This cloudy, turbulent scene shows a stellar nursery within the Large Magellanic Cloud known as N159. via NASA https://ift.tt/pZi0ghb

The beauty in this image comes in layers. On the bottom layer is the picturesque village of Manlleu in Barcelona, Spain. The six-minute exposure makes car lights into streaks. The next layer is a mountain — Serra de Bellmunt — of Europe’s famous Pyrenees. Next up is a tremendous lightning storm emanating from a classically-shaped […]

If you went outside at the same time every day and took a picture that included the Sun, how would the Sun’s position change? A more visual answer to that question is an analemma, a composite image taken from the same spot at the same time over the course of a year. The featured analemma […]

The Perseverance rover’s Mastcam-Z captured images to create this mosaic on August 4, 2022. The car-sized robot was continuing its exploration of the fan-shaped delta of a river that, billions of years ago, flowed into Jezero Crater on Mars. Sedimentary rocks preserved in Jezero’s delta are considered one of the best places on Mars to […]

The Tarantula Nebula, also known as 30 Doradus, is more than a thousand light-years in diameter, a giant star forming region within nearby satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud. About 180 thousand light-years away, it’s the largest, most violent star forming region known in the whole Local Group of galaxies. The cosmic arachnid sprawls across […]

Astronaut Michael E. López-Alegría, mission specialist, is photographed in this close-up view during one of the STS-92 sessions of extravehicular activity on Oct. 18, 2000. via NASA https://ift.tt/jUCYeb5

For northern hemisphere dwellers, September’s Full Moon was the Harvest Moon. Reflecting warm hues at sunset it rises over the historic town of Castiglione di Sicilia in this telephoto view from September 9. Famed in festival, story, and song Harvest Moon is just the traditional name of the full moon nearest the autumnal equinox. According […]

A little blue heron is seen in front of the Vehicle Assembly Building as preparations for launch continue, Friday, Sept. 2, 2022, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. via NASA https://ift.tt/fdUeu72

It is one of the largest nebulas on the sky — why isn’t it better known? Roughly the same angular size as the Andromeda Galaxy, the Great Lacerta Nebula can be found toward the constellation of the Lizard (Lacerta). The emission nebula is difficult to see with wide-field binoculars because it is so faint, but […]

The International Space Station captured a portion of the Tanggula Mountains near Hala Lake from 260 miles above the Earth on Sept. 5th, 2022. via NASA https://ift.tt/6n7E2op