Under the Midnight Sun

In September 2017, a new iceberg calved from Pine Island Glacier—one of the main outlets where the West Antarctic Ice Sheet flows into the ocean.

Naples at Night

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photograph of the city lights of Naples and the Campania region of southern Italy.

Kwanzaa Tholus on Ceres

These images show a subtle feature on dwarf planet Ceres called Kwanzaa Tholus.

Hubble's Holiday Nebula “Ornament”

The Hubble Space Telescope captured what looks like a colorful holiday ornament in space. It's actually an image of NGC 6326, a planetary nebula with glowing wisps of outpouring gas.

Launch Day!

On Dec. 21, 1968, the Apollo 8 crew leaves the Kennedy Space Center's then-named Manned Spacecraft Operations Building during the mission's prelaunch countdown on the way to their history-making lunar orbiting flight.

Hello From Above

Greetings from @Astro_Sabot, otherwise known as Mark Vande Hei, from aboard the International Space Station.

The Bluest of Ice

Acquired on November 29 by Operation IceBridge during a flight to Victoria Land, this image shows an iceberg floating in Antarctica's McMurdo Sound.

Seeing an X-Plane's Sonic Boom

This schlieren image shows an Air Force Test Pilot School T-38 in a transonic state, meaning the aircraft is transitioning from a subsonic speed to supersonic.

New Research Launches to Space Station Aboard SpaceX Resupply Mission

The two-stage Falcon 9 launch vehicle lifts off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying the Dragon resupply spacecraft to the International Space Station. Dragon will bring supplies, equipment and new science experiments for technology research to the orbiting laboratory.

Soyuz Carrying Expedition 53 Crew Lands in Kazakhstan

The Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 53 Commander Randy Bresnik of NASA and Flight Engineers Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency) and Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian space agency Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2017.

The Fault in Our Mars

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) of northern Meridiani Planum shows faults that have disrupted layered deposits.

Chandra Reveals the Elementary Nature of Cassiopeia A

Due to its unique evolutionary status, Cassiopeia A (Cas A) is one of the most intensely studied of these supernova remnants.

Science From the Moon’s Shadow

The Aug. 21, 2017, total solar eclipse was rare in its long, uninterrupted path over land, which provided scientists with a rare chance to investigate the Sun and its influence on Earth in ways that aren’t usually possible. On Dec. 11, researchers discussed initial findings based on observations gathered during the eclipse.

Tea Grove

Retrospective: Moon

This false-color image is composed of 15 images taken through three color filters by NASA's Galileo spacecraft as it passed through the Earth-Moon system on Dec. 8, 1992.

NASA's Science Aircraft Flies Over Thomas Fire in California

During an engineering flight test of the Cloud-Aerosol Multi-Angle Lidar (CAMAL) instrument, a view from NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center’s ER-2 aircraft shows smoke plumes, from roughly 65,000 feet, produced by the Thomas Fire in Ventura County, California, around 1 p.m. PST on Dec. 5th, 2017.

Cygnus Cargo Spacecraft at Sunrise

NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik photographed Orbital ATK's Cygnus cargo spacecraft at sunrise, prior to its departure from the International Space Station at 8:11 a.m., Dec. 6, 2017. Expedition 53 Flight Engineers Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba of NASA gave the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm the command to release Cygnus.

Cloud Streets in the Sea of Okhotsk

Frigid air blowing from Eastern Russia created dramatic cloud formations over the Sea of Okhotsk in late November, 2017. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite acquired a true-color image of the stunning scene on November 25.

Space Station Transits the Moon

The International Space Station is seen in silhouette as it transits the Moon at roughly five miles per second, Dec. 2, 2017, in Manchester Township, York County, Pennsylvania. Onboard are NASA astronauts Joe Acaba, Mark Vande Hei, and Randy Bresnik; Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Sergey Ryanzansky; and ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli.

Hubble Sees Galaxy Cluster Warping Space and Time

The Hubble Space Telescope peers into the distant universe to reveal a galaxy cluster called Abell 2537.

Space Station in the Sky Over Washington D.C.

The International Space Station is seen in this twenty-second exposure as it flies over the Washington National Cathedral, Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017. Onboard are: NASA astronauts Joe Acaba, Mark Vande Hei, and Randy Bresnik; Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Sergey Ryanzansky; and ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli.

A Proving Ground in Space

Dellingr is a shoebox-sized spacecraft built to show that CubeSat platforms could be cost-effective, reliable and capable of gathering highly robust science.

Colorado Backroad

Alpha and Omega

These two images illustrate just how far Cassini traveled to get to Saturn.

The Fresh Air of Saentis Mountain

Rising Above the Fog

Star Wanders Too Close to a Black Hole

This artist's rendering shows the tidal disruption event named ASASSN-14li, where a star wandering too close to a 3-million-solar-mass black hole was torn apart. The debris gathered into an accretion disk around the black hole.

The Beauty of Ice

Ice can be stunningly beautiful and also quite varied in its appearance.

Tending Your Garden ... In Space

If you plant it, will it grow (in space)? The answer is yes, at least for certain types of plants.

Behold! Observing the Sun

A broad hole in the corona was the Sun's dominant feature November 7-9, 2017.

Jovian Tempest

This color-enhanced image of a massive, raging storm in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft.

A Bavarian Sunset

Sunrise Flight to the Space Station

Orbital ATK's Cygnus resupply ship with its cymbal-ike UltraFlex solar arrays approaches the International Space Station on Nov. 14, 2017.

How to See the Atmosphere

How can you see the atmosphere? The answer is blowing in the wind.

The Rock at Rainier

Mariner 9 Sees Shield Volcano on Mars

On November 14, 1971, Mariner ( took this image of a shield volcano on Mars.

Our Living Earth ... From Space

Can you identify this river?

Liftoff! Orbital Antares Rocket Launches From Wallops Flight Facility

The Orbital ATK Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, launches from Pad-0A, Sunday, Nov. 12, 2017

Impenetrable

Astronaut Jack Fischer With Honor Flight Veterans

NASA astronaut Jack Fischer talks with veterans at the World War II Memorial who traveled to Washington, DC with the Buffalo Niagara Honor Flight. Fischer, a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, wrote, "Few things can compare to the honor of meeting WWII, Korea and Vietnam vets today--thank you for your sacrifices to keep us all free."

Earth as Viewed From 10,000 Miles

On November 9, 1969, the uncrewed Apollo 4 test flight made a great ellipse around Earth as a test of the translunar motors and of the high speed entry required of a crewed flight returning from the Moon.

Sassolungo

Rare Encircling Filament

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory came across an oddity that the spacecraft has rarely observed before: a dark filament encircling an active region (Oct. 29-31, 2017). Solar filaments are clouds of charged particles that float above the sun, tethered to it by magnetic forces.

Slieve League Ireland

Space Station Crew Sees Lots of Clouds

Expedition 53 Flight Engineer Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency (ESA) photographed cloudy skies over Sudan during an International Space Station flyover on Oct. 22, 2017. Nespoli shared the image with his followers on social media on Nov. 6, writing, "#EarthFromSpace means also... Lots of clouds! How do they look from below?"

Pandora, the Would-Be Perturber

As Cassini hurtled toward its fatal encounter with Saturn, the spacecraft turned to catch this final look at Saturn's moon Pandora next to the thin line of the F ring.

Tests Ensure Astronaut, Ground Crew Safety Before Orion Launches

NASA is performing a series of tests to evaluate how astronauts and ground crew involved in final preparations before Orion missions will quickly get out of the spacecraft, if an emergency were to occur on the pad prior to launch.

Revealing What Lies Beneath

This false-color image demonstrates how use of special filters available on the Curiosity Mars rover's Mast Camera (Mastcam) can reveal the presence of certain minerals in target rocks. T

From Hot to Hottest

This sequence of images shows the Sun from its surface to its upper atmosphere all taken at about the same time on Oct. 27, 2017.

Learning to Walk Before Heading to Space

Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen is suspended over a mock-up of the International Space Station during a microgravity simulation.