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Image of the Day

This majestic image of the dazzling green lights of the aurora borealis was captured on March 17, 2015, around 5:30...
The green lights of an aurora dramatically explode outward against the backdrop of the night sky peppered with fluffy white clouds and pinprick stars. A hint of red is also visible in the center of the light. Pine trees cast in shadow are seen below.
NASA astronaut and Expedition 68 Flight Engineer Stephen Bowen holds a small pie that is festively decorated in commemoration of...
Stephen Bowen, wearing a green t-shirt and glasses, poses with a small latticed pie with a pi symbol outlined in green atop the lattice. Part of the International Space Station is visible behind him.
Immediately after splashdown, a recovery helicopter from the USS Guadalcanal hovers over the Apollo 9 spacecraft. Still inside the Command...
A recovery helicopter with "Navy" and "54" stenciled on it hovers above the water, the wind from its blades creating rings of circles below. Directly below the helicopter is an orange and white parachute. At bottom right is the Apollo 9 command module, where the astronauts await recovery.
Expedition 70 Flight Engineers (from left) Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara, both NASA astronauts, are pictured inside the International Space...
Two astronauts, Jasmin Moghbeli (left) and Loral O’Hara in the cupola of the International Space Station. The cupola has several windows; in the top round window, we can see Earth. The astronauts wear black t-shirts and smile at the camera. Moghbeli holds a copy of First Woman, NASA's official graphic novel about a fictional astronaut who is the first woman to explore the Moon.
The Moon is seen passing in front of the Sun at the point of the maximum of the partial solar...
In the darkness of the sky, the Sun appears as a thin crescent of orange gold. The Moon blocks most of it from view.
This image shows two types of sand dunes on Mars. The small dots are called barchan dunes, and from their...
An aerial view of the reddish-brown surface of Mars taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Barchan dunes (circular dunes) appear here like oval divots in the ground. Linear dunes also appear.
Excellent view of the docked Apollo 9 command and service modules (CSM) and lunar module (LM), with Earth in the...
Earth is a deep blue backdrop to this photo of astronaut David Scott and the command module and lunar module of the Apollo 9 mission. The joined modules are a metallic silver. He stands in the open hatch of the command module while wearing a white spacesuit. A metallic visor tops his red helmet.
NASA newest class of astronauts, selected in 2021, graduate during a ceremony on March 5, 2024, at the at the...
The latest astronaut candidate graduates, a group of men and women of different races and ethnicities, greet the audience (not pictured). The candidates all wear blue jumpsuits with patches on them. Behind them is a black and gold graphic of a star streaking upwards. The background has white dots on it that resemble distant stars.
In honor of Women’s History Month 2024 and those who paved the way for them, hundreds of female staff –...
A large group of women gathered for a photo on the street in front of the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility building.
This densely populated group of stars is the globular cluster NGC 1841, which is part of the Large Magellanic Cloud...
A cluster of stars. Most of the stars are very small and uniform in size, and they are notably bluish and cluster more densely together toward the center of the image. Some appear larger in the foreground. The stars give away to a dark background at the corners of the image.
Following a launch on Feb. 15, Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus lander touched down in the Moon’s south polar region on Feb....
This image from the lander’s narrow-field-of-view camera was retrieved on Feb. 27. It shows spacecraft hardware in the foreground, and the gaping maw of a 2-billion-year-old lunar crater beyond. It’s approximately 500 meters to the near lip of the crater, and another 500 meters to its far side. Inky black space extends above the horizon.
"Anyone you see on the streets, their color or background doesn't matter; we all come into this world the same...
Charles Gatebe, wearing a blue checkered dress shirt, looks at the camera against a background of blue skies, white fluffy clouds, and green grass.
A female (left) and a male roseate spoonbill get together near the tall grasses at the edge of a pond...
Two roseate spoonbills stand at the edge of a pond. The birds are pink, with distinctive long, spoon-shaped bills and thin legs. The male (right) has a bright slash of red coloring above its wing. The water is gray and bordered by reed-like plants.
Members of NASA’s Exploration Ground System’s Landing and Recovery team and partners from the Department of Defense aboard the USS...
Teams work to secure a test version of NASA's Orion spacecraft on its stand inside a ship's well deck. The well deck has water in it. Straps extend from the spacecraft up to the balconies on either side, where people stand.
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features IC 3476, a dwarf galaxy that lies about 54 million light-years from Earth...
A dwarf spiral galaxy. The center is not particularly bright and is covered by some dust, while the outer disk and halo wrap around as if swirling in water. Across the face of the galaxy, an arc of brightly glowing spots marks areas where new stars are forming. The galaxy is surrounded by tiny, distant galaxies on a dark background.
The city lights of Shanghai, the most populous city in China with a population of about 24.9 million, and the...
A night view of Shanghai from the International Space Station, 260 miles above Earth. The city's lights illuminate roads; the surrounding area is dark.
On July 12, 2011, crew from the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy retrieved a canister dropped by parachute from a...
An aerial view of two people in orange coats and black pants standing on a piece of ice. One is close to the edge and bending over while picking up a canister. The edges of the ice scalloped and almost lace-like in appearance. The water visible ranges from light to deeper blues.
"You must have grit, resilience, courage, and strength. I'm able to really share all the wisdom and the lessons I've...
Dr. Camille Alleyne smiles as she looks off in the distance while standing in front of the Robert McCall mural, "Opening the Space Frontier — the Next Giant Step,” in the lobby of Building 2 at NASA's Johnson Space Center.
The Orion spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis II mission received its latest makeover. Teams adhered the agency’s iconic “worm” logo and...
A large white spacecraft component stands in the center of a large room. At the top, the NASA "worm" logo and ESA (European Space Agency) insignia are painted on the crew module adapter.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander lifts off from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy...
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Intuitive Machines Nova-C lander takes off from the launch pad at night. The flames coming from the bottom of the rocket (the bright spot at center) light up the surrounding area, illuminating clouds of white vapor that spread outward along the ground. The light also reflects off water in the foreground. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
Photographers at NASA capture the sunset on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024, near the Vehicle Assembly Building at the agency’s Kennedy...
Slightly left of center, the Sun sets behind some vegetation. The sky is a dusty pale blue with a few clouds in it. Trees and plants arc around a body of water, and the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) stands at the right edge of the image. The VAB is a very tall, white and gray linear building with a United States flag and NASA meatball logo painted on the front.
It’s oh-so-easy to be mesmerized by this spiral galaxy. Follow its clearly defined arms, which are brimming with stars, to...
Webb’s image of NGC 4254 shows a densely populated face-on spiral galaxy anchored by its central region, which has a light blue haze that takes up about a quarter of the view. In this circular core is the brightest blue area. Within the core are populations of older stars, represented by many pinpoints of blue light. Spiny spiral arms made of stars, gas, and dust also start at the center, largely starting in the wider area of the blue haze. The spiral arms extend to the edges, rotating counterclockwise. The spiraling filamentary structure looks somewhat like a cross section of a nautilus shell. The arms of the galaxy are largely orange, ranging from dark to bright orange. Scattered across the packed scene are some additional bright blue pinpoints of light, which are stars spread throughout the galaxy. In areas where there is less orange, it is darker, and some dark regions look more circular.
STS-60 commander Charles F. Bolden is seen at the commander's station on the forward flight deck of the space shuttle...
Astronaut Charles F. Bolden, a Black man, looks over his right shoulder and smiles at the camera. He is wearing an orange launch and entry suit and square tinted glasses without temples. He is sitting at the commander's station, which has many switches and dials, along with a notebook, a 3-ring binder, and various sheets of paper.
"Being able to see the world from a different perspective is incredible, and getting to fly in space was the...
Bob Hines, wearing a red work polo and white gloves, smiles at the camera from his position at a workstation with many screens and wires aboard the International Space Station.
The crewmen of the third and final manned Skylab mission relax on the USS New Orleans, prime recovery ship for...
The crewmen of the third and final manned Skylab mission relax on the USS New Orleans, prime recovery ship for their mission, about an hour after their Command Module splashed down at 10:17 a.m. (CDT), Feb. 8, 1974. The splashdown, which occurred 176 statute miles from San Diego, ended 84 record-setting days of flight activity aboard the Skylab space station cluster in Earth orbit.
Astronaut Bruce McCandless II approaches his maximum distance from the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Challenger in this 70mm frame photographed by...
An astronaut is surrounded by empty space as he floats at a 45-degree angle above Earth.
NASA astronaut and Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman exits the side of a mockup of the Orion spacecraft during a...
NASA astronaut and Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman exits the side of a mockup of the Orion spacecraft during a training exercise in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Jan. 23. As part of training for their mission around the Moon next year, the first crewed flight under NASA’s Artemis campaign, the crew of four astronauts practiced the recovery procedures they will use when the splash down in the Pacific Ocean.
"... it's challenge, service, and building the future. If I don't do anything else in my entire life except for...
Rodney Martin, wearing an olive-colored NASA jacket and a blue dress shirt underneath, smiles at the camera. He is standing in the foreground with Lake Chabot Park in the background.
This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows ESO 185-IG013, a luminous blue compact galaxy (BCG). BCGs are nearby galaxies...
This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows ESO 185-IG013, a luminous blue compact galaxy (BCG). BCGs are nearby galaxies that show an intense burst of star formation. They are unusually blue in visible light, which sets them apart from other high-starburst galaxies that emit more infrared light.
NASA completed a full-duration, 500-second hot fire of an RS-25 certification engine Jan. 17, continuing a critical test series to...
White vapor clouds billow up and to the right of this image during a hot fire test. The sun is a diffuse, bright yellow spot, covered by wispy clouds that dominate the sky.
A successful liftoff from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida as Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus...
A black and white rocket takes off against the brilliant blue backdrop of the sky. It leaves a trail of fire and billowing clouds of white smoke behind it, which partially obscures some structures around the launchpad. The light reflects on the mirror-like surface of a nearby body of water. The image is delicately framed on the left, right, and bottom by green leaves.
This high exposure photograph revealed Earth's atmospheric glow against the backdrop of a starry sky in this image taken from...
The Pacific Ocean, peppered with bands of white clouds, is seen below a starry sky from the vantage point of the International Space Station. Above the curve of the globe, a well-defined atmospheric glow of yellow-orange is visible, with an additional band of red slightly above. The space station's Nauka science module and Prichal docking module are visible on the left.
The aerial prototype of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is seen at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steve F....
The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter prototype sits on a round, gray surface. Sunlight glints off of one of its blades. The blades are stacked vertically on a thin column. Four thin legs with white tips are attached to the column. A bundle of wires protrudes from the helicopter and rests on the table.
From left to right, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, and Deputy Chief of Mission for the...
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson (far left), NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy (left), and Deputy Chief of Mission for the Embassy of Israel Eliav Benjamin (right) stand on opposite sides of the Space Shuttle Columbia Memorial at Arlington National Cemetary. They are all dressed in dark clothing and look at the memorial. The memorial is a rectangular dark gray stone with a large bronze plaque on it; it has a large pink flower wreath draped on it. White headstones line the background. In the left foreground, NASA employees look on.
On the 20th anniversary of the landing of Spirit and Opportunity, celebrate NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Project with this two-sided...
In this commemorative poster, Spirit and Opportunity, NASA's twin rovers, pose atop the rocky Martian landscape, facing away from each other. The dominant colors of the image are red, purple, orange, and white. The Martian sky, which fades from purple at the top to orange at the bottom, takes up three-quarters of the image. A light orange "20" in a thin, simple font stretches over the sky; it is slightly covered up by the rovers. At bottom left is the text "Trailblazers" and "Spirit & Opportunity 20th Anniversary." At bottom right is the red JPL logo.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Dragon spacecraft for Axiom Space’s Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) to the International...
A black and white SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches upward through the sky, a bright white-yellow plume trailing behind it.
A NASA intern uses an augmented reality headset to test out heads-up display technology being developed for future Artemis missions....
A NASA intern wearing a dark-colored polo shirt stands in a rocky outcrop at the aptly named “Rockyard” at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas as the sun sets. In the background, another intern sits on a camping chair and the sky is light greyish blue of early dusk.
A top-down view of the OSIRIS-REx Touch-and-Go-Sample-Acquisition-Mechanism (TAGSAM) head with the lid removed, revealing the remainder of the asteroid sample...
A top-down view of the OSIRIS-REx Touch-and-Go-Sample-Acquisition-Mechanism (TAGSAM) head with the lid removed, revealing the remainder of the asteroid sample inside. The TAGSAM is round, metallic silver, and looks like three concentric circles. The outermost circle has eight triangular metal ridges. The second ring is covered in deep gray, rocky dust particles and small rocks, with silver bolts peeking through the dust. The central circle has three metal bars, crossing in a star pattern.
This Hubble Picture of the Week features Arp 122, a peculiar galaxy that in fact comprises two galaxies — NGC...
Two galaxies form a teardrop, paisley-like shape at right as they collide. Other galaxies dot the darkness of space.
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite sensor on the NOAA-NASA Suomi NPP satellite captured this image of the aurora borealis,...
The aurora borealis on Nov. 5, 2023, is seen as swirls of white smoke and sparse, but bright splashes of white light against a dark background.