Image of the Day Archives
For older Image of the Day pictures, please visit the Image of the Day archives. Pictured: NGC 2467.
See the Colorful Bedrock of Mars' Hale Crater
Friday, June 1, 2018: Taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, this photo highlights the exposed, colorful bedrock of the planet's Hale Crater. This impact crater measures over 62 miles (100 km) across and is marked by a number of stunning visual features. — Chelsea Gohd
Vibrant Activity on the Sun
Monday, June 4, 2018: Small solar flares and magnetic field lines can be seen here, imaged by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. This active area was imaged between May 23 and May 25, and the magnetic field lines are lit up brightly with charged particles. This image is so brilliantly colored because it was taken in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light. — Chelsea Gohd
Soyuz Rolled Out to Launchpad
Tuesday, June 5, 2018: On Monday, June 4, a Soyuz rocket was transported to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrone in Kazakhstan. The rocket is scheduled to launch NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst, and Soyuz Commander Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos to the International Space Station on Wednesday, June 6. — Chelsea Gohd
Snow on Mars!
Wednesday, June 6, 2018: NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed Martian dunes which surround the Red Planet's North Pole. In the winter, these dunes are covered with dry ice, but as the early days of summer are upon us, this dry ice is quickly disappearing. Now, can see only small patches of this ice on the red dunes. — Chelsea Gohd
Soyuz Rocket Launch
Thursday, June 7, 2018: Wednesday (June 6), Expedition 56 Soyuz Commander and cosmonaut Sergei Prokopyev, NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They will spend the next six months living and working aboard the International Space Station, where the Cygnus spacecraft recently delivered a payload of supplies and scientific equipment. — Chelsea Gohd
Hubble's Stunning View of a Spiral Galaxy
Friday, June 8, 2018: Recently, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured a remarkable view of a spiral galaxy. This galaxy, NGC 1032, sits approximately a hundred million light-years from Earth. From another angle, you might be able to see this spiral galaxy's fantastic disc shape. But from this angle, the galaxy appears as a gleaming sliver in space. - Chelsea Gohd
Lightning on Jupiter
Monday, June 11, 2018: This artistic visualization shows lightning in Jupiter's northern hemisphere. This stunning visual combines a real image from JunoCam with the lightning added artistically. NASA's Juno mission collected data that could mean that most lightning activity on the planet occurs at its poles. Read our full story of lightning on Jupiter! — Chelsea Gohd
Blue Dunes on the Red Planet
Tuesday, June 12, 2018: A field of blue sand dunes sweeps across the floor of Lyot Crater on Mars. These barchan, or crescent-shaped dune structures are formed by persistent winds that constantly blow in the same direction across a flat region with a limited amount of sand. In this color-enhanced image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the sandy, blue material is finer and has a different composition than the surrounding area on the crater floor. — Hanneke Weitering
A Galactic 'Bridge' Shimmers Over La Silla
Wednesday, June 13, 2018: The Milky Way and other celestial objects light up the sky over the La Silla observatory in Chile in this panorama by European Southern Observatory (ESO) photo ambassador Petr Horálek. In this unique view, the Milky Way appears to form a bridge between two of La Silla's telescopes: the ESO 3.6-meter telescope (left) and the Swedish-ESO Submillimeter Telescope. Also visible are two neighboring galaxies known as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (top right), the Gum Nebula (center) and Jupiter (lower left). — Hanneke Weitering
Astronauts Take a Spacewalk
Thursday, June 14, 2018: NASA astronauts Drew Feustel (right) and Ricky Arnold float weightlessly in the vacuum of space while working outside the International Space Station during today's 6.5-hour spacewalk. Here, the astronauts are routing power cables before beginning the installation of new high-definition cameras. — Hanneke Weitering
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