Space can be a wondrous place, and we've got the pictures to prove it! Take a look at our favorite space pictures here, and if you're wondering what happened to today in space history don't miss our On This Day in Space video show here!
Monday, Dec. 30: President Carter and NASA
Monday, December 30, 2024: On Sunday, Dec. 29, President Jimmy Carter died at age 100, but leaves a long legacy of public service behind. He also leaves a space legacy, as Carter served as U.S. president during the development of NASA's space shuttles and the launch of the Voyager spacecraft, the first human-made objects ever to leave the solar system. Carter recorded a message on the Voyager's Golden Record for anyone to hear who recovers it.
“’If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message: This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts, and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe." -- Jimmy Carter
In this image, Carter (left), First Lady Rosalynn Carter and their daughter Amy are shown a scale model of the crawler that transported the total shuttle launch configuration to Pad 39 from the Vehicle Assembly Building by NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Director Lee Scherer in 1978. -- Tariq Malik
Friday, Dec. 27: Dish it up
Friday, December 27, 2024: Here's a dish you CAN'T sink your teeth into.
This image, taken on Dec. 18, shows NASA's new Deep Space Station 23 reflector dish as it is lowered into place as the space agency upgrades its iconic Deep Space Network, the collection or radio dishes around the world that keeps the agency in contact with its spacecraft and missions across the solar system. Deep Space Station, located at the NASA's Goldstone facility in California, brings the total number of radio antennas operated by DSN to 15 " to support increased demand for the world’s largest and most sensitive radio frequency telecommunication system" agency officials said. -- Tariq Malik
Thursday, Dec. 26: A space sunrise for Christmas
Thursday, December 26, 2024: A new dawn breaks in orbit as NASA astronaut Nick Hague captured this view of the twilight just ahead of sunrise on Christmas morning at the International Space Station.
"One of the hardest things to capture in a photo or video is how dynamic and captivating light is as it breaks over the horizon before sunrise," Hague wrote in a post on X for Christmas. "Blue gives way to yellow, then orange, revealing the full arc of the horizon. Each sunrise is a gift to behold. Merry Christmas to all!"
Hague is one of seven astronauts currently living aboard the ISS and is in the midst of a six-month stay on the orbiting lab. -- Tariq Malik
A holly jolly space Christmas
Wednesday, December 25, 2024: A white Christmas with snow may be the norm on Earth for those who celebrate, but what about in space? Here, four of the seven astronauts on the International Space Station show off their holiday cheer while recording a video to Earth about Christmas in space.
ISS commander Sunita Williams (right) released some Christmas tree ornaments decorated with photos of family members to float around the tree, while crewmate Don Pettit (top left) proudly showed off the Christmas dinner the crew will share. At top right is Butch Wilmore, wearing what appears to be a Santa hat combined with a cowboy hat, while Nick Hague at lower left thanked everyone on Earth, in Mission Control and elsewhere, who are spending their holidays away from family to support the ISS crew. -- Tariq Malik
NASA unveils a cosmic Christmas wreath!
Tuesday, December 24, 2024: NASA has already gifted us with a cosmic Christmas tree to marvel at during the 2024 festive season, and now these veritable space Santas delight our eyes with a Christmas wreath of stars. This new festive image of NGC 602 was created using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Chandra X-ray Space Observatory.
Wreaths have been used throughout human history to represent the cycle of life and death, and this cosmic Christmas wreath suitably represents the same cycle on a universal scale.
The wreath is actually NGC 602, a star cluster that dwells around 200,000 light-years away at the edge of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), one of the Milky Way's small satellite galaxies. Because the stars in NGC 602 and other SMC star clusters are lacking in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, which astronomers call "metals," they can be used as a proxy to study the "metal-poor" first generation of stellar objects.
There's no better way to wish all our readers a very happy holiday!
Read More: Star imaged in detail outside the Milky Way for the 1st time (image, video)
X-59 hits the afterburner
Monday, December 23, 2024: Engineers with NASA and Lockheed Martin recently completed the first full afterburner test on the revolutionary new X-59 'quiet' supersonic jet. The X-59 was designed from the ground-up to break the sound barrier without generating the characteristic thunderous sonic booms that supersonic flight is known for. The aircraft fired its engine for the first time in November 2024, and engineers are working towards the jet's first flight which will see the X-59 fly over select populated areas to see how people on the ground perceive and respond to the quieter "thumps" it produces when breaking the sound barrier.
Read more: NASA will fly F-15s through supersonic shock waves behind its experimental X-59 jet
Christmas Tree nebula gets some fresh ornaments
Friday, December 20, 2024: We've all looked for shapes in Earth's clouds. But what about shapes in space clouds? If you glance at NGC 2264, you'll see very quickly why this cluster of stars is nicknamed the "Christmas Tree Cluster." This cluster has become the recent subject of astrophotographer Michael Clow, who imaged it from Arizona in November. His optical data have been combined with X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory to create this beautiful Christmas tree-like image of NGC 2264, showcasing not only the stars themselves, but also the gas clouds between them. — Stefanie Waldek
Read more: NASA space telescopes give Christmas Tree Cluster a festive makeover (photos)
It's Krytpo!
Thursday, December 19, 2024: Did you see it?? The new 'Superman' trailer?? It's Krypto, y'all! The DOG! Dragging Superman through the snow to save him! Who's a good boy?? It's Krypto! Read more: Everything we know about James Gunn's 'Superman'
Suni beaming with an Astrobee
Wednesday, December 18, 2024: What could be better than NASA astronaut Suni Williams floating aboard the International Space Station with Bumble, the blue, bunny-eared Astrobee. Bumble is one of three cube-shaped robo-helpers developed by NASA to assist astronauts aboard the space station. The free-flying robots perform various tasks, including documenting experiments or taking inventory, and are able to navigate, dock and recharge themselves autonomously within the orbiting lab.
NASA astronaut Suni Williams, who is currently serving as Expedition 72 Commander on the ISS, smiles for a photo with the robotic flyer in the Kibo laboratory module in a new image shared by NASA. Williams can be seen imitating the robot's curved arms, which are being tested to wrap around objects for satellite maintenance and space debris management.
Read more: NASA astronaut Suni Williams poses with adorable tentacle-armed Astrobee robot on ISS
Feel the burn this season
Tuesday, December 17, 2024: If you're not yet in the holiday spirit, NASA is here to bring you the rest of the way. The space agency created a virtual fireplace lit by the engines of its huge Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which sent the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission to the moon in November 2022.
In this photo, the fireplace can be seen displayed on NASA's mission countdown clock at the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, with one of the world's largest buildings, the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), standing tall in the background.
Read more: Warm up this holiday season with NASA's new SLS rocket engine fireplace (video)
Observe the Geminids!
Monday, December 16, 2024: In Hawaii, astronomers with Japan's Subaru Telescope atop Maunakea in captured a stunning image of more than 100 Geminid meteors streaking across star trails in a long-exposure view from the observatory's camera.
"The Subaru-Asahi Star Camera at the Subaru Telescope Facility, Maunakea, Hawai‘i, captured over 150 meteors in one hour from 1:10 to 2:10 a.m. on December 13, 2024 (HST) despite the bright moonlight, as shown in this summary picture," officials with the observatory said on X, formerly Twitter, while sharing the photo. "Most meteors belong to Geminids."
Read more: See the best Geminid meteor shower 2024 photos from around the world
A satellite's circle of aurora
Thursday, December 12, 2024: As the year approaches its end, everyone is rounding up their best images of 2024. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is joining in, asking social media users to help choose their "most compelling" satellite image.
Pictured here, a Day-Night Band image from NOAA's JPSS Program satellites, showing Earth's northern hemisphere from above, crowned in a ring of aurora borealis.
Saturn's elusive dark ring spokes
Wednesday, December 11, 2024: NASA is celebrating ten years of the Hubble Space Telescope's Outer Planter Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, which helps track weather and seasonal changes in the atmospheres of our solar system's gas giants. One of OPAL's observations has helped astronomers Saturn's elusive dark ring spokes. First discovered by NASA's Voyager mission in the 1980s, these dark rings only last for two or three rotations around Saturn. Thanks to Hubble, astronomers now know the rings to be a seasonally-driven phenomenon.
Through a Dragon's eye
Tuesday, December 10, 2024: Through the window of a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, the small structure of the International Space Station (ISS) can be seen flying above the clouds below. This photo was taken by a Crew-8 astronaut as their Dragon spacecraft undocked and departed the ISS above the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Chile.
Moon photobombs atmospheric probe test
Monday, December 9, 2024: NASA photographer Steve Freeman caught a lucky shot of the moon photobombing a drone carrying a model of an atmospheric probe being developed by NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The quad rotor carried the probe to a test altitude before releasing it over Rogers Dry Lake, a flight test area next to the NASA center.
That's no moon...
Wednesday, December 4, 2024: Well, yeah, it's definitely not a moon, but it does sort of looks like a half-assembled Death Star in "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi", which is also not a moon. This is, in fact, the European Southern Observatory's (ESO's) Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) under construction. The skeleton of one of ESO's flagship cosmic imager for the coming decades can be seen here coming together piece by piece in the mountains of Chile’s Atacama Desert. Once complete, ELT's enormous primary mirror will measure 128 feet (39 meters) across.
The cupola the keeps on giving
Tuesday, December 4, 2024: Few things beat the view of a good sunset, even when that view happens on repeat 16 times a day. Thanks to the altitude and inclination of the International Space Station's orbit, that's exactly how many sunsets astronauts living aboard the orbital lab get to experience. In this photo, NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson peers out the station's cupola module as the sun sinks behind the shadowy face of Earth's night side. 262 miles below, the blue tint of the South Atlantic Ocean paints the faded arch of Earth's horizon with a soft glow, lit from the falling sun like Dyson's face as she stares at our home planet.
A stretch of Milky Way
Monday, December 2, 2024: Between these two blocky buildings, the arm of our Milky Way stretches into the night sky. This photo was taken from European Southern Observatory's (ESO's) Very Large Telescope (VLT), high in the Chilean mountains. Pictured, the VLT's fourth Unit Telescope, stands like two pillars guiding the galaxy's arm.
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