NASA

Very demure. Very cutesy. Very mindful. ⁣ ⁣ That’s how Saturn’s inner rings shine in diffused, scattered light as @NASASolarSystem ’s Cassini spacecraft looks on the planet’s night side. The southern hemisphere is lit by sunlight reflecting off the rings, while the north portion shines much more feebly in the dim light that filters through the rings and is scattered on the top half of the planet.⁣ ⁣ See how Saturn glows even when it’s not directly in daylight? Very considerate, very approachable, very demure.⁣ ⁣ There may be only one star in our solar system, but everyone gets a chance to glow, ladies.⁣ ⁣ Image description: The planet takes up the left side of the image, while its rings glow in shades of gold along the right side. The rings appear dim nearest to the planet, gradually becoming bolder near the center of the rings and fade out back into faint along the outer edges. ⁣ ⁣ Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute⁣ ⁣ #NASA #SolarSystem #Saturn #Rings #Planet #Demure #Cassini #Space

Watashi wa star ✨ This light-year-long knot of interstellar gas and dust that looks a little like a caterpillar is a newborn star – a protostar. Stars form in large clouds of gas and dust called molecular clouds. These massive clouds are cold and clump up. Eventually, gravity causes some of these clumps to collapse. When this happens, friction causes the material to heat up, eventually leading to the creation of a protostar. A protostar hasn’t yet developed the energy-generating capabilities of a star like the Sun, which fuses hydrogen into helium in its core. Instead, a protostar’s energy comes from the heat released created by that initial collapse. In time, the protostar will develop the ability to generate energy like other Sun-like stars. Image description: Many golden stars stud the darkness of space. Some of the stars have four diffraction spikes. At the center is a long, bright blue cloud of gas and dust with a bright core. Credit: NASA, @europeanspaceagency , and the @nasahubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) #NASA #Stars #Space #Creation #Hubble

We think the apple's rotten right to the core 🍏 The eerie glow of a dead star, which exploded long ago in a supernova, reveals itself in this @NASAHubble image of the Crab Nebula. But don't be fooled: the ghoulish-looking object still has a pulse. Buried at the center is the star's tell-tale heart, which beats with rhythmic precision. The "heart" is the crushed core of the exploded star. Known as a neutron star, it has the same mass as the Sun, but is squeezed into an ultra-dense sphere that is only a few miles across. The tiny powerhouse is the bright star-like object in the center of the image. Image description: Swirls of bright green hues fill this view of space. In the center, the bright “heart” of the Crab Nebula can be seen. Stars dot the sky in the distance. Credit: NASA and ESA #NASA #Space #Astronomy #Hubble #CrabNebula #Green #BratSummer #Brat

You’re gonna hear me roar Have no fear: what might look like a nightmarish beast throwing its head back in an angry red sea is just a pillar of gas and dust. The Cone Nebula is 2,500 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros. This image, captured by @NASAHubble , shows the upper 2.5 light-years of the nebula; the entire nebula is 7 light-years long. Monstrous pillars of cold gas like the Cone are common in large regions of star birth. Astronomers believe the pillars are incubators for developing stars. Over millions of years, radiation from hot, young stars (located beyond the top of the image) has slowly eroded the nebula. This process causes the hydrogen gas to glow, which produces the red halo of light seen around the pillar. A similar process occurs on a much smaller scale to gas surrounding a single star, forming the bow-shaped arc seen near the upper left side of the Cone. Eventually, only the densest regions of the Cone will be left. Inside these regions, stars and planets may form. Image description: Against a dramatic red backdrop, a dark pillar of gas and dust stretches upward, its top illuminated by the reflected light of nearby stars. Some stars are sprinkled across the top of the image. There are also a few stars dotting the bottom of the pillar. Credit: NASA, H. Ford (JHU), G. Illingworth (USCS/LO), M. Clampin (STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), the ACS Science Team, and ESA #NASA #Nebula #Stars #Universe #Astronomy

Look up at the Moon with NASA this weekend! Saturday, Sept. 14 is International Observe the Moon Night, and we're inviting you to join us as we celebrate our lunar neighbor. We're holding Moon parties—in person and online—sharing fun Moon facts, and talking about how our @NASAArtemis astronauts are preparing to return to the Moon. Whether you're looking with a telescope, a pair of binoculars, or your own two eyes, come out and Moonwatch with us! Visit moon.nasa.gov for the details. Image description: A glowing full moon rises above the Washington Monument. The top quarter of the monument, covered in scaffolding, is visible, with its triangular tip appearing to point to the pale Moon above, which appears in this photo to be roughly twice as wide as the monument. The Moon is wreathed in thin clouds which give it a hazy appearance. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls #NASA #Space #Moon #ObserveTheMoon

If you got it, flaunt it 🔥 This stylish sphere, spotted by @NASAHubble , is known as the Bubble Nebula. Residing 7,100 light-years from Earth, the Bubble Nebula itself is a whopping 7 light-years across. The seething star that forms this nebula is 45 times more massive than our Sun! Gas on the star gets so hot that it escapes away into space as a stellar wind moving at over four million miles per hour (6.4 million kph). The gases, heated to varying temperatures, emit different colors: blue for oxygen, green for hydrogen, and red for nitrogen. The Bubble Nebula formed about four million years ago—and in 10 to 20 million years, the star at its core will likely detonate as a supernova. Image description: A light-blue-colored bubble, with a small pink star on the upper-left side of the bubble, floats in space. Dense pillars of cool hydrogen gas laced with dust appear at the upper-left of the image, and more "fingers" can be seen nearly face-on, behind the translucent bubble. Gas and sparsely-spread stars fill the background against the darkness of space.⁣ Credit: NASA, @EuropeanSpaceAgency , and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) #NASA #Space #Universe #Hubble #BubbleNebula #HubbleSpaceTelescope #Astronomy

Today, we remember. NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson was aboard the International Space Station on Sept. 11, 2001. He took this photo of New York City, and many others, from the @ISS on the day of the 9/11 attacks. We continue to honor the heroes, the survivors, and those who lost their lives on this day. Image description: A view of New York City, and surrounding areas, as seen from space. Near the tip of Manhattan, at the center of the photo, a plume of smoke can be seen, extending into the sky and across the bay. Credit: NASA/Frank Culbertson #NASA #Earth #Sept11 #Remember

You’d have to stop the world just to stop the feeling ✨⁣ ⁣ Observing Earth from space can alter an astronaut’s cosmic perspective, a mental shift known as the “Overview Effect.” First coined by space writer Frank White in 1987, the Overview Effect is described as a feeling of awe for our home planet and a sense of responsibility for taking care of it.⁣ ⁣ The Overview Effect can create powerful shifts in the way you think about Earth and life. The words “beautiful” and “fragile” are often used by astronauts to describe the experience. As the International Space Station (@ISS ) was soaring 262 miles (422 kilometers) above Western Australia, NASA astronaut Jeanette Epps captured this long-duration shot, or an image captured by camera set to a lower shutter speed.⁣ ⁣ Image description: Stars of varying brightness are pictured above Earth, as a yellow-green haze glows over Earth’s atmosphere. Clouds appear to be in motion over a body of water.⁣ ⁣ Credit: NASA/Jeanette Epps⁣ ⁣ #NASA #Space #ISS #Astronaut #Photography #Earth #Glitter #Glow #Stars #GoodLuckBabe

Fishing and farming in Minais Gerais Astronaut Loral O'Hara captured this photo of the Três Marias Reservoir, a human-made body of water in southeast Brazil, while she was in space aboard the @ISS in December 2023. This reservoir is one of three major ones along Brazil's São Francisco River, feeding the circular fields along its shores. Much of the unfarmed land, such as unplanted fields and unpaved roads, appears in bright shades of red and yellow. These colors come from the underlying clays and soils in Minas Gerais, which are rich in iron and aluminum and can turn vibrant shades when exposed to weather. The lighter shades of blue on the reservoir's surface are due to sunglint, an optical effect that occurs when sunlight reflects off smooth water at the same angle that a sensor views it. Image description: A bright blue river winds its way through a colorful landscape, rich with shades of green, red, and orange, as seen from far above. Circular patches mark farms watered with center-pivor irrigation. Patches of white, fluffy clouds are scattered throughout. Credit: NASA/Loral O'Hara #NASA #Earth #River #Brazil #SaoFrancisco #MinaisGerais #SpaceStation #ISS #EarthFromSpace

Swipe for a cosmic spider 🕸️ Our orbiting @NASAHubble telescope caught this glimpse of the Red Spider Nebula, a planetary nebula 3,000 light-years from Earth. It can be found in the constellation of Sagittarius. The Red Spider Nebula harbors one of the hottest stars known, which heats the gas around it to form shockwaves 62 billion miles (100 billion km) high. These waves form the spider-leg-like arcs in this image, with the star resembling a black widow's hourglass at the center. Image description: Orange waves of hot gas, resembling the curved legs of a black widow spider, surround a pinkish glowing core in this image of a planetary nebula. The background is spotted with white points of light. Credit: @europeanspaceagency / Garrelt Mellema (Leiden University, the Netherlands) #NASA #Space #Universe #Astrophotography #Spider

As Earth turns, so do we. 🌍 Take a moment to reflect on life as it is at this moment while enjoying this time-lapse from the International Space Station. The @iss ’s solar arrays reflect auroras and city lights as they align themselves with the Milky Way above for the approaching sunrise. Because the Moon was not in view during the night portions of the crew’s orbits, the main belt of the Milky Way was bright enough for astronaut Matthew Dominick to photograph—with the aurora glowing just before sunrise. @NASAAstronauts aboard the International Space Station orbit Earth about once every 90 minutes, which means they have many opportunities to spot sunrises like this from space. Video credit: NASA/Matthew Dominick Audio credit: London Contemporary Orchestra/Universal #NASA #SpaceStation #ISS #Earth #TimeLapse #EarthFromSpace #MilkyWay #Aurora #Reflections

Saturn’s face card never declines 💅⁣ ⁣ A softly-hued Saturn is embraced by the shadows of its stately rings in this image, obtained by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft in 2005. Cassini’s wide-angle camera captured the gas giant from approximately 621,000 miles (999,000 kilometers) away, as the spacecraft cruised a few degrees above the ring plane.⁣ ⁣ This color image approximates the view as it would appear to the human eye. The view was brightened to show additional detail in the rings and within their shadows.⁣ ⁣ Saturn’s subtle shift from gold to blue, going towards the north pole is a striking visual effect that scientists don’t fully understand. It may be related to seasonal patterns, tied to cold temperatures as Saturn’s northern hemisphere goes through winter.⁣ ⁣ Image description: Saturn is pictured on the left side of the image, which gradually turns from shades of blue to gold near the center. Rings are pictured on the lower half side, and their shadows are pictured on the top half of the image.⁣ ⁣ Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute⁣ ⁣ #NASA #Space #Universe #Cassini #SolarSystem #Saturn #Rings