Apollo 17: Last on the Moon
17.12.2005

In December of 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent about 75 hours on the Moon, in the Taurus-Littrow valley, while colleague Ronald Evans orbited overhead. Near the beginning of their...

Layers in Aureum Chaos
4.04.2008

At first glance these undulating shapes in shades of blue might look like waves on an ocean. Seen here in a false-color image from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE camera, they are actually layered rock outcrops found in Aureum Chaos.

APOD: 2015 July 7 The Milky Way from a Malibu Sea Cave
7.07.2015

Whats happening outside this cave? Nothing unexpected its just the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy passing by. As the Earth turns, the band of our Galaxy appears to rotate and shift along the horizon.

Blue Marble Earth
6.02.2022

Welcome to planet Earth, the third planet from a star named the Sun. The Earth is shaped like a sphere and composed mostly of rock. Over 70 percent of the Earth's surface is water. The planet has a relatively thin atmosphere composed mostly of nitrogen and oxygen.

APOD: 2025 February 5 Б Comet G3 ATLAS Setting over a Chilean Hill
5.02.2025

Where is Comet ATLAS going? In the featured time-lapse video, the comet is not itself moving very much, but the Earth's rotation makes it appear to be setting over a hill. The Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) sequence was captured with an ordinary camera on January 22 from the Araucanцa Region in central Chile.

Ancient Cratered Plains on Ganymede
12.07.1996

The largest moon in the Solar System shows regions that are ancient and battered. The high density of craters demonstrate that patches of Ganymede are indeed billions of years old. This photo is one of a series released by NASA two days ago from the Galileo spacecraft orbiting Jupiter.

Twenty Full Moons
3.01.2007

In celebration of tonight's Full Moon, the first of 2007, consider this grid of twenty Full Moons. From upper left to lower right, the images represent every lunation from May 2005 through December 2006.

Mercury: A Cratered Inferno
2.01.1999

Mercury's surface looks similar to our Moon's. Each is heavily cratered and made of rock. Mercury's diameter is about 4800 km, while the Moon's is slightly less at about 3500 km (compared with about 12,700 km for the Earth). But Mercury is unique in many ways.

Mojave Desert Fireball
17.12.2009

Monstrously bright, this fireball meteor lit up the Mojave Desert sky Monday morning, part of this year's impressive Geminid meteor shower. Seen toward the southwest over rock formations near Victorville, California, a more familiar celestial background was momentarily washed out by the meteor's flash.

Meteor before Galaxy
12.08.2018

What's that green streak in front of the Andromeda galaxy? A meteor. While photographing the Andromeda galaxy in 2016, near the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower, a sand-sized rock from deep space crossed right in front of our Milky Way Galaxy's far-distant companion.