Space Images of the Day: Latest from NASA, ISS, Marshall, Webb

NASA Image of the Day
The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.


Crew-13 Rocket and Spacecraft at Launch Pad
29 Sep 2026 at 9:33am
Ahead of launch of NASA?s SpaceX Crew-13 mission, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Dragon spacecraft atop, is vertical at the launch pad of Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026.


Space Station View of Earth at Night
28 Sep 2026 at 9:22am
This nighttime view of the United States, dotted with city lights looking toward New York City (center), was taken at approximately 3:40 a.m. local time from the International Space Station as it orbited 259 miles above Earth.


Hubble Spots Chaotic Secret in Galaxy
25 Sep 2026 at 9:54am
Though the spiral galaxy in this ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month seems serene, it hides a chaotic secret.


Practicing for Safe Landings on the Moon and Beyond
24 Sep 2026 at 10:36am
An Alta-X drone flies an advanced guidance and navigation system known as the Safe and Precise Landing ? Integrated Capabilities Evolution (SPLICE) experiment near NASA?s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026.


NASA's Hubble Telescope Reaches Milestone, Looks for Elusive Supernova
23 Sep 2026 at 12:45pm
An image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of galaxy cluster MACS J0417 is part of repeated observations to monitor for the reappearance of supernova Athena, which can help astronomers measure the expansion rate of the universe.


NASA's Chandra Finds Unusual Objects in Pinwheel Galaxy
22 Sep 2026 at 9:44am
Using NASA?s Chandra X-ray Observatory, scientists have discovered a new class of objects behaving unlike any they have seen before.


NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman Attends Ravens vs. Saints Game
21 Sep 2026 at 12:46pm
NASA astronaut and commander of the agency?s Artemis II mission, Reid Wiseman, a Baltimore native, takes a selfie with fans at an NFL game between the New Orleans Saints and the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, in Baltimore.


COSI Telescope Comes Together
18 Sep 2026 at 9:46am
UC Berkeley engineers and managers watch as the COSI (Compton Spectrometer and Imager) detector assembly is slowly raised from a table in this July 8, 2026, image.


NASA Unveils Enterprise, the First Space Shuttle
17 Sep 2026 at 9:23am
The rollout ceremony for NASA?s first space shuttle, OV-101, coincided with Constitution Day of the nation?s bicentennial on Sept.17, 1976. Although the orbiter was originally planned to be named Constitution, Star Trek fans successfully convinced President Gerald Ford to name it Enterprise after the series? fictional starship.


Indonesia's Anak Krakatau
16 Sep 2026 at 9:28am
Anak Krakatau erupts ash and volcanic gases in this image acquired with the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 on Sept. 5, 2026.


Artemis III Crew Visits NASA Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building
15 Sep 2026 at 10:16am
NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik (left) and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano view progress on the solid rocket booster integration in High Bay 3 inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026.


NASA Kicks Off Inspiration Tour with Steelers vs. Falcons Game
14 Sep 2026 at 10:04am
Fans pose for a photo with an astronaut in the NASA Experience Zone at an NFL game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Atlanta Falcons at Acrisure Stadium, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.


NASA's Chandra Spots Galactic Gem
11 Sep 2026 at 11:22am
Galaxies are like cosmic gems, each with characteristics including size and shape that make them distinct. A gallery from NASA?s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes displays a collection of galactic images that showcase this variety.

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Uploads from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center


Decagon Around Saturn's South Pole
27 Sep 2026 at 9:00am

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center posted a photo:

Why are Saturn?s poles geometric? Saturn?s North Pole has been known to be surrounded by a hexagonal (6 sides) cloud since discovery in 1987 in data taken by NASA?s Voyager spacecrafts, which quickly flew past the ringed world in the early 1980s. Now, recent observations of Saturn by the Hubble Space Telescope reveal a slightly different geometric cloud pattern around the South Pole: a decagon (10 sides). The geometric boundaries are possibly caused by waves when the fast-moving gas away from the poles interacts with slower-moving gas closer to the poles. In the featured image composite by the Hubble taken last year, the South Pole of Saturn is marked by an X and surrounded by bands of circulating clouds. The decagon appears most prominent in the dark inner regions. The northern hexagon has proven stable for over 40 years, while the stability of the southern decagon will surely remain a topic of research.

Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, HST; A. S�nchez-Lavega (UPV), A. Simon (NASA-GSFC), M. Wong (UC Berkeley); Processing: A. Pagan (STScI)

#NASAMarshall #NASA #NASAHubble #Hubble #NASAGoddard #astronomy #Saturn #planet

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It started as a routine data-quality check. But as Robert Wagner, a scientist with NASA?s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), scanned a giant Moon map on his computer screen, an unusually large bright spot circled by a dark halo caught his eye, as it implied that surface material in that area had been shaken up.

?I just stopped, dropped everything, and started looking into what that spot was,? said Wagner, an image-processing specialist from Intuitive Machines who works with data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) system.

By comparing before and after images of the Moon, Wagner realized he had discovered the largest, newly formed crater ever found in the solar system. This discovery highlights the value of NASA?s Moon orbiter data in studying a dynamic landscape as the agency advances a sustained human presence and expanded scientific and commercial activity on the Moon.

Image description: This is a side view of McGetchin crater that was taken by NASA?s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Narrow-Angle Camera on March 3, 2026. This view from the side (55� away from straight down) towards the east, covers an area of the Moon that?s about 1.5 miles wide. The black-and-white image shows a dark, gently uneven surface scattered with small circular depressions. Near the center is a small oval crater with a bright raised rim and dark interior. Fine, bright streaks radiate outward from the crater across the surrounding surface.

Credits: NASA Goddard/Intuitive Machines

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Pareidolia is the psychological phenomenon where people see recognizable shapes in clouds, rock formations, or otherwise unrelated objects or data. When Chandra's image of PSR B1509-58, a spinning neutron star surrounded by a cloud of energetic particles, was released in 2009, it quickly gained attention because many saw a hand-like structure in the X-ray emission. In this new image of the system, X-rays from Chandra in gold are seen along with infrared data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope in red, green, and blue. Pareidolia may strike again in this image as some people report seeing a shape of a face in WISE's infrared data.

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Infared: NASA/JPL-Caltech

#NASA #NASAMarshall #NASAChandra #ChandraXray #ChandraXrayObservatory #universe #XrayAstronomy #NeutronStar

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This image features a sprawling view of the nebula N44 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the largest of the small galaxies that orbit our Milky Way galaxy.

At the center of this nebula is ?superbubble? spanning roughly 210 by 140 light-years across. The glittering stars at the center of the void are responsible for its creation; through their powerful stellar winds and explosive supernovae, these stars expelled much of the gas from which they were born.

Hubble's sensitive observations of the lowest-mass stars in this region open a new window onto star formation in regions that, like the LMC or the galaxies in the early universe, are poor in elements heavier than helium.

Credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble, D. Gouliermis

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A young star cluster about 5,500 light years from Earth, RCW 38 provides astronomers a chance to closely examine many young, rapidly evolving stars at once. In this composite image, X-rays from Chandra are blue, while infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope are orange and additional infrared data from the 2MASS survey appears white. There are many massive stars in RCW 38 that will likely explode as supernovas. Astronomers studying RCW 38 are hoping to better understand this environment as our Sun was likely born into a similar stellar nursery.

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO, Optical: NASA/STScI, Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA

#NASA #NASAMarshall #NASAChandra #ChandraXray #ChandraXrayObservatory #universe #XrayAstronomy #StarCluster

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This starry view of the nearby star-forming region IC 348 is one of the largest images released to date from NASA?s James Webb Space Telescope. Using Webb, astronomers searched IC 348 for brown dwarfs, which are less massive than the smallest stars. The researchers discovered brown dwarfs just twice the mass of Jupiter, bringing the study of these curious objects into a new mass range and revealing new insights about the star formation process.

The star-forming region IC 348 is located just 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Perseus. In regions like IC 348, cold clouds of molecular hydrogen gas collapse to form new stars, creating glowing, sculpted scenes like this one. The star-formation process can create widely varied objects, from massive stars that expire after only a few million years in core-collapse supernova explosions to the smallest and most common stars, which are long lived and produce powerful stellar storms.

Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Kevin Luhman (PSU), Catarina Alves de Oliveira (ESA), Mahdi Zamani (ESA/Webb)

#NASAMarshall #NASA #NASAWebb #JWST #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope #NASAGoddard #BrownDwarfs #stars

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Tonight, we will celebrate the Moon, the science behind it, and its connection to space exploration and human culture for International Observe the Moon Night!

Join us from 5:30 to 8 p.m. CST at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center for hands-on STEM activities, telescope viewing, a DJ, face-painting, talks by NASA experts, a photo booth, a science stage show, and much more. This free, public event is presented by the Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

Learn more about this event at https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-invites-media-to-international-observe-the-moon-night/

Find more ways you can Observe the Moon at https://science.nasa.gov/moon/observe-the-moon-night/

Image description: This image was captured at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, near NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. The Moon, in the midst of a lunar eclipse, is seen in the top right of the sky. Underneath it is the Davidson Center and to the left is a Saturn V rocket illuminated by white lights.

Credit: NASA/Joe Kuner

#NASA #MarshallSpaceFlightCenter #MSFC #Marshall #ObserveTheMoon #Moon

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The landing location has officially been named for NASA's upcoming Dragonfly mission!

The International Astronomical Union (IAU), the global body responsible for officially designating objects in space, has approved a name for the large dune field where Dragonfly will land on Titan: Ahmakiq Undae. The region consists of dunes and interdune areas to the south of Selk Crater, extending to the edge of a range of hills or mountains.

In the Mayan tradition, people appealed to the spirit Ahmakiq (pronounced ?ah-mahk-eek?) to stop strong winds from damaging their crops. The name literally translates to the ?one who locks up the wind,? and aligns with the IAU convention of naming dune fields ? or undae, in Latin after gods and goddesses of wind. The Dragonfly team chose Ahmakiq from a list of IAU suggestions.

Once Dragonfly reaches Titan, the rotorcraft will conduct a 3.3 year primary mission, exploring diverse environments from organic dunes to deposits associated with an impact crater ? Selk Crater ? where liquid water and complex organic materials key to life once existed together. Scientific analysis indicates that the impact that formed Selk melted the icy bedrock, potentially creating a large temporary pool that could have remained liquid for hundreds to thousands of years under an insulating ice layer, like winter ponds on Earth.

Image description: Highlighted in purple, located in the equatorial dune fields of Saturn?s moon Titan, Ahmakiq Undae has a diameter of approximately 500 miles (810 kilometers) and borders the roughly 50-mile (80-kilometer) diameter Selk impact crater, to the upper right. Deposits formed during the impact that created Selk Crater are primary exploration targets for NASA?s Dragonfly mission. The yellow box on the global image of Titan denotes the approximate area.

Credit: NASA/Jason Barnes

#NASA #NASAMarshall #SolarSystem #Titan #Saturn #dragonfly #NASADragonfly

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Some galaxies have extremely bright cores, suggesting that they contain a supermassive black hole that is pulling in matter at a prodigious rate. Astronomers call these "active galaxies," and Hercules A is one of them. In visible light (colored red, green and blue, with most objects appearing white), Hercules A looks like a typical elliptical galaxy. In X-ray light, however, Chandra detects a giant cloud of multimillion-degree gas (purple). This gas has been heated by energy generated by the infall of matter into a black hole at the center of Hercules A that is over 1,000 times as massive as the one in the middle of the Milky Way. Radio data (blue) show jets of particles streaming away from the black hole. The jets span a length of almost one million light years.

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO, Optical: NASA/STScI, Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA

#NASA #NASAMarshall #NASAChandra #ChandraXray #ChandraXrayObservatory #universe #XrayAstronomy #galaxy

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NASA?s Perseverance Mars rover used its Mastcam-Z camera to capture the silhouette of Phobos, one of the two Martian moons, as it crossed in front of the Sun on Aug. 12, 2026, the 1,948th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

This image has been tinted to simulate what a human would see if they were watching the transit from the Martian surface through protective solar eclipse glasses.

Perseverance has captured several Phobos transits since its landing at Jezero Crater in February 2021. By comparing the various recordings, scientists can refine their understanding of the potato-shaped moon'? orbit, learning how it is changing. Eons from now, Phobos? orbit is expected to eventually send the moon toward the Red Planet?s surface.

Arizona State University leads the operations of the Mastcam-Z instrument, working in collaboration with Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, on the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the cameras, and in collaboration with the Niels Bohr Institute of the University of Copenhagen on the design, fabrication, and testing of the calibration targets.

NASA?s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed for the agency by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

For more about Perseverance: science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance

Credit: NASA JPL

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center posted a photo:

On June 17, skywatchers across the United States?and parts of Canada?enjoyed a rare event: a daytime lunar occultation of Venus. A lunar occultation occurs when the Moon moves directly in front of another celestial object from our viewpoint on Earth, briefly hiding it from sight.

If you missed it, there will be two more opportunities to see Venus disappear behind the Moon in 2026 - and one of those is tomorrow, Sept. 14, for those in parts of Asia, Africa, Europe, and western Russia. The next opportunity will be Nov. 7 for those in southern South America.

Check out even more upcoming sky events here.

Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

#NASA #Astronomy #Moon #WatchTheSkies #Venus #occultation

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NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Aug. 30, 2026. Here are some fun facts about this new addition to our NASA telescope family:

1. The mission is named after NASA?s first chief astronomer, Dr. Nancy Grace Roman.
2. Roman will transform our view of the cosmos by showing us the bigger picture.
3. The observatory will journey a million miles to join Webb at Lagrange point 2.
4. The spacecraft carries the names of more than a million people.
5. Roman will scan the skies for at least five years.
6. Two instruments will enable myriad discoveries.
7. NASA expects to share Roman?s first images by early 2027.

Roman will work in tandem with many other NASA-led and international missions to provide the most complete view of our universe yet. We're excited to see how our NASA Marshall managed missions - IXPE and Chandra - will team up with Roman soon!

Image description: A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA?s Kennedy Space Center, sending a bright plume of flame and exhaust into a clear morning sky. Thick clouds billow across the sky as the rocket carrying NASA?s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope climbs upward during its 7:26 a.m. EDT launch on Aug. 30, 2026.
Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

#NASA #NASA #NancyGraceRomanSpaceTelescope #Telescope #NASATelescopes #NASAUniverse #Space #Exploration #Launch #telescope #NancyGraceRomanSpaceTelescope #infrared

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Early this morning, one of our NASA meteor cameras captured this bright fireball that occurred over western Kentucky.

NASA meteor cameras in the Southeast and the Geostationary Lightning Mappers on the GOES 18 and 19 satellites detected a bright fireball that occurred over western Kentucky at 1:33 a.m. CT on Sept. 10. Analysis of the camera and satellite data shows that the object - a piece of a comet about 16 inches in diameter and weighing some 200 pounds - entered the atmosphere 80 miles above Crutchfield, Kentucky, and moved to the southwest at 145,000 miles per hour. The fireball disintegrated 48 miles above the town of Mabel.

This meteor was a member of the little-known September epsilon Perseids meteor shower, which is noted for being rich in bright meteors. Upon entering the atmosphere, this one unleashed an energy of 50 tons of TNT, creating a bright flare that lit up the night sky.

Credit: NASA

#nasa #marshallspaceflightcenter #msfc #solarsystemandbeyond #meo #MeteoroidEnvironmentOffice #fireball

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