Related Images Gallery

A Sky View of Earth From Suomi NPP

This composite image of southern Africa and the surrounding oceans was captured by six orbits of the NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership spacecraft on April 9, 2015, by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument. Tropical Cyclone Joalane can be seen over the Indian Ocean. Winds, tides and density differences constantly stir the oceans while phytoplankton continually grow and die. Orbiting radiometers such as VIIRS allows scientists to track this variability over time and contribute to better understanding of ocean processes that are beneficial to human survival on Earth. The image was created by the Ocean Biology Processing Group at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland

© NASA

Jupiters Great Red Spot

As Voyager 1 flew by Jupiter, it captured this photo of the Great Red Spot. The Great Red Spot is an anti-cyclonic (high- pressure) storm on Jupiter that can be likened to the worst hurricanes on Earth. An ancient storm, it is so large that three Earths could fit inside it. This photo, and others of Jupiter, allowed scientists to see different colors in clouds around the Great Red Spot which imply that the clouds swirl around the spot (going counter-clockwise) at varying altitudes. The Great Red Spot had been observed from Earth for hundreds of years, yet never before with this clarity and closeness (objects as small as six hundred kilometers can be seen). The Voyager mission has been managed by NASA's Office of Space Science and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

© NASA

Cassiopeia A, NuSTAR X-ray image

Cassiopeia A, NuSTAR X-ray image. This object is a supernova remnant, the expanding shell from a massive star that exploded as a supernova some 11, 000 years ago. The light from this supernova is thought to have first reached Earth around 300 years ago. The remnant is 11, 000 light years from Earth, in the constellation of Cassiopeia. This image was obtained by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR). The energy of the X-rays, formed as the expanding shells impact the interstellar medium, are colour-coded: blue (highest), and red and green (lowest). The starry background picture is from the Digitized Sky Survey. Image published in 2013

© NASA/JPL-CALTECH/DSS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY