Space Universe🌌

Caldwell 5 glitters in this new Galaxies Galore image! This spiral galaxy lies about 11 million light-years away. At its core is an energetic star nursery that can create thousands of stars over the course of a couple million years.

Galactic pals! This close-knit group of five galaxies is known as Hickson Compact Group 40. You might recognize them from Hubble’s 32nd anniversary image, celebrated last month! The group contains three spiral galaxies, along with an elliptical galaxy and a lenticular (lens-like) galaxy. Visualization credits: Joseph DePasquale, Alyssa Pagan Music credit: “Shine,” Max Cameron Concors, Hyperscore Productions, Universal Production Music

What better way to wrap up the first week of Galaxies Galore than with a new Hubble image? Soak in this view of the giant elliptical galaxy UGC 10143, the brightest galaxy in a cluster full of them. Image credits: NASA, ESA, and W. Harris (McMaster University); Image processing: G. Kober (NASA Goddard/Catholic University of America)

Time for a galactic quest to NGC 1300! This majestic spiral galaxy is nearly 70 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus. It contains pink clouds of star formation, blue clusters of young stars, and dark lanes of dust. Image credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI) Music credit: "Digital Dreamscape," Count Zero [PRS], Atmosphere Music Ltd. [PRS], Universal Production Music

About 130 million light-years away in the constellation Draco, the galaxy NGC 3147 resides. Its winding, graceful spiral arms contain pinkish nebulae, young blue stars, and dust in silhouette. Image credit: NASA, ESA, S. Bianchi (Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Italy) and M. Chiaberge (ESA, STScI, and JHU)

Four types of light = One amazing sonification! From across the electromagnetic spectrum, data in this image is represented by music to create an interesting way of experiencing the Whirlpool Galaxy through sound. This sonification features data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (infrared), Hubble (visible), GALEX (ultraviolet), and NASA Chandra xray. Credits: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand; Sonification: @SYSTEMSounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)

You're just too good to be true Can't take my eyes off of you 👀 Our Perseverance Mars rover captured this sped-up video of an eclipse featuring Phobos, one of Mars' two moons. It’s the most zoomed-in, highest-frame-rate observation of a Phobos solar eclipse ever taken from the Martian surface. Using our rovers to observe Martian eclipses gives scientists new perspectives on the subtle shifts in the moons' orbits. Intense tidal forces created by its proximity to the Red Planet, Phobos is moving very slowly towards Mars, and millions of years from now, they will collide. Despite having its eyes in the sky, one of Perseverance’s primary objectives is looking for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover is studying and analyzing the Red Planet's regolith, rock and dust, and is the first rover to collect and cache samples.

Earth, The Blue Planet, Gaia, Terra, The Big Blue Marble 🌎 No matter what you call it, it will always be home. We here at NASA are celebrating #EarthDay with you. From the depths of the oceans to the tallest peaks, from lush forests to arid deserts, our planet is full of brilliant diversity. Earth is in the "Goldilocks Zone"; our planet's distance to the sun is ideal for liquid water to be on the surface, as we are neither too hot nor too cold. As we search among the stars for life, inspiration, and creation, we also look inward and study what makes our home planet just right to support life. What's your favorite corner of the planet? Post an image or a selfie tagged NASA Earthling and NASA Earth, or share what you think makes our planet unique in the comments below.

Not to put Jupiter on the spot, but… The large, dark shadow on the left side of the image was cast by Jupiter’s moon Ganymede, as @NASASolarSystem’s Juno spacecraft captured this view of Jupiter during the mission’s 40th close pass by the giant planet on Feb. 25, 2022. Eclipses on Jupiter are more common than what we experience on Earth. For one, Jupiter has four major moons that often pass between Jupiter and the Sun. In just one week, Ganymede transits once; Europa, twice; and Io, four times. And since Jupiter’s moons orbit in a plane close to Jupiter’s orbital plane, the moon shadows are often cast upon the planet. Citizen scientist Thomas Thomopoulos created this enhanced-color image using raw data from the JunoCam instrument. At the time the raw image was taken, the Juno spacecraft was about 44,000 miles (71,000 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 55 degrees south, and 15 times closer than Ganymede, which orbits about 666,000 miles (1.1 million kilometers) away from Jupiter.

We’re shining a light on our wondrous planet Earth. Here are just a few of the backgrounds you can grab in our Wallpaper highlight. Just go to our highlight above, tap the image you like, and screenshot it. It’s all yours, just like your home planet. 🌎

Showing true millennial spirit, you captured a spectacular grouping of five galaxies, hanging out in their own corner of the universe. While groups of galaxies are not rare, typically found in the heart of huge galaxy clusters, these wallflowers prefer to do their own thing in the direction of the constellation Hydra. In about 1 billion years, they will collide and merge to form a giant elliptical galaxy. Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Vice President Harris called NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei to congratulate him on his historic journey and 355 days in space. Mark's mission and research in space helps us better understand the effects of long-duration human spaceflight as we prepare for the Artemis missions to the Moon. As head of the National Space Council, VP Harris is working on our priorities in space, including building up America's STEM workforce, addressing the climate crisis, and promoting rules and norms that govern space.