NGC 1514
A dying star is blowing giant “bubbles” of gas and dust into space, sculpting the beautiful scene depicted in this…
Jantar Mantar, Jaipur
Jantar Mantar, an observatory in Jaipur, India, was both a scientific and artistic treature. Many of its structures, which formed…
Ulugh Beg Observatory
The Ulugh Beg Observatory, which has been partially reconstructed, was one of the leading centers of astronomical thought several centuries…
InSight Final Selfie
The InSight Mars lander snapped this final selfie in 2022, shortly before it ceased operations. Its circular solar panels were…
Io from Juno
Massive volcanic features dot the surface of Io, one of the large moons of Jupiter, in this December 2023 view…
High Cluster
The globular star cluster Messier 3 sparkles brilliantly in this Hubble Space Telescope image. The cluster is about 34,000 light-years…
Messier 48
A few orange and blue stars highlight the cluster Messier 48, in Hydra, the water snake. Charles Messier discovered the…
Cosmic Bar
Several forms of alcohol, including ethyl alcohol, were discovered a half century ago in Sagittarius B2, a giant cloud of…
Lunar Eclipse from Moon
This illustration depicts a total lunar eclipse as viewed from the Moon. Sunlight filtering through Earth’s atmosphere gives the lunar…
Lunar Lander Flip-Flop
The Athena lunar lander snapped this picture of its landing legs with Earth in the background shortly before it was…