Need a break from all the breaking news just to marvel at our small, delicate world? There’s always something happening in space, and humanity is documenting it more quickly and clearly than ever before. Orbiting telescopes, astronauts and spacecraft are sending back a stream of photos that show off the diversity and wonder of the universe. Here are some of the best space photos of the year, so far.
Los Angeles wildfires
ESA’s Sentinel-2 satellite spotted smoke from the Palisades Fire shortly after it started on Jan. 7.
It wasn’t just imagery of objects beyond Earth that caught our eye over the first half of the year. The European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 Earth-observing satellite documented the devastating Palisades Fire in California in January.
The Jan. 7 view showed a large smoke plume stretching out over the Pacific Ocean. That was just the beginning of a series of wildfires that destroyed residences and buildings in Los Angeles County.
Earth from space
NASA astronaut Don Pettit captured a gorgeous sunrise from the International Space Station in February.
NASA astronaut and astrophotographer extraordinaire Don Pettit shared a knockout view of Earth from the International Space Station in late February. “Cosmic colors at sunrise; never get tired of seeing what the new day brings,” he said.
This photo has it all: our planet, swirling aurora lights and a sweeping vista of stars.
Sunrise from the moon
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander captured a triumphant view of a lunar sunrise from its landing spot on the moon.
It’s tough to land successfully on the moon. Firefly Aerospace pulled off the feat in March with its Blue Ghost Mission 1. The Blue Ghost lander captured a historic view of a sunrise from the surface of the moon. The image shows the pockmarked lunar surface with the bright flash of the sun topping the horizon.
Many moon missions, including Intuitive Machine’s 2025 attempt, go wrong. That makes Blue Ghost’s sunrise image all the more poignant. It marks a hard-earned lunar success story.
Webb spots a ‘cosmic tornado’
The James Webb Space Telescope’s ability to see in near- and mid-infrared light allowed it to capture this view of Herbig-Haro 49/50. A spiral galaxy appears at its edge in the upper left.
The James Webb Space Telescope delivered a wild view of Herbig-Haro 49/50 in March. NASA described the space object as “a frothy-looking outflow from a nearby protostar” and a “cosmic tornado.” Look for the distant spiral galaxy in the upper left.
Hubble turns 35
This small piece of the Rosette Nebula resembles a cloud of dark smoke passing over a lighter gauzy cloud. Gas and dust create the wild shapes seen by Hubble.
The venerable Hubble Space Telescope celebrated 35 years in orbit in April. NASA and ESA partied down by releasing a series of Hubble anniversary images, including views of Mars and a barred spiral galaxy.
It’s hard to pick just one anniversary image to highlight, but the telescope’s ethereal view of the Rosette Nebula and its smoky clouds of gas and dust stands out. The nebula is a place of active star formation. Hubble’s image focuses on one small, scenic part of the Rosette.
Flower moon from orbit
That distant glow in the dark of space is the full flower moon. Earth’s water and clouds are below.
NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers got some full-moon photography in during May’s “flower moon.” Ayers had a front-row seat to the glowing lunar action from her perch on the International Space Station.
Ayers shared a series of photos with Earth in the frame, emphasizing the relationship between our blue planet and our lunar neighbor.
Mars rover selfie
A dust devil is visible in the distance to the left of the Perseverance rover. Look to the fold in the landscape for a puff of whirling dust.
NASA’s Perseverance rover has been trucking around Mars since early 2021. The wheeled explorer marked its 1,500th Martian day on May 10 by taking a fresh selfie. Percy took dozens of images of itself using a camera mounted on the end of its robotic arm. NASA stitched the shots together to create the selfie.
Look deeper into the image to spot a swirling dust devil dancing in the background. “Having the dust devil in the background makes it a classic,” said Perseverance imaging scientist Megan Wu. “This is a great shot.”
Pink clouds and hot blue stars
One of the first images released by the Vera C. Rubin observatory shows the Trifid and Lagoon nebulas as colorful pink clouds of hydrogen alongside hot blue stars.
The new Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile is sure to be contribute amazing additions to space photography. And the people behind it are thinking big: “(The Rubin Observatory is) going to build the greatest time-lapse movie of the cosmos ever made,” the observatory said in a recent post.
The observatory is named for the American scientist widely credited for finding some of the first evidence of dark matter.
Its first released image, shown above, shows the Trifid and Lagoon nebulas as colorful pink clouds of hydrogen alongside hot blue stars.
The year is not even half over. There are full moons, auroras, space launches and meteor showers coming down the line. Satellites are watching over Earth. Space telescopes are staring out into the cosmos and sending back postcards from our universe.
Stay tuned for more stunning images.
