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NASA

@nasa

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🚀 🌎 Exploring the universe and our home planet. Verification: nasa.gov/socialmedia

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Seeing stars from the International Space Station

Our astronauts on the @ISS have a schedule full of science, learning how to live in space while making life better back on Earth, and private missions to the station stay busy with education, outreach, and other activities.

In their free time, though, our space-dwellers find plenty of ways to have fun—like taking photographs of Earth and space, such as this image from astronaut Don Pettit. This high-resolution pic, captured from SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, is a 24-minute exposure of satellites and stars over Earth's Pacific Ocean.

Image description: Star trails make white tracks, left-to-right, on the left side of this photo. A handful of Starlink satellites appear as brighter blurs. To the right, the orbital sunrise appears as a thin yellow band between space and Earth, a blurred white and blue world.

Credit: NASA/Don Pettit

#NASA #Space #Earth #Astrophotography

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Netflix is teaming up with NASA to bring space a little closer to home! Beginning this summer, Netflix will begin to stream live rocket launches, astronaut spacewalks, mission coverage, and breathtaking live views of earth from the international space station.

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$Better luck in Casa Amor — this dramatic star pair needs a recoupling💥 Gas and dust ejected by a dying star at the heart of this nebula came into focus, thanks to data from @NASAWebb. Its rings, which can only be seen in infrared light, look like “fuzzy” clumps arranged in tangled patterns, and a network of clearer holes close to the central stars shows where faster material punched through. The brighter star in the center is actually two stars that appear as one, which are set off with brilliant diffraction spikes. The stars follow a tight, elongated nine-year orbit and are draped in an arc of dust represented in orange. One of these stars, which used to be several times more massive than our Sun, took the lead role in producing this scene. Once the star’s outer layers were expelled, only its hot, compact core remained. As a white dwarf star, its winds both sped up and weakened, which might have swept up material into thin shells. This scene has been forming for at least 4,000 years — and will continue to change over time. Image description: What looks like a single large, bright star (but is two) shines with bright purple diffraction spikes at the center of a large, diffuse cylinder of gas and dust that is tipped to the right. At the center is a bright pink clumpy cloud that takes up about 25% of the view. The pink region has some holes and diffuse areas. Beyond that are two large rings seen at a roughly 60-degree angle that appear joined at top left and bottom right. The edges are denser, and form shallow V-shapes that go inward. The rings appear orange at top left and bottom right, and are blue at bottom and center right. There is diffuse orange material around the body. The black background of space is speckled with tiny stars and galaxies mostly in blues and yellows. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, NASA-JPL, Caltech, UCLA, Michael Ressler (NASA-JPL), Dave Jones (IAC) #NASA #Space #JWST #Telescope #Webb #Planetary #Nebula$

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The Earth has music for those who listen.

So does one of Earth’s finest phenomena: the aurora. (Also known as the northern lights and aurora borealis in the Northern Hemisphere—or the southern lights and aurora australis in the Southern Hemisphere.)

Pictured here are the northern lights, captured by astronaut Don Pettit aboard the @ISS, as they danced across Earth’s atmosphere. This electric tango happens when charged particles from the Sun move through Earth’s magnetic field and collide with atoms in the upper atmosphere. Depending on which gas is most excited to waltz, different colors will appear.

High-energy electrons cause oxygen to emit green light, while low-energy ones emit red. Nitrogen invites in blue light, and the three often blend together to create an array of pinks, purples, and whites.

Image description: A prominently green aurora streaks through Earth’s atmosphere. The aurora covers most of the image on the right, and above it, streaks of red are visible. One of the space station’s solar arrays is visible on the right-hand side of the image.

Credit: NASA/Don Pettit

#Earth #Aurora #NorthernLights #Lights #ISS #SpaceStation #Astrophotography

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Do you love the color of the (Martian) sky?⁣
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This Martian sunset, captured by our Curiosity rover, looks quite different from a sunset on Earth. Namely, the color — it’s dark blue, not the familiar pink and orange hue we know from sunsets on our planet.⁣
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Dust particles in the Martian atmosphere are responsible for this moody blue. The Sun’s light contains a mix of color, and energetic blue light has an easier time getting straight through the dust than other colors like red and yellow. So, the blue light coming into the Sun’s part of the Martian sky stays closer to the Sun than the other colors in the Sun’s mixed rays, which scatter further away from it. This effect is easiest to see at sunset, because the Sun’s rays have further to travel through the Martian atmosphere.⁣
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Molecules in Earth's atmosphere scatter blue light more than other colors like red and yellow, resulting in the peachy sunsets we know so well from our home planet.⁣
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This image was taken by our Curiosity rover’s left-eye camera. The camera views color very similarly to human vision, but is slightly less sensitive to blue light than our eyes.⁣
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Image description: An image of a sunset on Mars, with the sky illuminated a deep, hazy, steely blue. The Sun itself glows cool white. The horizon is decorated with dark silhouettes of Martian hills.⁣
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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/Texas A&M Univ.⁣
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#NASA #CuriosityRover #Mars #Sunset #FeelingBlue

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We’re going back.⁣
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56 years ago, NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the Moon, becoming the first humans to walk on the lunar surface. Now, we’re working with international and commercial partners to return to the Moon and establish the first long-term presence there, which is a critical step toward our first crewed missions to Mars.⁣
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Like the Moon, Mars is a rich destination for scientific discovery and a driver of technologies that will enable humans to travel and explore far from Earth. What we learn about the Red Planet will tell us more about our Earth’s past and future and may help answer whether life exists beyond our home planet.⁣
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Image description: A close-up view of an astronaut's boot print in the gray lunar soil. The crosses on the image are markings that are used to calibrate distance and heights in photos taken on the lunar surface.⁣
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Credit: NASA⁣
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#NASA #Apollo #Artemis #Moon #Future

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Say cheese!

On July 19, 2013, our Cassini spacecraft had a rare opportunity to show us Saturn, seven of its moons, its inner rings – and, in the background, our home planet. Swipe left and look in between the bright blue E ring and the faint but defined G ring to find Earth. We’re that teeny dot!

Saturn was positioned to block the Sun’s powerful and potentially damaging rays, which let Cassini's onboard cameras take advantage of this unique viewing geometry. With both Cassini's wide-angle and narrow-angle cameras aimed at Saturn, the spacecraft captured 323 images in just over four hours. This natural color mosaic uses 141 of the wide-angle images taken.

This mosaic is special as it marks the third time our home planet was imaged from the outer solar system, the second time it was imaged by Cassini from Saturn's orbit, and the first time ever that inhabitants of Earth were made aware in advance that their photo would be taken from such a great distance.

Image description: This image of Saturn is split down the middle into two halves. Each part shows half of the planet and its rings. Saturn is a dark sphere with a bright outline. Its outermost rings are fuzzy and blue. The rings get crisper as you go inward toward the planet. These inner rings are yellow.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

#NASA #Saturn #Earth #Space #Astrophotography

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Lovely in every lighting 💖⁣
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This new image of the Andromeda galaxy, or Messier 31, was a joint effort of multiple powerful telescopes. It is a composite image of multiple types of light, meaning that multiple images were taken and combined to form the picture you see here. Radio waves, X-rays, and infrared, ultraviolet, and visible light are all incorporated into this image.⁣
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Andromeda is about 2.5 million light-years away, making it the closest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way. It has been instrumental in teaching us about dark matter and the structure and evolution of our own galaxy.⁣
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Image description: The Andromeda galaxy sits diagonally across the backdrop of black space. Faint stars glow in a variety of warm and cool tones in the distance. Andromeda shines brightly in the image, its spiral beginning as a luminous, peachy center flowing out into a deep rosy exterior. Sparkly stars decorate the arms of the galaxy.⁣
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Credit: See go.nasa.gov/andromedaig for the full image credit.⁣
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#NASA #Galaxy #Andromeda #Universe #Teamwork⁣

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Got any cool photos from your latest trip?

Astronaut Don Pettit has been to space four times: most recently, he spent 220 days on the International Space Station, returning to Earth in April 2025. Pettit grew space plants, printed 3D metal parts, and studied human health during his time in orbit. When he wasn't working on more formal studies, though, he found plenty of time for what he calls the "science of opportunity:" exploring and experimenting with his surroundings through a combination of science and art.

This image, one of the countless photos Don Pettit took during his latest trip to the @ISS, shows off the stars of deep space set against the clouds of Earth, lit by the red upper atmospheric airglow. This photo was a 20-second exposure.

Image description: Earth and space, as seen through a circular window. Points of light fill the top half of the image; near its middle, a fiery red line arcs above the blurry yellow-green Earth. A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft can be seen at the bottom of the image.

Credit: NASA/Don Pettit

#NASA #Space #SpaceStation #Astrophotography #Earth

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$Toe beans in space 🐾 To celebrate three years of studying the universe, @NASAWebb has clawed back the thick, dusty layers of a section within the Cat's Paw Nebula. With its infrared vision, our Webb telescope can peer through clouds of gas and dust to uncover what lies beneath. In this case, it's a set of blue, glowing regions of space which could be said to resemble the paw pads of a cat. These toe beans appear to contain young stars shaping the surrounding gas and dust. Towards the center of this image, small, fiery red clumps mark regions where massive star formation is underway. The Cat's Paw Nebula is approximately 4,000 light-years from Earth, and can be found in the constellation Scorpius. Visit nasa.gov/webb to get the full tail... um, tale behind this image. Image description: A section of the Cat’s Paw Nebula. Four roughly circular areas are toward the center of the frame: a small oval toward the top left, a large circle in the top center, and two ovals at bottom left and right. Each circular area has a luminous blue glow. Brown-orange filaments of dust, which vary in density, surround these four bluish patches and stretch toward the frame’s edges. At the center are small, fiery red clumps scattered among the brown dust. Many small, yellow-white stars are spread across the scene, some with eight-pointed diffraction spikes that are characteristic of Webb. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI #NASA #Space #Universe #JWST #Cats$

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We ❤️ Pluto.

Ten years ago today—on July 14, 2015—our New Horizons spacecraft made history, flying less than 8,000 miles (13,000 km) over the surface of Pluto. In addition to taking our closest look ever at the distant, icy world, New Horizons also observed Charon, the largest of Pluto's five moons.

New Horizons studied the famous "heart" on Pluto's surface: its left half, a sheet of nitrogen ice known as Sputnik Planitia, is so big that it literally changed how Pluto rotates. Thanks to New Horizons' photos and data, astronomers now think that Pluto could still have active cryovolcanoes, and may even hold a vast, liquid ocean sloshing beneath its surface.

This image is an enhanced-color view of Pluto, taken when New Horizons was about 280,000 miles (450,000 km) away.

Image description: Pluto stands out in enhanced colors of red, white and tan. Its famous "heart" can be seen near the middle of the image, stretching off into the darkness on the right horizon. The world's surface is pockmarked with craters of various sizes.

Credit: NASA/APL/SwRI

#NASA #Space #Universe #Pluto #NewHorizons

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We tip our hat to this view 🤠 ⁣
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Located about 30 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Virgo, the Sombrero Galaxy is famous for its distinctive shape resembling the brim of a wide hat. ⁣
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On June 3, 2025, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope revealed a clearer view of how the galaxy got its name from the Spanish sombra, meaning ‘shade.’ Under a near-infrared camera, the central cluster of old stars at the galaxy’s core glow brightly, while thick lanes of dust block starlight in the outer ring to create a shadowed disk. ⁣
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But hold onto your hat: this galaxy may have a turbulent past. Studies suggest the Sombrero was shaped by a violent merger with at least one other galaxy. Webb’s latest near-infrared view, combined with other NASA telescope observations at different wavelengths, help astronomers piece together how galaxies like the Sombrero form and evolve. ⁣
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Image description: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s new image of the Sombrero galaxy in near-infrared wavelengths shows dust from the outer ring blocking starlight from the inner portions of the galaxy. A bright, central bulge of stars is surrounded by a darker, dusty ring that arcs across the image, giving the galaxy its hat-like appearance. The background is dotted with faint stars and galaxies. ⁣
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Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI ⁣
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#SombreroGalaxy #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope #NASA #Webb #Galaxy #VirgoConstellation

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