All articles tagged with #space photography
Voyager 1’s Earth image—the Pale Blue Dot—almost didn’t get taken because engineers feared solar glare would damage the cameras and mission resources were being cut; Carl Sagan repeatedly pitched turning the camera back toward Earth, and after eight years and six requests NASA approved the shot in 1990, producing a tiny pixel-sized dot that became a defining perspective on humanity.
Photography student Tom Liggett sent a 5×4 color negative sealed in a dark bag to about 121,000 feet to expose it directly to cosmic radiation, creating an abstract image from UV-C rays, muons, and distant cosmic particles; a tree punctured the bag causing a yellow bloom; the payload landed in Connecticut and was recovered with landowner permission; Liggett says the result is a more accurate representation of space than a conventional photograph.
An animation of Artemis II Earth photos, remastered by Seán Doran, reveals satellites buzzing around Earth—what looks like stars are actually orbiting objects spotted in a Reddit thread.
NASA released a massive photo dump of over 12,000 images from Artemis 2, the first crewed lunar flyby, captured by astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen. Gizmodo spotlights photos of Earth from space, the Moon’s craters, a solar eclipse, and long-exposure star fields. The full dataset and preliminary mission reports are due in October and are already accessible on NASA’s Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth, which makes sorting through the gallery an immersive but lengthy task.
NASA released a trove of over 12,000 Artemis II images, revealing far-side Moon terrain, a space-based solar eclipse, star trails, and Earth as a distant crescent, including cockpit views; shot with Nikon gear and modified iPhone 17s, the archive is meant to aid future lunar missions and broaden public engagement with deep-space exploration.
NASA released 12,000 previously unseen Artemis II photos captured by the crew with Nikon D5, Nikon Z9 and an iPhone 17, including solar eclipse shots, Moon closeups, and Earthset images, plus candid in-cabin views. While some images are blurry or similar, the collection contains hidden gems and includes metadata; all images are accessible via NASA’s Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth site. Artemis II marks humans’ return to the Moon’s vicinity farther from Earth than ever before, making the photo trove a major record of the mission.
To celebrate Hubble Space Telescope's 36th birthday, Vantor's WorldView Legion satellite captured a close-up image of Hubble from about 61.8 km away, revealing its cylindrical body, thermal shielding, extended solar arrays and the open front aperture. Collected on April 23, 2026, the shot provides a rare up-close view of the iconic instrument that launched in 1990 (aboard Space Shuttle Discovery) and continues to contribute to astronomy; NASA is hopeful Hubble can operate through 2035 despite its aging hardware.
NASA photo instructors say Artemis II astronauts Christina Koch and Victor Glover exceeded expectations during preflight photo training; the crew used a Nikon D5 and an iPhone 17 Pro Max, faced bandwidth limits for transmitting images, and trained to solve on their own to capture crucial imagery for mission operations.
During a far-side lunar flyby, Artemis II captured a rare Earthset image of Earth slipping behind the Moon, a view echoing Apollo-era photography; the seven-hour segment yielded additional observations including a total solar eclipse and planetary light, with the mission ending in splashdown off California.
Artemis 2 astronauts captured a stunning view of the Milky Way’s galactic plane from the Orion capsule, with the pink Homunculus Nebula around Eta Carinae visible in the frame, taken just after their lunar flyby that briefly cut communications with Earth; the crew will perform trajectory corrections as they head back to Earth on their 10‑day mission.
The March 3, 2026 total lunar eclipse produced a dramatic blood-red Moon visible across the Americas, Asia and Oceania as Earth’s shadow swept across the lunar disk. Space photographers worldwide captured a sprawling gallery of partial and total phases, from orange-red eclipses over city skylines to turquoise-lit edges and cloud gaps, illustrating the science of how the Moon turns red during totality and offering a global visual record of the event. The piece also points to upcoming eclipses later in the year, including a solar eclipse on Aug. 12.
ESA’s Proba-2 satellite recorded four viewpoints of the Feb. 17, 2026 annular solar eclipse from orbit, including a spectacular “ring of fire” when about 93% of the Sun was obscured; the SWAP instrument imaged the Sun’s corona in extreme ultraviolet, with the most complete ring visible from remote Antarctica while other locations saw a partial eclipse.
NASA astronaut Chris Williams photographed fireworks over Beijing and Tianjin during Lunar New Year from the ISS Cupola, revealing the city’s lights and highways visible from about 250 miles up. The frame also shows the Cygnus NG-23 cargo spacecraft and the MS-28 Soyuz, while Chinese taikonauts decorated Tiangong and released a space-made music video.
NASA will outfit the Artemis II crew with Nikon Z9 cameras to document images from lunar orbit, with Christina Koch highlighted as the likely standout photographer given her ISS work and inspirations; the mission is historic as it travels farther from Earth than any crewed mission and follows pre-launch testing like a wet dress rehearsal for the SLS.
A sunset over the Pacific is captured by astronauts aboard the International Space Station, which orbits roughly 250 miles above Earth and experiences about 15–16 sunrises and sunsets each day. The image highlights Earth's curved silhouette and the vivid colors produced as sunlight passes through the atmosphere at a different angle, offering a unique perspective on our planet and the ongoing work aboard the ISS.