https://deepfield.news/gallery/ 2026-11-13 /img/2210aa3715856c63.jpg Outbursts from a Massive Star Using Chandra, astronomers have discovered a previously hidden black hole or neutron star companion that is triggering repeated outbursts from a giant, unstable star. /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science The large stellar association cataloged as NGC 206 is nestled within the dusty arms of the neighboring Andromeda galaxy along with the galaxy's pinkish star-forming regions. Also known as M31, the spiral galaxy is a mere 2.5 million light-years away. NGC 206 is found at the center of this sharp and detailed close-up of the southwestern extent of Andromeda's disk. The bright, blue stars of NGC 206 indicate its youth… /img/ff619c7704f88266.jpg A Global Rebound for Mangroves After decades of decline, this ecologically significant type of forest is making a comeback. The post A Global Rebound for Mangroves appeared first on NASA Science . /img/b3b804bdce55c7b8.jpg DECam captures supernova SN 2026ahvu Newly discovered supernova SN 2026ahvu is seen here in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 1433. The supernova appears as a very bright point of light to the right and slightly below the center of the galaxy. This image was captured by the U.S. Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera ( DECam ), mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American… /img/f642d0462fa57916.jpg DECam captures NGC 1433 before supernova SN 2026ahvu This image shows spiral galaxy NGC 1433 before the detection of supernova SN 2026ahvu. It was taken with the U.S. Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera ( DECam ), mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory ( CTIO ), a Program of NSF NOIRLab. DECam captured this image as part of observations for the Dark Energy Survey (… /img/3e3bc88ef3f9e944.jpg Gemini South captures supernova SN 2026ahvu Newly discovered supernova SN 2026ahvu is seen here in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 1433. The supernova appears as a very bright point of light to the right and slightly below the center of the galaxy. This image was captured by the Gemini South telescope in Chile using its Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph ( GMOS ). Gemini South is one half of the International Gemini Observatory , an international collaboration led… /img/24781260b542a720.jpg Heart in the Sky at NASA Kennedy The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds create a heart-shaped smoke trail during a flight maneuver near NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building during the agency’s MAX POWER expo and air show on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science Not all those who wander are lost. A night sky example is that planets wander, and in fact the very word "planet" comes from "wandering star" in Greek. As planets shift relative to fixed stars, they may appear from our perspective to get closer to other astronomical objects. Such meetings are called conjunctions. They don't happen by chance, but follow the precise laws of celestial mechanics. This peaceful image… /img/e93ff0604130d509.jpeg Scotland’s Flow Country Blanket bogs in the Scottish Highlands store vast amounts of carbon. The post Scotland’s Flow Country appeared first on NASA Science . /img/01f3fa5d26795d6a.jpg Tucson Twinkling at Twilight On 30 August 2026, NSF NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador Hernán Stockebrand captured this view of Tucson, Arizona, after sunset. On the far right, peeking up over the Quinlan Mountains, is the NSF Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory , a Program of NSF NOIRLab. Amazingly, this picture was captured about 60 miles (96.6 km) away from Kitt Peak, from Windy Point Vista off the Catalina… /img/edc9aae045ea5fe7.jpg Tucson Twinkling at Twilight (Labelled) On 30 August 2026, NSF NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador Hernán Stockebrand captured this view of Tucson, Arizona, after sunset. On the far right, peeking up over the Quinlan Mountains, is the NSF Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. The unannotated version of this image was a NOIRLab Image of the Week . You can find another angle of this view here . /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science Don’t judge a galaxy by its size. Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is about 100,000 light years across. This huge expanse of space contains hundreds of billions of stars! The smallest galaxies, called dwarf galaxies, are about 1/10th the size of the Milky Way and only contain a few billion stars. They are also the most common type of galaxy in the whole universe. Today’s image shows one such dwarf galaxy, NGC 4449… /img/c99dba3e4ce48a41.jpg Water Surges Into Navajo Reservoir Rounds of heavy rain in the U.S. Southwest flooded rivers and rapidly raised New Mexico’s second-largest reservoir. The post Water Surges Into Navajo Reservoir appeared first on NASA Science . /img/aa05f4815fc037c2.jpg CHAPEA Crew Leaves a Mark Photos of the CHAPEA Mission 2 crew are arranged around a boot print in the simulated Martian sand outside their habitat. /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science Sometimes Saturn disappears. It doesn't really go away, of course -- it just disappears from our view when Earth's Moon moves in front. Such a Saturnian eclipse, more formally called an occultation, was visible in early 2025 along a small swath of Earth -- from Greenland through central Europe and into northern Africa. The featured image is a digital fusion of three images, the first of just Saturn before it… /img/6368cdc439395861.jpg Autumn Mornings Bring Valley Fog Low clouds trace the branching valleys of the Appalachian Plateau and the Cumberland River, then burn off by afternoon. The post Autumn Mornings Bring Valley Fog appeared first on NASA Science . /img/7416731c7ab2f061.jpg Astronauts Across Generations Share the Stage On Nov. 6, 2026, Purpose Entertainment hosted the Artemis Celebration Gala at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Merritt Island, Florida. Held on the eve of NASA's MAX POWER event, the gala celebrated the explorers, innovators, and visionaries advancing the next era of human spaceflight. The event honored the successful completion of the agency's Artemis II mission, marking a historic milestone in… /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science Does the blue nebula look like the head of a witch? The nebula is known popularly as the Witch Head Nebula because, it is said, the nebula's shape resembles a Halloween-style caricature of a witch's head. Exactly how, though, can be a topic of imaginative speculation. What is clear is that IC 2118 is about 50 light-years across and made of gas and dust that points to -- because it has been partly eroded by -- the… /img/43656ccc388c1f9e.jpg Lights in the sky The glowing streak of the Milky Way splashes across the Chilean sky in today’s Picture of the Week. The telescope gazing in admiration is the Danish 1.54-meter telescope , hosted at ESO’s La Silla Observatory . This telescope has previously imaged some of the cosmic marvels we can see in this picture. The Carina Nebula can be seen glittering pink at the bottom of the Milky Way band. And at the top of the image we… /img/e735ad3002254b8c.jpeg Ozone Hole Reaches Its 2026 Maximum The ozone hole ranked seventh largest by area in 48 years of monitoring, but it was not as deep as other large holes on record. The post Ozone Hole Reaches Its 2026 Maximum appeared first on NASA Science . /img/43656ccc388c1f9e.jpg Lights in the sky The glowing streak of the Milky Way splashes across the Chilean sky in today’s Picture of the Week. The telescope gazing in admiration is the Danish 1.54-meter telescope , hosted at ESO’s La Silla Observatory . This telescope has previously imaged some of the cosmic marvels we can see in this picture. The Carina Nebula can be seen glittering pink at the bottom of the Milky Way band. And at the top of the image we… /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science The sky glows with soft pinkish colors of fading twilight in this serendipitous mountaintop vista. Taken in subfreezing temperatures, the thoughtfully composed photo shows snowy, rugged peaks seen from a mountain pass on 2017 November 14. Below lies the village of La Villa, Alta Badia in Italy's Dolomite Alps. Above the nestled village lights, the constellation Ursa Major hangs over the northern horizon. But most… /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science De Gerlache-Kocher massif looms on the visible horizon in this close-up of the edge of the Moon. The mountainous formation rises about 4 kilometers above its surroundings and is located very close to the lunar south pole. Boasting permanently shadowed crater floors that likely contain deposits of water ice and peaks that receive almost continuous sunlight for solar power generation, the south polar region is… /img/2a73ff31e5ac2a7a.jpg M30's Sparkling Stars This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the globular star cluster called Messier 30 (M30), also called NGC 7099. /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science It is time to say goodbye to NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. After nearly 22 years of service, the satellite re-entered Earth's atmosphere on November 4 at 7:39 EST over the North Sumatra region of Indonesia. The featured image is a mosaic created in 2018 using some of the first million images captured by the satellite's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope. Swift had a combination of instruments, including an X-ray… /img/be2530cd895020cf.jpeg Taking a Gander at Utah’s Goosenecks The San Juan River has carved deep, improbably curvy meanders into the desert landscape. The post Taking a Gander at Utah’s Goosenecks appeared first on NASA Science . /img/0dff6f1400c8a433.jpg Midwestern City Lights City lights from the midwestern United States to the East Coast sparkle across the landscape a couple of hours before sunrise. /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science One of our Solar System's most tantalizing worlds, Enceladus is backlit by the Sun in this Cassini spacecraft image from November 1, 2009. The dramatic illumination reveals the plumes that continuously spew into space from the south pole of Saturn's 500 kilometer diameter moon. Discovered by Cassini in 2005, the icy plumes are likely connected to an ocean beneath the ice shell of Enceladus. They supply material… /img/ab5f60659a0b9e0a.jpg Lessons from a stellar instructor potm2610 - Lessons from a stellar instructor /img/ab5f60659a0b9e0a.jpg Lessons from a stellar instructor Today’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month gives us a lesson in galactic history. This sparkling collection of stars is named Messier 30 (M30) after Charles Messier, the French astronomer who catalogued M30 and other diffuse objects that might be mistaken for comets. M30 lies about 27 500 light-years away in the constellation Capricornus . M30 is a globular cluster : a roughly spherical star cluster containing anywhere… /img/9f45e19a1d21274d.jpeg Cyprus: Island of Snakes, Cats, and Ophiolites The third-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea exposes an ancient piece of the ocean floor and hosts a clowder of cats. The post Cyprus: Island of Snakes, Cats, and Ophiolites appeared first on NASA Science . /img/0f2aa33b2da5270e.jpg Earthly Expanse Around Rubin This unique view can only be seen by looking northwest from the very top of the dome of NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory . With clear skies above and the sprawling foothills of the Chilean Andes below, Rubin gives us a front-row seat to magnificent views of Earth and the cosmos. Rubin Observatory is jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation ( NSF ) and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science… /img/2e21395bf0124a7b.png Hubble Reveals Cosmic Mystery This is an image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope of NGC 4449, one of the dwarf galaxies in the Galaxies Losing Oxygen via Winds (GLOW) study. Researchers found that dwarf galaxies can hold onto only a small fraction of the oxygen made by their stars. /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science “I see” IC 342, the Hidden Galaxy! Today’s image peers through the plane of the Milky Way, through all its gas, dust and stars, to unveil this spiral galaxy. IC 342 (or Caldwell 5) is one of the brightest members of the IC 342/Maffei group of galaxies. Located about 10 million light years away, this group is quite close to the Local Group that includes our Milky Way. Inaccurate accounting of the crowded and dusty… /img/62efe560fe774364.jpeg Before the Dawn in America’s Heartland With hardly a cloud in sight, astronauts had a sweeping view of nighttime lights in the U.S. Midwest. The post Before the Dawn in America’s Heartland appeared first on NASA Science . /img/06fd78a4cb657bae.jpg Astronaut and Earth CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut and Expedition 75 flight engineer Joshua Kutryk is pictured during a spacewalk with his spacesuit's helmet visor down to install a new roll-out solar array on the International Space Station's port side truss structure. /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science Did this meteor come from that comet? Probably not. Although many meteors do originate from comets, there are thousands of comets that have visited the inner Solar System recently, and matching meteors to them can be tricky. And to be clear, the pictured comet is far behind the streaking meteor. Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) was captured from Hautacam, France in April when the giant space iceberg sported impressive… https://assets.science.nasa.gov/content/dam/science/esd/eo/images/iotd/2026/the-pacific's-busy-storm-season/storm_infa_epic_20261029.jpg/jcr:content/renditions/cq5dam.web.1280.1280.jpeg The Pacific’s Busy Storm Season Super Typhoon In-fa developed an unusually large eye, and the remnants of Typhoon Champi transitioned into an extratropical storm that targeted Alaska. The post The Pacific’s Busy Storm Season appeared first on NASA Science . /img/4f0b1970bf077297.jpg NASA's CHAPEA Crew "Returns" to Earth The four-member Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) crew poses outside for the first time in more than a year following the end of their simulated Mars journey on Oct. 31, 2026. /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science What’s causing this unusually long cloud on Mars? Known as the Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (AMEC) and first recorded by NASA’s Viking Orbiter 2 in 1977, the strange cloud has been imaged in greater detail more recently by ESA’s robotic Mars Express spacecraft. The featured image is from 2018. The cloud forms only during spring and summer seasons and then only during morning hours. Made of water-ice, the most familiar… /img/13dbe8881a7b9743.jpeg Pennsylvania’s Grand Canyon Amid the warm hues of fall foliage, Pine Creek Gorge forms a deep scar in the Allegheny Plateau. The post Pennsylvania’s Grand Canyon appeared first on NASA Science . /img/136065ecc5f1753e.jpg Stars on demand Nothing is being attacked with space lasers in this Picture of the Week, although it may look like those four bright yellow streaks are menacing the galaxies to the right of the image. These streaks are, in fact, four artificial stars. As starlight passes through our restless atmosphere it gets blurred, distorting astronomical images. Artificial stars allow us to correct for this, but why do the ones in this picture… /img/136065ecc5f1753e.jpg Stars on demand Nothing is being attacked with space lasers in this Picture of the Week, although it may look like those four bright yellow streaks are menacing the galaxies to the right of the image. These streaks are, in fact, four artificial stars. As starlight passes through our restless atmosphere it gets blurred, distorting astronomical images. Artificial stars allow us to correct for this, but why do the ones in this picture… /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science What color is the Moon? It depends on the night -- and the time. Outside of the Earth's atmosphere, the dark Moon, which shines by reflected sunlight, appears a magnificently brown-tinged gray. The featured image highlights a collection of apparent colors of the full moon on Earth, documented by one astrophotographer over 10 years from different locations across Italy. A red- or yellow-colored moon usually indicates… /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science What spooky planet is this? Planet Earth on a dark and stormy night, of course. The ghostly scene was photographed at Hverir, a geothermally active area found along northeastern Iceland's volcanic landscape. Triggered by solar activity, geomagnetic storms have unleashed energetic particles trapped in Earth's magnetic field. Penetrating the planet's upper atmosphere at high latitudes, the particles create auroral… /img/71cc09877d6ebe4b.png NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Captures Eerie Cat's Head NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s mid-infrared view reveals intricate structures within the Cat's Head Nebula, traced by the emission from warm dust and carbon-based molecules excited by starlight. /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science Spooky shapes seem to haunt this dusty expanse, drifting through the night in the royal constellation Cepheus. Of course, the shapes are cosmic dust clouds visible in dimly reflected starlight. Far from your own neighborhood, they lurk above the plane of the Milky Way at the edge of the Cepheus Flare molecular cloud complex some 1,200 light-years away. Over 2 light-years across and brighter than most of the other… /img/73b1713cdac49fb5.jpg Vega Island Frozen in Fright The sight of an icy skull-like visage on the Antarctic island could make one’s blood run cold. The post Vega Island Frozen in Fright appeared first on NASA Science . https://deepfield.news/gallery/2/ 2026-10-30 /img/970b9c86d14b1ae2.jpg Map Showing Potential Origins of Martian Meteorite Teghaza 001 Description This global map of Mars shows 13 locations that match the mineralogy and chemistry of Teghaza 001, one of the most ancient Martian meteorites ever found on Earth. While scientists can never know for sure where a Martian meteorite originated, Teghaza 001 includes clues that link it to highlands in the southern hemisphere of […] The post Map Showing Potential Origins of Martian Meteorite Teghaza 001… /img/03fdfbdf6703237d.jpg Slice of Martian Meteorite Teghaza 001 Description This slice of Teghaza 001, one of the most ancient Martian meteorites ever found on Earth, was used to determine the age of the rock. Reflected light images like these serve as a scientist’s road map, helping them find minerals of interest to analyze by different instruments. Figure A is the same image with […] The post Slice of Martian Meteorite Teghaza 001 appeared first on NASA Science . /img/cb05b08ef8cdcba4.jpg NASA's Hubble Marks Way for Roman Space Telescope A sinuous spiral galaxy (center) appears in the same field of view as a vivid gravitational lens (right corner) in this Hubble image. /img/4d03152090c32634.jpg Cat’s Head Nebula (Hubble WFC3, Webb NIRCam, and Webb MIRI images) The NASA/ESA Hubble and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescopes recently stared at an eerie star-forming scene within the Carina Nebula, a massive gas and dust cloud located approximately 7,500 light-years away from Earth. The two telescopes offer complementary views of the shadowy form, nicknamed the Cat’s Head Nebula, which reflects the “magical” process of star formation. Hubble’s visible-light view shows… /img/3759cd44f58eba70.jpg Cat’s Head Nebula (Hubble WFC3, Webb NIRCam, and Webb MIRI images) The NASA/ESA Hubble and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescopes recently stared at an eerie star-forming scene within the Carina Nebula, a massive gas and dust cloud located approximately 7,500 light-years away from Earth. The two telescopes offer complementary views of the shadowy form, nicknamed the Cat’s Head Nebula, which reflects the “magical” process of star formation. Hubble’s visible-light view shows… /img/8ed71fba03406320.jpg Cat’s Head Nebula (Webb NIRCam image) The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared image of the Cat’s Head Nebula peers through some of the dust to reveal a dense field of stars and the filament’s complex surface structure. Faint, wispy structures to the left of the pillar contain material exposed to intense stellar radiation. Webb captures a dense field of stars, shown in blue and yellow. Even in near-infrared light, some stars are still… /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science That's no moon. But you could be forgiven for thinking it was a crescent Moon in the sky. It is a lesser known fact that Venus also has phases. (What about other planets?) The featured image shows Venus seen almost directly between the Sun and the Earth. This happens once every year and a half, and it is like the alignment that happens every month during a new Moon. But the new Moon is dark, while Venus' backlit… /img/806e07214de9c088.jpg Arnab Strikes India The first named storm of the North Indian Ocean’s cyclone season made landfall along the coast of Andhra Pradesh. The post Arnab Strikes India appeared first on NASA Science . /img/7e0b1a27ecdb75b3.jpg Slice of Martian Meteorite Teghaza 001 Description This slice of Teghaza 001, one of the most ancient Martian meteorites ever found on Earth, was used to determine the age of the rock. Reflected light images like these serve as a scientist’s road map, helping them find minerals of interest to analyze by different instruments. Figure A is the same image with […] /img/56ae1d01d9e2c5d8.jpeg Map Showing Potential Origins of Martian Meteorite Teghaza 001 Description This global map of Mars shows 13 locations that match the mineralogy and chemistry of Teghaza 001, one of the most ancient Martian meteorites ever found on Earth. While scientists can never know for sure where a Martian meteorite originated, Teghaza 001 includes clues that link it to highlands in the southern hemisphere of […] /img/ef02f4bd2b49a359.jpg Having a Blast at Kitt Peak Soaring above the Visitor Center Levine 0.4-meter Telescope at NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory ( KPNO ), a Program of NSF NOIRLab, is a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching a satellite into Earth’s orbit. This rocket launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in central California, about 550 miles from Kitt Peak. Although the Sun had already set at Kitt Peak, sunlight high above the horizon still illuminated the… /img/6c063505fa920d77.jpg Having a Blast at Kitt Peak (Alternative View 2) Soaring above the Visitor Center Levine 0.4-meter Telescope at NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory ( KPNO ), a Program of NSF NOIRLab, is a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching a satellite into Earth’s orbit. An alternative view of this launch above the Visitor Center Levine 0.4-meter Telescope was featured as a NOIRLab Image of the Week . The photographer, Kitt Peak Visitor Center Operations Manager Peter McMahon, was… /img/ef02f4bd2b49a359.jpg Un cohete ilumina el cielo de Kitt Peak En esta imagen, un cohete Falcon 9 de SpaceX se eleva hacia el espacio con un satélite a bordo, visto desde el Telescopio Levine de 0,4 metros del Centro de Visitas del Observatorio Nacional Kitt Peak de NSF ( KPNO ), un Programa de NOIRLab de NSF. Este cohete despegó desde la Base de la Fuerza Espacial de Vandenberg, en el centro de California, a unos 885 kilómetros de Kitt Peak. Aunque el Sol ya se había ocultado… /img/bc37c7787507be4f.jpg Webb Sees Turbulent Star Nursery In this Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope, we visit a turbulent cauldron of star formation to see what is brewing inside dense clumps of gas. /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 vide /img/49811de898bca13f.jpg The Land of the Standing-Up Rocks A national monument since the 1920s, Chiricahua is America's newest national park. The post The Land of the Standing-Up Rocks appeared first on NASA Science . /img/c3a46e30230acb59.jpg 2026 ED138 orbital pathway during May 2026 This image shows a portion of the orbital pathway of newly discovered dwarf planet candidate 2026 ED138 (ED138), as observed by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory. This image is a composite of multiple images captured by Rubin between 1 and 31 May 2026 at intervals indicated by the teal circles. ED138 is visible at the center of each circle. ED138 was found by Rubin Operations team member and in-Kind contributor… /img/a5516369d9f1dc50.jpg 2026 ED138 orbital arc (with annotations) This image shows the orbital pathway of newly discovered dwarf planet candidate 2026 ED138 (ED138), as observed by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory. This image is a composite of multiple images captured by Rubin between 4 March and 11 July 2026 at intervals indicated by the teal circles. ED138 is visible at the center of each circle. ED138 was found by Rubin Operations team member and in-Kind contributor Matthew… https://storage.noirlab.edu/media/archives/images/screen/noirlab2626h.jpg Top-down view of 2026 ED138 orbit (with dwarf planets) A model of the Solar System showing the orbital pathway of newly discovered dwarf planet candidate 2026 ED138 (ED138). ED138 was discovered in observational data from NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory spanning 4 March–11 July 2026. The candidate is shown here at its location on 8 May 2026. The model also shows the orbits of the five dwarf planets recognized by the International Astronomical Union ( IAU ): Pluto… /img/06a6c7ae442f5184.jpg 2026 ED138 orbit in 3D (with dwarf planets) A view of the Solar System showing the orbital pathway of newly discovered dwarf planet candidate 2026 ED138 (ED138). ED138 was discovered in observational data from NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory spanning 4 March–11 July 2026. The candidate is shown here at its location on 8 May 2026. The model also shows the orbits of the five dwarf planets recognized by the International Astronomical Union ( IAU ): Pluto… /img/c432accfba0b63e3.jpg NASA's Neo Surveyor Sunshade The large sunshade of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor mission is inspected by a technician at BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems in Boulder, Colorado, in late July. /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science Sometimes it's night on the ground but day in the air. As the Earth rotates to eclipse the Sun, sunset rises up from the ground. Therefore, at sunset on the ground, sunlight still shines on clouds above. Under usual circumstances, a pretty sunset might be visible, but unusual noctilucent clouds float so high up they can be seen well after dark. Normally too dim to be seen, they may become visible just after sunset… /img/d88562004dc9688d.jpg A-81 Reaches South Georgia The Antarctic iceberg made a relatively quick exit from the Weddell Sea, only to slow at the edge of a remote island’s underwater shelf. The post A-81 Reaches South Georgia appeared first on NASA Science . /img/e1416bd81eaa50bd.jpg NASA’s Perseverance Views Dust at Neretva Vallis Description This 360-degree look at Neretva Vallis within Mars’ Jezero Crater was stitched together using 217 images acquired by the rover’s Mastcam-Z on May 20, 2024, the 1,155th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. While it is a wind-swept dusty vista today, billions of years ago it was home to a river channel that fed fresh water into […] The post NASA’s Perseverance Views Dust at Neretva Vallis appeared first on… /img/e9f5a44d710307a7.jpg NEO Surveyor’s Sunshade Gets Inspected Description The large sunshade of NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor is mounted on an assembly ring during inspections in a clean room at BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems in Boulder, Colorado, in July 2026. The sunshade structure stands 20 feet (6 meters) tall and measures 8 feet (2.4 meters) wide at its base. Its two flat […] The post NEO Surveyor’s Sunshade Gets Inspected appeared first on NASA Science . /img/75a3dfe64dd76a4b.jpg Solar Cells Inspected on NASA’s NEO Surveyor Description The large sunshade of NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission is inspected by a technician at BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems in Boulder, Colorado, in late July. Built by Applied Aerospace in Stockton, California, the sunshade structure was outfitted with its solar cells by SolAero Technologies in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in January. Environmental […] The post Solar Cells Inspected on NASA’s… /img/b3882a04229f33bf.jpg NASA's X-59 Aircraft and Test Pilot NASA test pilot Mike Lippert poses for a photo ahead of his first time flying the agency's X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft on Oct. 21, 2026. /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science The Great Nebula in Orion, an immense, nearby starbirth region, is one of the most famous of all astronomical nebulas. Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away. In the featured deep image in assigned colors highlighted by emission in hydrogen, wisps and sheets of dust and gas are particularly evident. The Great Nebula in Orion can… /img/b7fde9a637dcc402.jpg Inclining the ELT for the first time This image shows ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope ( ELT ) tilting on its horizontal axis for the first time in October 2026. Link Time-lapse to which this image belongs More videos and images of this milestone /img/d564970158c0c1bc.jpg Tilting the ELT upwards This image shows ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope ( ELT ) returning to its upright position after it was tilted on its horizontal axis for the first time in October 2026. Links Time-lapse to which this image belongs More videos and images of this milestone /img/f00a123fa432c845.jpg Hunting Red Leaves With Satellites A modern satellite makes it possible to pursue the ancient tradition of leaf-peeping in a whole new way. The post Hunting Red Leaves With Satellites appeared first on NASA Science . /img/25f751279f2b5d6a.jpeg Solar Cells Inspected on NASA’s NEO Surveyor Description The large sunshade of NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission is inspected by a technician at BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems in Boulder, Colorado, in late July. Built by Applied Aerospace in Stockton, California, the sunshade structure was outfitted with its solar cells by SolAero Technologies in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in January. Environmental […] /img/915ae8610a860bf7.jpeg NEO Surveyor’s Sunshade Gets Inspected Description The large sunshade of NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor is mounted on an assembly ring during inspections in a clean room at BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems in Boulder, Colorado, in July 2026. The sunshade structure stands 20 feet (6 meters) tall and measures 8 feet (2.4 meters) wide at its base. Its two flat […] /img/d6d20c8c68b36ce8.jpeg NASA’s Perseverance Views Dust at Neretva Vallis Description This 360-degree look at Neretva Vallis within Mars’ Jezero Crater was stitched together using 217 images acquired by the rover’s Mastcam-Z on May 20, 2024, the 1,155th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. While it is a wind-swept dusty vista today, billions of years ago it was home to a river channel that fed fresh water into […] /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science Is our universe haunted? It might look that way on this dark matter map. The gravity of unseen dark matter is the leading explanation for why galaxies rotate so fast, why galaxies orbit clusters so fast, why gravitational lenses so strongly deflect light, and how visible matter is distributed. The featured image from the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium Space Show, Dark Universe, highlights… /img/d2518dbe823120ea.jpg RS-25 Engine Tests at NASA Stennis Teams at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi tested RS-25 engine No. 10001 on Oct. 21, 2026. /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science Looking toward the north from Mullion, New South Wales, Australia, the Andromeda Galaxy never gets more than a few degrees above the horizon. During the southern hemisphere spring, Andromeda is highest in the sky around midnight though. And in this telephoto scene from October 10/11, multiple exposures were used to reveal the spiral galaxy in tantalizing detail as it climbed above rolling Australian hills. Also… /img/6fa60487aa367859.jpg El Niño Then and Now A 35-year satellite altimetry record lets scientists hold this year's El Niño up against its strongest predecessors. The post El Niño Then and Now appeared first on NASA Science . /img/8ac063fbceb221c2.jpg Spiral's Edge This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the edge-on, intermediate spiral galaxy NGC 1827, located roughly 37 million light-years away in the constellation Columba, the Dove. /img/56702a4980a87bc7.jpg Seagull Nebula captured by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory ComCam Two years ago this month, NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s engineering test camera, named the LSST Commissioning Camera (ComCam), began capturing images of the sky to prepare for the revolutionary Legacy Survey of Space and Time, which began earlier this year. This image featuring the head of the Seagull Nebula was one of many ComCam images that led to the success of Rubin First Look and helped to document the… /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science Star light, star bright: is there a green star out tonight? Other than the Sun, all stars are so far from Earth that they appear as points in the sky. They are mostly white, but sometimes noticeably red or blue. This color typically relates to the temperature: blue stars are hotter than red stars. What about other colors? The featured image is an illustration showing WD J1330+6435, a white dwarf star, surrounded by… /img/560129040db9b36a.jpg Stars brewing in a nebulous cauldron In this Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope, we visit a turbulent cauldron of star formation to see what is brewing inside dense clumps of gas. This is a star-forming region named LHA 120-N 159, or simply N159, located 161 000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), one of the satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way galaxy. This image spans about 230 light years across… /img/5d52189db4fba1fd.jpg N159 (wide view) In this Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope, we visit a turbulent cauldron of star formation to see what is brewing inside dense clumps of gas. This is a star-forming region named LHA 120-N 159, or simply N159, located 161 000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), one of the satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way galaxy. This image spans about 230 light years across… /img/cc803d212485d990.jpg Fires Char New Guinea Emissions on both sides of the island are unusually high as human-set fires spread in a landscape parched by drought. The post Fires Char New Guinea appeared first on NASA Science . /img/e8c9bc715a09429a.jpg Los primeros fotones llegan a Rubin en abril de 2025 La expectación y la emoción se apoderan de la sala de control en la cumbre del Observatorio Vera C. Rubin de NSF-DOE , en Cerro Pachón, inmortalizadas en esta foto para el recuerdo. En ella, el personal observa cómo el Telescopio de Investigación Simonyi , equipado con la Cámara LSST de 3.200 megapíxeles, captura su primera imagen del cosmos. El Observatorio Rubin cuenta con financiamiento conjunto de la Fundación… /img/fdf46243b1addf65.jpg Science on the Space Station with NASA Astronaut Jessica Watkins NASA astronaut and Expedition 75 flight engineer Jessica Watkins works inside the Kibo laboratory module's Life Science Glovebox, safely mixing living cell samples with a bioink and then filling a special cartridge with the cell‑ink mixture. /img/e2b9dfc202a4b3f7.png NASA Science Jinkies, look at all those ghosts! It took 100 hours of observation and a special oxygen filter for today’s image to capture three faint nebulas hidden in the Cassiopeia constellation. IC 59 and IC 63, the original Ghosts of Cassiopeia, haunt the region near multi-star system γ Cassiopeia. Energetic light from γ Cassiopeia causes the hydrogen gas in IC 59 and 63 to glow red. Their dust reflects and scatters some… /img/7301ffa42d8418db.jpg Extratropical Cyclone Whips Past Iceland The powerful low-pressure system formed over the North Atlantic out of the remnants of Hurricane Isaias. The post Extratropical Cyclone Whips Past Iceland appeared first on NASA Science .