Exploring Celestial Bodies

Images of celestial objects such as moons and dwarf planets showcasing surface features, craters, and textures from NASA's observational missions.

The Arabian Connection

White Globe - Europe Realistic model of planet earth on black background, europe, 3d render Copyright: xZoonar.com/JacekxFulawkax 3556888

Microscopic photography of a fragment of wood from the epitaph of Wierzbięty from Branice (I) unknown

Saturn's moon Epimetheus passes in front of Janus in this mutual

Two of Saturn's icy moons pass each other in a mutual event recorded by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The smaller moon Enceladus passes in front of the larger moon Rhea.

Seeing in the Dark

This image of Charon was taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft on July 9, 2015, from a range of 3.9 million miles (6.3 million kilometers) shows numerous bright spots, scattered over Charon's surface.

Full moon seen with telescope anaglyph 3D image. Full moon seen with an astronomical telescope anaglyph 3D stereoscopic view (requires red cyan glasses)

NEAR's First Whole-Eros Mosaic from Orbit

False Color Look at Enceladus

Titan's Murky South Pole

NASA's Voyager 2 acquired this black and white image of Triton, Neptune's largest satellite, during the night of Aug. 24-25, 1989. Triton's limb cuts obliquely across the middle of the image. The field of view is about 1,000 km (600 miles) across.

This extreme false-color view of Mimas shows color variation across the moon's surface

MGS Approach Image - Chryse Planitia

New Horizons took this image of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io with its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI)

Ganymede

This still from an animation showcases a series of images NASA's Dawn spacecraft took on approach to Ceres on Feb. 4, 2015 at a distance of about 90,000 miles (145,000 kilometers) from the dwarf planet.

Enceladus in Eclipse

The Lunar North Pole

This color picture is made from images taken by the imaging system on NASA's Galileo spacecraft about 14 minutes before its closest approach to asteroid 243 Ida on August 28, 1993.

Two Views of Rhea

Making a Mosaic

The Color Out of Space

A Clear View of Titan's Surface

The large, dark oval spot in Neptune's atmosphere is just coming into view in this picture returned from NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft on June 30, 1989.

Collage of Saturn's Smaller Satellites

Mineral Moonstack, in of 50 images,

This image from NASA's Voyager 2 of the south polar terrain of Triton, was taken on Aug. 25, 1989 revealing about 50 dark plumes or 'wind streaks' on the icy surface. The plumes originate at very dark spots generally a few miles in diameter and some are m

This image shows that NASA's Dawn mission detected abundances of hydrogen in a wide swath around the equator of the giant asteroid Vesta. The hydrogen probably exists in the form of hydroxyl or water bound to minerals in Vesta's surface.

$The wispy fractured terrain on Dione is illuminated here by Saturnshine -- dim reflected light from the planet$

Shadows cast across Mimas' defining feature, Herschel Crater, provide an indication of the size of the crater's towering walls and central peak, as seen by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Smear Campaign

These radar images of comet P/2016 BA14 were taken on March 23, 2016, by scientists using an antenna of NASA's Deep Space Network at Goldstone, California. At the time, the comet was about 2.2 million miles (3.6 million kilometers) from Earth.

Hyperion's Face

From hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, the Cassini spacecraft spies craters on the surface of the moon Janus.

An Eruption on Io

Saturn's 'wispy' moon Dione lies in front of the cratered surface of the moon Tethys, as seen by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Dione is closest to the spacecraft here.

This global map of Saturn's moon Dione was created using images taken during flybys by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Images from NASA's Voyager mission fill the gaps in Cassini's coverage.

New Names for Features on Mercury

Limber Up, Limbo Down

Epimetheus, seen here by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, with Saturn in the background, is lumpy and misshapen, thanks in part to its size and formation process. Bombardment over the eons has left this tiny moon's surface heavily pitted.

This enhanced-color mosaic of Saturn's icy moon Tethys shows a range of features on the moon's trailing hemisphere. This image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft was constructed from 52 images from its narrow-angle camera on April 11, 2015.

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Sunlight passing through the Cassini Division between Saturn's A and B rings sweeps across and illuminates the surface of the moon Janus in this image captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Go to the Photojournal to view the animation.

Mercury Globe: 0N, 90E

Scanning Electron Micrograph (SEM): Foraminifera, Cassidulina sp.. Date:

From NASA's Cassini spacecraft's perspective, Saturn's moon Dione passes in front of the moon Tethys in this mutual event.

Approaching Titan Again

Bright Streak on Amalthea

Scientists with NASA's Cassini mission have spotted two features shaped like the 1980s video game icon Pac-Man on moons of Saturn. One was observed on the moon Mimas in 2010 and the latest was observed on the moon Tethys.

Saturn's Moon Enceladus by Voyager 2

In the early morning hours of July 8, 2015, mission scientists received this new view of Pluto -- the most detailed yet returned by New Horizons. The image was taken on July 7, when the NASA spacecraft was just under 5 million miles (8 million kilometers)

Saturn's potato-shaped moon Prometheus is shown in this close-up from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

View of the lunar surface taken from the Apollo 8 spacecraft looking southward from high altitude across the Southern Sea. Two craters are visible, the bright-rayed crater near the horizon, and the dark floored crater near the middle of the right side of the photograph.

Looking like half of a figure eight, two of Saturn's moons appear conjoined in this image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The moon Dione, at the top in the image, is actually closer to the spacecraft, appearing to blend seamlessly with the moon Rhea.

Nix Olympica Identified by Mariner 9 on Mars Approach

This view, captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, shows wispy clouds, floating high above the hydrocarbon lakes. These wispy clouds have finally started to return to Titan's northern latitudes.

Scientists with NASA's New Horizons mission have assembled the highest-resolution color view of one of two potential cryovolcanoes spotted on the surface of the distant planet by the passing New Horizons spacecraft in July 2015.

This image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by the Philae lander of the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission during Philae's descent toward the comet on Nov. 12, 2014 from a distance of approximate two miles (three kilometers).

62 miles above Eros, NASA's NEAR Shoemaker took several frames which were combined to create this anaglyph of the saddle region, 3D glasses are necessary to view this image.

Moon, computer artwork.

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by ESA's Rosetta's OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on August 3, 2014, from a distance of 177 miles (285 kilometers). The image resolution is 17 feet (5.3 meters) per pixel.

Three days after the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's Aug. 12, 2005, launch, the NASA spacecraft was pointed toward Earth and the Mars Color Imager camera was powered up to acquire a suite of color and ultraviolet images of Earth and the Moon.

This image obtained by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft shows the night side of Pluto's large, Texas-sized moon Charon, against a star field, lit by faint, reflected light from Pluto itself.

Rhea's Bright Splat

This photograph is a Voyager 2 image of one of the moons of Saturn.

Organics Sprinkled on Hyperion

This natural color image of the limb of Triton was taken early in the morning of Aug. 25 1989, when the Voyager 2 spacecraft was at a distance of about 210,000 kilometers (128,000 miles) from the icy satellite.

This image, taken by ESA's Rosetta navigation camera, was taken from a distance of about 53 miles (86 kilometers) from the center of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on March 14, 2015.

This annotated image depicts four of the five potential landing sites for ESA's Rosetta mission's Philae lander.

This global digital map of Saturn's moon Dione was created using data taken during Cassini and Voyager spacecraft flybys. The map is an equidistant projection and has a scale of 977 meters (3,205 feet) per pixel

This picture is part of NASA's Voyager 2 imaging sequence of Ariel, a moon of Uranus taken on January 24, 1986. The complexity of Ariel's surface indicates that a variety of geologic processes have occurred.

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