately the same mass, which is why one hasn’t consumed the other.
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A Midsummer Red Sprite Seen from Space (Wed, 10 Jul 2024)
Several transient luminous events illuminate pockets of Earth’s upper atmosphere. A line of thunderstorms off the coast of South Africa powers the rare phenomena.
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Artemis II Core Stage Moves from Final to VAB (Tue, 09 Jul 2024)
The Artemis II Core Stage moves from final assembly to the VAB at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans in preparation for delivery to Kennedy Spaceflight Center later this month. Image credit: NASA/Michael DeMocker
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30 Years Ago: STS-65 Lifts Off (Mon, 08 Jul 2024)
Space shuttle Columbia heads skyward after clearing the fixed service structure tower at Launch Complex Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Plant life appears in the foreground. Launch occurred at 12:43 pm Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on July 8, 1994. Once in Earth orbit, STS-65's six NASA astronauts and a Japanese payload specialist aboard conducted experiments in support of the second International Microgravity Laboratory.
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Orion on the Rise (Wed, 03 Jul 2024)
Technicians used a 30-ton crane to lift NASA’s Orion spacecraft on Friday, June 28, 2024, from the Final Assembly and System Testing cell to the altitude chamber inside the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft, which will be used for the Artemis II mission to orbit the Moon, underwent leak checks and end-to-end performance verification of the vehicle’s subsystems.
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Studying Hurricane Beryl from Space (Tue, 02 Jul 2024)
NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick captured this image of Hurricane Beryl in the Caribbean on July 1, 2024, while aboard the International Space Station, and posted it to X. The Category 4 hurricane had winds of about 130 mph (215 kph).
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Cassini Sees Saturn (Mon, 01 Jul 2024)
Saturn and its rings completely fill the field of view of Cassini's narrow angle camera in this natural color image taken on March 27, 2004. This was the last single "eyeful" of Saturn and its rings achievable with the narrow angle camera on approach to the planet.
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The Maze is Afoot (Fri, 28 Jun 2024)
This labyrinth – with a silhouette of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes at its center – is used as a calibration target for the cameras and laser that are part of SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals), one of the instruments aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover. The image was captured by the Autofocus and Context Imager on SHERLOC on May 11, 2024, the 1,147th day, or sol, of the mission, as the rover team sought to confirm it had successfully addressed an issue with a stuck lens cover.
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Hubble Captures Infant Stars Transforming a Nebula (Thu, 27 Jun 2024)
Named RCW 7, the nebula is located just over 5300 light-years from Earth in the constellation Puppis. Nebulae are areas of space that are rich in the raw material needed to form new stars. Under the influence of gravity, parts of these molecular clouds collapse until they coalesce into protostars, surrounded by spinning discs of leftover gas and dust. In the case of RCW 7, the protostars forming here are particularly massive, giving off strongly ionising radiation and fierce stellar winds that have transformed it into what is known as a H II region. The ultraviolet radiation from the massive protostars excites the hydrogen, causing it to emit light and giving this nebula its soft pinkish glow. Here Hubble is studying a particular massive protostellar binary named IRAS 07299-1651, still in its glowing cocoon of gas in the curling clouds towards the top of the nebula. To expose this star and its siblings, this image was captured using the Wide Field Camera 3 in near-infrared light. The massive protostars here are brightest in ultraviolet light, but they emit plenty of infrared light which can pass through much of the gas and dust around them and be seen by Hubble.
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NOAA’s GOES-U Satellite Launches (Wed, 26 Jun 2024)
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration GOES-U (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite U) lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. The GOES-U satellite is the final satellite in the GOES-R series, which serves a critical role in providing continuous coverage of the Western Hemisphere, including monitoring tropical systems in the eastern Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
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Human Factors Researcher Garrett Sadler (Tue, 25 Jun 2024)
"You know, there's the whole impostor syndrome thing, and I didn’t feel like I was qualified to be here because I didn't have some sort of traditional path or because my educational background looks different than that of most of my colleagues. But I'm now at a place where I've come to understand that's true for everyone." – Garrett Sadler, Human Factors Researcher, NASA’s Ames Research Center
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On the GOES (Mon, 24 Jun 2024)
Crews transport NOAA’s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-U) from the Astrotech Space Operations facility to the SpaceX hangar at Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida beginning on Friday, June 14, 2024, with the operation finishing early Saturday, June 15, 2024. The fourth and final weather-observing and environmental monitoring satellite in NOAA’s GOES-R Series will assist meteorologists in providing advanced weather forecasting and warning capabilities. The two-hour window for liftoff opens 5:16 p.m. EDT Tuesday, June 25, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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HuskyWorks During Rover Testing (Fri, 21 Jun 2024)
“HuskyWorks,” a team from Michigan Technological University’s Planetary Surface Technology Development Lab, tests the excavation tools of a robot on a concrete slab, held by a gravity-offloading crane on June 12 at NASA’s Break the Ice Lunar Challenge at Alabama A&M’s Agribition Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Led by Professor Paul van Susante, the team aimed to mimic the conditions of the lunar South Pole, winning an invitation to use the thermal vacuum chambers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center to continue robotic testing.
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NASA's Hubble Celebrates 21st Anniversary with "Rose" of Galaxies (Thu, 20 Jun 2024)
To celebrate the 21st anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope's deployment into space, astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., pointed Hubble's eye at an especially photogenic pair of interacting galaxies called Arp 273. The larger of the spiral galaxies, known as UGC 1810, has a disk that is distorted into a rose-like shape by the gravitational tidal pull of the companion galaxy below it, known as UGC 1813. This image is a composite of Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 data taken on December 17, 2010, with three separate filters that allow a broad range of wavelengths covering the ultraviolet, blue, and red portions of the spectrum.
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Celebrating Juneteenth (Tue, 18 Jun 2024)
This image of Galveston was taken on Nov. 23, 2022, from the International Space Station as it orbited 224 miles above Earth. While President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, word that enslaved people were free did not reach Galveston until well into 1865. When Union troops arrived that year to share the news, spontaneous celebrations broke out in African American churches, homes, and other gathering places. As years passed, the picnics, barbecues, parades, and other celebrations that sprang up to commemorate June 19th became more formalized as freed men and women purchased land, or “emancipation grounds,” to hold annual Juneteenth celebrations.
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Management and Program Analyst Mallory Carbon (Mon, 17 Jun 2024)
“I feel that my larger purpose at NASA, which I've felt since I came on as an intern, is to leave NASA a better place than I found it." — Mallory Carbon, Management and Program Analyst, NASA Headquarters
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Hubble Captures a Cosmic Fossil (Fri, 14 Jun 2024)
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the globular cluster NGC 2005. It’s not an unusual globular cluster in and of itself, but it is a peculiarity when compared to its surroundings. NGC 2005 is located about 750 light-years from the heart of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which is the Milky Way’s largest satellite galaxy some 162,000 light-years from Earth.
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Sea Ice Swirls (Thu, 13 Jun 2024)
Floating fragments of sea ice spun into intricate patterns as ocean currents carried them south along Greenland’s east coast in spring 2024. The MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured a moment of this dizzying journey on June 4, 2024.
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A Solitary Sight (Wed, 12 Jun 2024)
The waning gibbous Moon is pictured above Earth from the International Space Station as it soared into an orbital nighttime 260 miles above the Atlantic Ocean near the northeast coast of South America on Sept. 30, 2023.
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Celebrating Pride at NASA’s Ames Research Center (Tue, 11 Jun 2024)
The Intersex Progress Pride flag flies beneath the American flag on the center pole with the California state and NASA flag at either side. The Intersex Progress Pride flag flies for the first time at any NASA center in front of the Ames Administration Building, N200, to commemorate Pride Month.
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“Earthrise” by NASA Astronaut Bill Anders (Mon, 10 Jun 2024)
The rising Earth is about five degrees above the lunar horizon in this telephoto view taken from the Apollo 8 spacecraft near 110 degrees east longitude. Astronaut Bill Anders took the photo on the morning of Dec. 24, 1968. The South Pole is in the white area near the left end of the terminator. North and South America are under the clouds.
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What Are You Looking At? (Fri, 07 Jun 2024)
A Florida redbelly turtle casts a suspicious look as he is being photographed on the grounds of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The redbelly turtle inhabits ponds, lakes, sloughs, marshes and mangrove-bordered creeks, in a range that encompasses Florida from the southern tip north to the Apalachicola area of the panhandle. Active year-round, it is often seen basking on logs or floating mats of vegetation. Adults prefer a diet of aquatic plants. The Center shares a boundary with the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, which encompasses 92,000 acres that are a habitat for more than 331 species of birds, 31 mammals, 117 fishes, and 65 amphibians and reptiles. The marshes and open water of the refuge provide wintering areas for 23 species of migratory waterfowl, as well as a year-round home for great blue herons, great egrets, wood storks, cormorants, brown pelicans and other species of marsh and shore birds, as well as a variety of insects.
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Artemis II Astronauts Participate in Moon Tree Dedication Ceremony (Thu, 06 Jun 2024)
The Artemis II crew, NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, pose for a photo after a Moon tree dedication ceremony, Tuesday, June 4, 2024, at the United States Capitol in Washington. The American Sweetgum tree planted on the southwestern side of the Capitol, was grown from a seed that was flown around the Moon during the Artemis I mission.
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Starliner to the Stars (Wed, 05 Jun 2024)
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft aboard launches from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in Florida. NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test is the first launch with astronauts of the Boeing CFT-100 spacecraft and United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. The flight test, which launched at 10:52 a.m. EDT, serves as an end-to-end demonstration of Boeing’s crew transportation system and will carry NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to and from the orbiting laboratory. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
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Crews Unpack NASA’s Europa Clipper Spacecraft (Tue, 04 Jun 2024)
Technicians inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida prepare to rotate the agency’s largest planetary mission spacecraft, Europa Clipper, to a vertical position on Tuesday, May 28, 2024, as part of prelaunch processing. Slated to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket later this year from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy, Europa Clipper will help determine if conditions exist below the surface Jupiter’s fourth largest moon, Europa, that could support life.
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