This mosaic of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) merges 330 individual images taken by the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope aboard the Swift Observatory. It is the highest-resolution image of the galaxy ever recorded in the ultraviolet. The image shows a region 200,000 light-years wide and 100,000 light-years high. Credit: NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler (GSFC) and Erin Grand (UMCP)

Have you seen this moon? No, and neither has anyone else. This Voyager 2 image of Neptune’s moon Nereid is the best photo anyone has. Astronomers don’t know exactly how big it is or what its shape is. However, they now have its infrared spectrum. (Hint: There’s water.) Credit: NASA/JPL

NASA's Perseverance rover captured this image of the surface of Mars during its first drive on 4 March, 2021. Perseverance is searching the planet for signs of ancient microbial life. Credit: NASA/JPL, Public Domain

This graphic shows the average temperature anomaly caused by strong geomagnetic storms over North America during the winter season. The anomalies often follow geographic boundaries, for example, the eastern edge of the Rockies, the East Coast, and Hudson Bay. Credit: Joachim Raeder

Uranus appears beyond the horizon of its moon Miranda in this illustration. If detectable, high-energy neutral particles produced near Uranus could help scientists decipher the structure and dynamics of the icy planet’s magnetosphere. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

An artistic representation of WASP-94A b, a gas giant in the Microscopium constellation, shows how clouds build on the dark side of the planet and are blown to the dayside, where they dissipate. This leaves the morning edge of the planet, where the winds move from nightside to dayside, permanently overcast. Credit: Hannah Robbins/Johns Hopkins University

A humble elevator shaft was recently used in a test of the constancy of the speed of light. Credit: Jason Wong/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Only a handful of spacecraft, some of which are illustrated here, monitor the vast space between the Sun and Earth, including the planet’s magnetosphere. To forecast space weather effectively, scientists must connect these scattered observations and extract as much information as possible from the limited data they provide. Credit: Mary Heinrichs/AGU

NASA’s Artemis II mission launched on 1 April 2026 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. New research shows that solid-state rocket fuels, which were used in rocket boosters for this launch, deplete the ozone more than other types of rocket fuels. Credit: NASA/John Kraus

This enhanced-color image from the MESSENGER mission shows (from left to right) the craters Munch, Sander, and Poe. The hollows are the bright blue areas covering the floor of Sander and dotting the rims of Munch and Poe. The hollows are highly reflective and naturally appear bluish, but the spacecraft’s camera used color filters to exaggerate the spectrum in this image. Credit: NASA/Johns…

The Perseverance rover photographed the Margin Unit (Mars 2020 mission, sols 1005–1006) in the Jezero Crater. The inset images show spectroscopic mineral data from the rover’s SuperCam instrument suite. Credit: Navcam image: NASA/JPL-Caltech; SuperCam mosaics: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/CNRS/IRAP

NASA’s Orion spacecraft captures itself, the Moon, and Earth during the Artemis II crew’s deep space journey on 6 April 2026. Credit: NASA

Credit: Iewek Gnos/Unsplash

Earth observation of aurorae taken from the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

2022年8月，NASA的朱诺号探测器自北向南（黄色轨迹）掠过木星大气层，探测到一系列来自闪电的无线电脉冲（青绿色圆圈）。哈勃太空望远镜提供的背景图将该闪电源识别为一个孤立的“隐形超级风暴”。插图显示了朱诺相机数据中先前观测到的隐形超级风暴的羽流。图片来源：NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Björn Jónsson (JunoCam)；Wong等人，2026，https://doi.org/10.1029/2025AV002083; 哈勃太空望远镜和朱诺号微波辐射计

Ten thousand is nearly double the total number of exoplanets that have been confirmed so far. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, public domain

The Hubble Space Telescope imaged 3I/ATLAS on 30 November 2025 when it was 286 million kilometers from Earth. Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, D. Jewitt (UCLA); Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI), CC BY 4.0 INT

Artist depiction of the European Space Agency Mars Express spacecraft. Credit: JPL/NASA/ESA

Illustration of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-on (GRACE-FO) satellites in orbit. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A newly identified bubble of reduced galactic cosmic ray (GCR) flux appears to align with the Sun’s magnetic field, indicating an unexpected interaction between the Sun and Earth that the Moon passes through as it orbits. Credit: Shang et al., 2026, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adv1908

NASA宇航员Kayla Barron在国际空间站上手持盐水处理器组件的过滤器，该组件有助于对废水进行回收利用。图片由NASA提供。

Charged particles in Mars’s atmosphere disrupt the relentless flow of the solar wind, helping to form the Martian magnetotail. New observations may improve scientists’ understanding of the Martian magnetotail. Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

Credit: NASA

The Artemis II crew – (from left) Mission Specialist Christina Koch, Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, Pilot Victor Glover, and Commander Reid Wiseman – pause for a group photo inside the Orion spacecraft on their way home. Credit: NASA

Titan as seen by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) instrument on the Cassini spacecraft. These false-color images of different sides of the moon were composited from over 13 years of observations and show dark dune fields, bright icy highlands and several large circular impact craters Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Nantes/University of Arizona

These climbing ripple strata on the Martian surface provide direct evidence of a sandstorm on the planet, about 3.6 billion years ago. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The asteroid Ryugu is seen by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft from a distance of 6 kilometers. Credit: JAXA, University of Tokyo, Kochi University, Rikkyo University, Nagoya University, Chiba Institute of Technology, Meiji University, University of Aizu, AIST

Saturn’s rings and its largest moon, Titan, are seen by the Cassini spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Artemis II’s SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft made their way to their launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center on 17 January. Credit: NASA/Brandon Hancock

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory appears beneath the Milky Way, and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Credit: NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA/P. Lago, CC BY 4.0