City lights sprawl across Earth’s surface below a constant glow in the upper atmosphere.
Published Oct 23, 2018
From one million miles away, the DSCOVR satellite returned its first view of the entire sunlit side of Earth.
Published Jul 21, 2015
Orbiting the Earth at nearly 17,000 miles per hour, NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) is collecting spectacular new three-dimensional measurements of the Earth's surface and atmosphere.
Published Dec 10, 2003
Atmospheric gases scatter blue wavelengths of visible light more than other wavelengths, giving the Earth’s visible edge a blue halo. At higher and higher altitudes, the atmosphere becomes so thin that it essentially ceases to exist. Gradually, the atmospheric halo fades into the blackness of space. This astronaut photograph captured on July 20, 2006, shows a nearly translucent moon emerging from behind the halo.
Published Feb 2, 2007
The Curiosity rover on Mars looked up and saw home on the horizon.
Published Mar 9, 2014
Twenty years ago this month, astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery used the spacecraft's robotic arm to launch the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite into orbit around the Earth.
Published Sep 24, 2011
A mining operation in China dominates the global market for rare metals used in consumer products.
Published Apr 21, 2012
On July 19, 2013, NASA spacecraft got not one but two rare and unique views of Earth from opposite ends of the solar system.
Published Jul 24, 2013
As the spacecraft headed into its last days, it sent back this image of Earth framed by Saturn’s rings.
Published Apr 29, 2017
A pair of sounding rockets took aim at the aurora over Svalbard, Norway, to help scientists understand how Earth loses oxygen into space.
Published Dec 17, 2018
Sixteen operating satellites monitor Earth. Four more are scheduled to launch in 2014.
Published Jul 5, 2013
When the Apollo 11 astronauts left the surface of the Moon on July 21, 1969, they brought home samples of solar wind particles, lunar rocks and dirt, and a big helping of perspective.
Published Jul 20, 2019
The MarCO-B CubeSat snapped its first photo on May 9, 2018, and caught a glance of home.
Published May 28, 2018
Storms and a lunar eclipse are a few of the phenomena visible in animations of Earth’s full disk.
Published Dec 16, 2015
After arriving in its final orbit, DSCOVR will monitor the solar wind and send back epic views of Earth’s full sunlit disk.
Published Feb 13, 2015
Before there was a Blue Marble photograph or composite image of Earth, there was TIROS IX.
Published Apr 22, 2015
Seen from a billion kilometers away, through the ice and dust particles of Saturn’s rings, Earth appears as a tiny, bright dot.
Published Jan 16, 2007
Astronauts captured this unusual view of a Perseid meteor descending into Earth's atmosphere in August 2011.
Published Aug 17, 2011
These iconic photos are not new, but their message never gets old.
Published Dec 24, 2018
Across two decades, the Terra satellite has been a great leap for Earth system science, observing how different spheres fit together as a whole.
Published Dec 18, 2019Image of the Day Atmosphere Heat Land Drought Fires Remote Sensing
Solar storms smacked into Earth’s magnetic field and provoked auroras over the southern and northern hemisphere just after the summer solstice.
Published Jun 28, 2015
