This new view of the historical supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, located 11,000 light-years away, was taken by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR. Blue indicates the highest energy X-ray light, where NuSTAR has made the first resolved image ever of this source. Red and green show the lower end of NuSTAR's energy range, which overlaps with NASA's high-resolution Chandra X-ray Observatory. Light from the stellar explosion that created Cassiopeia A is thought to have reached Earth about 300 years ago, after traveling 11,000 years to get here. While the star is long dead, its remains are still bursting with action. The outer blue ring is where the shock wave from the supernova blast is slamming into surrounding material, whipping particles up to within a fraction of a percent of the speed of light. NuSTAR observations should help solve the riddle of how these particles are accelerated to such high energies X-ray light with energies between 10 and 20 kiloelectron volts are blue; X-rays of 8 to 10 kiloelectron volts are green; and X-rays of 4.5 to 5.5 kiloelectron volts are red. The starry background picture is from the Digitized Sky Survey. › Image without background stars Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/DSS (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, currently on a one-year mission on the International Space Station, posted this image of the successful capture of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with the space station's robotic arm. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
This composite image of southern Africa and the surrounding oceans was captured by six orbits of the NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership spacecraft on April 9, 2015, by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument. Tropical Cyclone Joalane can be seen over the Indian Ocean. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
NASA Tail Technology Could Someday Reduce Airplane Fuel Use
In this photo taken from a chase plane, the Boeing ecoDemonstrator 757 flight test airplane --with NASA's Active Flow Control technology installed on the tail -- makes a final approach to King County Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
The brilliant tapestry of young stars flaring to life resemble a glittering fireworks display in the 25th anniversary NASA Hubble Space Telescope image, released to commemorate a quarter century of exploring the solar system and beyond since its launch on April 24, 1990. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
April 25, 1990, Deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope
In this April 25, 1990, photograph taken by the crew of the STS-31 space shuttle mission, the Hubble Space Telescope is suspended above shuttle Discovery's cargo bay some 332 nautical miles above Earth. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
To learn more about the minerals and surface processes on Mercury, instruments aboard NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft have been collecting surface measurements since MESSENGER entered Mercury orbit on March 17, 2011. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
Astronaut Scott Kelly Speaks at Shuttle Enterprise Dedication Ceremony
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly delivers remarks from onboard the International Space Station during the Space Shuttle Enterprise dedication ceremony Monday, April 27, 2015, at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City. Enterprise was dedicated to the fallen crews who gave their lives in pursuit of space exploration. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
April 29, 1990, Shuttle Discovery Lands Following Hubble Deployment Mission
On April 29, 1990, the Space Shuttle Discovery approaches for landing on a concrete runway at Edwards Air Force Base to complete a highly successful five-day mission during which the Hubble Space Telescope was released into orbit. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
Overview of MESSENGER Spacecraft's Impact Region on Mercury
On April 30th, this region of Mercury's surface will have a new crater! Traveling at 3.91 kilometers per second (over 8,700 miles per hour), the MESSENGER spacecraft will collide with Mercury's surface, creating a crater estimated to be 16 meters (52 feet) in diameter. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
A team at NASA's Langley Research Center is developing a concept of a battery-powered plane that has 10 engines and can take off like a helicopter and fly efficiently like an aircraft. The prototype, called Greased Lightning or GL-10, is currently in the design and testing phase. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
The great eye of Saturn's moon Mimas, a 130-kilometer-wide (80-mile) impact crater called Herschel, stares out from the battered moon. Several individual ringlets within the F ring are resolved here, and the small moon Atlas is also seen faintly outside the main rings. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
Fifty-four years ago on May 5, 1961 only 23 days after Yuri Gagarin of the then-Soviet Union became the first person in space, NASA astronaut Alan Shepard launched at 9:34 a.m. EDT aboard his Freedom 7 capsule powered by a Redstone booster to become the first American in space. His historic flight lasted 15 minutes, 28 seconds. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
Solar Dynamics Observatory Sees 'Cinco de Mayo' Solar Flare
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured these images of a significant solar flare – as seen in the bright flash on the left – peaking at 6:11 p.m. EDT on May 5, 2015. Each image shows a different wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights a different temperature of material on the sun. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
Earth’s cloudy nature is unmistakable in this global cloud fraction map, based on data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite. This version of the map shows an average of all of the satellite’s cloud observations between July 2002 and April 2015. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
From the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Terry Virts took this photograph of an early morning sunrise over the Grand Canyon and posted it to social media on May 10, 2015. Because the station completes each trip around the globe in about 92 minutes, the crew experiences 16 sunrises and sunsets each day. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
May 13, 1992, Record-Setting Spacewalk on Shuttle Endeavour's First Mission
On May 13, 1992, following the successful capture of the Intelsat VI satellite, three astronauts continue moving the 4.5 ton communications satellite into the space shuttle Endeavour's cargo bay. The sections of Earth which form the backdrop for the scene are blanketed with thousands of square miles of clouds. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)
Green Aviation Project Tests Shape Changing Wing Flaps
A NASA F-15D flies chase for the G-III Adaptive Compliant Trailing Edge (ACTE) project. The ACTE experimental flight research project is a joint effort between NASA and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to determine if advanced flexible trailing-edge wing flaps can both improve aircraft aerodynamic efficiency and reduce airport-area noise. (More at NASA Picture of The Day)