SpaceX's Cargo Dragon capsule shines in the sunlight over Earth as it departs from the International Space Station in a new image snapped from onboard the station.

What is it?

Peering through the window of the International Space Station (ISS), NASA astronaut Jessica Meir snapped a striking photo as she watched a SpaceX Cargo Dragon capsule depart from the station.

With sunbeams gleaming downward, reflecting off of the spacecraft's hull, the Dragon can be seen backing away from the station mere moments after undocking from the port on the station's Harmony module. The undocking is so recent that you can clearly see both the docking port and the hatch of the Dragon where the two connected.

The Dragon disconnected from the space station on June 16, and just one day later, parachuted into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California where it was retrieved, chock-full of cargo and finished science experiments.

Why is it incredible?

The space station has been in orbit since 1998 and continuously occupied since November, 2000. With decades of work in orbit, it can be easy to take for granted the incredible transport system that supports cutting-edge research hundreds of miles above Earth's surface.

The work done on the station is impressive, but this system is just as mind-boggling. In addition to launching and returning astronauts who perform critical maintenance and repair work on the station on top of their research duties, cargo missions keep the station stocked.

From food and clothing to medical equipment and intricate science experiments, these missions are essential for both keeping astronauts safe and healthy on station as well as continuing the progression of science in-orbit. This back-and-forth between Earth and the space station is an impressive feat, and this photo shows the system fully in-motion.

The image of the day for Monday (June 22) shows the star-forming clouds of Orion A in stunning detail.

Released as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Picture of the Month, the image further demonstrates the impact the $10 billion space telescope has had on our view of the cosmos since it began operations in July 2022.

What is Orion A?

Located around 1,300 light-years from Earth and situated to the south of Orion's Belt in the night sky, Orion A is one of the largest and closest molecular clouds to our planet. Shaped like a filament, this structure of gas and dust is around 290 light-years long.

Part of the Orion molecular cloud complex, Orion A is a packed stellar nursery. Over the last few million years alone, it is estimated that Orion A has given birth to around 3,000 stellar objects.

The molecular cloud is also host to many young protostars surrounded by platters of gas and dust called protoplanetary disks, which, as the name suggests, will form planets. Thus, studying regions like Orion A could be key to understanding how the solar system came to be around 4.6 billion years ago.

It's Juneteenth in the U.S. today (June 19), a federal holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in America.

Though the Civil War ended in April of 1865, it wasn't until June 19 that same year when Union soldiers officially enforced the law that all enslaved people would be free. But the end of slavery was only the beginning of the challenges soon to follow; for one, segregation between Black and white people in the U.S., both systemic and informal, persisted for years. And we still live in a time when active racism, and the consequences of prior racism, trickle into many aspects of society.

It indeed affected NASA; Black women at the agency were once discriminated against despite making serious contributions to the space program. Our image of the day today celebrates the accomplishments of one such woman, Annie Easley.

Who is Annie Easley?

In 1955, Annie Easley started working for NASA's predecessor organization, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Her job was to serve as a "human computer," which was a position unique to the time. (NACA was dissolved in 1958, and its duties and personnel were taken on by the newly created NASA.)

Human computers at NACA and NASA were women who worked as basically early versions of computer programmers. To be a human computer, you had to be extremely good at mathematics, performing reliable calculations on a consistent basis to aid space missions.

Eventually, though, NASA moved toward the use of machine computers more often; Easley transitioned along with the space agency, ultimately becoming a full-fledged computer programmer.

As NASA explains, Easley's career shifted once again as it progressed. After some time, she took a position as the space agency's EEO, or Equal Employment Opportunity, counselor. She worked with NACA/NASA for 34 years before retiring in 1989. She passed away in 2011.

The importance of NASA's human computers

Like Easley, many of NASA's human computers became computer programmers once the agency made the transition to relying more heavily on machine computers. They together performed hundreds of thousands of calculations for the space program.

Easley alone was able to develop code that was crucial in research of energy-conversion systems, which paved the way for hybrid vehicles like the Centaur upper-stage rocket. Down the line, this work of hers contributed to the 1997 launch of the Cassini spacecraft that headed to Saturn.

However, the story wasn't as golden as it sounds retrospectively. Though NACA started hiring white women as "computers" in 1935, the agency didn't begin allowing Black women to enter the workforce until 1943. And that was only due to a shortage of professionals because of World War 2. In fact, human computers at the agency were not called professionals but rather "subprofessionals," and they were regularly talked down to by men who worked at the organization.

Black women had it particularly bad: They had to jump through hoops imposed by both racism and sexism.

Easley was one of just four African Americans out of 2,500 employees at NACA when she was hired.

In a 2001 interview, Easley recalled her mother saying to her: "'You can be anything you want to. It doesn't matter what you look like, what your size is, what your color is. You can be anything you want to, but you do have to work at it.'"

"I still believe that," she said.

It's always a treat to be reminded that we have spacecraft orbiting Mars right now, and a new image from one of these Red Planet probes does just that.

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express has beamed to Earth a beautiful view of a region on Mars known as Mamers Valles. This is a sweeping valley system that stretches across nearly 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) of land. And if your day is feeling a little dry, there's a little game you can play while looking at the image.

I spy 30 dust devils hidden in the crevices of these Martian valleys.

What are we looking at?

Dust devils are basically small tornadoes that pick up dust as they whirl around. They're common on Earth and on Mars: Rovers and orbiters have imaged these phenomena many times on the Red Planet. One time, for instance, a mission team tracked about 1,000 of them speeding across the Red Planet. Another time, NASA's Perseverance rover watched two of these devils merge into one large devil. We've even heard them "crackle" before, thanks to another Perseverance video.

Mars' dust devils are far larger than those of Earth, reaching heights of almost 5 miles (8 km) and sometimes racing at speeds of about 148 feet (45 meters) per second.

In the image below, you can see the full picture of the valleys; the devils, ESA says, are small yellow dots with pinkish trailing shadows. You can try to spot the devils on your own, but if you need some help, ESA has outlined precisely where each one is just here.

Why is it noteworthy?

Scientists are so interested in Martian dust devils because they help map the planet's otherwise invisible wind. That can aid in future Mars mission planning as well as helping researchers decode the general Red Planet environment— information that could lead to discoveries about Mars' watery past or its evolution through time.

But besides dust devils, the region depicted in the image, Mamers Valles, is worth admiring, too.

Thanks to its vastness, Mamers Valles actually connects Mars' ancient southern highlands with its northern lowlands, according to an ESA statement. Plus, all around the valleys of this 3.8-billion-year-old area lie many other land features — including what used to be full-on glaciers. Now covered in debris, these glaciers should hold water ice underneath, which would be a great target for a future Mars mission to explore.

As for when that future mission could take off, only time (and probably the success of NASA's Artemis program) will tell.

On Sunday (June 14), the Hawaiian volcano Kīlauea erupted for the 49th time that we know of — marking its 49th "episode," as scientists say.

And during the show, the GOES-18 weather satellite caught the action: the volcano blasting lava about 700 feet (210 meters) into the air. A gif of the footage can be seen just below.

What are we looking at?

Specifically, in this GOES-18 satellite imagery of the Kīlauea eruption, take note of the bright red spot toward the bottom right of the island. That color indicates warm to hot fire, per the scale visible at the bottom of the gif.

The gif itself is also sped up, showcasing a timespan from 3:01 p.m. EDT (1901 UTC) on Sunday to 10:31 p.m. EDT the same day (0331 UTC the following day).

Why is it noteworthy?

It's a treat to witness Hawaii's Kīlauea volcano erupting for many reasons, one being its grandeur. It's considered the most active volcano on Earth, having consistently erupted for the last 200 years or so.

It's also huge, with a 4,090-foot (1,250-meter) summit that has a depression about 3 miles (5 kilometers) long and 2 miles (3.2 km) wide. This very large depression is what's known as a "caldera." You can think of it as a huge crater on the volcano's summit.

That crater is called Halema'uma'u, and is in fact where the eruptions of this volcano originate. This particular eruption lasted about seven and a half hours, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, but no lava was reported exiting the caldera territory. In conjunction with the eruption, however, the USGS reported three earthquakes within Kīlauea caldera.

Another reason this GOES-18 satellite is pretty amazing is it illustrates once again how a weather satellite's data can be very versatile. Satellite imagery of natural disasters in particular can help scientists monitor the status of hazardous areas in order to aid relief efforts, if needed.

That's going to be especially important as human-driven climate change, caused by practices like burning coal for cheap power, continues to grow in severity. Global warming is directly correlated with increases in serious disasters like hurricanes, cyclones and wildfires. The more satellite eyes we have on these events, the better.

There are other benefits to satellite images as well — things like penguin safety and solar eclipse views, for example. And some satellites are even able to watch over humanmade disasters, such as this one that caught Blue Origin's rocket explosion from space.

As for this erupting volcano, now that it's quieted down, scientists have been trying to predict when the next outflow could occur. According to the USGS, the 50th episode is forecast to occur "between June 24 and June 29 with June 25-26 most likely."

For better or for worse, the world has its first trillionaire: Elon Musk.

On Friday (June 12), Musk's rocket company SpaceX made its debut on the Nasdaq, marking the largest IPO in history. With a staggering $1.78 trillion dollar valuation, it made Musk the first-ever trillionaire during the first 20 minutes or so of trading.

And to mark the occasion, SpaceX's giant Starship rocket was broadcast on the side of a skyscraper in New York City. On another skyscraper just to the left, Musk himself was featured.

What is it?

SpaceX's tremendous IPO started trading at around $150 a share on opening day, ultimately closing that same day at $160.95 a share. It has since been a big topic of discussion among financial experts and amateur traders alike.

The 19.2% gain that SpaceX's stock (trading under the ticker symbol SPCX) experienced on opening day took the company to a $2.1 trillion market capitalization, according to Yahoo Finance.

SpaceX, however, isn't alone in getting past a trillion in market cap this year. Also according to Yahoo Finance, Walmart (WMT) did the same on Feb. 3, as did Micron Technology (MU) on May 26. Meanwhile, Apple (AAPL) was the first company ever to top a trillion in market cap, doing so in August of 2018.

Still, Musk is the first person to have a net worth above a trillion (though, to be clear, most of that money remains in his stock holdings).

Why is it noteworthy?

It's fitting that Starship was the chosen vehicle to be broadcast in celebration of the SpaceX IPO instead of, perhaps, the company's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, which has sent astronauts to the International Space Station time and again.

Starship is analogous to the larger-than-life dreams of Musk, and it's key to SpaceX's future. Unlike the tried-and-trusted Falcon 9, the 408-foot-tall (124 meters) Starship is still in development. It's being built to bring humans to the moon — no, the pun isn't lost on me — and Mars someday. Settling Mars has been a longtime goal of Musk, with the entrepreneur even suggesting he'd like to die on the Red Planet one day.

SpaceX has been continually building and flying iterations of Starship while unafraid of failure, in keeping with the company's philosophy. The idea is to find and fix issues via flight testing, a strategy that SpaceX thinks works well over the long haul. This method has led to some stunning images and also some environmental hazards. To illustrate his grandiose thinking, a few years ago, Musk said he hopes to send fleets of 1,000 Starships to Mars every 26 months. More recently, he said he hopes to put up to one million AI satellites in Earth orbit.

"It is certainly hard to believe that a little company that started in a warehouse in El Segundo is now going public with the largest IPO ever," Musk said during an opening ceremony broadcast by Nasdaq on the day of the IPO. "I gave SpaceX less than a 10% chance of succeeding at all, to be clear."

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking image of an irregular dwarf galaxy.

And while this galaxy might be faint and far away, it certainly takes the spotlight in this spectacular new image.

What is it?

23 million light-years away from Earth lies the irregular dwarf galaxy ESO 490-017. Being a dwarf galaxy, it's only about 12,000 light-years across. The use of "only" here might sound strange. After all, one light-year is 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion km). However, while 12,000 light-years is ... a lot ... our own Milky Way galaxy is at least 100,000 light-years across.

In this image from the Hubble Space Telescope, we can see the faint galaxy speckled with stars with a spectacular bright star at the photo's center.

The galaxy has low surface brightness, so the stars in the image's background appear faint and almost hazy. This makes the foreground stars stand out even more, with beaming diffraction spikes emanating outward.

Hidden in the background of this photo is more than just fuzzy stars, however. The red, orange, and even beige spots in the cosmic backdrop of this image aren't just colorful stellar bodies, but rather other galaxies scattered throughout space.

The primary galaxy imaged is found in the constellation Canis Major, which contains Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.

Why is it incredible?

This image was captured as part of a Hubble observing program studying galaxies and galaxy clusters as well as how they move throughout the universe. While you might think of galaxies as these stoic, far-reaching cosmic structures, they're really constantly on the move.

This image is just one piece of a larger collection of data that scientists have captured with Hubble to better understand the "cosmic flow" of galaxies and other massive structures in the universe.

This image also shows off Hubble's power. While this galaxy is very far away and fairly faint, the portrait captures it clearly, highlighting the galaxy, its stars, and even other galaxies all in one fantastic view.

NASA is fast-tracking a mission to launch a spacecraft that will attempt to boost another one of the agency's science satellites into a higher orbit before it falls to a fiery death in Earth's atmosphere. The spacecraft was recently prepped for encapsulation inside its rocket at one of NASA's launch facilities.

What is it?

This photo shows Katalyst Space's LINK robotic servicing satellite awaiting encapsulation inside the fairing of Northrop Grumman's Pegasus XL rocket at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

Pegasus XL is an air-launched rocket that is carried to around 39,000 feet (12,000 meters) by a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar mothership aircraft, known as Stargazer. Once at altitude, the aircraft releases the rocket, which then ignites its motor to send its payload to space.

In this case, that payload is the LINK servicing satellite, which will attempt to rendezvous with NASA's $500 million Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, or Swift. The satellite's orbit has decayed from an initial 373 miles (600 kilometers) to about 249 miles (400 km), but NASA wants to save it by using LINK to boost it back up to a healthy orbit.

Why is it incredible?

NASA's mission to boost Swift is an ambitious one, not only because it will involve using one spacecraft to rendezvous with and boost another, but because NASA is still attempting to predict where Swift will be when LINK meets up with it.

The mission is incredible, too, in that it will involve four separate vehicles: the Stargazer mothership, the Pegasus XL rocket, Katalyst Space's Link spacecraft, and NASA's Swift observatory.

Swift launched on Nov. 20, 2004, on a planned two-year mission to study gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the universe.

Fragments of ice splintered from a glacier float down an Antarctic lake in a photo captured from aboard the International Space Station.

What is it?

In a new photograph snapped by astronauts on the International Space Station, you can see pieces of the Tyndall Glacier splintering off and floating out into the lake Lago Geikie. Even from space, the chunks of ice falling from the glacier can be seen floating away.

The Tyndall Glacier in southern Chile is part of the Southern Patagonian Icefield. Located between Chile and Argentina, this is the second-largest continuous ice field like it in the world. It measures at over 5,000 square miles of ice (13,000 square kilometers).

It is the larger half of two remaining pieces of the Patagonian Ice Sheet, an almost unbelievably massive sheet of ice that covered southern Chile during the last glacial period over 20,000 years ago.

Why is it incredible?

As of 2025, the worlds glaciers have lost over 300 tons (273 tonnes) of ice in just the last 20 years alone. With the progression of climate change, this ice continues to melt, fragment and contribute to rising sea levels around the globe. And in this image, we can see the process with our own eyes.

The Tyndall Glacier has been shrinking for about 150 years; as more and more pieces of this glacier break off or melt, Lago Geikie continues to grow and expand. In the past four years alone, Tyndall has lost 1.4 miles (2.2 kilometers) in length, according to glaciologist Mauri Pelto of Nicholas College. Interestingly, while glacier shrinking is concerning as it contributes to sea level rise which puts coastal communities in serious danger, this glacial retreat revealed some unexpected findings beyond that. As this glacier has fallen away, it has exposed bedrock where scientists have found ichthyosaur fossils.

Be careful: if you stare at this galaxy for too long you might end up hypnotized.

This new image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope shows the Messier 88 (M88) galaxy, also known as NGC 4501, in all of its swirling glory.

What is it?

M88 is an active galaxy, meaning at its center is a supermassive black hole whose inescapable gravity pulls in enormous amounts of gas and dust from surrounding space. It is also a spiral galaxy, meaning it has spiral "arms" that reach out from its center, which is clear from this spiraling, swirling image.

The galaxy is a member of the Virgo Cluster, a cluster of over 1,000 galaxies in the Virgo constellation. M88 can also be found roughly 63 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices, or "Berenice's Hair."

Why is it incredible?

Astronomers captured this image while observing M88 as part of a larger investigation into spiral galaxies and how they operate in different environments, according to a statement. This work was done using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, which can see tens of millions of light-years into the universe while still managing to capture incredible details of objects like M88.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been looking out at the cosmos since 1990. For over 36 years, the space telescope has truly opened our eyes to the cosmos, showing the far reaches of our universe in spectacular detail that we had only previously dreamed of.

While the James Webb Space Telescope and the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope serve unique purposes to expand our understanding of the universe, Hubble remains an incredibly powerful tool to look beyond what we know and explore what we hope to understand.

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir captured a breathtaking view of auroras on Earth from orbit while sheltering with her fellow astronauts in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft as a pair of cosmonauts attempted to fix a concerning air leak on the International Space Station.

What is it?

Last week on Friday, June 5, the four Crew-12 astronauts on the ISS took shelter in the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft that carried them to the station. They did this as a precaution as cosmonauts attempted to fix a leak in a tunnel leading to a Russian module.

But Meir made good use of her temporary surroundings, capturing truly incredible images (and even video) of auroras over Earth from the Dragon.

"There is a lot going on right now on the @Space_Station, but fortunately we are all safe and witnessed a spectacular southern aurora show yesterday thanks to a recent solar event," Meir said in a post on X.

Why is it incredible?

While these images, and the video that Meir shared are stunning on their own, the context behind their capture is fascinating. Meir wasn't just in the Dragon capsule for fun, her and the rest of the Crew-12 astronauts were told to shelter in the capsule as the cosmonauts, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, attempted to fix an ongoing leak on the station.

They hunkered down "out of an abundance of caution," according to NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens, while two cosmonauts went out on a spacewalk to attempt to fix an air leak on the station.

This has been a persistent, ongoing leak caused by cracks in the PrK transfer tunnel which connects to the Russian Zvezda service module. But while Russia's space agency Roscosmos manages the leak with occasional repairs, according to Stevens, the leak started presenting as more of an issue recently.

French astronaut Sophie Adenot captured the view of a lifetime in a new image of Mount Vesuvius, as seen from aboard the International Space Station.

What is it?

Adenot, an astronaut with the European Space Agency, is currently part of SpaceX's Crew-12 mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS) alongside NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. The crew arrived in February and is slated to complete a six-month stay in space. The crew did take a brief detour from their regular duties, however, on June 5 — temporarily taking shelter in the Dragon capsule during a spacewalk meant to fix a concerning leak on the station.

And before this temporary sheltering, on Day 103 (orbit 1598) of their mission, Adenot captured a striking photograph of Mount Vesuvius from the space station and shared it on social media.

Why is it incredible?

"From orbit, volcanoes are some of the most beautiful natural sights… End of April, Etna caught me by surprise one morning as I opened the shutters. The whiteness of its slopes… and that elegant plume of smoke which is a gentle reminder that it’s only lightly, very lightly, asleep. I just had time to take a quick photo, but I kept an eye out for it the next day to capture a few more! A special thought for my fellow ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, who is from Catania, at the foot of Etna," Adenot's post read, according to ESA.

"Less than a minute later, and we're flying over Vesuvius, instantly recognisable by the vast crater, the path winding up to the summit, and, most of all, Naples spread out all around it," she continued.

Searing across the night sky, a meteor puts on a spectacular show above a powerful observatory.

The meteor's blaze was captured above the U.S. National Science Foundation's (NSF) Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO).

What is it?

Petr Horálek, a NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador, captured this photograph of a meteor soaring above the KPNO, which is located on Kitt Peak in the Quinlan Mountains in the Sonoran Desert. The observatory is in southern Arizona, on the land of the Tohono O'odham Nation. KPNO is also part of the NSF's NOIRLab (National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory).

In the image, you can see an observatory dome to the left of the bright meteor's blaze. This is the dome of the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope, and to its right is the WIYN 3.5-meter telescope.

Above these scopes, the meteor is surrounded by quite an impressive view. The night sky in this image contains the constellations Orion and Canis Major, and you can even see some interesting bright red structures in the sky. These are emission nebulae, or clouds of ionized gas that emit light.

Why is it incredible?

It is no easy feat capturing an image of a meteor in motion. The brilliant streak is often visible for just a moment or two. Even if you are outside sitting and waiting and staring at the sky, the second you turn your head elsewhere you might miss it.

The most active meteor showers generate enough action to give you a decent shot of catching one in a photograph. But even in the best of circumstances, capturing a meteor in a photo this spectacular takes both serious skill and luck.

But Horálek didn't just manage to capture a mid-streak meteor. The astrophotographer also framed the meteor with the tree line, the telescopes, and a fantastical backdrop of the night sky. That takes skill, luck and an artistic eye.

In June of 1983, Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly to space.

Today, we celebrate not only that historic flight but also Sally Ride's enduring legacy, which is especially meaningful during Pride Month. While Ride's sexual orientation and relationship with surviving partner Tam O'Shaughnessy weren't revealed until after Ride's death in 2012, her life and achievements remain inspirational to people around the world.

What is it?

On June 18, 1983, NASA's STS-7 mission sent five astronauts on a mission to Earth orbit aboard the space shuttle Challenger. Sally Ride flew as a mission specialist alongside mission commander Robert Crippen, mission pilot Frederick Hauck and fellow mission specialists John Fabian and Norman Thagard. After just over six days and two hours in space, the crew landed back on Earth at Edwards Air Force Base in California before eventually returning to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

STS-7 carried and deployed communications satellites. The crew also supported a variety of scientific experiments, including a study on the social behavior of ants without gravity, how metal alloys form in microgravity, and even a study on space sickness.

Why is it incredible?

When STS-7 launched, Ride did what no American woman had been allowed to do before: fly to space. After decades of human spaceflight missions and advancements that left out women as astronauts, this mission was the first of many to start evening the playing field. But this was only one of many historic firsts for Ride.

Following her death in 2012, for example, the astronaut came out in her own obituary.

"In addition to Tam O’Shaughnessy, her partner of 27 years, Sally is survived by her mother, Joyce; her sister, Bear; her niece, Caitlin, and nephew, Whitney; her staff of 40 at Sally Ride Science; and many friends and colleagues around the country," Ride's obituary read.

"I hope it makes it easier for kids growing up gay that they know that another one of their heroes was like them," Bear Ride, who also identifies as gay, said in a statement following this news.

Today, over 40 years since Ride flew to space and 14 years since her passing, there are still no astronauts who have intentionally come out as being a part of the LGBTQ+ community during their lifetime. This fact highlights the tremendous obstacles that still remain for so many, and it reinforces that remembering Ride's legacy is as important today as it ever has been.

Hundreds of students came together to design, build, and test rovers on an Earth obstacle course to prepare for the moon.

Space exploration starts with a lot of hard work on Earth. And in this new photo, we can see a hardworking student team putting the pedal to the metal in a rover their team designed and built for NASA's Human Exploration Rover Challenge (HERC).

What is it?

Every year, hundreds of students from around the world participate in HERC, a nine-month long challenge to design and build human-powered or remote-controlled rovers that could be capable of traveling across the moon's surface.

After months and months of designing, developing, building, and testing, the teams put their rovers to the ultimate challenge with a final event in Huntsville Alabama where NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is located. At this event, which took place in April, 2026, the students drove and/or remotely operated their rovers through a specially designed half-mile obstacle course to see how they might really fare on the lunar surface.

Why is it incredible?

HERC is open to students ranging from middle school to college-age. This year, students from 28 colleges and universities, 13 high schools, and one middle school from around the world participated. This year, the 32nd year of HERC taking place, 600 students as part of 44 different teams took part in the challenge.

This event gives students of all different ages and from a variety of backgrounds the opportunity to work with real-life space science problems like "how will we get around on the moon?" And as part of this challenge, NASA provides the student teams with access to NASA subject matter experts and space industry professionals to help guide them through their project.

These teams, in addition to thinking big and working together on their rovers, also have to complete a design review, an operational readiness review, a mission readiness review, and an excursion readiness review before competing in this obstacle course  — similar to how real spaceflight hardware is developed. This challenge gives these students a uniquely realistic look at what it might take to really get a piece of technology ready for the moon.

Manhattanhenge is happening once again!

The solar phenomenon, which happens twice a year, is underway and skywatchers, photographers, tourists and New Yorkers are again hypnotized by the spectacle.

What is it?

Twice a year, the sun lines up with New York City's grid in such a way that, on certain east-to-west streets, the sun finds itself perfectly aligned between the city's buildings at sunset. With its name coined in 1997 by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Manhattanhenge is beloved by skywatchers across the city.

This year, Manhattanhenge first occurred partially on May 28 (when this photograph was taken) and then fully on May 29. But it will happen again soon, with a full sun visible on July 11, and one partially obscured by the horizon on July 12.

For skywatchers in or traveling to Manhattan during the next viewing opportunity, the east-to-west streets with the clearest viewing opportunities are 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd and 57th street.

Why is it incredible?

Like an eclipse or a full moon, Manhattanhenge is a natural phenomenon that gets people to stop what they're doing and, for a moment, appreciate the world (and solar system) we live in.

During Manhattanhenge, thousands of people gather in the streets, blocking traffic and foregoing other responsibilities to take some time to experience the event together.

This includes people who do not know each other and who did not coordinate with one another to gather all somehow separately, hearing about Manhattanhenge (or simply stumbling across the crowd) and enjoying the view together. There are so few opportunities where we as humans get to stop and do nothing but appreciate nature with one another.

So, whether you're simply enjoying the moment or capturing photographs with friends and family, it is amazing to see our species come together in this way.

Europe is experiencing a serious heat wave at the moment, and we have the satellite data to prove it.

In new data from Europe's Sentinel-3 mission, we can see the scorching temperatures spreading across the continent.

What is it?

Severe weather alerts are in effect across Western Europe as millions cope with extreme temperatures. This new image uses data from the Sentinel-3 mission to show in vibrant color just how extreme and far-reaching this heat has been.

The Northern Hemisphere hasn't yet made it to summer, but temperatures in Southern Europe are already reaching up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius), and temperatures as far north as London are soaring above 95 degrees F (35 degrees C). Scorching heat has been recorded across the continent, in Hungary, Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and a range of other countries.

To clarify just how unusual these temperatures are, temperatures in London for the month of May typically average between 50 and 66 degrees F (10 to 19 degrees C). And these middling temperatures are often coupled with rain.

Sentinel-3, which launched in 2018, is a European satellite that was developed as part of the Copernicus Earth-observation program, a project run by the European Commission with support from the European Space Agency. It's part of a series of Earth-observing satellites that look down at our planet to study changes across the seas and land.

Why is it incredible?

This latest heat wave is yet another reminder that climate change is having impacts around the planet.

“We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that heat wave events such as this have been made more likely and more severe due to climate change,” Peter Thorne, director of the ICARUS Climate Research Centre at Maynooth University in Ireland, told CNN. “But nevertheless many of the records being set, particularly in the U.K. and France, are mind-bogglingly crazy."

And while the term "space mission" usually conjures up images of astronauts on the moon or telescopes looking at far-off worlds, it also applies to a variety of projects like Sentinel-3, which look back at us here on Earth. Space is an incredible vantage point from which we can better understand how our planet is changing, and how it will continue to change.

An astronaut captured a view from the International Space Station (ISS) that will take your breath away.

Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) snapped this photo from a window aboard the ISS, capturing a piece of the station itself, a sliver of Earth's atmosphere, and a peek out at the cosmos beyond.

What is it?

In January, Yui returned from space after completing the nearly five-month SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the ISS.

While this mission, like all spaceflights, was jam-packed with science and hard work, Kui took a moment to snap a truly astounding photograph of the southern sky from the window of the "Kibo" Japanese Experiment Module on the ISS.

This view "only happens when the ISS is oriented with its front and back reversed from the usual direction of travel — it's a very rare sight," Yui wrote in a May 14 post on X.

Yui participated in Crew-11 alongside NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Michael Fincke and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.

Why is it incredible?

This "rare sight," as Yui described it, is as multi-faceted as it is stunning. Rather than a view of just Earth, space, or the space station, it's a mesmerizing combination of all three.

In the foreground, the hardware of the space station stands rigid in space, the station's solar panels extended as the outpost orbits hundreds of miles above Earth.

Just under this orbiting hardware, you can see the edge of Earth and our glowing, colorful atmosphere, lit up with red and green auroras.

Yui further described the view beyond, which includes our nearest solar system neighbor Alpha Centauri in the upper right-hand corner. Additionally, the cosmic view reveals a dark patch that is the Coalsack nebula. Next to that, you can see the Southern Cross constellation, the star Eta carinae, and more.

"This scene lets you feel the three-dimensional depth of the universe, from the window frame just a few centimeters from the camera, to the solar panels dozens of meters away, to the auroras," Yui said. "With the ISS truss extending toward the abyss of space, this composition seems to symbolize the future where humanity's wisdom will challenge the deep cosmos — it's one of my favorites lol."

Note: Yui's comments have been translated from Japanese to English.

Four glowing laser beams blasting through open space converge at the center of our galaxy. But this isn't Star Wars, it's real science.

What is it?

The European Space Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile has four giant Unit Telescopes (UTs), which emitted lasers pointed to the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

The UTs create what ESO refers to as "artificial stars" in our atmosphere, about 56 miles (90 kilometers) above Earth's surface.

These beams of light allow scientists to see how our planet's ever-changing atmosphere might be distorting incoming light, which is critical for accurately analyzing telescope observations.

This information allows the VLT to make real-time changes in response to Earth's atmosphere, making sure that it can see through the cosmos clearly.

Why is it incredible?

This image shows four lasers appearing as if they are piercing space itself as they seem to meet in the galaxy's center, or the area surrounding the Milky Way's supermassive black hole. But this spectacular view hides some interesting details.

Four blowing dots appear on these lasers toward the point where they converge. These strange, glowing orbs in the lasers path are actually the result of clouds that the lasers are traveling through clouds that just happened to be in the way. However, if you look even closer at the image at the point where the beams seem to connect, you will see four even tinier dots.

"For me, this image is an accomplishment," the photographer behind this cosmic view, ESO astronomer Anthony Berdeu, said in a statement, reflecting on the moment. "The first night the lasers were shined to point at the galactic center, I had to be on the VLT platform to take a picture."

The rocket boosters from NASA's Artemis 2 mission appear in striking unison in this photograph.

This dual-booster moment was captured following the boosters' separation from the rocket's core stage, which you can see on the left, heading off to set the Orion spacecraft on its way around the moon.

What is it?

On April 1, 2026, NASA's Artemis 2 mission blasted off carrying four astronauts on a journey around the moon and back. The mission sent the crew — commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch of NASA and Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen — to space aboard the Orion spacecraft (named Integrity).

The capsule launched atop NASA's SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, a heavy-duty launch vehicle designed for missions just like this that propel humans to the moon.

SLS features two solid rocket boosters that add power behind this massive rocket. In fact, these two boosters provide 75% of the initial thrust that the mission needs to escape Earth's gravity. But once their fuel is used up, which happened just two minutes and 8 seconds after liftoff on this flight, the boosters' 16 different separation motors ignite to push the boosters away from the rocket and one another. Ultimately, the boosters fall into the Atlantic Ocean and are discarded.

Why is it incredible?

It is amazing to see these boosters separating so perfectly and elegantly in Earth's upper atmosphere as the mission travels into space.

The SLS rocket has been a massive undertaking for NASA. But despite all of the time and budget concerns that have plagued the rocket's reputation over the years, this photograph shows a brilliant execution of separation.

Between the Orion spacecraft seamlessly motoring onward on the left of this image and two boosters mirroring one another on the right, this booster separation is picture perfect.

There are few sights as unanimously adored as a sunset. From the beach to the driver's seat of a car, a sunset looks beautiful from anywhere. And, as we can see in this photograph, sunsets might be even more spectacular from space.

What is it?

NASA astronaut Chris Williams captured this image of a sunset from aboard the International Space Station, as it orbited 266 miles (428 kilometers) above Earth on May 4, 2026. The photograph reveals bands of color in the clouds in Earth's atmosphere, just seen from above.

Against the stark black backdrop of space, a bright red and orange stripe of color streaks across this sunset view as a deep well of blue lies below.

While it's not visible in the image, this sunset was captured from above the Patagonia region in South America.

Why is it incredible?

Perspective is everything. While a sunset might be a beautiful sight from just about anywhere on (or off) Earth, this view is really something spectacular.

Being able to see Earth from space is an incredible privilege. The first color view of Earth from space was seen with the groundbreaking Earthrise image captured of our planet from lunar orbit during Apollo 8 in 1968. This view was incredibly influential, showing our planet as it is, with just a thin atmosphere between us and the vast vacuum of space. This view is credited with inspiring many to participate in the environmentalist movement.

It has been almost 30 years since the first module of the ISS launched in 1998. The ISS has been a cutting-edge laboratory ever since, a site of international cooperation, and a place where humans have consistently lived in space for over 25 years. This consistent habitation, in addition to facilitating ongoing science, has essentially given humanity a lens to see Earth from afar.

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover has stumbled across an unusual sight: a stack of rocks on the Martian surface.

How did they end up this way? Did Perseverance knock them over? So many questions.

What is it?

Perseverance, or Percy for short, captured this bizarre image of rocks stacked on Mars on May 13(or Sol 1859, the rover's 1,859th day on the Red Planet). The image was captured with the rover's Mastcam-Z camera — a pair of two cameras located high up on the rover's mast, looking almost like a pair of eyes that the craft sees through.

You may have seen rock stacks like this while hiking, and while there can sometimes be reason to knock them over, some serve as important trail markers, according to the National Parks Service.

But this rock stack isn't pointing the way on any hiking trail. Instead, it's sitting strangely on the surface of the Red Planet appearing as three rocks stacked on top of one another, almost like a sandwich, in the middle of the dusty, reddish terrain.

However, it's more likely that what we're seeing is actually one rock that broke apart this way due to wind erosion or being exposed to flowing water on ancient Mars. Based on observations made by NASA's other Mars rover, Curiosity, scientists suspect that winds are the primary force of geological change on Mars, wearing down rocks over hundreds of millions or even billions of years.

Why is it incredible?

This isn't the first strange rock we've seen on the surface of Mars. Everything from a sphere-studded rock to bizarre evenly-spaced rocks and even a striped rock have been found by NASA's Mars rovers, sparking curiosity along the way. Conspiracies even arose when a photo from NASA's Viking mission in 1976 revealed a rocky site that, to some, resembled a human head and face.

While it's fun to explore and entertain the "what ifs" when we stumble across something new or unusual, getting to the real answer can be even more interesting.

No humans have ever been to Mars (yet), so we can be certain a rogue hiker didn't stack these rocks up for fun. But uncovering the true backstory of these rocks and their appearance on Mars can help scientists to better understand the planet's history and inner workings.

Argentina's towering, snow-capped Andes Mountains and turquoise lake waters are stunning from above in this new image captured from space.

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir snapped this photograph, which depicts the Andes alongside Lake Argentino.

What is it?

This image captured by Meir from aboard the International Space Station shows the natural wonder of Argentina.

The Andes Mountains and the surrounding Lake Argentino are located in Los Glaciares National Park, in Argentina's Santa Cruz Province. This photograph, captured on May 6, 2026, shows the mountains covered in snow as clouds loom above the chilly landscape. This is no surprise, as the Andes are a high-altitude range and Argentina is located in the Southern Hemisphere, which is heading toward winter as those of us in the Northern Hemisphere prepare for summer sun.

The space station was orbiting 269 miles (433 kilometers) above Earth, specifically above South America's Patagonia region, when this photograph was taken.

Why is it incredible?

This is a shot you might expect to get from a lifelong professional photographer. But it was actually taken by an astronaut. And while astronauts are generally incredibly capable and talented, NASA's astronauts aren't amazing photographers by accident.

Recently, it came to light that NASA's Artemis 2 astronauts received serious photography training from the Rochester Institute of Technology's photographic sciences program so they could better chronicle their historic moon mission. But this isn't the first time that astronauts have received photography training. In fact, photography training is a part of NASA astronaut training program for all current astronauts.

While this skill allows the astronauts to capture beautiful moments like this still of Argentina, it can also be a powerful tool for science. Everything from Earth images to snapshots inside the space station can be incredibly helpful in scientific investigations.

Is this a galaxy or a movie poster for a sci-fi smash hit?

A new image captured by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope shows the galaxy Messier 77 (M77) in stunning new detail with beams of glowing light shining outward. And the secret behind its incredible glow? A black hole.

What is it?

The galaxy M77, nicknamed the Squid Galaxy, takes center stage in this striking new image snapped by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. The galaxy's heart shines brightly in the image, with gleaming rays of light radiating from its center while gas and dust swirls around.

M77 is a barred spiral galaxy located about 47 million light-years from Earth and can be found in the night sky in the constellation Cetus. The galaxy is visible to skywatchers, with a magnitude of 9.6, you can typically spot it with the help of a small telescope.

Interestingly, while this object is a Messier galaxy, meaning it was catalogued by astronomer Charles Messier, it was actually discovered by another French astronomer named Pierre Méchain who told Messier of his discovery.

Why is it incredible?

The secret behind this ethereal glow is actually a black hole. Scientists think that at the heart of most galaxies lies a black hole, and in M77, its central black hole's intense gravity is pulling gas inward. This movement causes the gas to heat up, releasing radiation and glowing tremendously as we can see in this snapshot, according to a statement from NASA.

In addition to the glow, the image stands out because of the incredible rays of light shining from its center. But these lines of light aren't caused by the gravitational pull of a black hole, instead they are actually an optical effect caused by the telescope, according to the statement.

Whatever the reason behind its appearance, one thing is certain: this galaxy is truly breathtaking in this new image.

NASA's Artemis 2 astronauts had quite the view on their "roadtrip" to the moon.

In this image, captured by the astronauts onboard the mission's Orion capsule "Integrity," you can see the swirling stars of space from the window as the crew journeyed from our home planet to the moon.

What is it?

This past April, four astronauts — commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch of NASA and Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen — blasted off on a 10-day journey around the moon and back as part of NASA's Artemis 2 mission.

The quartet flew in an Orion capsule that they named "Integrity." This spacecraft came equipped with four windows, enough for each astronaut to have his or her own view. And you can see in this image that through these windows, the astronauts could watch the stars swirling by on their cosmic journey.

The crew successfully splashed down back on Earth in the Pacific Ocean on April 10. If all goes to plan, Artemis 2 will be followed by the Artemis 3 docking test in Earth orbit in 2027 before Artemis 4 lands humans on the moon in late 2028.

Why is it incredible?

On roadtrips on Earth, it's always fun to look out the window and watch the world pass you by. But on this journey, the view out the window was out of this world — literally.

This roadtrip snapshot also signifies something bigger: a big step forward in the journey back to the moon with Artemis. NASA's Artemis program aims to return humans to the lunar surface for the first time in over 50 years, since the agency's final Apollo mission in 1972.

But the plan isn't just to go back for a singular, celebratory landing on the lunar surface. Instead, NASA is aiming for a longer-term presence on the moon. Who knows? Future astronauts could soon be looking out their windows at the view on their way to stay at a moon base.

Earth watched on as a communications satellite deployed its big reflector more than 22,000 miles (35,400 kilometers) away.

The satellite, ViaSat-3 F2, just deployed its large reflector after launching last November. In an image shared by the company Viasat on social media, you can see the striking results of this maneuver in space.

What is it?

ViaSat-3 F2 launched to space on Nov. 13, 2025 atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. In the first few months after that, the telecommunications satellite made its way to geostationary orbit, which lies exactly 22,236 miles (35,786 km) above Earth. This is much farther away than low Earth orbit where the International Space Station lives, which extends to 1,200 miles (2,000 km) above Earth.

As seen in this new image, the satellite has now not only reached geosynchronous orbit, but it has fully deployed its large reflector. This step is critical to the satellite's success, as the reflector will improve its overall broadband capacity, according to recent reports.

"Exciting progress for our ViaSat-3 program, as we focus on advancing in-orbit testing of our ultra-high capacity satellite," the company wrotein its post.

Why is it incredible?

The ViaSat-3 F2 satellite is a 13,000-pound (5,900-kilogram) communications satellite designed to provide high-speed satellite internet across the Americas from space.

According to Viasat, each of the ViaSat-3 satellites (three of which have launched to date) is made "to be capable of rapidly shifting capacity throughout its coverage area to deliver bandwidth where and when it’s needed most."

We might sometimes take our connectivity here on Earth for granted. From almost anywhere, we can be instantly connected to our friends and family all around the world. This image is a captivating visual of the technology behind that connection coming to life.

The Whirlpool Galaxy sprawls across the cosmos in this striking new snapshot from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

The galaxy, formally known as M51 (Messier 51), stretches out its spiral arms, glowing brightly in the darkness of space. While the galaxy's many limbs have been spotted before by the Hubble Space Telescope and even amateur astronomers, this image captures a uniquely striking view of its galactic beauty.

What is it?

The Whirlpool Galaxy was captured in this image by JWST's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), according to a statement. This is JWST's primary instrument for seeing the universe in near-infrared light, which is a range of the electromagnetic wavelengths just out of our eyes' reach.

By seeing in near-infrared, NIRCam was able to capture this incredible view of part of the Whirlpool Galaxy. Located in the constellation Canes Vanatici, the spiral galaxy is made up of long swirls of gas and dust speckled with stars.

Beyond being just a beautiful cosmic sight, the formations of dust and gas that comprise this galaxy are actually a star-forming region. Here, gases like hydrogen and dust are compressed, condensing into new stars.

Why is it incredible?

This image shows only a section of the incredibly expansive spiral galaxy. The galaxy's red and orange spiral arms bending outward can measure tens or even hundreds of light-years across.

The full galaxy measures an incredible 76,900 light-years across. While this is an enormous size for any object or region, our own Milky Way galaxy measures over 100,000 light-years in diameter. But size and distances get fairly massive when we're talking on a cosmic scale. The Whirlpool Galaxy is a whopping 31 million light-years away from our own, but it's still considered one of our closer neighbors.

Something that has made the Whirlpool Galaxy beloved is its visibility. With an apparent magnitude of +8.4, skywatchers and amateur astronomers using small telescopes or even just binoculars are able to spot the galaxy and its spiral shape.

The winds across Antarctica's frozen landscape have carved incredible, swirling vortexes in the clouds above the icy terrain.

These vortexes were spotted all the way from space, by NASA's Landsat 8 satellite.

What is it?

A pattern of swirling vortexes, called von Kármán vortex streets, can be seen from space spiraling through the clouds hanging over the artic tundra. These vortexes form when fast winds (up to 34 mph, or 21 kph) encounter obstacles in their way like islands, mountains, or volcanoes.

In this case, the brutal arctic winds met Peter I Island, which spun them into these striking shapes.

Peter I Island is an uninhabited volcano off the coast of Antarctica, surrounded by the frigid waters of the Bellingshausen Sea in the Southern Ocean. The island's icy volcano, which has erupted in recent history, stretches up to over 5,300 feet (1,615 meters) from sea level to summit.

Why is it incredible?

NASA's Landsat 8 satellite captured this image of these swirling vortexes, according to a statement. The satellite used the Operational Land Imager (OLI) to do so.

Landsat 8, which launched in 2013, is the second-most recent Landsat satellite, with the most recent, Landsat 9, launching in 2021. NASA's Landsat missions have been launching since 1972 to look at Earth from space.

When we think of space missions, we might imagine far-off galaxies and stars. But "the final frontier" can actually be a powerful asset in understanding our own world as space is our best vantage point to see Earth.

These types of images, and the vast array of data collected by Earth-observing missions like Landsat, help to support agriculture and farmers, scientists combatting climate change, and more. This image is a beautiful, swirling reminder of how space can bring us closer to Earth.

This tiny capsule was just shot out of a gun at over 2,600 mph (4,200 kph).

While miniature, this space capsule is no toy. It's part of a rigorous testing process for the European Space Agency's (ESA) ExoMars mission.

What is it?

ESA is developing a landing module, formally called the Entry Descent and Landing Module (EDLM), for its ExoMars mission that will carry the agency's Rosalind Franklin rover to the Martian surface. This mission aims to launch in 2028.

To make sure that the EDLM is ready to launch into space and land on Mars, the mission team launched 20 of these tiny models of the capsule on Earth. The little, 3-inch wide capsules were shot out of a bore gun at over 2,600 mph, or nearly four times the speed of sound.

These "micro launches," as I'm calling them unofficially, mimicked the aerodynamics that a Mars capsule would experience careening through the Martian atmosphere at supersonic speeds.

Each of these 20 mini capsules launched while outfitted with electronic circuits, monitoring their flight. During their nearly 755-foot (230-meter) flights, the capsules captured important data about their acceleration, movement, trajectory and stability, according to ESA.

Why is it incredible?

These miniature space capsules look like toys, but in these tests, they withstood almost 17,000 g-forces of acceleration.

The tiny robot figurine in this image and the Martian-esque reddish dirt underneath give the capsule the appearance of a fancy toy display. But as cute as the mini capsule is, it's doing an important job.

It is no small feat to launch something to another planet and have it survive the harrowing downward trip through that world's atmosphere, all the while keeping the delicate instrumentation inside intact.

ESA's Rosalind Franklin rover aims to search for signs of ancient life on Mars, and to do that it has to stay protected from the extreme elements of spaceflight by the EDLM. And these cute, strange little capsules are helping, with the data they generate during their superfast micro launches.

NASA's Artemis 2 Orion spacecraft rests after its flight around the moon, charred from the return to Earth.

The Artemis 2 mission launched four astronauts on a journey around the moon aboard an Orion capsule that its crew named "Integrity." Looking at the capsule now, you can see what it went through to get home.

What is it?

On April 1, NASA launched four astronauts on a 10-day journey around the moon and back to Earth. This mission, called Artemis 2, was the first time humans have traveled to the moon in over 50 years, since NASA's final Apollo mission in 1972.

On their trip home, the crew — NASA astronauts commander Reid Wiseman, mission pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen — hurtled back through Earth's atmosphere before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on April 10.

This return trip was no picnic. During its descent, temperatures around the capsule reached up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius). And while the capsule's heat shield kept the astronauts inside safe, this picture clearly shows the extreme environment that the craft had to ensure.

In the photo, the capsule sits, burned by its return journey, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Multi-Payload Processing Facility in Florida.

Why is it incredible?

Launching to space is a spectacular feat. To have a rocket launch with astronauts on board go perfectly well is even more amazing. But once you're in space, whether it's on a mission to the moon or the International Space Station, at some point you have to come home to Earth. And returning can be just as tricky as getting there.

The Orion capsule, sitting propped up at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, is a charred testament to the challenge of that return trip. You can see the dark tiles on the capsule's side, and underneath it is entirely burnt.

Moving forward from Artemis 2, experts at NASA will take a closer look at the aftermath of this fiery return to better understand if and how the spacecraft and its heat shield might have to change with the program's upcoming mission, Artemis 3, which will stay in Earth orbit to perform rendezvous and docking tests.

NASA's Juno spacecraft has snuck a peek at one of Jupiter's largest inner moons.

During a close flyby, the spacecraft got a look at Jupiter's moon Thebe from just 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) away.

What is it?

NASA's Juno mission made a close pass of Jupiter's moon Thebe on May 1, 2026. While about 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) away from the moon, the spacecraft snapped this photo using its camera known as the Stellar Reference Unit (SRU).

Jupiter has over 100 moons discovered so far and Thebe is the second largest of the planet's inner moons. Those inner moons are all smaller than the gas giant's famously huge Galilean moons — Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto — which orbit farther out. The moon was first discovered in 1980 by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft as it flew by Jupiter.

Juno launched in 2011 to travel to, orbit around, and study Jupiter. The mission has delivered incredible images and groundbreaking data on the planet and its surrounding moons. The mission has spotted cyclones on Jupiter and watched volcanoes erupt on its moon Io.

Why is it incredible?

It is amazing to see such a far-off moon up close. But Juno's SRU was actually not designed to take cool photos of Jupiter's moons.

The SRU is primarily intended to image star fields so Juno can navigate our solar system. Juno launched to Jupiter in 2011, but after completing its primary mission in 2021, the spacecraft has continued on as part of an extended mission. Ever since, it has been exploring Jupiter and its orbiting moons with greater depth.

Similarly, the SRU is stretching its functionality. To be able to image star fields well, the instrument is designed to work in low light. As a result? We get to have awesome images like this.

Can you imagine picking up a lucky penny on Mars?

One rover already has. In this snapshot from the Red Planet, Martian dust covers a penny that has traveled farther than any human (so far).

What is it?

NASA's Curiosity rover captured a surprisingly Earthly image on the surface of Mars. With its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MHLI), the rover snapped a close-up image of a penny. (To clarify: The penny wasn't found there by accident; it traveled to Mars with the rover.)

This image was captured on Oct. 2, 2013 on the 411th sol, or Mars day, of the Curiosity rover's mission on the planet. On the penny's surface, reddish Martian dust has collected over the 14 months that the mission had already been on Mars by that point.

Why is it incredible?

It's neat to see a penny on another planet. It's a (now endangered) relic from our own world minted over 100 years ago, in 1909, feeling the Martian wind dragging dusty debris across its surface millions of miles away.

But this penny serves a surprisingly important purpose: scale. In photographs, it can sometimes be difficult to tell how big or small something is without an object of known size, like a penny or a banana, in frame for scale.

"When a geologist takes pictures of rock outcrops she is studying, she wants an object of known scale in the photographs," MAHLI Principal Investigator Ken Edgett said in a statement in which NASA refers to the coin as a "lucky penny on Mars."

"If it is a whole cliff face, she'll ask a person to stand in the shot. If it is a view from a meter or so away, she might use a rock hammer. If it is a close-up, as the MAHLI can take, she might pull something small out of her pocket. Like a penny."

Blue Origin's moon lander has passed its tests in the vacuum chamber.

This marks one big step forward for the company and its possible participation in humanity's return to the moon.

What is it?

Blue Origin's uncrewed cargo lunar lander, called Moon Mark 1 (MK1) and nicknamed Endurance, has completed its testing in the vacuum chamber, NASA shared on May 4.

The lander, which is being developed in support of NASA's Artemis program, was tested in Thermal Vacuum Chamber A at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. These tests evaluated how the spacecraft can hold up against extreme temperatures, and modeled how it will eventually fare in the extreme environments of spaceflight and in the vacuum of outer space.

Why is it incredible?

Blue Origin's lander is being developed as part of NASA's Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the lunar surface in 2028.

With the recent success of Artemis 2, which saw astronauts fly around the moon and back, the program established the first human presence at the moon since the agency's Apollo program launched its last lunar mission in 1972.

MK1 is scheduled to carry NASA science experiments and technology to the moon's south pole as early as late 2026. The success of this test represents a step forward in solidifying the public-private partnership that will support this return to the moon.

Looking like a scene out of a "Star Wars" title crawl, this photograph from the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) atop Cerro Paranal in Chile's Atacama Desert showcases some advanced techniques astronomers use to look out into the cosmos.

What is it?

This image shows the ESO's VLTI beaming four separate lasers into the sky towards the Tarantula Nebula. "It might look like we started a space war, but we didn't," the ESO wrote in a statement accompanying the image.

Far from waging galactic warfare, astronomers use these lasers to create "artificial stars" in order to measure atmospheric turbulence. First, scientists can use telescopes pointed at the cosmos to observe how points of light created by the lasers blur and disturb molecules in Earth's atmosphere. Then, they can use computer algorithms on the same images to account for and cancel out that blurring and disturbance.

The Tarantula Nebula is situated some 160,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

Why is it amazing?

Aside from looking like the iconic yellow-on-black "Star Wars" title crawl or laser bolts fired by an Imperial Star Destroyer chasing down the Tantive IV, this image demonstrates the great progress astronomers have made in developing technologies and concepts to better observe the distant universe.

Using laser guide stars and adaptive optics is still very much a young, developing technique only a handful of observatories worldwide have tapped into. The VLTI, which consists of four separate telescopes that work together to form one large virtual telescope, has only been using its Four Laser Guide Star Facility system since 2016.

Is it cake? No, but it's baked to perfection.

In this donut-shaped bag is a massive parachute. And just like the confection it appears to be, it needs to be baked to get ready for Mars.

What is it?

Sitting wrapped up neatly in a donut-shaped bag sits a parachute measuring nearly 115 feet (35 meters) across and weighing 163 pounds (74 kilograms) — and it has to be baked in an oven to get prepared for Mars.

But don't worry, the parachute was given time to cool down and rest after baking (we're serious).

This parachute, made primarily of nylon and Kevlar fabrics, was created for the European Space Agency's ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover, expected to launch to the Red Planet in 2028.

Wondering why this Mars-bound parachute needs to be baked? Well, it's part of a mission-critical step known as planetary protection. In short, this step ensures the mission doesn't accidentally carry any hitchhiking microorganisms to Mars.

Why is it incredible?

The ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover is expected to spend over two years (at least) exploring the Martian surface while searching for signs of life.

The question of whether life has ever existed on Mars is one that scientists are eager to answer. And, with incredible findings from NASA's Curiosity rover spotting organic material on Mars to NASA's Perseverance rover finding possible signs of biosignatures, we seem to be getting closer to that answer.

But if the life we find on Mars is life we carried there on a piece of Kevlar by mistake, it could have serious consequences beyond just the mission. So, to send a rover to Mars safely, we may have to bake the equipment like cakes.

To ensure that no microscopic critters snuck their way onto the parachute before launch, the wrapped up parachute was placed in a specialized oven in a secure clean room at ESA's Life Support and Physical Sciences Laboratory at the agency's technical center in the Netherlands.

Following a 50-hour preheating process in this special oven, the parachute was baked at 257 degrees Fahrenheit (125 degrees Celsius) for 36 hours. This ensured all the layers and corners of this massive piece of gear were perfectly sanitized.

And, just like a perfectly baked cake, the team gave it some time to cool down after baking before wrapping it up to remain clean and ready to be enjoyed.

The Sombrero galaxy looks like a work of science fiction in a stunning new image showcasing its hat-shaped appearance in stunning detail.

What is it?

Messier 104, nicknamed the Sombrero galaxy, is a spiral galaxy located about 28 million light-years from Earth.

At an apparent magnitude of +8, it's too dim to see with the naked eye. However, binoculars or a small telescope will reveal its distinctive, wide, sombrero shape, making it a favorite target for skywatchers.

If you're looking for Messier 104 in the night sky, you can find it in the constellation Virgo.

This image of the far-off galaxy was captured using the Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam), mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Victor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. The observatory is part of the National Science Foundations' NOIRLab (formally the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory), the U.S. center for ground-based nighttime optical astronomy.

Why is it incredible?

It's no secret how the Sombrero galaxy got its nickname. With a very distinctive, wide and flat shape and it really does look like a cosmic sombrero.

The name itself has no scientific meaning — it's simply a reflection of a very human habit of finding familiar shapes in the unfamiliar.

The Sombrero galaxy holds nearly 2,000 globular star clusters, nearly 10 times more than the number in our own Milky Way. But in looking at this galaxy like a big, cosmic hat, it becomes somehow more relatable. Humans have been doing this with galaxies, stars, constellations, and even cloud shapes for as long as we have existed, and it brings the cosmos close.

The Artemis 2 heat shield looks like a sunken treasure from the Titanic in an underwater shot following splashdown.

The mission's Orion capsule splashed down off the coast of San Diego on April 10, safely returning its astronaut crew home. Now, we can see the aftermath of that landing in a striking new photograph.

What is it?

On April 10, NASA's Artemis 2 mission ended its historic 10-day journey around the moon and back. This was the first crewed mission to the moon since 1972, which is when the final mission of NASA's Apollo program wrapped up.

Following splashdown, U.S. Navy divers helped extract the crew from the capsule so the astronauts could continue on their way home. The Orion capsule will be returned to NASA's Kennedy Space Center for additional study following the mission — but before it was plucked from the ocean, the divers managed to capture images of the capsule and its heat shield underwater.

Why is it incredible?

This image is eerie and captivating. Against the dark blue of the ocean, the scorched tiles of the heat shield float like details on a forgotten relic lost at sea.

But most importantly, this striking image represents an incredible feat.

While hurtling through Earth's atmosphere at nearly 35 times the speed of sound, the Orion capsule endured incredibly hot temperatures. In fact, on that journey home, it may have reached temperatures upwards of 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,800 degrees Celsius). To protect the crew inside, the capsule was equipped with this heat shield, which thankfully did its job. Analysis of the returned capsule and heat shield will continue as the agency prepares for its next crewed mission: Artemis 3.

The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) looks spectacular in a new snapshot. But something about it might really surprise you.

It looks like this detailed image of a far-off galaxy was captured an advanced space telescope, or a huge ground-based scope. However, it was actually snapped with a camera sporting a telephoto lens from right here on Earth.

What is it?

The SMC is a dwarf galaxy that holds hundreds of millions of stars. The galaxy is near our very own Milky Way; in fact, it's one of our closest neighbors. Still, it is nearly 200,000 light-years away.

Despite that distance, the SMC can be seen with the naked eye from the Southern Hemisphere.

This unique visibility may have played a role in this spectacular image, which was captured by Petr Horálek, a NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador, using a camera and a wide-aperture telephoto lens on the mountain Cerro Pachón in Chile. This image capture took four hours under the dark skies above the mountain.

Why is it incredible?

In looking at this photo, you might assume it was captured by a space telescope like Hubble. It's a detailed and striking view of this far-off galaxy.

But Horálek captured this image with just a camera and telephoto lens. NOIRLab's ambassador program is a joint venture with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, and ambassadors share science with the public and their local communities.

This image is beautiful, but it also represents an exciting achievement in astrophotography.

Springtime has arrived on Mars as ice melts on the planet's northern ice cap.

A new photo captured by the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveals crescent-shaped dunes and melting ice across the Martian surface.

What is it?

This new image from HiRISE, which stands for High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, shows the surface of Chasma Boreale, a large valley in Mars' northern ice cap.

Here, ice melts and recedes in the springtime, some evidence of which can be seen in this image.

In this image, you can also see dunes streaking across the Martian surface. They hold information about the winds on the planet, as you can tell the direction of the wind based on the direction of the dunes' sharp tips.

Why is it incredible?

Chasma Boreale is a valley with walls rising up 4,600 feet (1,400 meters) from its flat floor. Hundreds of millions of miles away from Earth, this barren landscape lies at the planet's northern ice cap.

And yet, however icy cold, desolate, or far away this planet is, it feels the change of springtime just as we do here on Earth.

This image is a visual reminder of the similarities worlds share across the solar system, however different they may be.

A new image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope shows a spectacular nebula in all its glory. (And yes, it does kind of look like a cosmic sea slug.)

Nearly 30 years ago, Hubble looked at the Trifid Nebula. To celebrate the upcoming 36th anniversary of the telescope's launch on April 24, it looked at the nebula once again. And the image it captured is breathtaking.

What is it?

The Trifid Nebula, more formally known as Messier 20, is a star-forming region located about 5,000 light-years away.

The Hubble Space Telescope first looked at this nebula about 29 years ago in 1997. In looking at the nebula again all these years later, Hubble can show us how the nebula itself has changed over time, but it can also reveal new details as Hubble's camera has improved since taking its original image. During the space shuttle mission STS-125 in 2009, a of astronauts installed a better camera on Hubble with a wider field of view and improved sensitivity.

Why is it incredible?

While this is a massive cloud of dust and gas where stars are created, in this new image, the nebula looks a bit like a sea slug, some have pointed out.

In the image, the nebula has a "body" made out of dust and gas and even a "horn" or "antenna" that is actually part of a plasma jet ejected by a young protostar in the nebula.

Happy Earth Day!

This year, we're celebrating with brand-new photos captured by the astronauts who journeyed around the moon and back on NASA's Artemis 2 mission.

What is it?

On April 1, 2026, four astronauts launched on Artemis 2, the first crewed mission to the moon since NASA's final Apollo mission took place over 50 years ago, in December 1972.

In this photograph snapped by the Artemis 2 crew, affectionately titled "Hello, World," we can see our home planet out in space from the window of the Orion capsule "Integrity."

Why is it incredible?

In sending astronauts on a trip around the moon, Artemis 2 also delivered some incredible new photographs of our home planet.

This particular image is especially interesting, as it was captured just after the crew completed their translunar injection burn, which sent Integrity on course toward the moon. So as the astronauts made their way into the great beyond, they took a moment to look back at their home as it got smaller and smaller in the distance.

The Lyrid meteor shower peaks tonight (April 21). And, if you spot any Lyrid meteors, you have something cool in common with an astronaut!

Yesterday (April 20), NASA astronaut Jessica Meir shared a photograph that she took of the Lyrid meteor shower from aboard the International Space Station (ISS). But her view was a bit different from yours, as she saw a Lyrid streaking through Earth's atmosphere from above.

What is it?

The Lyrid meteor shower is at its peak this week, with prime viewing happening overnight from April 21 to April 22.

The Lyrids are made up of bits of debris trailing the long-period comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher, which was discovered in 1861. Long-period comets have very long orbital periods, taking hundreds of years or more to orbit the sun.

Every year around this time, Earth passes through this comet's debris field. Pieces of it burn up in our atmosphere, creating the spectacular meteors that streak across the sky.

The shower produces up to 15 to 20 Lyrid meteors per hour. You can see the Lyrids radiating from around the constellation Lyra (hence their name). If you can, find dark skies for optimal viewing.

In a photograph snapped from aboard the ISS, Meir revealed that she was able to see a Lyrid meteor shower lighting up the dark night skies over Earth.

Why is it incredible?

This photograph is so much more than just proof of a successful meteor shower watch.

It is a stunning visual reminder that our planet is protected by a surprisingly thin atmosphere. As Meir shared in her post, you can see below the horizon where the meteor is streaking.

The experience of living in space aboard the ISS is unique for so many reasons. But what a remarkable moment, for astronauts in space to be able to look down at their home planet and watch our atmosphere interact with a comet like this.

Have you ever seen the far side of the moon?

In a new image, snapped by astronauts aboard NASA's Artemis 2 mission on April 6, 2026, you can see a little piece of the moon's far side.

NOTE: It is not known if the crew was listening to Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon" when this image was captured.

What is it?

On April 6, the crew onboard NASA's Artemis 2 mission's Orion spacecraft were in the middle of their mission and flying by the moon.

This mission, which launched on April 1 and splashed back down to Earth on April 10, sent a crew of four astronauts on a journey around the moon and back. This was the first crewed mission to the moon since NASA's final Apollo mission in 1972, over 50 years ago.

On their incredible journey, the Artemis 2 crew went farther from Earth than humans have ever gone before — a whopping 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers) miles from home.

Why is it incredible?

During their lunar flyby, the crew actually flew behind the moon, allowing them to see its mysterious far side.

The moon is tidally locked in our orbit. This means that the moon has a side that is always facing us (the near side) and one that is perpetually facing away (the far side). The far side is sometimes known as the "dark side of the moon," which is inaccurate, because sunlight bathes it as well.

As the Orion capsule flew behind the moon, communications between Earth and the crew actually stopped for about 40 minutes.

This photograph is a beautiful insight into those minutes of quiet, when the crew observed what we so rarely are able to see.

The Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a spiral galaxy swirling through the darkness of space, emanating an otherworldly glow through its cosmic, branching arms.

What is it?

A new image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope shows the barred spiral galaxy IC 486 in all its glory.

This galaxy is located about 380 million light-years from Earth, just to the left of the constellation Gemini.

IC 486 is a barred spiral galaxy, which means that it is a spiral galaxy — or a galaxy with a spiraling disk with "arms" that extend from its center — with a central bar-shaped structure composed of stars. These bars are seen in about two thirds of all spiral galaxies we've observed.

Why is it incredible?

The incredible nature of this image speaks for itself. The soft, gossamer glow of the spiral galaxy seems straight out of science fiction, but it is even more amazing to know that it is a real image of a real, massive galaxy far out in the cosmos.

But beyond its beauty, this image holds a multitude of scientific wonders. Highlighted at the center of the galaxy by a bright white glow, for instance, is IC 486's active galactic nucleus (AGN), the center of the galaxy and an active supermassive black hole.

Dark energy and dark matter remain some of the biggest mysteries in the universe. But with amazing new science and technologies, we're putting together pieces of this strange puzzle.

In a brilliant new 3D map, you can see a fantastic visual representation of the cosmos, which will allow scientists to investigate dark energy further.

Read more: A dark energy tool just created the most comprehensive 3D map of our universe ever: 'This is a major paradigm shift'

What is it?

Dark energy remains a complete unknown. In essence, it is the explanation for why our universe is expanding at an accelerated rate over time. But what this mysterious force (or not force) driving this acceleration is remains a mystery.

On April 14, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) completed the largest 3D map of the universe ever in an effort to investigate dark energy.

Why is it incredible?

Our expanding universe holds countless unknowns. But to be able to see the universe visually, even three-dimensionally, is something truly spectacular.

In this image, every single point of light is a galaxy, with Earth at the center. It's a breathtaking view of our ever-expanding universe.

Even in space, we love to make our friends laugh.

On April 13, NASA astronauts Chris Williams and Jack Hathaway worked to capture Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL spacecraft from aboard the International Space Station (ISS) using the Canadarm2 robotic arm. But before the successful capture, the pair had a bit of fun.

Williams played on an optical illusion, reaching his hand out and appearing to "hold" the Cygnus XL from the ISS' cupola alongside Hathaway as the pair smiled and laugh.

What is it?

On April 11, NASA's Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 24 mission launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The mission sent over 11,000 pounds of cargo, including scientific investigations, to the ISS aboard a Cygnus XL spacecraft, identifiable by its two, round solar arrays.

On April 13, Williams and Hathaway captured the spacecraft using the Canadarm2 robotic arm. Once captured, they positioned it for installation on the ISS' Earth-facing port.

As you can see in the image, while the Cygnus was visible outside of the cupola, the pair had some fun pretending to "hold" the spacecraft between their fingers with a classic optical illusion.

Why is it incredible?

Space is hard. With the Cygnus XL's arrival, Williams and Hathaway accomplished a challenging feat, capturing and installing a spacecraft carrying thousands of pounds of cargo to another orbiting spacecraft.

But what's amazing is that, despite the constant and plentiful challenges of outer space, astronauts still manage to find the joy. And their fellow astronauts shared in the joy with them.

"Congratulations to @Astro_ChrisW and @astro_hathaway on their first cargo vehicle capture using the @csa_asc Canadarm on the @Space_Station! Mission accomplished today. Hatch opening and cargo ops, including many scientific experiments (and even some fresh food!), commence early tomorrow. Well done, @northropgrumman, @NASA, @SpaceX teams!" fellow NASA astronaut Jessica Meir shared on X on April 13 X.

We're not the only ones still feeling the joy of NASA's Artemis 2 mission.

Mission commander NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman was seen experiencing some serious joy following the mission splashdown. With his fist raised to the sky and his crew and teammates behind him, the excitement of this accomplishment was written all over his face. But one detail stands out — Rise, the Artemis 2 mission mascot, is securely attached to Reid's water bottle.

And it seems like the pair have been inseparable ever since.

What is it?

NASA's Artemis 2 mission sent four astronauts on a 10-day journey around the moon and back. This historic mission marked the first crewed trip to the moon since the final mission of the Apollo program in 1972.

On Friday (April 10), the astronauts onboard this mission — NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch and the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen — splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.

Following confirmation of a successful and safe splashdown, the crew boarded a recovery ship, triumphant and beaming. But while walking across the deck of the ship, some pointed out that Wiseman appeared to be carrying a special stowaway: Rise, the mission's mascot.

Why is it incredible?

It turns out that Wiseman was supposed to leave Rise — a plush moon toy and the mascot of the mission — behind on the Orion spacecraft. But he just couldn't do it, and he brought Rise along for the ride.

"I was supposed to leave Rise in Integrity ... but that was not something I was going to do," Wiseman wrote on X on Saturday (April 11).

Rise was invented by third-grader Lucas Ye as part of a public contest to come up with a mascot that could serve as a zero-gravity indicator. In other words, the object would need to be used to "float," or visually indicate zero gravity aboard the capsule.

In a heartwarming, additional note of sentimentality, at some point, "Carroll" was inscribed on the Ye's plush. This is in reference to Wiseman's wife Carroll, who died in 2020. During their lunar flyby livestream, the Artemis 2 crew suggested naming a moon crater Carroll, after her.

This little moon plush with an Earth-colored hat has become so beloved by both the public and the crew, with Wiseman even nicknaming the plush "Rise Wiseman," welcoming it into his family after the mission.

The Artemis 2 astronauts are all smiles back on Earth.

The joy is infectious in this image of mission pilot Victor Glover and mission specialist Christina Koch who soak in the moment while sitting together after splashing down on Friday (April 10).

What is it?

On Friday (April 10), after a 10-day mission around the moon, the crew of NASA's Artemis 2 mission headed home. The astronauts, who successfully completed the first crewed mission to the moon since NASA's Apollo program ended in 1972, strapped into the Orion capsule and hurtled through the atmosphere on an intense ride back to Earth.

After splashing down in the Pacific Ocean, the crew was extracted from their capsule into a small boat before each of the four crew members — NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch and the Canadian Space Agency's Jeremy Hansen — were airlifted by helicopter onto a U.S. Navy recovery ship.

Once on the recovery ship, the astronauts were able to exit their helicopters and connect with NASA team members and personnel. In this photo, Glover (left) gives a thumbs-up and Koch (right) throws out a wave to the camera as the two smile and take in their momentous achievement.

Why is it incredible?

NASA's Artemis 2 mission is incredible for a multitude of reasons scientific, technical, and historical. But this moment captured between Glover and Koch shows a glimpse into how this mission accomplished more than just technical goals.

The crew made waves over social media throughout their mission for their incredible bond. They've been seen hugging, cheering each other on, snapping photos of one another, and more.

This photo was snapped after the crew endured a return to Earth, which meant hurtling through the atmosphere at over 24,000 miles per hour (38,000 kilometers per hour) and in a capsule enduring temperatures up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius). The blistering journey was followed by a splash landing in the ocean where the crew rocked on the water awaiting extraction before being transported to a boat, then a helicopter, and finally the recovery ship. This was no easy journey.

And yet, Glover and Koch sit together after all of that beaming smiles out to the world who watched them land with baited breath.

With the success of Artemis 2, NASA is moving forward toward Artemis 3, another crewed lunar mission that will run ahead of the agency's planned moon landing with Artemis 4.

The Artemis 2 crew captured a spellbinding photo of the crescent Earth shining above the moon's horizon on Flight Day 6 of their mission, shortly before our planet was lost behind the lunar horizon.

What is it?

White clouds can be seen swirling on Earth's sunlit arc above the line separating night from day while the cratered expanse of the lunar disk stretches out below. The 590-mile-wide (950-kilometer-wide) Orientale basin can be seen darkening the upper right of the lunar crescent, while prominent features such as the Chebyshev, Vavilov and Hertzsprung impact sites dominate the shadowed lunar far side in the lower half of the image.

The photo was captured on Monday (April 6), as Artemis 2's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen executed their successful flyby of the lunar far side. The mission marked the first time astronauts had visited lunar space since Apollo 17 departed in 1972. Artemis 2 also set a new record for the most distant crewed mission in the history of spaceflight, surpassing the previous record set by the crew of Apollo 13 in April 1970.

Why is it incredible?

Every human being that has ever lived is contained within the scope of this single image, with the exception of the four crewmembers of the Artemis 2 Orion capsule "Integrity".

Prior to Artemis 2, only 24 people — the astronauts of Apollo 8 through Apollo 17 — have had the privilege of seeing the far side of the moon with their own eyes. That number has now risen to 28, with NASA's Christina Koch making history by becoming the first woman to join the ranks, while Victor Glover became the first Black man to perform the feat.

Artemis 2's Orion spacecraft is now racing towards Earth on a return journey that will see the four-person crew splash down off the coast of San Diego at 8:07 p.m. EDT on April 10 (0007 GMT on April 11), and you can watch it unfold live right here at Space.com.

Be sure to stay up to date with all the latest news with our Artemis 2 liveblog and discover the answers to all your Artemis program questions with our in-depth explainer article!

Artemis 2 astronaut Christina Koch starred in an out-of-this-world selfie with the zero-gravity indicator "Rise" on April 4, captured from a camera mounted on a solar panel as the crew were half way to the moon ahead of their historic lunar flyby.

What is it?

Koch can be seen smiling alongside Rise in an illuminated Orion viewport, with the spacecraft's service module bathed in bright sunlight on Flight Day 4 of their 10-day lunar mission.

The NASA photo was captured using a modified GoPro camera mounted on the end of a 7-meter-long (23-foot) solar panel — one of four such "wings" that power the Orion spacecraft by transforming sunlight into usable electricity.

Why is it incredible?

Zero-g indicators are traditionally flown on space missions as both a mascot and a simple way for astronauts to confirm they have reached microgravity.

NASA held an open competition to design the Artemis 2 zero-g indicator, receiving more than 2,600 entries from over 50 countries. The winning design from Californian 3rd grader Lucas Ye was inspired by astronaut Bill Anders' iconic Apollo 8 "Earthrise" photo and features a smiling moon-like head and Earth-themed cap.

Safely tucked within the adorable mascot is a tiny SD card bearing the names of the 5,647,889 people who applied for an Artemis 2 "boarding pass". Artemis 2 astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen are due to return to Earth on April 10, enduring a fiery atmospheric re-entry before finally splashing down off the coast of San Diego to bring an end to their 10-day space odyssey.

Want to know more? Then be sure to keep up to date with the latest news with our Artemis 2 liveblog and read up on NASA's efforts to establish a sustainable presence on the moon with our Artemis program explainer.