On May 29, 2017, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured the data for this image of an ongoing phytoplankton bloom in the Black Sea. The image is a mosaic, composed from multiple satellite passes over the region. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
Illustration of Cool Dust Around an Active Black Hole
This artist illustration shows the thick ring of dust that can obscure the energetic processes that occur near the supermassive black hole of an active galactic nuclei. Researchers have found that the dust surrounding active, ravenous black holes is much more compact than previously thought. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
NASA astronaut Jack Fischer took this photograph of an American flag in one of the windows of the International Space Station's cupola, a dome-shaped module through which operations on the outside of the station can be observed and guided. Throughout NASA's history, spacecraft and launch vehicles have always been decorated with flags. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
NASA's Cassini spacecraft sees bright methane clouds drifting in the summer skies of Saturn's moon Titan, along with dark hydrocarbon lakes and seas clustered around the north pole. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
NASA’s Juno spacecraft was racing away from Jupiter following its seventh close pass of the planet when JunoCam snapped this image on May 19, 2017, from about 29,100 miles (46,900 kilometers) above the cloud tops. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
Webb Telescope Set for Testing in Space Simulation Chamber
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope sits in front of the door to Chamber A, a giant thermal vacuum chamber located at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The telescope will soon be moved into the chamber, where it will spend a hot Houston summer undergoing tests at sub-freezing cryogenic temperatures. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
Deployment of the Space Station's Roll Out Solar Array Experiment
Over the weekend of June 17-18, engineers on the ground remotely operated the International Space Station's Canadarm2 to extract the Roll Out Solar Array experiment from the SpaceX Dragon resupply ship. The experiment will remain attached to the Canadarm2 over seven days to test this advanced, flexible array that rolls out like a tape measure. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
Visualization of the August 21, 2017 Total Solar Eclipse
On August 21, 2017, the Earth will cross the shadow of the moon, creating a total solar eclipse. Eclipses happen about every six months, but this one is special. For the first time in almost 40 years, the path of the moon's shadow passes through the continental United States. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
This image was acquired by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on April 18, 2017, at 14:04 local Mars time. It reminded the HiRISE team of the rugged and open terrain of a stark shore-line, perhaps of the British Isles. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
Hubble Uses Gravitational Lens to Capture Disk Galaxy
By combining the power of a "natural lens" in space with the capability of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers made a surprising discovery—the first example of a compact yet massive, fast-spinning, disk-shaped galaxy that stopped making stars only a few billion years after the big bang. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
NASA's Cassini spacecraft peers toward a sliver of Saturn's sunlit atmosphere while the icy rings stretch across the foreground as a dark band. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
As the Sun Rises, NASA's Global Hawk is Being Prepared for Flight
Hot summer days in Southern California’s Antelope Valley force many aircraft operations to start early in the morning before the sun rises. On a back ramp at Armstrong Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, a NASA Global Hawk goes through testing of its communication components and satellite connection links in preparation for flight. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
Expedition 52 Flight Engineer Jack Fischer of NASA photographed the glowing nighttime lights of an aurora from his vantage point in the International Space Station's cupola module on June 19, 2017. Part of the station's solar array is also visible. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
NASA astronaut Jack Fischer photographed the SpaceX Dragon capsule as it reentered Earth's atmosphere before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California at 8:12 a.m. EDT, July 3, 2017. Fischer commented, "Beautiful expanse of stars-but the “long” orange one is SpaceX-11 reentering!" (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
NASA astronauts Jack Fischer and Peggy Whitson celebrated the Fourth of July from over 250 miles above Earth on the International Space Station. Fischer shared this photo on social media and said, "We sometimes have issues standing up straight, but we have no problems at all showing our American pride-Happy 4th!" (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
This Week in NASA History: Apollo AS-203 Launches -- July 5, 1966
This week in 1966, the AS-203 rocket launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The Apollo AS-203 mission was an uncrewed test of the vehicle’s second stage, the S-IVB stage, and the instrument unit of the Saturn V to obtain flight information under orbital conditions. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
Vice President Mike Pence Visits Kennedy Space Center
Vice President Mike Pence addresses NASA employees, Thursday, July 6, 2017, at the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)