An Expanding Bubble in Space

An Expanding Bubble in Space A star 40 times more massive than our sun is blowing a giant bubble of material into space. In this colorful picture, the Hubble Telescope captured a glimpse of the expanding bubble, dubbed the Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635). The beefy star [lower center] is embedded in the bright blue bubble. […]

Dark Sky, Bright Sun

Dark Sky, Bright Sun In low Earth orbit there is not enough atmosphere to diffuse and scatter sunlight, so shadows are black and the sky is dark – even when the Sun shines. The harsh lighting produced this dramatic effect as mission specialist Gregory Harbaugh photographed colleague Joseph Tanner during their second spacewalk to service […]

Riding Piggyback

Riding Piggyback How does a space shuttle that landed in California get back to Florida for its next launch? The answer is by ferry. NASA operates two commercial Boeing 747 airplanes modified to carry a space shuttle on their backs. Designated officially as Shuttle Carrier Aircraft or SCA, NASA bolstered the commercial 747s with struts, […]

Stellar Fireworks

Stellar Fireworks Resembling an aerial fireworks explosion, this dramatic image of the energetic star WR124, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, reveals that it is surrounded by hot clumps of gas being ejected into space at speeds of over 100,000 miles per hour. Also remarkable are vast arcs of glowing gas around the star, which […]

Taking AIM at Mysterious Clouds

Taking AIM at Mysterious Clouds A NASA satellite has captured the first occurrence of mysterious shiny polar clouds that form 50 miles above Earth’s surface. The AIM (Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere) spacecraft returned some of the first data on these noctilucent or “night shining” clouds on June 11, 2007. In this image of […]

NASA Images: The Mineral Moon

Even if the moon really were made of green cheese it probably wouldn’t look this bizarre. Still, this mosaic of 53 images was recorded by the Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft as it passed near our own large natural satellite in 1992. The pictures were recorded through three spectral filters and combined in an exaggerated false-color scheme […]

Tracking Space Weather

THEMIS’ mission is to help improve the understanding of severe space weather effects on Earth. THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) is designed to discover what causes intense displays of the aurora (northern and southern lights), called substorms. Just as severe thunderstorms are accompanied by hail and tornadoes, it is believed […]

NASA Images: From the Ashes of the First Stars

From the Ashes of the First Stars What did the first quasars look like? The nearest quasars are now known to be supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies. Gas and dust that falls toward a quasar glows brightly, sometimes outglowing the entire home galaxy. The quasars that formed in the first billion years […]

Peeking at Saturn

Cassini peers around the hazy limb of the frigid moon Titan to spy the sunlit south pole of Saturn in the distance beyond. Titan’s thick, smog-like atmosphere is a major source of interest for scientists involved with the Cassini mission. This Dec. 26, 2005, view was created using images taken using red, green and blue […]