Orion and the Ocean of Storms
12.12.2025

On December 5, 2022, a camera on board the uncrewed Orion spacecraft captured this view as Orion approached its return powered flyby of the Moon. Beyond one of Orion's extended solar arrays lies dark, smooth, terrain along the western edge of the Oceanus Procellarum.

Folding Europa
25.08.2000

Astypalaea Linea on Jovian ice moon Europa is the broad smooth region running through these images recorded by the Galileo spacecraft in 1998. The pictures are different computer processed versions of the same mosaic -- on the left, small scale details have been enhanced while on the right, large scale features are emphasized.

APOD: 2025 September 1 Б Callisto: Dirty Battered Iceball
31.08.2025

Its surface is the most densely cratered in the Solar System -- but what's inside? Jupiter's moon Callisto is a battered ball of dirty ice that is larger than the planet Mercury.

Rotating Titan in Infrared Light
14.02.2006

Titan is one of the strangest places in our Solar System. The only moon known with thick clouds, this unusual satellite of Saturn shows evidence of evaporating lakes created by methane rain. The clouds...

Windblown NGC 3199
5.05.2021

NGC 3199 lies about 12,000 light-years away, a glowing cosmic cloud in the nautical southern constellation of Carina. The nebula is about 75 light-years across in this narrowband, false-color view. Though the deep...

Shadows at the Moons South Pole
9.04.2022

Was this image of the Moon's surface taken with a microscope? No -- it's a multi-temporal illumination map made with a wide-angle camera. To create it, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft collected...

APOD: 2023 December 20 Б Ice Halos over Bavaria
19.12.2023

What's causing those unusual sky arcs? Ice crystals. While crossing a field of fresh snow near Fцssen, Bavaria, Germany, earlier this month, the photographer noticed that he had entered an ice fog.

A View Toward M106
21.02.2024

Big, bright, beautiful spiral, Messier 106 dominates this cosmic vista. The nearly two degree wide telescopic field of view looks toward the well-trained constellation Canes Venatici, near the handle of the Big Dipper. Also...

APOD: 2025 January 12 Б Mimas: Small Moon with a Big Crater
11.01.2025

Whatever hit Mimas nearly destroyed it. What remains is one of the largest impact craters on one of Saturn's smallest round moons. Analysis indicates that a slightly larger impact would have destroyed Mimas entirely.

Voyager at 90 AU
19.11.2003

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 is now about 12 light-hours or 90 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun, making this spacecraft humanity's most distant ambassador to the cosmos. Well beyond the orbits...