The Moons of Earth
30.04.2005

While orbiting the planet during their June 1998 mission, the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery photographed this view of two moons of Earth. Thick storm clouds are visible in the lovely blue planet...

Take My Hand
18.09.2009

Get out your red/blue glasses and check out this close-up of spacesuited NASA astronaut John Olivas outside the International Space Station. Carefully constructed from two photographs (ISS020-E-038481, ISS02-0E-038482) taken during space shuttle orbiter Discovery...

M100: A Grand Design
3.02.2001

Majestic on a truly cosmic scale, M100 is appropriately known as a Grand Design spiral galaxy. A large galaxy of over 100 billion or so stars with well defined spiral arms, it is similar to our own Milky Way.

Methane Earth
12.02.2002

Can you help in reducing this blanket of methane gas that is warming up our Earth? Recent evidence holds that methane (CH₄) is second only to carbon dioxide (CO₂) in creating a warming greenhouse effect but is easier to control.

Sunspot Region 30
18.07.2002

The solar active region designated number 0030 is now appearing on the visible hemisphere of the closest star. Dwarfed by the Sun's disk, the group of sunspots which make up region 30 actually cover an enormous area -- nearly 10 times the size of Earth.

Lunar Farside from Apollo 11
12.03.2003

The far side of the Moon is rough and filled with craters. By comparison, the near side of the Moon, the side we always see, is relatively smooth. Since the Moon is rotation locked to always point the same side toward Earth, humanity has only glimpsed the lunar farside recently -- last century.

The North Pole of Venus
14.05.2003

If you could look down on the North Pole of Venus what would you see? The Magellan probe that orbited Venus from 1990 to 1994 was able to peer through the thick Venusian clouds and build up the above image by emitting and re-detecting cloud-penetrating radar.

The Long Shadow of the Moon
27.11.2003

The long shadow of the Moon fell across the continent of Antarctica on November 23rd, during the second total solar eclipse of 2003. In this view from orbit, based on data from the MODIS instrument on board the Earth observing Aqua satellite, the Moon's shadow stretches for almost 500 kilometers.

Spirit Rover Reaches the Columbia Hills on Mars
28.06.2004

The Spirit robotic rover on Mars has now reached the Columbia Hills on Mars. Two of the hills are shown on approach near the beginning of June. The above true-color picture shows very nearly what a human would see from Spirit's vantage point.

APOD: 2007 April 1- Americans Defeat Russians in First Space Quidditch Match
1.04.2007

A historic first Space Quidditch match came to a spectacular conclusion last night as astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria caught the Golden Snitch to give the Americans a hard fought victory over the Russians. "The Russians...