Explore NASA's vast collection of space images, videos, and audio from missions past and present.
NASA's Image and Video Library is one of the most comprehensive public archives of space imagery in the world, containing over 140,000 images, videos, and audio recordings spanning more than six decades of space exploration. From the earliest Mercury and Gemini missions through the Apollo Moon landings, the Space Shuttle era, and today's cutting-edge observations from the James Webb Space Telescope, this collection documents humanity's journey into the cosmos.
The library includes imagery from diverse sources: telescopes like Hubble and Webb that capture deep-space nebulae, galaxies, and exoplanets; planetary missions like the Mars rovers ( browse Mars photos) and Cassini at Saturn; Earth observation satellites ( see EPIC imagery); astronaut photography from the ISS; and documentation of rocket launches, spacecraft assembly, and ground testing. Most NASA images are in the public domain and free to download at full resolution for educational, editorial, and personal use.
Use the search bar above to find specific subjects — try queries like "Apollo 11," "Hubble Deep Field," "Mars surface," or "astronaut EVA." You can also filter by media type (image, video, or audio). For a daily curated experience, visit the Astronomy Picture of the Day.
Showing results for "Measuring Light"
681 results found - Page 1 of 29
On July 13, 2011, Don Perovich, of Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, measured the light that drives...
Observations of infrared light from NASA Spitzer Space Telescope coming from asteroids provide a better estimate of...
The Fly’s Eye Geostationary Lightning Mapper Simulator will map lightning strikes using 30 photometers, instruments...
By measuring absorption of light at specific wavelengths, Tunable Laser Spectrometer TLS onboard NASA Curiosity...
Scientists measure the spin rates of supermassive black holes by spreading the X-ray light into different colors....
At different locations on the surface of the same rock, scientists can use the Mast Camera Mastcam on NASA Mars...
Our sky is filled with a diffuse background glow, known as the cosmic infrared background. Much of the light is from...
This graphic illustrates how the Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment, or CIBER, team measures a diffuse glow of...
This plot shows data from the Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment, or CIBER, rockets launched in 2010 and 2012....
This graphic illustrates the evolution of satellites designed to measure ancient light leftover from the big bang...
This figure charts 30 hours of observations taken by NASA Spitzer Space Telescope of a strongly irradiated exoplanet...
GEDI is a full-waveform lidar instrument that makes detailed measurements of the 3D structure of the Earth’s...
An Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) optical lens is installed into the flight housing hardware for alignment...
Flying over the Brazilian Amazon with an instrument firing 300,000 laser pulses per second, NASA scientists have...
The Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) Main Optics Bench (MOB) is integrated with the Collimator Slit Assembly (CSA). The...
Optical engineer, Maurice Stancil, performs final optical alignment metrology measurements prior to the Ocean Color...
Optical technician, Timothy Madison, uses a theodolite to perform optical measurements on the Ocean Color Instrument...
This animation shows the events that serve as the basis of an astrophysics technique called "echo mapping," also...
The Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) is installed on its transportation dolly and prepared for additional integration...
Mechanical technicians crane lift the Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) onto the Tilt Mechanism. OCI is a highly advanced...
Mechanical technicians crane lift the Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) off of the transportation dolly. OCI is a highly...
The Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) is installed on the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) observatory...
Systems engineer, Joseph Knuble, adjusts the intensity of a lamp during stray light testing on the Ocean Color...
This spectral "fingerprint" of methane was produced from data taken during a September 2023 test at NASA's Jet...