Best Shot
The New Horizons spacecraft snapped this view of Pluto (bottom) and its largest moon, Charon (top) from a range of…
The Homunculus
The near-death of a massive star created this vast peanut-shaped cloud of gas and dust, known as the Homunculus Nebula.…
Cold Landing
This sequence of images depicts the landing of the Huygens probe on Saturn’s moon Titan on January 14, 2005. Clockwise…
Evidence of an Encounter
A kink in one of its spiral arms suggests that the galaxy M66 recently staged a close encounter with a…
Fiery Sky
A brilliant aurora blazes high in Earth’s atmosphere in this photo from the International Space Station. An aurora forms when…
Bright Future
A burned-out Earth bakes in the heat of the red-giant Sun in this illustration depicting our planet’s bright, hot future.…
Underground Astronomy
Scientists look for the most elusive particles in the universe in underground laboratories, such as this one adjacent to an…
Former Neighbor
A system known as Scholz’s Star passes just 0.8 light-years from the Sun as seen in this artist’s concept. That…
Into Darkness
This illustration depicts laboratory experiments designed to simulate the interiors of giant planets. The National Ignition Facility, at Lawrence Livermore…
Old Sparklers
Thousands of ancient stars sparkle in the heart of M13, one of the largest star clusters in the Milky Way…