Photo

Space Photos of the Week

A close-up look at the universe’s many wonders, from nearby planets to faraway galaxies.
  • NASA/JPL-Caltech
    01
    Jupiter’s storms are truly dazzling. This tempest, rotating counter-clockwise, is located in the planet’s Northern hemisphere and is truly enormous—for scale, each pixel in this image is 4.2 miles across.
  • ESA
    02
    Mars might no longer have active volcanoes, but the “stretch marks” visible in this photo are remnants of when volcanic activity pulled apart the planet’s crust. This region, known as Sirenum Fossae, is located in Mars’ southern hemisphere.
  • ESO
    03
    Terraformers, take note: Scientists recently discovered Ross 128b, an Earth-like planet just 11 light years away. The small dot in the center of the image is the red dwarf star it orbits around.
  • NASA
    04
    Tiny moon alert\! This image of Mars captures one of its moons, Phobos, mid-orbit. That repeating pattern of dots in the top left of the image is actually the small irregularly shaped moon in transit around Mars.
  • ESO
    05
    COSMOS-Gr30 is a bizarre and complex cluster of 10 galaxies. The colorful space bubble stretches out three times as wide as our own Milky Way, making it the largest bubble of ionized gas ever discovered.
  • NASA
    06
    Coronal holes like this one are openings in the sun where parts of the star’s magnetic field loop outward but don’t return. The highly charged particles flung from these holes collide with Earth at speeds averaging 900,000 mph, generating our famed polar auroras.

Comments

Back to topTriangle
TopicsAMP Stories
Read More
Photoshopped NASA Photos Give New Life to Outer-Space Imagery
Remember when you were a kid and you used to stare up into the clouds and pick out shapes and animals? Well Chris Keegan has taken that timeless exercise to whole new level by applying it to photos of space from NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory.
Soviet Space Propaganda: Doctored Cosmonaut Photos
See Also: Q&A Human Spaceflight’s 50th: Glorious Past, Uncertain Future Book Excerpt Space Shuttle Owners’ Workshop Manual This Day in Tech April 12, 1961: Soviets Orbit Gagarin, First Human in Space See Also: Inside the Soviets’ Secret Failed Moon Program Russian Cosmonaut’s Blog Much Funnier Than NASA Russia Leads Nuclear Space Race After U.S. […]
New Horizons Just Sent the Sharpest Pluto Photos It Can Get
These images—the first in a series of high-res shots NASA will release in the coming weeks—are the sharpest humans will ever see of Pluto's surface.
The Gaia Space Telescope Just Changed How You See the Stars
The first star map from the ESA’s Gaia space telescope is poised to revolutionize our understanding of the Milky Way galaxy.
The Year's Most Awesome Photos of Space
For nearly three years, we have been gathering the best, most interesting, most beautiful photographs of space we could find, delivering one of them to you each day. Here are 35 of our favorites among this year's bunch.
The Best Read-It-Later Apps for Curating Your Longreads
With the popular app Pocket going away, you'll need a new way to catch up on those articles you've been meaning to read. Here are the best options.
A New Law of Nature Attempts to Explain the Complexity of the Universe
A novel suggestion that complexity increases over time, not just in living organisms but in the nonliving world, promises to rewrite notions of time and evolution.
The Dell 14 Plus Tries Its Best To Reset Dell’s Laptops
Dell's rebranding efforts officially kick off with the Dell 14 Plus. Is it more than just a fresh coat of paint?
Bill Atkinson, Macintosh Pioneer and Inventor of Hypercard, Dies at 74
Atkinson’s gleeful brilliance helped people draw on computer screens and access information via links.
24 Best Deals on Father's Day Gifts
Get Dad a WIRED-approved weather station, pair of headphones, or treadmill for less.
The Best Backpacking Tents for Getting Away From It All
The right shelter makes all the difference in the backcountry. Here are the best tents we’ve tested and love.
Tech Up Your Sourdough With These Upper-Crust Baking Gadgets
Sourdough bread is one of the most wonderful things you can make with your hands, but it can be fussy and hard to perfect. Now technology takes out most of the pesky guesswork.