NASA Image of the Day

Webb Sees Sombrero Galaxy in Near-Infrared (Fr, 06 Jun 2025)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged the Sombrero Galaxy with its NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), which shows dust from the galaxy’s outer ring blocking stellar light from stars within the galaxy. In the central region of the galaxy, the roughly 2,000 globular clusters, or collections of hundreds of thousands of old stars held together by gravity, glow in the near-infrared. The Sombrero Galaxy is around 30 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. From Earth, we see this galaxy nearly “edge-on,” or from the side.
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Hubble Captures Cotton Candy Clouds (Thu, 05 Jun 2025)
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a cloudscape in the Large Magellanic Cloud., a dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.
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America’s First Spacewalk (Tue, 03 Jun 2025)
Astronaut Edward H. White II, pilot of the Gemini IV four-day Earth-orbital mission, floats in the zero gravity of space outside the Gemini IV spacecraft.
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A Star Like No Other (Mon, 02 Jun 2025)
Scientists have discovered a star behaving like no other seen before, giving fresh clues about the origin of a new class of mysterious objects.
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NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 Launch Fifth Anniversary (Fri, 30 May 2025)
President Donald Trump steps onstage to speak following the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley aboard, Saturday, May 30, 2020, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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45 Years Ago: NASA Announces Ninth Astronaut Group (Thu, 29 May 2025)
Sixteen of 19 astronaut candidates named on May 29, 1980, and two European trainees as payload specialists pose for photographers in the briefing room in the public affairs facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
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Hubble Images Galaxies Near and Far (Wed, 28 May 2025)
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the remote galaxy HerS 020941.1+001557, which appears as a red arc that partially encircles a foreground elliptical galaxy.
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Moon and Flag at NASA Michoud (Fri, 23 May 2025)
The waning gibbous moon sets behind a flag at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans just after sunrise on Wednesday, March 19, 2025.
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Preflight Flower (Thu, 22 May 2025)
A flower is seen in the foreground with a Soyuz rocket on the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on April 7, 2025. Expedition 73 crewmembers including NASA astronaut Jonny Kim launched aboard their Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft on April 8.
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Another Milestone for X-59 (Wed, 21 May 2025)
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft is seen during its “aluminum bird” systems testing at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California. The test verified how the aircraft’s hardware and software work together, responding to pilot inputs and handling injected system failures.
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Sunset on Mars (Tue, 20 May 2025)
On May 19th, 2005, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars. This panoramic camera mosaic was taken around 6:07 in the evening of the rover's 489th Martian day, or sol.
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Webb Finds Icy Disk (Mon, 19 May 2025)
Webb has found crystalline water ice in a debris disk around a young, Sun-like star called HD 181327. Based on its presence in our own solar system, scientists have expected to see it in other star systems — but haven't had sensitive enough instruments to provide definitive proof until now.
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Nancy Grace Roman’s 100th Birthday (Fri, 16 May 2025)
Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first Chief of Astronomy, briefs Astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin on celestial objects in 1965 in Washington, D.C.
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Deimos Before Dawn (Thu, 15 May 2025)
NASA's Perseverance rover captured this view of Deimos, the smaller of Mars' two moons, shining in the sky at 4:27 a.m. local time on March 1, 2025, the 1,433rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
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Pretty in Pink (Wed, 14 May 2025)
The perfectly picturesque spiral galaxy known as Messier 81, or M81, looks sharp in this composite from NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes and NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer.
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Lightning in Southeast Asia (Tue, 13 May 2025)
Astronaut Don Pettit took this nighttime photo while the International Space Station orbited near the Andaman Sea in Southeast Asia.
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Jupiter’s Turbulent Atmosphere (Mon, 12 May 2025)
JunoCam, the visible light imager aboard NASA's Juno, captured this view of Jupiter's northern high latitudes during the spacecraft's 69th flyby of the giant planet on Jan. 28, 2025. Jupiter's belts and zones stand out in this enhanced color rendition, along with the turbulence along their edges caused by winds going in different directions.
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25 Years of NASA Student Launch (Fri, 09 May 2025)
Students from the University of Massachusetts Amherst team carry their high-powered rocket toward the launch pad at NASA’s 2025 Student Launch launch day competition in Toney, Alabama, on April 4, 2025.
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NASA Astronaut Anne McClain Works on Space Station (Thu, 08 May 2025)
NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 flight engineer Anne McClain is pictured near one of the International Space Station's main solar arrays during a spacewalk to upgrade the orbital outpost's power generation system and relocate a communications antenna.
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A Glimpse of a Meatball (Wed, 07 May 2025)
The NASA "meatball" logo mounted on the south side of the Flight Research Building at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, as seen through foliage.
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SPHEREx Starts Scanning Entire Sky (Tue, 06 May 2025)
NASA's SPHEREx mission is observing the entire sky in 102 infrared colors, or wavelengths of light not visible to the human eye. This image shows a section of sky in one wavelength (3.29 microns), revealing a cloud of dust made of a molecule similar to soot or smoke.
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Hubble Images a Peculiar Spiral (Mon, 05 May 2025)
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a peculiar spiral galaxy called Arp 184 or NGC 1961.
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Back to Earth (Fri, 02 May 2025)
The Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft is pictured backing away from the International Space Station shortly after undocking from the Rassvet module on April 19, 2025. The Soyuz crew ship would parachute to a landing in Kazakhstan about three hours later returning NASA astronaut Don Pettit and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner back to Earth after a 220-day space research mission.
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Adding Dimension to Cassiopeia A (Thu, 01 May 2025)
Cassiopeia A (Cas A) is a supernova remnant located about 11,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia. It spans approximately 10 light-years.
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Saxophone in Space (Wed, 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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