Aurora Georgia
15.05.2024

A familiar sight from Georgia, USA, the Moon sets near the western horizon in this rural night skyscape. Captured on May 10 before local midnight, the image overexposes the Moon's bright waning crescent at left in the frame. A long irrigation rig stretches across farmland about 15 miles north of the city of Bainbridge.

East of Antares
23.06.2006

East of Antares, dark markings seem to sprawl through the crowded star fields toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Cataloged in the early 20th century by astronomer E. E. Barnard, the obscuring interstellar dust clouds include B72, B77, B78, and B59, seen in silhouette against the starry background.

Bakasa Eclipse Sequence
6.07.2001

Starting at the upper left, this sequence of images follows the progress of the magnificent 21 June, 2001 solar eclipse in the clear skies over Bakasa, Zimbabwe. These pictures were recorded using a small reflecting telescope and digital camera with the approximate local time given above each frame.

Cassini Closes in on Saturn
29.02.2004

Are they gone? They were not originally predicted to even be there. The mystery revolves around strange shadow-like spokes that appeared on Saturn's large B-ring, the large middle ring in the complex system of particles that orbits Saturn.

International Space Station Trail
13.12.2000

Still under construction, the International Space Station is literally becoming one of the brightest, fastest moving stars in the heavens. Despite illuminated clouds and bright light from a nearly full moon (lower left), this...

Moonrays of August
3.08.2023

A Full Moon rose as the Sun set on August 1. Near perigee, the closest point in its almost moonthly orbit, the brighter than average lunar disk illuminated night skies around planet Earth as the second supermoon of 2023.

Ganymede: Torn Comet Crater Chain
5.08.1998

This remarkable line of 13 closely spaced craters on Jupiter's moon Ganymede was photographed by the Galileo spacecraft in 1997. The picture covers an area about 120 miles wide and the chain of craters cuts across a sharp boundary between dark and light terrain. What caused this crater chain?

A Face in the Clouds of Jupiter from Juno
7.06.2021

What do you see in the clouds of Jupiter? On the largest scale, circling the planet, Jupiter has alternating light zones and reddish-brown belts. Rising zone gas, mostly hydrogen and helium, usually swirls around regions of high pressure. Conversely, falling belt gas usually whirls around regions of low pressure, like cyclones and hurricanes on Earth.

Sizzling Io
6.07.1998

What's cooking on Io? This active moon of Jupiter is marked with volcanoes spewing lava that is now known to be hotter than any lava on Earth. Above is the highest resolution color-enhanced image yet composed of the most active surface in our Solar System. Features as small as three kilometers are visible.

When Diamonds Aren t Forever
30.03.2006

The track of totality for the first solar eclipse of 2006 began early yesterday on the east coast of Brazil and ended half a world away at sunset in western Mongolia. In between...