10 Stunning Images from NASA’s
1.New Horizons’ Infrared View
NASA’s New Horizons captured a stunning enhanced color view of Charon, Pluto’s largest moon, during its close approach in 2015.
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft captured this high-resolution enhanced color view of Charon, Pluto’s largest moon, just before closest approach on July 14, 2015.
spacecraft captured this high-resolution enhanced color view of Charon, Pluto’s largest moon, just before closest approach on July 14, 2015. The image combines blue, red, and infrared images taken by the spacecraft’s Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC); the colors are processed to best highlight the variation of surface properties across Charon. New Horizons conducted NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft captured this high-resolution enhanced color view of Charon, Pluto’s largest moon, just before closest approach on July 14, 2015 and its moons in summer 2015, helping us understand worlds at the edge of our solar system, then venturing deeper into the distant, mysterious Kuiper Belt –a relic of solar system formation. The spacecraft is now more than 5 billion miles from Earth and NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft captured this high-resolution enhanced color view of Charon, Pluto’s largest moon, just before closest approach on July 14, 2015 to make searches beyond the Kuiper Belt much faster and more productive.
2.The Barchan Dunes of Brazil
Former astronaut Jack Fischer photographed crescent-shaped barchan dunes on Brazil’s Atlantic coastline, shaped by fierce winds from the Western Atlantic.
Former NASA astronaut Jack Fischer captured this photograph of Lagoa dos Barros and crescent-shaped barchan dunes on the Atlantic coastline of southern Brazil on July 9, 2017, while aboard the International Space Station.
Barchan dunes are sand dunes that form in areas with one wind direction and little vegetation. In this case, fierce winds from the Western Atlantic sculpt the sand along the coast into distinctive crescent shapes. The tips of barchan dunes point downwind, showing the prevailing wind direction. These fragile formations act as barriers keeping the wind and waves from penetrating inland, blunting the effect of storms and minimizing coastal erosion.
3.Clouds Form Over North Africa
The International Space Station orbited above North Africa, showcasing swirls of clouds and one of its roll-out solar arrays.
The International Space Station orbited 259 miles above North Africa, swirls of clouds covered the sky.
To the bottom right of the image, one of the station’s roll-out solar arrays peeks through. Astronauts aboard the space station see 16 sunrises and sunsets per day due to their high orbital velocity—17,500 miles per hour. In the more than 20 years that people have been living aboard the station, it has circumnavigated Earth tens of thousands of times.
4. Hubble Glimpses a Glistening Cluster
The Hubble telescope captured the gleaming stars of the globular cluster NGC 6544, located over 8,000 light-years away from Earth.
The teeming stars of the globular cluster NGC 6544 glisten in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Glimpses a Glistening Cluster. This cluster of tightly bound stars lies more than 8,000 light-years away from Earth and is, like all globular clusters, a densely populated region of tens of thousands of stars.
This image of NGC 6544 combines data from two of Hubble’s instruments, the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3, as well as two separate astronomical observations. The first observation was designed to find a visible counterpart to the radio pulsar discovered in NGC 6544. A pulsar is the rapidly spinning remnant of a dead star, emitting twin beams of electromagnetic radiation like a vast astronomical lighthouse. This pulsar rotates particularly quickly, and astronomers turned to Hubble to help determine how this object evolved in NGC 6544.
The second observation which contributed data to this image was also designed to find the visible counterparts of objects detected at other electromagnetic wavelengths. Instead of matching up sources to a pulsar, however, astronomers used Hubble to search for the counterparts of faint X-ray sources. Their observations could help explain how clusters like NGC 6544 change over time.
5.Exploring Climate Data in a New Way
The Earth Information Center combines live data sets with innovative data visualization to show how our planet is changing.
Local students take in the sights—and data—at an Earth Information Center student engagement event, Friday, June 23, 2023, at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The Earth Information Center is a new immersive experience that combines live data sets with innovative data visualization and storytelling to show visitors how our planet is changing.
The center gives a whole Earth view down to local information, from temperatures in our cities to sea level rise, greenhouse gas emissions to agricultural productivity. Visit this hybrid exhibi t in person at NASA Headquarters in Washington or online.
6. Starling Takes Flight
NASA’s Starling CubeSats, flying in two formations, are testing technologies for future satellite swarms in deep space.
On July 17, 2023, NASA’s four Starling CubeSats successfully deployed after having launched aboard Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket, shown in this image. NASA sent the team of four six-unit (6U)-sized CubeSats into orbit around Earth to see if they’re able to cooperate on their own, without real-time updates from mission control.
The four CubeSats will fly in two different formations to test several technologies paving the way towards a future where swarms of satellites can cooperate to do science in deep space. The Starling mission will last at least six months, positioning the spacecraft about 355 miles above Earth and spaced about 40 miles apart.
7. 54 Years Ago: Apollo 11 Crew Walks on the Moon
Iconic images of the Apollo 11 mission, featuring astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong on the lunar surface.
AS11-40-5875 (20 July 1969) — Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot of the first lunar landing mission, poses for a photograph beside the deployed United States flag during an Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the lunar surface. The Lunar Module (LM) is on the left, and the footprints of the astronauts are clearly visible.
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot of Apollo 11, the first lunar landing mission, poses for a photograph beside the deployed United States flag during a walk on the lunar surface. The lunar module is on the left, and the footprints of the astronauts are clearly visible in the soil of the moon. Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, mission commander, took this picture with a 70mm Hasselblad lunar surface camera.
8.It’s Rock Science It’s Rock Science
Astronauts Wiseman, Hansen, Glover, and Koch receive a lesson on Moon samples in preparation for Artemis II, NASA’s crewed mission to the Moon.
Astronauts Reid Wiseman of NASA (left), Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency (middle), and Victor Glover of NASA (right) pay close attention to Moon samples as they receive a lesson in the Apollo Lunar Lab at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on May 9, 2023.
Wiseman, Hansen, and Glover, along with Christina Koch, will venture around the Moon on Artemis II, the first crewed mission on NASA’s path to establishing a long-term presence at the Moon for science and exploration.
9.The Last Rays of an Orbital Sunset
An enchanting photograph from the International Space Station showing the fading rays of an orbital sunset above South America.
The last rays of an orbital sunset begin fading in Earth’s atmosphere silhouetting the cloud tops in this June 24, 2023,
photograph from the International Space Station as it orbited 271 miles above the southernmost tip of South America.
The space station makes 16 orbits of the Earth in 24 hours, so astronauts on the orbital outpost see 16 sunrises and sunsets.
10. Artemis II Heat Shield Installed
Teams install the heat shield on NASA’s Orion spacecraft, ensuring the safe return of astronauts on their journey to the Moon. please make it google friendly words
Teams install the heat shield on the Artemis II Orion spacecraft at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 22, 2023.
The 16.5-foot-wide shield will ensure the safe return of the astronauts on board as the spacecraft travels at speeds of about 25,000 miles per hour and experiences outside temperatures of nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
See progress on Artemis II, the first crewed mission on NASA’s path to establishing a long-term presence at the Moon for science and exploration.
““It’s very likely that we will discover things that we cannot readily explain and had not thought about,” says Lopez-Morales. “That is how breakthroughs in human knowledge happen and I am very excited to see what Webb’s observations will reveal to us.”.
