Space Image of the Day Gallery

Post 8687

By SPACE.com Staff | January 25, 2018 09:41pm ET

Image of the Day Archives

Credit: NASA, ESA and Orsola De Marco (Macquarie University)

For older Image of the Day pictures, please visit the Image of the Day archives. Pictured: NGC 2467.

Jupiter’s Great Red ‘Monet’

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/David Englund

Friday, September 1, 2017: This colorful work of art is a picture of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft and edited by citizen scientist David Englund, who recreated the image to look like a painting by Claude Monet. The original image was taken on July 10 as Juno performed its seventh close flyby of Jupiter. — Hanneke Weitering

Cassini’s View of Enceladus

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Wednesday, September 6, 2017: NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which has been orbiting Saturn for the last decade, also keeps an eye on Saturn’s moons. On Aug. 1, when Cassini was about 112,000 miles (181,000 kilometers) from Saturn’s moon Enceladus, the spacecraft took a series of images, which project scientists stitched together to create this animation of a unique “spacecraft’s-eye” view of the flyby. — Hanneke Weitering

One Last Look

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Thursday, September 14, 2017: Before NASA’s Cassini spacecraft began the “grand finale” phase of its mission at Saturn, it took one last photo of the giant planet and its ring system from afar. The spacecraft has been orbiting Saturn for the last 13 years and will dive into the gas giant tomorrow(Sept. 15). — Hanneke Weitering

So Long, Pac-Man Moon!

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Tuesday, September 19, 2017: Before NASA’s Cassini spacecraft dove into Saturn last Friday (Sept. 15), it bade farewell to Iapetus, one of Saturn’s “Pac-Man” moons. Also known as the “yin-and-yang” moon, Iapetus is bright on one side and dark on the other. Cassini’s final photograph of Iapetus was taken on May 30 from a distance of 1.5 million miles (2.5 million kilometers). — Hanneke Weitering

A Sliver of Jupiter

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstadt

Friday, September 22, 2017: NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew over Jupiter’s cloud tops on Sept. 1 and captured this photo of the planet from 4,707 miles (7,576 km) away. Citizen scientist Gerald Eichstädt processed the raw image from the spacecraft’s JunoCam to create this picture. The view focuses on features in Jupiter’s dark band that are nicknamed “Whale’s Tail” and “Dan’s Spot.” — Hanneke Weitering

Galaxy NGC 6753

Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble

Cassini’s Last Photo

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Friday, September 15, 2017: This is the last image taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft before it dove into Saturn’s atmosphere this morning. Cassini took the photo on Thursday (Sept. 14) at 12:59 p.m. PDT (3:59 p.m. EDT; 19:59 GMT), roughly 12 hours before it disintegrated in Saturn’s atmosphere, becoming one with the planet it had studied for nearly two decades. — Hanneke Weitering

‘Sniffing’ in Space

Credit: NASA

Tuesday, September 26, 2017: Outside the International Space Station, a two-armed robot named Dextre helps NASA locate an ammonia leak. Robotic operators at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston had Dextre grab onto a tool called the Robotic External Leak Locator, which “sniffed” for traces of ammonia around a suspected leaky valve. — Hanneke Weitering

The Saturn Nebula

Credit: ESO/J. Walsh

Wednesday, September 27, 2017: The planetary nebula NGC 7002, also known as the Saturn Nebula, glows in the darkness in this new image from the European Southern Observatory. It may be a planetary nebula shaped like Saturn, but this cosmic object is certainly no planet. Rather, it’s a massive cloud of gas and dust, ingredients that form new stars. — Hanneke Weitering

OSIRIS-REx Earth-Flyby Photo

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/University of Arizona

Kenya and the Cupola

Credit: Randy Bresnik/NASA/Twitter