Pictures from space! Our image of the day

Pictures from space! Our image of the day

Star cluster 'snowflakes'

(Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, G. Piotto)

Thursday, June 4, 2020:  Sparkling stars shine like cosmic snowflakes in this image from the Hubble Space Telescope, which shows the globular cluster NGC 6441 13,000 light-years from the center of our Milky Way galaxy. While hard to count, together the stars in this cluster would weigh 1.6 million times the mas of our sun. This image was released by the European Space Agency's Hubble science team on June 1. — Tariq Malik

SpaceX's Falcon 9 returns to Florida

(Image credit: SpaceX via Twitter)

Wednesday, June 3, 2020: The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster that launched two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station this weekend returns to shore on the company's drone ship, called "Of Course I Still Love You." After launching the Crew Dragon capsule from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the rocket stuck an upright landing on the drone ship, which was stationed a few hundred miles off the Florida coast. It arrived in Florida's Port Canaveral on Tuesday (June 2). — Hanneke Weitering  
 

Crew Dragon approaches the space station

(Image credit: NASA)

Tuesday, June 2, 2020: SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft approaches the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on board in this photo captured by an astronaut inside the orbiting lab on Sunday (May 31). In the foreground of the image is the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) robotic arm, which is attached to Japan's Kibo laboratory module. The Crew Dragon spacecraft docked at the station’s Harmony port on Sunday at 10:16 a.m. EDT (1416 GMT), while both spacecraft were flying about 262 miles (422 kilometers) above the northern border of China and Mongolia. — Hanneke Weitering

SpaceX makes history

(Image credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA)

Monday, June 1, 2020: A false-color, infrared exposure shows SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and first Crew Dragon spacecraft with astronauts on board lifting off from NASA's historic Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The historic launch on Saturday (May 30) was the first commercial flight to orbit and the first time NASA astronauts launched from the United States in nearly a  decade. NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley safely arrived at the International  Space Station Sunday morning. — Hanneke Weitering  
 

Hubble eyes a star cluster with a dustless heart

(Image credit: ESA/NASA/Hubble Heritage Team/STScI)

Friday, May 29, 2020: The massive star cluster Westerlund 2, seen here in a new image from the Hubble Space Telescope, is filled with young stars surrounded by dense clouds of interstellar dust that's in the process of forming baby planets. But the stars in the center of the cluster don't have the same planet-building supplies as their neighbors near the cluster's outskirts, Hubble observations have revealed. The absence of dust in the center of Westerlund 2 is caused by "blistering ultraviolet radiation and hurricane-like stellar winds" coming from the biggest and brightest stars of the cluster, which congregate in the cluster's core, eroding and blasting away all the dust, Hubble officials said in a statement. — Hanneke Weitering

Crew Dragon at sunset

(Image credit: SpaceX)

Wednesday, May 27, 2020: The sun sets behind a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the last time before the rocket's planned launch of two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. The Falcon 9 rocket, topped with SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft, is set to launch the Demo-2 mission from this historic launch pad today at 4:33 p.m. EDT (2033 GMT), weather permitting. On board will be Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, who will become the first NASA astronauts to travel to the International Space Station in a commercial spacecraft. SpaceX founder Elon Musk tweeted this photo on Tuesday night (May 26). — Hanneke Weitering
 

Clouds roll in over Crew Dragon

(Image credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA)

Tuesday, May 26, 2020: Dark clouds loom over a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on NASA's historic Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in this photo captured on Monday (May 25), just two days before the rocket is scheduled to launch a Crew Dragon spacecraft on its first crewed test flight to the International Space Station. NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will become the first people to launch to orbit from U.S. soil in nearly a decade after they lift off in the Crew Dragon on Wednesday (May 27). SpaceX and NASA officials completed the final launch readiness review on Monday and declared the mission "go" for launch, but officials are keeping an eye on some potentially troublesome weather that could push to launch to this weekend (May 30-31). — Hanneke Weitering
 

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