NASA's Hubble Sees a Stranger in the Crowd

The constellation of Virgo (The Virgin) is the largest of the Zodiac constellations, and the second largest overall after Hydra (The Water Snake). Its most appealing feature, however, is the sheer number of galaxies that lie within it. In this picture, among a crowd of face- and edge-on spiral, elliptical, and irregular galaxies, lies NGC 4866, a lenticular galaxy situated about 80 million light-years from Earth. 

Image of the week

This Envisat radar image features a chain of volcanoes called the Virunga Mountains that stretch across Rwanda's northern border with Uganda and east into the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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NASA's Hubble Shows Link between Stars' Ages and Their Orbits

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have determined the orbital motion of two distinct populations of stars in an ancient globular star cluster, offering proof they formed at different times and providing a rare look back into the Milky Way galaxy's early days.

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Spacecraft Processing Procedures at Kennedy Space Center

In the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a crane operator lifts a full-size mock-up of the Orion spacecraft high in the air for transfer to High Bay 4.

Crane operators and technicians practice stacking and destacking operations in order to keep processing procedures and skills current for the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program.

NASA Interplanetary Probes to Take Pictures of Earth from Space

Two NASA spacecraft, one studying the Saturn system, the other observing Mercury, are maneuvering into place to take pictures of Earth on July 19 and 20.

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Kepler Mission: Recovery Begins

Over the next week, the team will attempt tests to explore recovery of the spacecraft's reaction wheels.

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NASA's Sofia Investigates the Southern Sky from New Zealand

NASA's SOFIA airborne observatory will be based in New Zealand for the next two weeks, taking advantage of the Southern Hemisphere's orientation to study celestial objects that are difficult or impossible to see in the northern sky.

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