Stormy Giant
This artist’s concept shows powerful lightning bolts in high clouds on Jupiter, the solar system’s largest planet, as detected by…
Blue Gems
Brilliant blue stars highlight this view of Messier 47, a star cluster roughly 1,600 light-years from Earth in the southern…
Extinct Constellations
Father Maximillian Hell created a new constellation, George’s Harp, in 1789 to honor England’s King George III, patron of astronomer…
Brilliant Visitor
Comet Hyakutake shows off its long, bright tail in this image from March 25, 1996. The comet passed less than…
Fading Ray
Images from Hubble Space Telescope taken two decades apart show dramatic changes in the Stingray Nebula, the last gasp of…
Seeing Rings
Hubble Space Telescope captured this false-color image of Uranus and its rings in 1998. The rings actually are much fainter…
Disintegrating Family
This family of stars, Messier 48, is falling apart. It consists of hundreds of stars of various masses, sizes, and…
Distant Habitat?
This color-enhanced image shows Enceladus, one of the moons of Saturn. It is one of the most reflective bodies in…
Hazardous Duty
Astronomical observatories often are surrounded by forests, which can create a fire hazard. In this view from 2011, for example,…
Scary Descent
The Perseverance rover will face a daunting series of events as it descends to the surface of Mars on February…