Mars and a Colorful Lunar Fog Bow
2.02.2010

Even from the top of a volcanic crater, this vista was unusual. For one reason, Mars was dazzlingly bright two weeks ago, when this picture was taken, as it was nearing its brightest time of the entire year. Mars, on the far upper left, is the brightest object in the above picture.

Valles Marineris Perspective from Mars Express
29.01.2004

Europe's Mars Express satellite has started returning detailed color images of the red planet. The first of the current armada to arrive at Mars, the orbiting satellite will photograph the entire Martian surface...

APOD: 2006 January 1- The Largest Rock in the Solar System
1.01.2006

There, that faint dot in the center - that's the largest rock known in our Solar System. It is larger than every known asteroid, moon, and comet nucleus. It is larger than any other local rocky planet.

M97: The Owl Nebula
15.05.2009

The Owl Nebula is perched in the sky about 2,600 light-years away toward the bottom of the Big Dipper's bowl. Also cataloged as M97, the 97th object in Messier's well-known list, its round shape along with the placement of two large, dark "eyes" do suggest the face of a staring owl.

Close Comet and Large Magellanic Cloud
17.03.2016

Sporting a surprisingly bright, lovely green coma Comet 252P/Linear poses next to the Large Magellanic Cloud in this southern skyscape. The stack of telephoto exposures was captured on March 16 from Penwortham, South Australia.

APOD: 2020 August 5 Б Picture Rocks Sun Dagger
5.08.2020

Ancient sun daggers will not hurt you, but they may tell you the time.б A sun dagger is a dagger-shaped gap in a shadow created by sunlight streaming throughбa crevice in a nearby rock.

APOD: 2024 June 12 Б Aurora over Karkonosze Mountains
12.06.2024

It was the first time ever. At least, the first time this photographer had ever seen aurora from his home mountains. And what a spectacular aurora it was. The Karkonosze Mountains in Poland are usually too far south to see any auroras.

Compton Observatory In Orbit
8.04.2000

Nine years ago the massive Compton Gamma Ray Observatory was deployed in low earth orbit. Sparkling interior reflections and the bright limb of the Earth are visible in this 1991 window view of Compton's release by the crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis.

ISS: Sunlight to Shadow
28.02.2008

Orbiting 400,000 kilometers above the Earth, the Moon slid into Earth's shadow to begin last week's total lunar eclipse. Of course the International Space Station (ISS) slides into Earth's shadow every 90 minutes, the time it takes it to complete one orbit at an altitude of about 400 kilometers.

Equinox Plus 1
21.03.2010

Twice a year, at the Spring and Fall equinox, the Sun rises due east. In an emphatic demonstration of this celestial alignment, photographer Joe Orman recorded this inspiring image of the Sun rising exactly along the east-west oriented Western Canal, in Tempe, Arizona, USA.