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

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


NASA Astronaut Chris Williams Preps for Spacewalk
29 Jun 2026 at 9:21am
Flight engineer Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) assists flight engineer Chris Williams of NASA as he tries on his spacesuit, testing its comfort and mobility as well as its communications and life support systems inside the International Space Station?s Quest airlock.


Euclid Sees Heart of Milky Way
26 Jun 2026 at 9:22am
This image by ESA?s (European Space Agency) Euclid (with color added using ground-based images) provides an earlier snapshot of a region of our galaxy that NASA?s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will repeatedly observe during the upcoming years.


Millions of Stars in Cigar Galaxy
25 Jun 2026 at 10:26am
NASA?s James Webb Space Telescope recently observed edge-on starburst galaxy Messier 82 (M82), nicknamed the Cigar Galaxy.


Roman Telescope Comes to Kennedy
24 Jun 2026 at 1:43pm
NASA?s Pegasus barge arrives at the Launch Complex 39 turn basin at the agency?s Kennedy Space Center in Florida carrying NASA?s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope on Sunday, June 21, 2026.


Hanging in the Balance
23 Jun 2026 at 9:44am
The Moon's rocky, uneven, and otherworldly surface features are highlighted by the terminator ? the difference between light and darkness.


NASA's Chandra Finds Possible Supernova Remnant
22 Jun 2026 at 11:40am
Using data from NASA?s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers may have found a supernova remnant in an intriguing neighborhood in the middle of our galaxy.


Stages of Star Formation
18 Jun 2026 at 10:14am
This NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month shows the giant molecular cloud Orion A, an area of the sky replete with star-forming clouds.


Hubble Sees Swarm of Galaxies
17 Jun 2026 at 8:57am
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the galaxy cluster MACS0329-0211.


Aurora Australis
16 Jun 2026 at 8:21am
The aurora australis arcs over Earth during an active solar event in this photograph taken at approximately 11:32 p.m. local time from the International Space Station as it orbited 271 miles above the Indian Ocean southwest of Perth, Australia on June 5.


San Francisco's Patchwork Streets
15 Jun 2026 at 8:33am
A period of unsettled weather brought scattered showers and thunderstorms to California?s Bay Area on May 27, 2026. That afternoon, a break in the clouds left downtown San Francisco and nearby communities beneath mostly cloud-free skies, allowing an astronaut aboard the International Space Station to take this photograph.


Black Eye Galaxy
12 Jun 2026 at 8:01am
Easily identified by the spectacular band of dark dust that partially obscures its bright core, Messier 64, or the Black Eye Galaxy, is characterized by its bizarre internal motion.


Soccer Meets Space Science
11 Jun 2026 at 10:57am
Researchers tested soccer balls aboard the International Space Station to study how internal mass affects motion and stability in microgravity.


Train Ride to NASA Kennedy for Artemis III Booster Segments
10 Jun 2026 at 10:06am
A train transports eight booster motor segments for the SLS (Space Launch System rocket) that will power NASA?s Artemis III mission from Northrop Grumman?s Railyard Shipping Facility in Corinne, Utah, June 2, to NASA?s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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NASA?s Webb Pinpoints Millions of Stars Within Cigar Galaxy
29 Jun 2026 at 3:18pm

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center posted a photo:

Located 12 million light-years away and undergoing rapid star formation, edge-on spiral galaxy Messier 82 (M82) is a scientifically unique sight to behold, and now NASA?s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed previously unseen details.

M82?s intense star formation, thought to be the result of a galaxy merger, will be a short-lived event in astronomical terms, estimated to last a few hundred million years in its entirety. This temporary phase of extreme star formation relative to the galaxy?s mass, as well as its location in the local universe, are among the factors that make M82, also known as the Cigar galaxy, a one-of-a-kind environment to study.

Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Adam Smercina (STScI, Tufts), Thomas Williams (University of Manchester); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

#NASAMarshall #NASA #NASAWebb #JWST #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope #NASAGoddard #galaxy

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It's a Hot Moon Summer :nail_care:

In the early morning tomorrow, June 29, this month's full Moon will peak, also known as the Hot Moon or Strawberry Moon since it aligns with the beginning of the summer season. So, go outside and enjoy the Moon's glow-up. :full_moon:

Photo credit: NASA/Eric Bordelon

#NASA #Observatory #Astronomy #Moon #WatchTheSkies #StrawberryMoon #HotMoon #FullMoon

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NASA?s Pegasus barge has delivered a weather cover for the Artemis III SLS (Space Launch System) rocket core stage to NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The cover will protect the stage?s internal systems when SLS undergoes a future tanking test at Launch Pad 39B in its short stack configuration.

The weather cover was part of a dual delivery alongside NASA?s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is set to launch from the spaceport later this summer. Because schedules aligned, the barge was able to transport NASA?s next flagship astrophysics mission together with the Artemis hardware, maximizing resources to support missions across the agency during the Golden Age of innovation and exploration.

Learn more about these deliveries at science.nasa.gov/blogs/roman/2026/06/21/nasas-next-genera...

Credit: NASA

#NASA #NASAArtemis #Moon #MoonLanding #NASAMarshall #SLS #SpaceLaunchSystem #Artemis #ArtemisIII #telescope #NancyGraceRomanSpaceTelescope #infrared #NASARoman

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Looking somewhat like a swarm of bees returning to their hive, this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the galaxy cluster MACS0329-0211. Galaxy clusters like MACS0329-0211 are important signposts in the story of how the structure of the universe evolved, and are the ultimate telescopic lenses, placing gravitationally lensed galaxies from the earliest stages of the universe into our view.

Zoom into this galaxy swarm and you will find large, oval-shaped elliptical galaxies, and thin spiral and lenticular galaxies viewed from the edge. We can also see the full, face-on view of spiral galaxies and their curving spiral arms. The image?s upper-right quadrant holds faint arcs of distant galaxies gravitationally lensed by the cluster?s massive gravity. The largest of these arcs appears above the bright oval shape of a giant elliptical galaxy. Closer inspection of the image?s center reveals several bright-white intersecting curves that appear as a distorted figure eight. This may be another distant galaxy whose light was magnified and distorted by this massive cluster?s gravity.

Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Postman (STScI); Image Processing: G. Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

#NASAMarshall #NASA #NASAHubble #Hubble #NASAGoddard #galaxy #galaxies

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This March 20, 2026, image of Messier 64, or the Black Eye Galaxy, is a composite view from NASA?s Hubble Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope. It shows Messier 64 captured at near- and mid-infrared wavelengths by Webb, while Hubble?s image shows the galaxy in ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light.

Messier 64 is characterized by its bizarre internal motion. The gas in the outer regions of this spiral galaxy is rotating in the opposite direction from the gas and stars in its inner regions. This strange behavior may be the result of a merger between M64 and a satellite galaxy over a billion years ago.

Credit: NASA, CSA, ESA, F. Belfiore (European Southern Observatory ? Germany), J. Lee (Space Telescope Science Institute), A. Leroy (The Ohio State University), and D. Thilker (The Johns Hopkins University); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

#NASAMarshall #NASA #NASAWebb #JWST #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope #NASAGoddard #galaxy

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The focus of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is an active spiral galaxy on a journey lasting hundreds of millions of years. The galaxy Messier 88 (M88), also known as NGC 4501, is located about 63 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices (Berenice?s Hair).

M88 is an active galaxy, which means that its center harbors a supermassive black hole that is snacking on gas and dust. Astronomers estimate the black hole is around 100 million times as massive as the Sun, and it appears to be powering outflows of gas from the galaxy?s center.

A population of old, reddish stars around the black hole give M88 its warmly glowing heart. Spreading out from the galaxy?s center are several tightly wound, symmetrical spiral arms, each outlined by sparkling pink and blue star clusters and knotted clouds of dust. We see M88 from an angle that makes it appear elongated, and its spiral arms delicately fan out before it.

M88 is a member of the Virgo Cluster, a collection of more than a thousand galaxies held together by gravity. As this massive galaxy group moves through space, the galaxies themselves are in constant motion as they orbit the cluster?s center of gravity. M88 itself is on a long and somewhat perilous cosmic journey that will bring it to the innermost reaches of the cluster.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker

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These stars took sibling rivalry to the next level.

Our Fermi telescope studied two supernova remnants, the debris left behind after massive stars explode, and found that the explosions likely came from a stellar pair that once orbited each other. When the first star detonated, it sent its binary companion hurtling through space, and then, after traveling for thousands of years, the surviving star blew up, too.

While one of the remnants is the well-known Jellyfish Nebula, the second was hidden in the glare of its brighter sibling until 16 years of gamma-ray data from Fermi revealed its presence. These overlapping star wrecks, both located in the constellation Gemini, give us the first known example of a binary system where both stars have undergone supernova explosions. Both remnants are also interacting with a glowing cloud of hydrogen gas known as Sharpless 249.

Image credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and M. Michailidis et al. 2026; optical: DSS; infrared: NASA/WISE/JPL-Caltech/UCLA; ultraviolet: NASA/Swift

Image description: This multiwavelength scene shows the Jellyfish Nebula supernova remnant, the interstellar cloud it?s interacting with, and a distinctive curving filament to its upper left. Visible light is shown in yellow, UV from NASA?s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is shown in violet, and infrared light from NASA?s retired WISE mission appears in cyan, red, and orange. On a mottled reddish background speckled with stars, yellow threads of gas at center right trace out a dome-shaped structure from which curving tendrils extend toward the lower right. Blue and red filaments trace a ring around the dome?s base. A violet arc stretches right to left just above the center of the image, and irregular orange gas clouds become thicker toward the upper left.

Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and M. Michailidis et al. 2026; optical: DSS; infrared: NASA/WISE/JPL-Caltech/UCLA; ultraviolet: NASA/Swift

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The aftermath of a supernova, a stellar explosion, is usually a slowly fading cloud of hot gas. So when astronomers pointed NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory at the nearby galaxy Messier 83 (M83), they did not expect to find a population of supernova remnants, or the debris from these explosions, showing dramatic changes in their brightness.

The galaxy M83, located about 15 million light-years from Earth, is forming stars at a high rate. Researchers analyzed 14 years of Chandra data of the galaxy, spanning 2000 to 2014.

Using this extensive set of data, the researchers caught surprising variations in the X-ray brightness of sources previously identified as supernova remnants. The researchers expected supernova remnants older than a century or so to fade gradually in X-rays, but not change dramatically in brightness.

The team found that roughly half of the 22 X-ray sources associated with supernova remnants in their sample showed changes in X-ray brightness over the 14-year span of observations ? a result that was completely unexpected.

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/AURA/STScI, Hubble Heritage Team, W. Blair (STScI/Johns Hopkins University) and R. O'Connell (University of Virginia); Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/A. Jubett, L. Frattare and P. Edmonds

#NASA #NASAMarshall #NASAChandra #ChandraXray #ChandraXrayObservatory #SolarSystem #galaxy #supernova #SupernovaRemnant

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This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the dwarf irregular galaxy ESO 490-017, roughly 12,000 light-years in diameter and some 23 million light-years away in the constellation Canis Major. The galaxy?s low surface brightness makes it appear as a faint, starry swarm behind brighter foreground stars that are easily recognized by their diffraction spikes. Numerous red, orange, and beige dots are distant galaxies peppering the black background, many exhibiting distinct spiral structure.

The data in this image of ESO 490-017 was part of a Hubble observing program that looked at the movement of galaxies and galaxy clusters through space. Matter in the universe is distributed unevenly, and the gravitational influence of that matter drives the ?cosmic flow? or movement of large-scale structures in the universe.

Credit: NASA, ESA, R. Tully (University of Hawaii); Image Processing: G. Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

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In this image, the aurora australis arcs over Earth during an active solar event in this photograph taken at approximately 11:32 p.m. local time from the International Space Station as it orbited 271 miles above the Indian Ocean southwest of Perth, Australia.

NASA/Jessica Meir

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Astronomers may have uncovered a new supernova remnant in a star-forming region near the center of the Milky Way galaxy using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton. If confirmed, this would be one of the closest supernova remnants to the supermassive black hole in the Galactic Center!

This image shows the region where the evidence was found, which contains X-rays from Chandra and XMM-Newton, radio data from the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa, and an optical image from the Pan-STARRS telescopes in Hawaii.

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/UCLA/Z. Zhu et al.; ESA/XMM-Newton; Optical: PanSTARRS; Radio: MeerKAT; Infrared (JWST): NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and P. Edmonds

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Big week for Artemis III :rocket:

Just a day before NASA introduced the Artemis III crew, a key piece of the mission completed a cross-country journey: the twin solid rocket booster segments for the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket have arrived in Florida after traveling from Utah.

Because of their immense size and weight, the booster segments made the trip to Florida by train over the course of roughly six days. Later this year, teams will begin stacking the twin solid rocket boosters that will help power Artemis III at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Image description:
A gray and black locomotive, marked with three stars on its front, pulls a long line of white rail cars along tracks surrounded by gravel. A bright blue sky provides a clear backdrop. Credit: NASA/Cory S. Huston

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100,000 hours or 6,000,000 minutes or 360,000,000 seconds

That is how long the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) has been operating aboard the International Space Station as of June 9, 2026!

MSG is located inside the Destiny module - it has a large front window and built-in gloves to provide a sealed environment for conducting science and technology experiments. The Glovebox is particularly suited for handling hazardous materials when the crew is present.

MSG was first installed and activated by the space station Expedition 5 crew during the first weeks of July in 2002. Astronaut Peggy Whitson started the first experiment on July 10 - the Solidification Using a Baffle in Sealed Ampules (SUBSA) - which aimed to improve processes for producing semiconductor parts in microgravity.

Since then, the Glovebox has been used to grow crystals in weightlessness that could enable future large-scale semiconductor manufacturing, test the manufacturing of complex glass for eyeglasses, measure smoke properties to test smoke detectors, and much more all for the benefit of life on Earth.

The Glovebox is managed and operated by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

Learn more about MSG and the experiments conducted in it here >> go.nasa.gov/4okAbuo

Visual description: In this image from 2016, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, a crew member of Expedition 49 aboard the International Space Station, works on an experiment inside the station?s Microgravity Science Glovebox.