All articles tagged with #space photography
Orbiting spacecraft captured stunning views of the Aug. 12 total solar eclipse: NASA astronaut Jessica Meir photographed the Moon moving across the Sun from the ISS with about 18% sun coverage; ESA’s Proba-3 mission recorded a rare double eclipse using its occulter and coronagraph; ESA’s MTG-I1 imager captured the Moon’s shadow darkening Earth; NOAA’s GOES-19 also imaged the event, with Space.com featuring a photo roundup of additional views.
NASA astronaut Anil Menon photographed a massive typhoon swirling over the Pacific Ocean from the ISS cupola on Aug. 2, 2026, using an iPhone; the image highlights Earth’s power and shows how astronauts can capture stunning space‑born Earth photos, with the storm likely being Super Typhoon Dolphin, downgraded to a category 3 as it heads toward Okinawa. The piece also notes ongoing advances in astronaut photography and mentions NASA’s plan to retire the ISS around 2030.
Astronaut Don Pettit shared a Milky Way image captured from the International Space Station’s Cupola, taken with a Nikon Z9 and ARRI Zeiss 15mm lens using a sidereal drive to cancel star motion; he says it’s one of his favorite Milky Way shots and has just received 1.2 million raw files from his latest mission, sparking widespread awe on social media.
NASA maintains a vast, public-domain archive of images and videos across the NASA Image and Video Library, NASA Images, the NASA Johnson Flickr page, and NASA social accounts. The article walks readers through finding and downloading content, noting EXIF data usefulness for photographers, and cautions that browsing can be overwhelming. It highlights examples from Artemis II and other iconic shots, and provides tips to refine searches and keep track of multiple NASA channels for fresh imagery.
A photography student from Arts University Bournemouth launched sealed film on a high-altitude balloon to the edge of space to capture cosmic radiation directly on the film emulsion, creating abstract celestial images without a camera; the negatives were recovered in Connecticut after the 100,000+ foot ascent, and the HELIOS project aims to push for larger formats and deeper space shots.
Carl Sagan pressed NASA for a photo of Earth from about six billion kilometers away—a shot scientifically almost pointless but powerfully perspective-shifting. Voyager 1 finally captured Earth on 14 February 1990 as a speck smaller than a pixel; it had taken eight years and six separate requests to approve. The image yielded little data, but gave humanity a fixed view of where we actually sit in the cosmos, with Sagan calling Earth “a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam,” turning the Pale Blue Dot into one of history’s most haunting symbols of our place in the universe.
NASA’s Artemis II crew photographed Earth from the nightside as their Orion spacecraft departed for the Moon, capturing a rare simultaneous display of northern and southern auroras. The moonlit Earth scene was illuminated by sunlight reflected off the Pink Moon, revealing city lights and other space phenomena like zodiacal light and Venus in a single frame.
Nature’s May image roundup highlights the month’s sharpest science photos, from NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter tests on Mars and a dramatic Milky Way nightscape to a refreshed Hubble view of the Trifid Nebula, plus bioluminescent art and other striking natural phenomena illustrating how scientists capture the universe and Earth’s wonders.
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.