An Apollo 15 Panorama: Astronaut Exploring
30.11.2008

What would it be like to explore the Moon? NASA's Apollo missions gave humans just this chance in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In particular, the Apollo 15 mission was dedicated to better understanding the surface of the Moon by exploring mountains, valleys, maria, and highlands.

NGC 2440: Cocoon of a New White Dwarf
11.01.2004

Like a butterfly, a white dwarf star begins its life by casting off a cocoon that enclosed its former self. In this analogy, however, the Sun would be a caterpillar and the ejected shell of gas would become the prettiest of all!

A Close Up or Martian Soil
18.01.2004

Make your background the closest image of Mars yet. The Spirit Rover currently rolling on Mars has taken the highest resolution image to date of another planet. The above black and white image spans only about 1.5 centimeters across, with details smaller than 1/10 of a millimeter visible.

An Unexpected Asteroid Valentine
14.02.2000

Maybe the Moon owns our hearts, but this won't stop the occasional asteroid from sending us a valentine. Friday, to the surprise of many, the NEAR mission on approach to asteroid 433 EROS photographed what appears to be a heart-shaped depression.

Return at Sunrise
13.03.2015

Thursday, shortly after local sunrise over central Asia, this Soyuz spacecraft floated over a sea of golden clouds during its descent by parachute through planet Earth's dense atmosphere. On board were Expedition 42 commander Barry Wilmore of NASA and Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos).

An Extreme UltraViolet View of the Comet
30.03.1996

As the Sun floods Comet Hyakutake with ultraviolet light gases in the coma scatter the radiation and fluoresce making the comet a bright source in the ultraviolet sky. The above image made using data...

APOD: 2026 February 9 Б Miranda Revisited
9.02.2026

What is Miranda really like? Visually, old images from NASA's Voyager 2 have been recently combined and remastered to result in the featured image of Uranus's 500-kilometer-wide moon. In the late 1980s...

APOD: 2026 June 18 Б Possible Supernova Remnant in Galactic Center
18.06.2026

Do you see that blue blob to the lower right of the image center? Astronomers think that it shows where a massive star exploded as a supernova whose light reached Earth 1,700 years ago.

Ship Tracks over the Pacific Ocean
8.06.2022

What are those unusual streaks? Some images of planet Earth show clear bright streaks that follow the paths of ships. Known as ship tracks, these low and narrow bands are caused by the ship's engine exhaust.

Apollo 12 Visits Surveyor 3
3.03.2001

Apollo 12 was the second mission to land humans on the Moon. The landing site was picked to be near the location of Surveyor 3, a robot spacecraft that had landed on the Moon three years earlier.