Best Space Pictures

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Space Pictures contains images ranging from planets, NASA pics, Hubble images, universe, rockets, solar system, stars, astronomy pictures, galaxies, esa, spacecraft, aurora borealis and more.

Valentine Rose

Sh2-174 Planetary Nebula

Planetary Nebula, Sh2-174 image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.


NASA Finds Signals of Water on Hazy Exoplanets.

NASA Finds Signals of Water on Hazy Exoplanets.

NASA scientists found faint signatures of water in the atmospheres of five distant planets orbiting three different stars. All five planets appear to be hazy. This illustration shows a star’s light illuminating the atmosphere of a planet.
Image Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center


NASA Commercial Crew Program

NASA Commercial Crew Program

NASA astronaut, the Earth and the International Space Station…an Artist’s concept.


Astronomers Discover Tilted Solar System

Tilted Solar System
Using data from NASA’s Kepler Spacecraft, astronomers discovered a planetary system featuring multiple planets orbiting at a severe tilt to their host star, Kepler-56, a red giant star. By analyzing the fluctuations in brightness at different points on the surface of Kepler-56 astronomers discovered that the star’s rotation axis is tilted by about 45 degrees to our line of sight. Kepler-56 is more than 4 times the radius of our sun and is about 3000 light years from Earth. It was announced in October 2013.


Astronomers Image Lowest-mass Exoplanet Around a Sun-like Star

 Lowest Mass Exoplanet

An international team of astronomers using infrared data from the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii has imaged GJ 504b, the lowest-mass planet ever detected (2013) around a star like the sun. The planet is several times the mass of Jupiter and similar in size. The star is called GJ 504 and is located 57 light-years from Earth.


Astronomers Discover Massive Star Factory.

Massive Star Factory

This artist’s impression shows the “starburst” galaxy HFLS3. The galaxy appears as little more than a faint, red smudge in images from the Herschel space observatory. But appearances can be deceiving for it is making stars more than 2,000 times faster than our own Milky Way galaxy, one of the highest star-formation rates ever seen in any galaxy. 

Astronomers, including Matt Bradford, Jamie Bock, Darren Dowell, Hien Nguyen and Jonas Zmuidzinas of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California have discovered a dust-filled, massive galaxy churning out stars when the cosmos was a mere 880 million years old. This is the earliest starburst galaxy ever observed.


Mars Pathfinder Launch!

Mars Pathfinder Launch!

Time Lapse Photograph of Launch Sequence

Mars Pathfinder was launched on 4 December, 1996 at 1:58:07 am EST on a Delta II rocket from Kennedy Space Center.


White Dwarf Crossing Red Star.

White Dwarf crossing in front of a small Red Star

This artist’s concept depicts a dense, dead star called a white dwarf crossing in front of a small red star. The white dwarf’s gravity is so great it bends and magnifies light from the red star. 

NASA’s Kepler space telescope observed this effect in a double-star system called KOI-256 by monitoring changes in the red star’s brightness. The red dwarf star is cooler and redder than our yellow sun.


Alien Planetary Surface.

Planetary Surface Picture


NASA’s Fermi Proves Supernova Remnants Produce Cosmic Rays.

Jellyfish Nebula Picture

A new study (Feb 2013) using observations from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveals the first clear cut evidence that the expanding debris of exploded stars produces some of the fastest-moving matter in the universe.

This above multiwavelength composite image shows the supernova remnant IC 443, also known as the Jellyfish Nebula. Supernova remnant IC 443 is located 5,000 light-years away toward the constellation Gemini and is thought to be about 10,000 years old.


Lasers in Space.

Lasers in Space Picture

This artist’s concept shows the proposed LISA mission, which would consist of three distinct spacecraft, each connected by laser beams. It would be the first space-based mission to attempt the detection of gravitational waves — ripples in space-time that are emitted by exotic objects such as black holes.


Andromeda Spiral Galaxy.

Andromeda Spiral Galaxy

Andromeda is the Milky Way galaxy’s nearest large neighbour. It is located approx. 2.5 million light years away and holds up to an estimated trillion stars. Our Milky Way is thought to contain about 200 billion to 400 billion stars.


Largest known structure ever detected in the Universe.

Largest known structure ever detected in the Universe

ULAS J1120+0641 is a very distant quasar. It is powered by a black hole with a mass two billion times that of the Sun. The quasar is the most distant yet found and is seen as it was just 770 million years after the Big Bang. The quasar is by far the brightest object yet discovered in the early Universe.


Beautiful Solar Eclipse.

Solar Eclipse Picture

Occultation of the Sun by the Moon is called a Solar Eclipse.


NASA Tests Saturn V F-1 Gas Generator Hot-Fire on Jan. 10, 2013.

Saturn V F-1 Gas Generator Hot-fire Test Picture

  Saturn V F-1 gas generator completed a 20-second hot-fire test on 10 January 2013. Engineers are completing tests at Test Stand 116 located in the East Test Area at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabma. The aim is to gather performance data from the refurbished gas generator and to demonstrate new test stand capabilities for conducting future tests with liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene fuel, known as Rocket Propellant 1.


Interstellar Bussard Ramjet Engine…an Artist Concept (NASA 2004) 

Interstellar Bussard Ramjet Engine Picture

 Bussard ramjet is a theoretical method of spacecraft propulsion proposed in 1960 by the physicist Robert W. Bussard 

The concept uses interstellar hydrogen scooped up from its environment as the spacecraft passes by. The hydrogen then ionized and then collected by an electromagnetic field. An onboard laser is used to heat the plasma and the laser or electron beam is used to trigger fusion pulses thereby creating propulsion.


Floating Ice on Titan Moon Lakes.

Floating Ice on Titan Moon Lakes Picture

An artist’s impression of what hydrocarbon ice forming on a liquid hydrocarbon sea of Saturn’s moon Titan might look like.

Do you think any exotic form of life lives in the lakes?


Planetary Birth: New Info on Planet-Forming Gas Streams.

Planetary Birth Picture

Disc of gas and cosmic dust around the young star HD 142527.

 Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope have seen vast streams of gas flowing across the gap in the disc. These are the first direct observations of these streams, which are expected to be created by giant planets guzzling gas as they grow, and which are a key stage in the birth of giant planets. HD 142527 is located 450 Light Years from Earth.


Flock of Stars

Flock of Stars Picture

Stunning Image


Hubble Supernova Bubble Resembles Holiday Ornament.

Supernova Bubble Picture

A Sphere of Gas Floats in Space.

The bubble (or pristine shell) is the result of gas that is being shocked by the expanding blast wave from a supernova. Called SNR 0509-67.5 (or SNR 0509 for short), the bubble is the visible remnant of a powerful stellar explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy about 160,000 light years from Earth.

Ripples in the shell’s surface may be caused by either subtle variations in the density of the ambient interstellar gas or possibly driven from the interior by pieces of the ejecta. The bubble-shaped shroud of gas is 23 light years across and is expanding at more than 5,000 kilometers per second 11 million miles per hour.


Space Star Makes Waves Picture

Shot Away from its Companion, Star Makes Waves.

Like a ship plowing through still waters, the giant star Zeta Ophiuchi is speeding through space, making waves in the dust ahead. NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope captured a dramatic, infrared portrait of these glowing waves. Also known as a bow shock.

In the above photo infrared light that we can’t see with our eyes has been assigned visible colors. Zeta Ophiuchi appears as the bright blue star at center.  Zeta Ophiuchi is 20 times more massive and 80,000 times brighter than our Sun.


Disappearing Space Dust Picture

A dusty planet-forming disk, similar to the one that vanished around the star called TYC 8241 2652….an artist’s concept.

Imagine if the rings of Saturn suddenly disappeared. Astronomers have witnessed the equivalent around a young sun-like star called TYC 8241 2652. Enormous amounts of dust known to circle the star are unexpectedly nowhere to be found.

The first strong indication of the disk’s disappearance came from images taken in January 2010 by NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). An infrared image obtained at the Gemini telescope in Chile on 1 May, 2012 confirmed that the dust has now been gone for two-and-a-half years.


Astronomers Discover Most Massive Star. 

Kappa Andromedae Picture

Astronomers using infrared data from the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii have discovered a ‘super-Jupiter’ around the bright star Kappa Andromedae, which now holds the record for the most massive star known to host a directly imaged planet or lightweight brown dwarf companion (19 November 2012).

Designated Kappa Andromedae b (Kappa And b, for short), the new object has a mass about 12.8 times greater than Planet Jupiter’s.


MESMERIZING PHOTO: Quadrantids over Qumis.

Meteor Shower Picture

The Quadrantid Meteor Shower is an annual event for planet Earth’s northern hemisphere skygazers. It usually peaks briefly in the cold, early morning hours of January 4.


Beautiful Planetary Nebula….IC 5148. 

Beautiful Planetary Nebula IC 5148 Picture

IC 5148 is a beautiful planetary nebula located some 3000 light years away in the constellation of Grus (The Crane). The nebula has a diameter of a couple of light years and it is still growing at over 50 kms per second,  one of the fastest expanding planetary nebulae known.


Galaxy with a Molecular Outflow Picture

Galaxy with a Molecular Outflow….An artist’s impression.

Herschel has discovered that such outflows can travel at 1000 km/s, which could deplete the galaxy of the gas needed for further star formation within one million to 100 million years. Image Credit: ESA/AOES Medialab.


Blue Worm Hole

Blue Worm Hole Picture

Wow! its Beautiful!


Giant Star Eta Carinae May Explode Any Day.

Giant Star Eta Carinae Picture

Eta Carinae is likely to explode in a supernova in the relatively near future, but no one knows when – it may be next year, it may be one million years from now.

Eta Carinae  is a stellar system in the constellation Carina. It is about 7,500 light-years from Earth.


Spectacular Solar Flare

Solar Flare Picture

NASA’S Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this eruption from the sun on 30 March 30, 2012.


Birth of an Earth-Like Planet

Birth of an Earth-like Planet Picture

HD 113766 is a binary-star. Earth-like planet is forming around one of the stars. Located approx. 424 light-years away from Earth.


Banana Space Shuttle  

Banana Space Shuttle Picture


Our Solar System

Our Solar System Picture

Solar System: the Sun, Inner Planets, Asteroid Belt, a Comet and Outer Planets.


Planet Jupiter in Black and White

Planet Jupiter in Black and White Picture


Other pics: AsteroidAuroraAstronautBlack HoleCometsEarthGalaxyMoonNeil ArmstrongSpacecraftMarsrocketssolar systemSpace ShuttleSpace StationSunriseUniverse.


Books:

Hubble: The Mirror on the Universe by Robin Kerrod
Dramatic images never before published in a single volume. The book covers the observable universe.
From: Amazon.com,Amazon.co.uk,Amazon.ca

Lunar Orbiter Photographic Atlas of the Near Side of the Moon by Charles J. Byrne
From: Amazon.comAmazon.co.ukAmazon.ca


Space Picture Links:

HubbleSite – Gallery: At the official online home of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope exists a gallery of the best pictures that the Hubble has taken.

BBC – Space Picture Gallery: Browse through the stunning space photography section, with astronomy photographs sent in by BBCi space readers.

Astronomy Picture of the Day: Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

JSC Digital Image Collection: JSC NASA

Shuttle Endeavour Crossing: Photo Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

The Centre of the Milky Way: Image Credit – ESO/S. Gillessen et al.

Preview of a forthcoming supernova: Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

From Cosmic Spare Tyre to Ethereal Blossom: Image Credit

Astronomers Directly Image Massive Star’s ‘Super-Jupiter’:

The Mysterious Case of the Disappearing Dust: NASA article – 5th July 2012

Green Comet Approaches Earth – NASA Science: Jack Newton took photo from his backyard observatory in Arizona in 2009.

Shot Away from its Companion, Giant Star Makes Waves: Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech – 18 December 2012.

Artist’s impression of the disc and gas streams around HD 142527: Image Credit:
Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/M. Kornmesser (ESO) – 2nd January 2013.

An artist’s rendering of the most distant quasar: Image Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Andromeda is So Hot ‘n’ Cold: Image Credit: ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/J. Fritz, U. Gent; X-ray: ESA/XMM Newton/EPIC/W. Pietsch, MPE.

Lasers in Space: Image credit: ESA

Dead Star Acts Like Magnifying Glass: Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mars Pathfinder Launch!: by NASA’s JPL

Astronomers Discover Massive Star Factory in Early Universe: Image credit: ESA–C. Carreau 

Astronomers Image Lowest-mass Exoplanet Around a Sun-like Star: Image Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/S. Wiessinger (5 August 2013).

A Giant Misalignment in a Multiple Planet System: Image Credit: NASA GSFC/Ames/D Huber (18 October, 2013)

A Valentine Rose: Press Release: February 12, 2013. Image Credit: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and H. Schweiker (WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF)

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