Spectacular jets are powered by the gravitational energy of a supermassive black hole in the core of the elliptical galaxy Hercules A. The jets shoot through space for millions of trillions of miles. This image, taken by the Hubble Telescope, was originally released in November 2012. Learn more abou […]
This false-color image, taken by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory in 2012, shows an extraordinary outburst from a black hole – where its X-ray output increased at least 3,000 times – in the galaxy M83. Chandra observed what is called a ULX, or ultraluminous X-ray source. The remarkable behavior of this
In April 2019, a black hole and its shadow were captured in an image for the first time, a historic feat by an international network of radio telescopes called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). EHT is an international collaboration whose support in the U.S. includes the National Science Foundation.
When space shuttle Columbia took to the skies on its maiden voyage on April 12, 1981, a new era of spaceflight took wing. Space Transportation System-1, or STS-1, was the first of its kind when it lifted off from NASA Kennedy Space Center. In this image, the reusable orbiter, its two fuel tanks and
Mary W. Jackson, NASA’s first black female engineer, was born April 9, 1921. Jackson earned degrees in mathematics and physical sciences in 1942. She landed a job at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory’s segregated West Area Computing section in 1951, reporting to the group’s supervis
A sea of dark dunes, sculpted by the wind into long lines, surrounds Mars’ northern polar cap and covers an area as big as Texas. In this false-color image, areas with cooler temperatures are recorded in bluer tints, while warmer features are depicted in yellows and oranges. Thus, the dark, su
Today is World Health Day and NASA’s Earth Science Division is using information from our Earth-observing satellites, surface sensors, and computer-based datasets to study the environmental, economic, and societal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and to determine whether environmental factors
The Soyuz rocket is rolled out by train to the launch pad at Site 31, Tuesday, April 6, 2021, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Expedition 65 NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei, Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Oleg Novitskiy are scheduled to launch aboard their Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft on Apr
In this March 28, 2021, image, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus resupply ship, with its prominent cymbal-shaped UltraFlex solar arrays, is pictured attached to the Unity module of the International Space Station. Earth’s atmospheric glow is seen blanketing the horizon as the orbital complex fle
