ALT A region of space filled with bright stars and clouds of gas. In the center, the densest clouds form the shape of a chest with its lid open. The chest appears to glow from within. At its base it breaks apart into long pillars of thick gas. Many of the gas clouds in the background are dark orange globules, while others form large, pale hazes. A few brightly shining stars lie in the foreground, the biggest and brightest in front of the chest’s lid. Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, M. Reiter; Acknowledgement: M. H. Özsaraç
ALT A globular cluster. It holds many thousands of bright stars, tightly packed in the center and spread out in its outer regions, but filling the entire view. The stars are colored either orange or bright blue, with the blue stars mainly concentrated in the center. Orange stars are located mainly around the edge and vary in size from small dots to glowing stars with four points, based on their position in the foreground or background of the cluster.
ALT A collection of four photos of the cosmos in red, white, and blue colors. The top photo, Cassiopeia A, is a burst of bright gas, the colors forming erratic streaks that appear to extend from their center. The bottom-left photo, NGC 3603, is a cluster of red stars framed by blobs of ghostly gas. The bottom-middle photo, Messier 94, is a swirling spiral galaxy shown face-on. The bottom-right photo, a galaxy cluster, shows many distant galaxies warped around the photo's center. Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO
ALT Image showing two views of Earth. The left is a full disk image of Earth, as seen from the Orion capsule, in pale blue, swirling with white clouds. From about 8 to 9 o'clock, a large brown landmass is Africa, with the Iberian peninsula\u2019s twinkling lights just where the planet curves. At the 1 and 7 o\u2019clock spots, are the thin green glow of auroras, just barely separated from the planet's surface. Earth is set against the black of space. White haze at the lower right is zodiacal light, the bright spot is Venus. The second is a full-view, brightly lit photograph of Earth as seen from the Apollo 17 spacecraft, displaying the African continent, the South Polar ice cap, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Malagasy Republic (Madagascar) against the blackness of space. Credit: NASA
ALT View of a portion of Earth from one of the Apollo 16 command module windows taken shortly after trans-lunar injection. The edge of the window is visible in the lower-left corner. The United States and Mexico are clearly visible, surrounded by the blue Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Canada is shrouded in clouds. Credit: NASA