All's not as it appears, this tale has many twists -
but if I wasn't here documenting the story
would that mean that the plot did not exist?

— Peter Hammill

NASA Image of the Day

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The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.
Updated: 1 day 3 hours ago

Festive Northern Lights

Mon, 11/27/2023 - 1:39pm
The spectacular aurora borealis, or the “northern lights,” over Canada is sighted from the space station near the highest point of its orbital path. The station’s main solar arrays are seen in the left foreground.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

A Black Hole Gobbles Up a Star

Fri, 11/24/2023 - 2:58pm
A disk of hot gas swirls around a black hole in this illustration from Dec. 20, 2022. A long stream of hot gas on the right, coming from a star that was pulled apart by the black hole, feeds into the disk.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

A Space Station Thanksgiving

Wed, 11/22/2023 - 11:21am
NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins (left) and Rick Mastracchio, both Expedition 38 flight engineers, pose for a photo with a Thanksgiving meal in the Unity node of the International Space Station.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

Astronaut Nicole Mann Prepares for Spacewalk

Tue, 11/21/2023 - 12:23pm
NASA astronaut and Expedition 68 flight engineer Nicole Mann is pictured during a fit check of her spacesuit ahead of a planned spacewalk to upgrade the International Space Station's power generation system.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

Seeing Sagittarius C in a New Light

Mon, 11/20/2023 - 1:03pm
The NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s reveals a portion of the Milky Way’s dense core in a new light. An estimated 500,000 stars shine in this image of the Sagittarius C (Sgr C) region, along with some as-yet unidentified features. A large region of ionized hydrogen, shown in cyan, contains intriguing needle-like structures that lack any uniform orientation.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

Celebrating Astronaut Alan Shepard's 100th Birthday

Fri, 11/17/2023 - 2:54pm
Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr., attired in his Mercury pressure suit, poses for a photo on May 5, 1961, prior to his launch in a Mercury-Redstone 3 spacecraft from Cape Canaveral on a suborbital mission – the first U.S. manned spaceflight.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

On This Day: Artemis I Liftoff

Thu, 11/16/2023 - 2:23pm
NASA’s Space Launch System carrying the Orion spacecraft lifts off the pad at Launch Complex 39B at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:47 a.m. EST on Nov. 16, 2022.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

A View Through Skylab

Wed, 11/15/2023 - 4:01pm
A 35mm camera, operated by astronaut William R. Pogue, Skylab 4 pilot, recorded this wide scene of his Skylab 4 crewmates on the other end of the orbital workshop. Astronauts Jerry P. Carr (right), commander, and Edward G. Gibson, science pilot, pose for the snapshot. Also in the frame are parts of three Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuits, used on several EVA sessions during the third manning of the Skylab space station.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

NASA's C-130 Delivers GUSTO Payload to Antarctica

Tue, 11/14/2023 - 2:42pm
NASA's Wallops Flight Facility C-130 aircraft delivered the agency’s Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory (GUSTO) payload to McMurdo Station, Antarctica, on Oct. 28, 2023. The GUSTO mission will launch on a scientific balloon in December 2023.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

Dragon Lights Up the Night

Mon, 11/13/2023 - 2:53pm
In this photo from Nov. 9, 2023, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket illuminates the water as it launches at night from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 29th commercial resupply mission of the Cargo Dragon spacecraft brought new scientific research, technology demonstrations, crew supplies, and hardware to the International Space Station, including NASA’s Integrated Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Low Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal (ILLUMA-T) and Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE).
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

NASA Sounding Rocket Launches into Alaskan Aurora

Thu, 11/09/2023 - 11:40am
A sounding rocket launched from Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, Alaska, Nov. 8, 2023, carrying the DISSIPATION mission. The rocket launched into aurora and successfully captured data to understand how auroras heat the atmosphere and cause high-altitude winds.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

Tribal Students Make Robots with NASA Aerospace Engineer Casey Denham

Wed, 11/08/2023 - 1:56pm
Casey Denham, aerospace engineer with the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, works with tribal students during a STEM activity at the American Indian Engineering Sciences (AISES) National Conference in Spokane, Washington, Oct. 19-21, 2023.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

Euclid Spots a Spiral Galaxy

Tue, 11/07/2023 - 1:11pm
The spiral galaxy IC 342, located about 11 million light-years from Earth, lies behind the crowded plane of the Milky Way: Dust, gas, and stars obscure it from our view. Euclid used its near-infrared instrument to peer through the dust and study it.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

NASA’s Worm Logo

Mon, 11/06/2023 - 1:53pm
The NASA Worm Logo sign is unveiled before the ribbon cutting ceremony to open NASA’s Earth Information Center, Wednesday, June 21, 2023, at NASA Headquarters building in Washington.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

Jupiter in Ultraviolet

Fri, 11/03/2023 - 11:55am
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals an ultraviolet view of Jupiter.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

Details from Webb’s Cameras Reveal Crabby Composition

Thu, 11/02/2023 - 11:15am
6,500 light-years away lies the Crab Nebula, the remains of an exploded star. While this target has been well-studied by multiple observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope, Webb’s infrared sensitivity and resolution offer new clues into the makeup and origins of this scene.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA

Nighttime on the East Coast

Wed, 11/01/2023 - 11:12am
This nighttime view from the International Space Station shows the city lights of the northeastern United States and major urban areas including Long Island, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Washington, D.C. The orbital lab was soaring 262 miles above the Pine Tree State of Maine at the time of this photograph.
Categories: Astronomy, NASA