Artemis II launches four astronauts aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft into Earth orbit, sending them on a loop around the Moon before returning safely to Earth. The mission follows a free-return trajectory that uses the gravity of the Earth and Moon to naturally guide the crew home. This visualization shows the mission trajectory based on flight-derived ephemeris data. || 5632 || Artemis II mission trajectory || Trajectory of NASA’s Artemis II mission, from Earth orbit around the Moon and back to Earth, using flight-derived ephemeris data. Times are shown in UTC. || a2_mission_trajectory_01.00800_preview.jpg (1920x1080) [286.0 KB] || a2_mission_trajectory_01.00800.jpg (3840x2160) [1.4 MB] || a2_mission_trajectory_1080p60.mp4 (1920x1080) [18.4 MB] || a2_mission_trajectory_2160p60.mp4 (3840x2160) [78.2 MB] || Artemis II is NASA’s first crewed mission of the Artemis program, launching four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft into Earth orbit and sending them on a loop around the Moon before returning safely to Earth. The mission follows a free-return trajectory, using the gravity of the Earth and Moon to naturally guide the crew home.These visualizations show the mission trajectory based on flight ephemeris data.Artemis II ephemeris data can be found here:https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/artemis-2/track-nasas-artemis-ii-mission-in-real-time/ || Trajectory of NASA’s Artemis II mission, from Earth orbit around the Moon and back to Earth, using flight-derived ephemeris data. Times are shown in UTC. Vertical version, optimized for mobile. || a2_mission_trajectory_vert_1920p60.mp4 (1080x1920) [27.0 MB] || a2_mission_trajectory_03_vert.00950.jpg (1080x1920) [383.1 KB] || Earth || Planets & Moons || Artemis || Earth || Moon || Trajectory || Kel Elkins (Science and Technology Corporation) as Data visualizer || Ernie Wright (USRA) as Data visualizer ||

The animation archived on this page shows the geocentric phase, libration, position angle of the axis, and apparent diameter of the Moon throughout the year 2026, at hourly intervals. || 5587 || Moon Phase and Libration, 2026 || The data in the table for all of 2026 can be downloaded as a JSON file or as a text file. || Click on the image to download a high-resolution version with feature labels and additional graphics. Hover over the image to reveal the animation frame number, which can be used to locate and download the corresponding frame from any of the animations on this page, including unlabeled high-resolution Moon images.The animation archived on this page shows the geocentric phase, libration, position angle of the axis, and apparent diameter of the Moon throughout the year 2026, at hourly intervals. Until the end of 2026, the initial Dial-A-Moon image will be the frame from this animation for the current hour.> More in this series: > Moon Phase and Libration GalleryLunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been in orbit around the Moon since the summer of 2009. Its laser altimeter (LOLA) and camera (LROC) are recording the rugged, airless lunar terrain in exceptional detail, making it possible to visualize the Moon with unprecedented fidelity. This is especially evident in the long shadows cast near the terminator, or day-night line. The pummeled, craggy landscape thrown into high relief at the terminator would be impossible to recreate in the computer without global terrain maps like those from LRO.The Moon always keeps the same face to us, but not exactly the same face. Because of the tilt and shape of its orbit, we see the Moon from slightly different angles over the course of a month. When a month is compressed into 24 seconds, as it is in this animation, our changing view of the Moon makes it look like it's wobbling. This wobble is called libration.The word comes from the Latin for "balance scale" (as does the name of the zodiac constellation Libra) and refers to the way such a scale tips up and down on alternating sides. The sub-Earth point gives the amount of libration in longitude and latitude. The sub-Earth point is also the apparent center of the Moon's disk and the location on the Moon where the Earth is directly overhead.The Moon is subject to other motions as well. It appears to roll back and forth around the sub-Earth point. The roll angle is given by the position angle of the axis, which is the angle of the Moon's north pole relative to celestial north. The Moon also approaches and recedes from us, appearing to grow and shrink. The two extremes, called perigee (near) and apogee (far), differ by as much as 14%.The most noticed monthly variation in the Moon's appearance is the cycle of phases, caused by the changing angle of the Sun as the Moon orbits the Earth. The cycle begins with the waxing (growing) crescent Moon visible in the west just after sunset. By first quarter, the Moon is high in the sky at sunset and sets around midnight. The full Moon rises at sunset and is high in the sky at midnight. The third quarter Moon is often surprisingly conspicuous in the daylit western sky long after sunrise.Celestial north is up in these images, corresponding to the view from the northern hemisphere. The descriptions of the print resolution stills also assume a northern hemisphere orientation. (There is also a south-up version of this page.) || The phase and libration of the Moon for 2026, at hourly intervals. Includes supplemental graphics that display the Moon's orbit, subsolar and sub-Earth points, and the Moon's distance from Earth at true scale. Craters near the terminator are labeled, as are Apollo landing sites, maria, and other albedo features in sunlight. || phases_2026_fancy_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [143.6 MB] || phases_2026_fancy_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [433.2 MB] || phases_2026_fancy_2160p30.mov (3840x2160) [13.9 GB] || phases_2026_fancy_720p30.mp4 (1280x720) [72.1 MB] || phases_2026_fancy_360p30.mp4 (640x360) [24.3 MB] || fancy (1920x1080) [8760 Item(s)] || fancy (3840x2160) [8760 Item(s)] || fancy (5760x3240) [8760 Item(s)] || preview_fancy.jpg (1920x1080) [252.7 KB] || The phase and libration of the Moon for 2026, at hourly intervals. Includes music, supplemental graphics that display the Moon's orbit, subsolar and sub-Earth points, and the Moon's distance from Earth at true scale. Craters near the terminator are labeled, as are Apollo landing sites, maria and other albedo features in sunlight.Music provided by Universal Production Music: "Places" and "Reverse Dream" – Matthew LawrensonThis video can also be viewed on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel || phasesYT_2026_fancy_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [144.1 MB] || phasesYT_2026_fancy_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [486.7 MB] || preview_music.jpg (1920x1080) [253.9 KB] || phases_2026_captions.en_US.srt [40 bytes] || phases_2026_captions.en_US.vtt [53 bytes] || The phase and libration of the Moon for 2026, at hourly intervals. The vertical (portrait) aspect ratio is targeted for viewing on mobile devices. Includes supplemental graphics that display the Moon's orbit, subsolar and sub-Earth points, and the Moon's distance from Earth at true scale. Craters near the terminator are labeled, as are Apollo landing sites. || phases_2026_fancy_v1_1920p30.mp4 (1080x1920) [139.6 MB] || preview_v.jpg (1080x1920) [256.3 KB] || v1 (1080x1920) [8760 Item(s)] || The phase and libration of the Moon for 2026, at hourly intervals. This is an alternate portrait aspect version that may be more suitable for some social media posts. || phases_2026_fancy_v2_1920p30.mp4 (1080x1920) [106.2 MB] || preview_v2.jpg (1080x1920) [194.4 KB] || v2 (1080x1920) [8760 Item(s)] || phases_2026_fancy_v2_music_1920p30.mp4 (1080x1920) [98.4 MB] || The phase and libration of the Moon for 2026, at hourly intervals. This portrait aspect version is "plain," showing only the Moon. || phases_2026_plain_v_1920p30.mp4 (1080x1920) [79.6 MB] || preview_vplain.jpg (1080x1920) [149.8 KB] || vplain (1080x1920) [8760 Item(s)] || The phase and libration of the Moon for 2026, at hourly intervals. The HD and higher resolution frames include an alpha channel, and the EXR frames are HDR (high dynamic range). The .mov file is a ProRes 4444 movie with alpha. || phases_2026_plain_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [92.2 MB] || phases_2026_plain_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [300.5 MB] || phases_2026_plain_2160p30.mov (3840x2160) [28.0 GB] || phases_2026_plain_720p30.mp4 (1280x720) [41.8 MB] || phases_2026_plain_360p30.mp4 (640x360) [11.4 MB] || plain (5760x3240) [8760 Item(s)] || plain (1920x1080) [8760 Item(s)] || plain (3840x2160) [8760 Item(s)] || exr (5760x3240) [8760 Item(s)] || 730x730_1x1_30p (730x730) [8760 Item(s)] || 216x216_1x1_30p (216x216) [8760 Item(s)] || preview_plain.jpg (1920x1080) [174.8 KB] || The Moon's Orbit || The orbit of the Moon in 2026, viewed from the north pole of the ecliptic, with the vernal equinox to the right. The sizes of the Earth and Moon are exaggerated. || moon_orbit_2026_1080p30.mp4 (1080x1080) [43.6 MB] || preview_orbit.jpg (1080x1080) [113.6 KB] || 1080x1080_1x1_30p (1080x1080) [8760 Item(s)] || 850x850_1x1_30p (850x850) [8760 Item(s)] || 420x420_1x1_30p (420x420) [8760 Item(s)] || From this birdseye view, it's somewhat easier to see that the phases of the Moon are an effect of the changing angles of the Sun, Moon and Earth. The Moon is full when its orbit places it in the middle of the night side of the Earth. First and Third Quarter Moon occur when the Moon is along the day-night line on the Earth. The Sun's direction is indicated by the yellow arrow.The view here is perpendicular to the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun, called the ecliptic. The teal-colored ring is the plane of the Moon's orbit around the Earth, which is tilted about five degrees to the ecliptic. The thickness of the ring shows the range of the Moon's distance, and the darker half is the part below (south of) the ecliptic. The two points where the orbit crosses the ecliptic are the ascending and descending nodes. Also labeled are the perigee and apogee, the points along the orbit that are nearest to and farthest from Earth.The First Point of Aries is at the 3 o'clock position in the image. The Sun is in this direction at the March equinox. You can check this by freezing the animation at around the 1:03 mark, or by freezing the full animation with the time stamp near March 20. This direction serves as the zero point for both ecliptic longitude and right ascension.The north pole of the Earth is tilted 23.5 degrees toward the 12 o'clock position at the top of the image. The tilt of the Earth is important for understanding why the north pole of the Moon seems to swing back and forth. In the full animation, watch both the orbit and the "gyroscope" Moon in the lower left. The widest swings happen when the Moon is at the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock positions. When the Moon is at the 3 o'clock position, the ground we're standing on is tilted to the left when we look at the Moon. At the 9 o'clock position, it's tilted to the right. The tilt itself doesn't change. We're just turned around, looking in the opposite direction. || An animated diagram of the subsolar and sub-Earth points for 2026. The Moon's north pole, equator, and meridian are indicated. The frames include an alpha channel. || moon_subpts_2026_960p30.mp4 (960x960) [32.2 MB] || preview_globe.jpg (960x960) [84.8 KB] || 320x320_1x1_30p (320x320) [8760 Item(s)] || 640x640_1x1_30p (640x640) [8760 Item(s)] || 960x960_1x1_30p (960x960) [8760 Item(s)] || The subsolar and sub-Earth points are the locations on the Moon's surface where the Sun or the Earth are directly overhead, at the zenith. A line pointing straight up at one of these points will be pointing toward the Sun or the Earth. The sub-Earth point is also the apparent center of the Moon's disk as observed from the Earth.In the animation, the blue dot is the sub-Earth point, and the yellow cone is the subsolar point. The lunar latitude and longitude of the sub-Earth point is a measure of the Moon's libration. For example, when the blue dot moves to the left of the meridian (the line at 0 degrees longitude), an extra bit of the Moon's western limb is rotating into view, and when it moves above the equator, a bit of the far side beyond the north pole becomes visible.At any given time, half of the Moon is in sunlight, and the subsolar point is in the center of the lit half. Full Moon occurs when the subsolar point is near the center of the Moon's disk. When the subsolar point is somewhere on the far side of the Moon, observers on Earth see a crescent phase. || An animated diagram of the Moon's distance from the Earth for 2026. The sizes and distances are true to scale, and the lighting and Earth tilt are correct. The frames include an alpha channel. || moon_distance_2026_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [2.2 MB] || moon_distance_2026_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [6.2 MB] || moon_distance_2026_360p30.mp4 (640x360) [649.3 KB] || moon_distance_2026_720p30.mp4 (1280x720) [1.3 MB] || preview_distance.jpg (1920x1080) [33.4 KB] || distance (1920x1080) [8760 Item(s)] || distance (3840x2160) [8760 Item(s)] || distance (5760x3240) [8760 Item(s)] || The Moon's orbit around the Earth isn't a perfect circle. The orbit is slightly elliptical, and because of that, the Moon's distance from the Earth varies between 28 and 32 Earth diameters, or about 356,400 and 406,700 kilometers. In each orbit, the smallest distance is called perigee, from Greek words meaning "near earth," while the greatest distance is called apogee. The Moon looks largest at perigee because that's when it's closest to us.The animation follows the imaginary line connecting the Earth and the Moon as it sweeps around the Moon's orbit. From this vantage point, it's easy to see the variation in the Moon's distance. Both the distance and the sizes of the Earth and Moon are to scale in this view. In the HD-resolution frames, the Earth is 50 pixels wide, the Moon is 14 pixels wide, and the distance between them is about 1500 pixels, on average.Note too that the Earth appears to go through phases just like the Moon does. For someone standing on the surface of the Moon, the Sun and the stars rise and set, but the Earth doesn't move very much in the sky. It goes through a monthly sequence of phases as the Sun angle changes. The phases are the opposite of the Moon's. During New Moon here, the Earth is full as viewed from the Moon. || Feature labels. Crater labels appear when the center of the crater is within 20 degrees of the terminator (the day-night line). They are on the western edge of the crater during waxing phases (before Full Moon) and to the east during waning phases. Mare, sinus, and lacus features are labeled when in sunlight. Apollo landing site labels are always visible. The frames include an alpha channel. || moon_labels_2026_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [24.2 MB] || moon_labels_2026_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [93.2 MB] || preview_labels.jpg (1920x1080) [43.7 KB] || labels (1920x1080) [8760 Item(s)] || labels (3840x2160) [8760 Item(s)] || labels (5760x3240) [8760 Item(s)] || The Named Phases || The following is a gallery containing examples of each of the Moon phases that have names in English. New, full, and quarter phases occur on specific days, while crescent and gibbous phases are the transitions between these points and span multiple days. The quarters are so named because they occur when the Moon is one fourth or three fourths of the way through its cycle of phases. Many people find this confusing, though, since visually they are half moons. It might be helpful to remember that the visible half of the Moon's disk is really only one quarter of its spherical surface. || Waxing crescent. Visible toward the southwest in early evening. || phase_waxing_crescent.2028_print.jpg (1024x1024) [134.5 KB] || phase_waxing_crescent.2028.tif (3240x3240) [10.7 MB] || First quarter. Visible high in the southern sky in early evening. || phase_first_quarter.2091_print.jpg (1024x1024) [157.2 KB] || phase_first_quarter.2091.tif (3240x3240) [10.3 MB] || Waxing gibbous. Visible to the southeast in early evening, up for most of the night. || phase_waxing_gibbous.2158_print.jpg (1024x1024) [163.6 KB] || phase_waxing_gibbous.2158.tif (3240x3240) [9.3 MB] || Full Moon. Rises at sunset, high in the sky around midnight. Visible all night. || phase_full.1571_print.jpg (1024x1024) [184.7 KB] || phase_full.1571.tif (3240x3240) [9.4 MB] || Waning gibbous. Rises after sunset, high in the sky after midnight, visible to the southwest after sunrise. || phase_waning_gibbous.2403_print.jpg (1024x1024) [192.9 KB] || phase_waning_gibbous.2403.tif (3240x3240) [11.0 MB] || Third quarter. Rises around midnight, visible to the south after sunrise. || phase_third_quarter.1755_print.jpg (1024x1024) [162.4 KB] || phase_third_quarter.1755.tif (3240x3240) [11.2 MB] || Waning crescent. Low to the east before sunrise. || phase_waning_crescent.1810_print.jpg (1024x1024) [131.1 KB] || phase_waning_crescent.1810.tif (3240x3240) [11.5 MB] || New Moon. By the modern definition, New Moon occurs when the Moon and Sun are at the same geocentric ecliptic longitude. The part of the Moon facing us is completely in shadow then. Pictured here is the traditional New Moon, the earliest visible waxing crescent, which signals the start of a new month in many lunar and lunisolar calendars. || phase_new.1933_print.jpg (1024x1024) [91.8 KB] || phase_new.1933.tif (3240x3240) [10.3 MB] || Planets & Moons || Albedo || Elevation data || Laser Altimeter || LOLA || LRO || LROC || Lunar || Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter || Lunar Surface || Lunar Topography || Moon || LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) || LRO - Animations || The Moon || DEM (Digital Elevation Map) [LRO: LOLA] || LROC WAC Color Mosaic (Natural Color Hapke Normalized WAC Mosaic) [Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter: LRO Camera] || DE421 (JPL DE421) || Ernie Wright (USRA) as Visualizer || Noah Petro (NASA/GSFC) as Planetary scientist || James Tralie (eMITS) as Producer ||

These color and elevation maps are designed for use in 3D rendering software. They are created from data assembled by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter camera and laser altimeter instrument teams. || 4720 || CGI Moon Kit || These color and elevation maps are designed for use in 3D rendering software. They are created from data assembled by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter camera and laser altimeter instrument teams. || Color || The 2025 color map, available as a full-size float16 EXR file and as 16-bit TIFFs of various sizes. The EXR file is encoded in linear color with slightly more dynamic range, while the sRGB-encoded TIFFs are more broadly supported. The map is centered on 0° longitude. || lroc_color_2k.jpg (2048x1024) [447.2 KB] || lroc_color.exr [942.8 MB] || lroc_color_16bit_srgb.tif [2.4 GB] || lroc_color_16bit_srgb_16k.tif (16384x8192) [909.4 MB] || lroc_color_16bit_srgb_4k.tif (4096x2048) [59.0 MB] || lroc_color_16bit_srgb_8k.tif (8192x4096) [232.0 MB] || Two versions of the color map are now available. The newer version (above) was produced in December of 2025 using commercial image processing software. It preserves more of the color and dynamic range of the source data and adds greater detail in the polar regions. The original version (below), produced in 2019, has been used successfully in a number of visualizations.The color maps were adapted from the Hapke Normalized WAC Mosaic, a composite built by the camera team from over 100,000 WAC (Wide Angle Camera) images. The readme file provides a technical summary of how the mosaic was constructed along with references to more detailed publications. A less formal introduction to the process is in this LROC blog post and in this one.Both color maps were assembled from three of the seven wavelength bands of the LROC color data, with the 643 nm band representing the red channel, 566 nm the green, and 415 nm the blue. Exposure and white balance were adjusted to more closely match human vision, and small data dropouts at high latitudes were inpainted.The source data covers the lunar globe from 70°N to 70°S. Because the Moon's axial and orbital tilts are both small, many areas outside these latitudes remain shrouded in shadow, even after thousands of passes by LRO's camera, so they are left out of the LROC mosaic. For these color maps, the missing latitudes were filled in with a lower resolution monochromatic albedo map (LDAM) from LRO's laser altimeter, which measures the brightness of the reflected laser. When rendered with realistic shadows, these parts of the map aren't particularly visible, and while they comprise more than 20% of the map's pixels, they represent only 6% of the Moon's surface.These image is optimized for aesthetics, not science. Scientific applications should use the source data. || The 2019 color map, available as 24-bit RGB TIFFs of various sizes. The map is centered on 0° longitude. || lroc_color_poles_1k.jpg (1024x512) [135.8 KB] || lroc_color_poles_1k_thm.png (80x40) [6.3 KB] || lroc_color_poles_2k.tif (2048x1024) [3.2 MB] || lroc_color_poles_8k.tif (8192x4096) [48.3 MB] || lroc_color_poles_4k.tif (4096x2048) [12.5 MB] || lroc_color_poles_hw5x3.tif (9600x3240) [49.1 MB] || lroc_color_poles_16k.tif (16384x8192) [178.3 MB] || lroc_color_poles.tif (27360x13680) [494.1 MB] || cgi-moon-kit-color.hwshow [188 bytes] || Displacement || The displacement map, at 64, 16, and 4 pixels per degree, centered on 0° longitude. Available as either floating-point TIFFs in kilometers, relative to a radius of 1737.4 km, or unsigned 16-bit TIFFs in half-meters, relative to a radius of 1727400 meters. || ldem_3_8bit.jpg (1024x512) [108.9 KB] || ldem_4.tif (1440x720) [4.0 MB] || ldem_4_uint.tif (1440x720) [2.0 MB] || ldem_16.tif (5760x2880) [63.3 MB] || ldem_16_uint.tif (5760x2880) [31.7 MB] || ldem_hw5x3.tif (9600x3240) [16.4 MB] || ldem_64_uint.tif (23040x11520) [506.3 MB] || ldem_64.tif (23040x11520) [1012.6 MB] || cgi-moon-kit-dem.hwshow [176 bytes] || The displacement map (also known as a height map or elevation map) was taken directly from the latest (as of spring 2019) gridded data products of the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter instrument team. LOLA data is archived on the Geosciences Node of the Planetary Data System. A small subset of the LOLA data stored there, the global cylindrical projections at 4, 16, and 64 pixels per degree, has been reformatted here as uncompressed TIFF files, in vertical units of either floating-point kilometers or 16-bit unsigned integer half-meters.The reference surface for all LRO data is a sphere of radius 1737.4 km. LOLA's gridded elevation data is published as signed 16-bit integers in units of half-meters relative to this radius. For the floating-point TIFFs, the source data was divided by 2000. For the unsigned 16-bit TIFFs, the source data was offset by +20,000 (10 km) so that all of the values are positive. This latter format is provided for software that doesn't work well with either floating-point or signed integer files. || How These Maps Are Used || This animation illustrates how color and displacement maps are used in 3D animation software to paint and model an object like the Moon. || plane2sphere.0220_print.jpg (1024x576) [82.6 KB] || 1920x1080_16x9_30p (1920x1080) [300 Item(s)] || moon_mapping_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [12.6 MB] || moon_mapping_720p30.mp4 (1280x720) [6.5 MB] || moon_mapping_720p30.webm (1280x720) [2.3 MB] || moon_mapping_360p30.mp4 (640x360) [1.8 MB] || moon_mapping_1080p30.mp4.hwshow [186 bytes] || Within 3D animation software, an object like the Moon begins as a simple geometric shape, in this case a sphere. Texture maps like the ones on this page are used to add detail to the model. The color map tells the software how to paint the surface, and the displacement map tells it how to add the shape details that define the lunar terrain. Without them, the Moon model is just a smooth, monochrome ball. Although these maps are flat rectangles, the software understands them as maps of a spherical surface and knows how to warp them onto spherical geometry.Each pixel in these texture maps corresponds to a point on the lunar surface defined by a longitude-latitude pair. Pixels in the color map contain the "base color" of the surface, before applying the effects of varying light and camera angles (called incidence angle i and emission angle e in the technical description). Pixels in the displacement map contain the height of the surface at the corresponding locations. || More Data || These maps are a tiny subset of the data publicly archived by the LRO instrument teams. All of the data is in standard and fairly simple PDS file formats (files with ".IMG" filename extensions). Although not typically supported by general-purpose computer graphics software, these formats are directly readable by some GIS programs. The data formats are documented in PDS labels, which are either separate text files with a ".LBL" filename extension or embedded as fixed-length headers. Other than the possible header, most .IMG files are uncompressed 2D binary arrays of numbers. Some data is also available in TIFF or JPEG2000 formats.As of this writing, the best global-scale elevation data for equatorial and mid-latitude regions of the Moon, at resolutions up to 512 pixels per degree, is SLDEM2015. For regions near the poles, where the density of laser shots is much higher, the GDR data in polar stereo projection reaches resolutions of five meters per pixel.The LROC narrow-angle camera (NAC) has imaged most of the Moon's surface at a resolution of one meter per pixel or better. LROC imagery can be explored graphically using its Quickmap interface and searched on its RDR Product Select page. Of particular interest are the Topographic Products (menu option in the upper left of the page), which are matched with high-resolution DEMs derived from stereo image pairs. This dataset includes all of the Apollo landing sites and dozens of other locations of interest. || Planets & Moons || Albedo || Elevation Map || HDTV || Hyperwall || Laser Altimeter || LOLA || LRO || LROC || Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter || map || Mosaic || DEM (Digital Elevation Map) [LRO: LOLA] || LROC WAC Color Mosaic (Natural Color Hapke Normalized WAC Mosaic) [Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter: LRO Camera] || Ernie Wright (USRA) as Visualizer || Noah Petro (NASA/GSFC) as Scientist ||

The geoid is an equipotential surface that can be thought of as the shape an ocean surface would take due to the Earth's gravity field. In this visualization the geoid height is greatly exaggerated, by a factor of 10,000. The geoid height visualized here comes from the gravity field model GOCO06s, a satellite-only global gravity field model computed by the GOCO (Gravity Observation Combination) project. || 5660 || The Geoid || This version shows the geoid to scale. The shape of the geoid is remarkably smooth. At a planetary scale the variations in geoid height are not discernible. We have other versions of this visualization that exaggerate these variations to make them visible. || The geoid is an equipotential surface that can be thought of as the shape an ocean surface would take due to the Earth's gravity field. The geoid height ranges from +85 m (Iceland) to −106 m (southern India). The geoid height visualized here comes from the gravity field model GOCO06s, a satellite-only global gravity field model computed by the GOCO (Gravity Observation Combination) project. It is based on over a billion observations acquired over 15 years from 19 satellites. These satellites include NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and ESA's Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE). || geoid_to_scale_2160p30.mp4 (2160x2160) [29.8 MB] || NOTE: Not to scale!!! This visualization exaggerates the Geoid Height by a factor of 10,000. || The geoid is an equipotential surface that can be thought of as the shape an ocean surface would take due to the Earth's gravity field. The geoid height ranges from +85 m (Iceland) to −106 m (southern India). In this visualization the geoid height is greatly exaggerated, by a factor of 10,000. The geoid height visualized here comes from the gravity field model GOCO06s, a satellite-only global gravity field model computed by the GOCO (Gravity Observation Combination) project. It is based on over a billion observations acquired over 15 years from 19 satellites. These satellites include NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and ESA's Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE). || geoid_GOCO06s.mp4 (2160x2160) [28.1 MB] || geoid.png (2160x2160) [2.8 MB] || geoid_print.png (1080x1080) [1.8 MB] || Geoid 3D Model || A 3D model of the Geoid, with the geoid height exaggerated by a factor of 10,000. || geoid.glb [86.7 MB] || Earth || Geodesy || Geodetics || Geodetics/Gravity || Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) || GOCO06s (GOCO06s) [GRACE and GRACE-FO] || GOCO06s – a satellite-only global gravity field model || Scott Luthcke (NASA/GSFC) as Science advisor || Mark SubbaRao (NASA/GSFC) as Visualizer ||

Current Moonshow_moon_image(); show_moon_info();Every year since 2011, the SVS produces its annual visualization of the Moon's phase and libration comprising 8760 hourly renderings of the precise size, orientation, and illumination of our nearest neighbor in space. The above displays the current state of the Moon. Click on the image to download a much larger version with labeled craters and additional graphics. Follow the links below to see the Moon at any hour of the year, play the animations, access the frames at multiple resolutions, and read detailed explanations. || Moon Phase and Libration || Dial-A-Moon || Every year since 2011, the SVS produces its annual visualization of the Moon's phase and libration comprising 8760 hourly renderings of the precise size, orientation, and illumination of our nearest neighbor in space. The above displays the current state of the Moon. Click on the image to download a much larger version with labeled craters and additional graphics. Follow the links below to see the Moon at any hour of the year, play the animations, access the frames at multiple resolutions, and read detailed explanations. || North Up || 5587: Moon Phase and Libration, 2026 || 5415: Moon Phase and Libration, 2025 || 5187: Moon Phase and Libration, 2024 || 5048: Moon Phase and Libration, 2023 || 4955: Moon Phase and Libration, 2022 || 4874: Moon Phase and Libration, 2021 || 4768: Moon Phase and Libration, 2020 || 4604: Moon Phase and Libration, 2018 || 4537: Moon Phase and Libration, 2017 || 4442: Moon Phase and Libration, 2019 || 4404: Moon Phase and Libration, 2016 || 4236: Moon Phase and Libration, 2015 || 4118: Moon Phase and Libration, 2014 || 4000: Moon Phase and Libration, 2013 || 3894: Moon Phase and Libration, 2012 || 3810: Moon Phase and Libration, 2011 || New Moon || New Moon. By the modern definition, New Moon occurs when the Moon and Sun are at the same geocentric ecliptic longitude. The part of the Moon facing us is completely in shadow then. Pictured here is the traditional New Moon, the earliest visible waxing crescent, which signals the start of a new month in many lunar and lunisolar calendars. || phase_new.1026_print.jpg (1024x1024) [78.0 KB] || Waning Crescent || Waning crescent. Low to the east before sunrise. || phase_waning_crescent.0903_print.jpg (1024x1024) [107.7 KB] || Third Quarter || Third quarter. Rises around midnight, visible to the south after sunrise. || phase_third_quarter.2243_print.jpg (1024x1024) [148.3 KB] || Waning Gibbous || Waning gibbous. Rises after sunset, high in the sky after midnight, visible to the southwest after sunrise. || phase_waning_gibbous.2172_print.jpg (1024x1024) [188.8 KB] || Full Moon || Full Moon. Rises at sunset, high in the sky around midnight. Visible all night. || phase_full.3492_print.jpg (1024x1024) [199.7 KB] || Waxing Gibbous || Waxing gibbous. Visible to the southeast in early evening, up for most of the night. || phase_waxing_gibbous.4801_print.jpg (1024x1024) [173.0 KB] || First Quarter || First quarter. Visible high in the southern sky in early evening. || phase_first_quarter.5440_print.jpg (1024x1024) [156.9 KB] || Waxing Crescent || Waxing crescent. Visible toward the southwest in early evening. || phase_waxing_crescent.0398_print.jpg (1024x1024) [108.1 KB] || South Up || 5588: Moon Phase and Libration, 2026 South Up || 5416: Moon Phase and Libration, 2025 South Up || 5188: Moon Phase and Libration, 2024 South Up || 5049: Moon Phase and Libration, 2023 South Up || 4956: Moon Phase and Libration, 2022 South Up || 4875: Moon Phase and Libration, 2021 South Up || 4769: Moon Phase and Libration, 2020 South Up || 4605: Moon Phase and Libration, 2018 South Up || 4538: Moon Phase and Libration, 2017 South Up || 4459: Moon Phase and Libration, 2019 South Up || 4405: Moon Phase and Libration, 2016 South Up || 4237: Moon Phase and Libration, 2015 South Up || 4119: Moon Phase and Libration, 2014 South Up || 4067: Moon Phase and Libration, 2013 South Up || New Moon || New Moon. By the modern definition, New Moon occurs when the Moon and Sun are at the same geocentric ecliptic longitude. The part of the Moon facing us is completely in shadow then. Pictured here is the traditional New Moon, the earliest visible waxing crescent, which signals the start of a new month in many lunar and lunisolar calendars. || phase_new_s.1026_searchweb.png (180x320) [57.3 KB] || Waning Crescent || Waning crescent. Low to the east before sunrise. || phase_waning_crescent_s.0903_searchweb.png (180x320) [64.7 KB] || Third Quarter || Third quarter. Rises around midnight, visible to the north after sunrise. || phase_third_quarter_s.2243_searchweb.png (180x320) [79.4 KB] || Waning Gibbous || Waning gibbous. Rises after sunset, high in the sky after midnight, visible to the northwest after sunrise. || phase_waning_gibbous_s.2172_searchweb.png (180x320) [90.8 KB] || Full Moon || Full Moon. Rises at sunset, high in the sky around midnight. Visible all night. || phase_full_s.3492_searchweb.png (180x320) [94.4 KB] || Waxing Gibbous || Waxing gibbous. Visible to the northeast in early evening, up for most of the night. || phase_waxing_gibbous_s.4801_searchweb.png (180x320) [85.3 KB] || First Quarter || First quarter. Visible high in the northern sky in early evening. || phase_first_quarter_s.5440_searchweb.png (180x320) [80.7 KB] || Waxing Crescent || Waxing crescent. Visible toward the northwest in early evening. || phase_waxing_crescent_s.0398_searchweb.png (180x320) [65.1 KB] || Eclipses || These lunar eclipse visualizations include a Dial-a-Moon feature similar to that of the phase and libration pages. || 5033: November 8, 2022 Total Lunar Eclipse: Telesc... || 4979: May 15-16, 2022 Total Lunar Eclipse: Telesco... || 4902: May 26, 2021 Total Lunar Eclipse: Telescopic... || 4356: LRO and the September 27-28, 2015 Lunar Ecli... || 4156: LRO and the Lunar Eclipse of April 15, 2014:... ||

On August 28, 2026 (the evening of the 27th in some time zones), the Moon passes into the shadow of Earth, creating a deep partial lunar eclipse. At the moment of greatest eclipse, 4:13 a.m. Univeral Time, 96.3% of the Moon's disk will be within Earth's umbra. The Americas are centrally located for observing this eclipse. || 5672 || August 27-28, 2026 Deep Partial Lunar Eclipse || The Moon moves right to left through Earth's penumbra and umbra shadows. At various times, a copy of the Moon is left behind along with its associated UTC time, and this forms a lunar eclipse diagram showing different stages of the eclipse. || eclipse_202608_movie.jpg (1920x1080) [186.0 KB] || eclipse_202608_utc_720p30.mp4 (1280x720) [7.6 MB] || eclipse_202608_utc_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [38.8 MB] || eclipse_202608_utc_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [13.8 MB] || eclipse_202608_utc_360p30.mp4 (640x360) [2.8 MB] || 3840x2160_16x9_30p (3840x2160) [2791 Item(s)] || On August 28, 2026 (the evening of the 27th in some time zones), the Moon passes into the shadow of Earth, creating a deep partial eclipse. At the moment of greatest eclipse, 4:13 a.m. Universal Time, 96.3% of the Moon's disk is within Earth's umbra, the central part of the shadow where the Sun is completely blocked by Earth. This part of the eclipse is visible in the Americas (except Alaska and northwestern Canada), western Europe and western Africa.The penumbra is the part of Earth's shadow where the Sun is only partially covered by Earth. The effect of the penumbra on the Moon's appearance is subtle. But after the partial phase begins, at 2:34 UTC (10:34 p.m. Eastern on the night of the 27th), the umbra's dramatic effect is easily visible as it takes an increasingly large bite out of the disk of the full Moon. Less than an hour later, the part of the Moon still in sunlight will be small enough for observers' eyes to adapt to darkness and perceive the coppery color of the part of the Moon within the umbra. The visualizations here mimic this dark adaptation by increasing the apparent photographic exposure around the time of greatest eclipse.This eclipse is a member of Saros 138. The eclipses in a given saros series are separated by 18 years, 11 days, 8 hours. The previous eclipse in this saros series occurred on August 16, 2008, and the next takes place on September 7, 2044. || Obscuration Versus Magnitude || Two measures are used to describe how much of the Moon is within the umbra shadow at the height of a lunar eclipse. Umbra magnitude, the value found for example on Fred Espenak's NASA eclipse site, is the fraction of the diameter of the Moon covered by the umbra, while obscuration (the 96.3% number here) is the area covered by the umbra.Magnitude is easier to calculate and can tell you something extra about the nature of an eclipse. Eclipse magnitude can be greater than 1.0 or less than 0.0. Values greater than 1.0 indicate the depth and duration of totality by measuring how close the Moon gets to the center of the umbra. Negative magnitudes denote penumbral eclipses, when the Moon misses the umbra entirely. In natural language, the magnitude of a partial lunar eclipse should be qualified by saying something like "93% of the width of the Moon" will be within the umbra. For total and penumbral eclipses, such as the June 2029 total lunar eclipse at magnitude 1.84, this phrasing can't express what the number means.Obscuration is more intuitive — it's always between 0 and 1 — and it more closely matches the visual experience. You can say without qualification that "96.3% of the Moon's disk" will be within the umbra. || A still image of the eclipse diagram. || eclipse_202608_utc_preview.jpg (1920x1080) [190.4 KB] || eclipse_202608_utc.tif (3840x2160) [2.8 MB] || A world map showing where the eclipse is visible at different phases. Contours mark the boundary around the part of Earth where each phase is visible. The start of the partial phase, for example, is visible everywhere within the orange contour. The map is centered on 63°8'W, the sublunar point at greatest eclipse (the longitude where the Moon is highest in the sky). The eclipse can't be seen in the gray areas outside the contours. || eclipse_202608_vismap_preview.jpg (1920x1080) [352.8 KB] || eclipse_202608_vismap.tif (3840x2160) [6.2 MB] || Earth || Planets & Moons || Sun || Blood Moon || LRO || Lunar Eclipse || Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter || Moon || Sun-Earth-Moon Interactions || LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) || DE421 (JPL DE421) || LROC WAC Color Mosaic (Natural Color Hapke Normalized WAC Mosaic) [Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter: LRO Camera] || DEM (Digital Elevation Map) [LRO: LOLA] || 5MCLE (Five Millennium Canon of Lunar Eclipses) || Ernie Wright (Science and Technology Corporation) as Visualizer ||

The star map in celestial coordinates, at five different resolutions. The map is centered at 0h right ascension, and r.a. increases to the left. || starmap_2020_4k_print.jpg (1024x512) [41.8 KB] || starmap_2020_4k_searchweb.png (320x180) [53.9 KB] || starmap_2020_4k_thm.png (80x40) [5.5 KB] || starmap_2020_4k.exr (4096x2048) [34.3 MB] || starmap_2020_8k.exr (8192x4096) [124.5 MB] || starmap_2020_16k.exr (16384x8192) [422.9 MB] || starmap_2020_32k.exr (32768x16384) [1.4 GB] || starmap_2020_64k.exr (65536x32768) [3.8 GB] || || 4851 || Deep Star Maps 2020 || The star map in celestial coordinates, at five different resolutions. The map is centered at 0h right ascension, and r.a. increases to the left. || starmap_2020_4k_print.jpg (1024x512) [41.8 KB] || starmap_2020_4k_searchweb.png (320x180) [53.9 KB] || starmap_2020_4k_thm.png (80x40) [5.5 KB] || starmap_2020_4k.exr (4096x2048) [34.3 MB] || starmap_2020_8k.exr (8192x4096) [124.5 MB] || starmap_2020_16k.exr (16384x8192) [422.9 MB] || starmap_2020_32k.exr (32768x16384) [1.4 GB] || starmap_2020_64k.exr (65536x32768) [3.8 GB] || This set of star maps was created by plotting the position, brightness, and color of 1.7 billion stars from the Hipparcos-2, Tycho-2, and Gaia Data Release 2 star catalogs, with help from the Yale Bright Star Catalog, UCAC3, and the XHIP Hipparcos cross-reference. The constellation boundaries are those established by the International Astronomical Union in 1930. The constellation figures also come from the IAU, although they're not official.Skip the explanationThe maps are presented in plate carrée projections using either celestial (ICRF/J2000 geocentric right ascension and declination) or galactic coordinates. They are designed for spherical mapping in animation software. The oval shapes near the top and bottom of the star maps are not galaxies. The distortion of the stars in those parts of the map is just an effect of the projection.The celestial coordinate mapping will be the more useful one for 3D animation, since camera rotations in the software will correspond in a straightforward way to the right ascension and declination in astronomy references. The galactic coordinate mapping is probably better for 2D animation and compositing. It also works as a standalone image showing the edge-on view of our home galaxy, from the inside. Update: The galactic images were replaced on January 4, 2021. The original images used ICRF/J2000 coordinates in a galactic coordinate transformation meant for B1950. The new images use the transformation described in the Hipparcos and Gaia documentation.The boundary, figure, and grid images are conventional grayscale TIFF files. The star maps are in OpenEXR's half-float format, which provides higher dynamic range in a linear colorspace while easily accommodating very large files. Most 3D animation and HDR image processing software can read OpenEXR.Catalog CompletenessHipparcos-2 provided the data for stars brighter than magnitude 8.0. To check HIP2's completeness, it was compared with the Yale Bright Star Catalog by matching positions, by using the XHIP cross-reference catalog, and by consulting the SIMBAD database.Of the 9096 stars in Yale, about one hundred have no matching Henry Draper ID in HIP2. Most of these are the second members of double or multiple stars that are represented in HIP2 as a single entry, and their omission has no visible effect on the star map. Another few are highly variable stars listed in Yale at their brightest magnitude, even though this magnitude is atypical. An example is T Coronae Borealis, the Blaze Star, which reached the magnitude listed in Yale only in 1866 and 1946; it normally hovers around magnitude 10.The remaining 18 stars can be considered genuinely missing:HRMagComment4210 4.30Eta Car4375 4.41Xi UMa A4374 4.87Xi UMa B5978 4.77Xi Sco A5977 5.07Xi Sco B4729 4.86256 Cru, 90" from Acrux (Alp Cru)2322 5.985343 5.98CN Boo, 17' from Arcturus (Alp Boo)2950 6.0212' from Procyon (Alp CMi)1982 6.15AK Lep, 97" from Gam Lep5034 6.1861" from J Cen2366 6.20HIP 31067, omitted from HIP24619 6.373.6' from Del Cen1704 6.3715' from Rigel (Bet Ori)6660 6.38part of M7 in Sco6263 6.45part of NGC 6231 in Sco2341 6.5110' from Canopus (Alp Car)6848 6.84part of M24 in SgrThese were added to the star maps. Some are relatively near very bright stars that may have made the measurement of their dimmer neighbor by Hipparcos problematic. The magnitude of Eta Carina is an estimate based on the AAVSO Light Curve Generator as of July 2020. All other data was taken from Yale.Missing stars at fainter magnitudes are in general much less visually apparent. The completeness of Tycho-2, used for stars with visual magnitudes between 8.0 and 11.5, was assumed. And since data in the Hipparcos and Tycho catalogs share the same provenance, there's less concern about drawing stars twice or losing them in the cracks at the crossover magnitude. Gaia DR2, however, has two obvious data holes centered at r.a. 97.9°, dec. 57.5° and 34.2°, 22.1°. These were filled in using stars from UCAC3.Star ColorsThe colors of the stars from both Hipparcos-2 and Tycho-2 were based on the B-V color index. This requires a mapping from B-V to effective temperature, Teff. In previous versions of this product, the mapping used a high-degree polynomial fit, but it was found that this fit was calculated using a relatively narrow range of B-V. Outside this range, the fit behaved poorly, producing a number of unrealistically red stars. For this version, the mapping was a slightly modified version of a function ascribed to F. Ballesteros.The spectrum of light emitted by a blackbody with a temperature Teff can in turn be mapped to an RGB triple, yielding the star color. See Mitchell Charity's What color is a blackbody?, which was used for the present work. In common with Charity, the modest goal here was not-completely-bogus colors.The colors of Gaia DR2 stars were taken from the fields called G, GRP, GBP, scaled by color balance factors estimated by eye. See this article from the Gaia team for more information about the passbands for these three measurements. Roughly a quarter of the DR2 stars lack GRP, GBP values, and those are set to white.TourThe animation demonstrates the use of the maps in a tour of the sky. The tour starts at W-shaped Cassiopeia, then heads south through Perseus to the winter constellation of Orion the Hunter and the Hyades and Pleiades star clusters in Taurus. It moves southeast past Orion's canine companion and its star, Sirius, brightest in the sky, eventually pausing at the rich southern hemisphere portion of the Milky Way in Carina and Crux, the Southern Cross.East of the Cross, in Centaurus, is the binary star Alpha Centauri, at 4.4 light-years the naked-eye star system nearest to the Sun. Also visible as a fuzzy spot near the top of the frame is the globular cluster Omega Centauri. The number of stars used to draw the star maps is large enough to reveal many globular and open star clusters as well as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.After passing near the celestial south pole, the tour moves north along the Milky Way to the center of our galaxy near the teapot in Sagittarius. The tour veers northwest from there, finally stopping at the familiar Big Dipper or Plough asterism in Ursa Major.This is an update to entry 3895. || A celestial coordinate grid. || celestial_grid_16k_print.jpg (1024x512) [41.2 KB] || celestial_grid_16k.tif (16384x8192) [2.6 MB] || celestial_grid_32k.tif (32768x16384) [6.5 MB] || celestial_grid_64k.tif (65536x32768) [16.9 MB] || Official IAU constellation bounds in celestial coordinates. || constellation_bounds_4k_print.jpg (1024x512) [49.9 KB] || constellation_bounds_4k.tif (4096x2048) [319.1 KB] || constellation_bounds_8k.tif (8192x4096) [684.3 KB] || constellation_bounds_16k.tif (16384x8192) [1.5 MB] || constellation_bounds_32k.tif (32768x16384) [3.5 MB] || constellation_bounds_64k.tif (65536x32768) [9.2 MB] || Constellation figures in celestial coordinates. || constellation_figures_4k_print.jpg (1024x512) [71.0 KB] || constellation_figures_4k.tif (4096x2048) [361.3 KB] || constellation_figures_8k.tif (8192x4096) [760.9 KB] || constellation_figures_16k.tif (16384x8192) [1.7 MB] || constellation_figures_32k.tif (32768x16384) [4.1 MB] || constellation_figures_64k.tif (65536x32768) [10.8 MB] || The Milky Way background in celestial coordinates. This is a version of the star map that omits the bright (Hipparcos and Tycho) stars. || milkyway_2020_4k_print.jpg (1024x512) [69.6 KB] || milkyway_2020_4k.exr (4096x2048) [34.7 MB] || milkyway_2020_8k.exr (8192x4096) [130.9 MB] || milkyway_2020_16k.exr (16384x8192) [413.9 MB] || milkyway_2020_32k.exr (32768x16384) [1.4 GB] || milkyway_2020_64k.exr (65536x32768) [3.7 GB] || The bright star (Hipparcos and Tycho) foreground in celestial coordinates. || hiptyc_2020_4k_print.jpg (1024x512) [76.9 KB] || hiptyc_2020_16k.exr (16384x8192) [68.0 MB] || hiptyc_2020_8k.exr (8192x4096) [48.2 MB] || hiptyc_2020_4k.exr (4096x2048) [20.3 MB] || hiptyc_2020_32k.exr (32768x16384) [132.1 MB] || hiptyc_2020_64k.exr (65536x32768) [236.5 MB] || The star map in galactic coordinates. The map is centered at 0° longitude, and longitude increases to the left. Images updated 4 Jan 2021 to correct a coordinate transformation error. || starmap_2020_4k_gal_print.jpg (1024x512) [35.7 KB] || starmap_2020_4k_gal.exr (4096x2048) [38.7 MB] || starmap_2020_8k_gal.exr (8192x4096) [153.3 MB] || starmap_2020_16k_gal.exr (16384x8192) [366.4 MB] || starmap_2020_32k_gal.exr (32768x16384) [1.2 GB] || starmap_2020_64k_gal.exr (65536x32768) [3.1 GB] || Official IAU constellation boundaries in galactic coordinates. Images updated 4 Jan 2021 to correct a coordinate transformation error. || constellation_bounds_4k_gal_print.jpg (1024x512) [76.1 KB] || constellation_bounds_4k_gal.tif (4096x2048) [380.8 KB] || constellation_bounds_8k_gal.tif (8192x4096) [820.4 KB] || constellation_bounds_16k_gal.tif (16384x8192) [1.8 MB] || constellation_bounds_32k_gal.tif (32768x16384) [4.4 MB] || constellation_bounds_64k_gal.tif (65536x32768) [11.4 MB] || Constellation figures in galactic coordinates. Images updated 4 Jan 2021 to correct a coordinate transformation error. || constellation_figures_4k_gal_print.jpg (1024x512) [70.6 KB] || constellation_figures_4k_gal.tif (4096x2048) [355.4 KB] || constellation_figures_8k_gal.tif (8192x4096) [745.5 KB] || constellation_figures_16k_gal.tif (16384x8192) [1.6 MB] || constellation_figures_32k_gal.tif (32768x16384) [4.1 MB] || constellation_figures_64k_gal.tif (65536x32768) [10.6 MB] || The Milky Way background in galactic coordinates. This is a version of the star map that omits the bright (Hipparcos and Tycho) stars. || milkyway_2020_4k_gal_print.jpg (1024x512) [64.7 KB] || milkyway_2020_4k_gal.exr (4096x2048) [33.2 MB] || milkyway_2020_8k_gal.exr (8192x4096) [119.3 MB] || milkyway_2020_16k_gal.exr (16384x8192) [356.5 MB] || milkyway_2020_32k_gal.exr (32768x16384) [1.2 GB] || milkyway_2020_64k_gal.exr (65536x32768) [3.0 GB] || The bright star (Hipparcos and Tycho) foreground in galactic coordinates. || hiptyc_2020_4k_gal_print.jpg (1024x512) [68.6 KB] || hiptyc_2020_16k_gal.exr (16384x8192) [61.1 MB] || hiptyc_2020_8k_gal.exr (8192x4096) [43.2 MB] || hiptyc_2020_4k_gal.exr (4096x2048) [18.1 MB] || hiptyc_2020_32k_gal.exr (32768x16384) [120.0 MB] || hiptyc_2020_64k_gal.exr (65536x32768) [215.3 MB] || A short tour of the sky demonstrating the use of the star maps. || tour.2640_print.jpg (1024x576) [57.3 KB] || 1920x1080_16x9_30p (1920x1080) [3601 Item(s)] || starmap_2020_tour_720p30.mp4 (1280x720) [17.5 MB] || starmap_2020_tour_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [36.5 MB] || starmap_2020_tour_720p30.webm (1280x720) [14.2 MB] || starmap_2020_tour_360p30.mp4 (640x360) [5.8 MB] || starmap_2020_tour_1080p30.mp4.hwshow [191 bytes] || Universe || 360 || Ast || Astronomy || Astrophysics || Big Dipper || Canis Major || Constellation || Constellations || Galaxy || HDTV || Hyperwall || Milky Way || orion || Saggitarius || Sky Map || Southern Cross || Space || Space science || Star || Taurus || Universe || Hipparcos Catalogue [Hipparcos: Telescope] || Tycho Catalogue (Tycho 2 Catalogue) [Hipparcos: Telescope] || UCAC3 (Catalog) [U.S. Naval Observatory: Third CCD Astrograph] || Gaia DR2 (Data Release 2) [Gaia] || Ernie Wright (USRA) as Animator || Laurence Schuler (ADNET Systems, Inc.) as Technical support || Ian Jones (ADNET Systems, Inc.) as Technical support ||

The Galleries || Earth Science Galleries || 40467: Earth Information Center (EIC) || 40415: What's New with Earth Today || 40016: Climate Essentials || 40388: NASA Earth Science || 40484: NASA and Agriculture Video || 40420: Amazon Deforestation Trends || 40272: Landslides || 40391: Two Decades of Precipitation || 40249: Sea Level Rise || 40176: Ozone Hole || 40170: Air Quality || 40028: Hurricanes and Typhoons || 40044: Zooms and Flybys || 40348: ESD data for Societal Benefit || 40447: Visualizations for Educators || 40124: Arctic and Antarctic Sea Ice || Heliophysics Galleries || 40046: NASA's Heliophysics Gallery || 40117: Heliophysics Breaking News || 40520: Solar Cycle 25 || 40502: 2024 Total Solar Eclipse || 40500: 2023 Annular Solar Eclipse || 40115: Space Weather || Planetary Science Galleries || 40539: Moon Visualizations, Animations, Videos - Artemis II Lunar Science || 40343: Moon Phase and Libration || 40371: Project Apollo || 40439: Lunar Eclipse || 40122: Mars Missions and Science || Astrophysics Galleries || 40542: Dark Energy || 40073: Goddard's Astrophysics Gallery || 40436: Black Hole Week || 40368: Black Holes || 40466: The Traveler || Missions and Instrument Galleries || 40538: Carruthers Geocorona Observatory || 40305: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope || 40116: James Webb Space Telescope || 40262: Hubble Space Telescope || 40333: ABoVE || 40513: AWE – Atmospheric Waves Experiment || 40083: Aquarius Mission || 40435: DAVINCI || 40523: ESCAPADE – Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorer || 40134: Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope || 40077: Firefly || 40247: GOES || 40345: GOLD – Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk || 40118: Global Precipitation Measurement || 40525: Habitable Worlds Observatory || 40179: ICESat-2 || 40346: ICON || 40543: IMAP – Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe || 40098: Landsat || 40423: Lucy || 40063: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter || 40152: MAVEN || 40217: Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory || 40320: NICER || 40378: Operation IceBridge || 40161: OSIRIS-REx || 40446: PACE || 40338: Parker Solar Probe || 40532: PUNCH – Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere || 40349: RXTE || 40455: Satellite Animations || 40355: SDO – Solar Dynamics Observatory || 40495: Small Missions || 40064: Solar Dynamics Observatory || 40400: Solar Orbiter || 40354: STEREO – Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory || 40325: TESS || 40535: TRACERS – Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites || 40456: XRISM || Special Productions || 40534: Vertical Video || 40533: Goddard B-roll Kit || 40516: Goddard From Above || 40431: Fulldome Gallery || 40065: Conference Videos || 40066: Educational Videos || 40067: Museum Videos || 40068: Project Videos || 40162: NASA On Air || 40447: Visualizations for Educators || 40433: Science On a Sphere Gallery || 40271: Live Shots Gallery Collection || Special Events || 40557: 2026 Goddard Summer Film Fest || 40537: 2025 Goddard Summer Film Fest || 40521: 2024 Goddard Summer Film Fest || 40490: 2023 Goddard Summer Film Fest || 40440: 2022 Goddard Summer Film Fest || 40429: 2021 Goddard Summer Film Fest || 40419: 2020 Goddard Summer Film Fest || 40458: COSMIC CYCLES:A Space Symphony || 40439: Lunar Eclipse || 40436: Black Hole Week || 40204: Superstorm Sandy || 40158: Comet ISON || 40374: Solar Eclipse 2019 || 40367: Hurricane Maria One Year Later || 40365: Earth Science Overview Oct 2018 Briefing || 40337: LRO and Solar Eclipse Events || 40227: Solar Eclipse 2017 || 40316: SnowEx Field Campaigns || 40301: GPM Outreach Event 2016 || 40239: Visualizations Presented at SIGGRAPH 2015 || 40281: 2015 Global Temperature Data || 40273: NASA Measures the Ice Sheets || 40260: South Korean President Park Park Geun-hye Visits NASA Goddard || 40228: Supermoon Lunar Eclipse September 27-28, 2015 || 40248: The View from Space: Data Visualizations of Hurricane Katrina || 40222: 2014 GISS Temperature Announcement || 40180: Comet Siding Spring || 40168: 2014 New Meteor Shower || 40163: 2014 Total Lunar Eclipse || 40079: A-Train visualizations || 40072: NASA Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS) || 40005: Warming world: Snaps from space || 40087: Carbon Consumption and the Earth's Carrying Capacity || 40219: NASA Measures Holiday Lights from Space || 40269: Carbon and Climate || 40099: The Home Frontier || Hyperwall || 40518: Hyperwall Power Playlist - Astrophysics Focus || 40505: Hyperwall Power Playlist - Planetary Science Focus || 40507: Hyperwall Power Playlist - Heliophysics Focus || 40503: Hyperwall Power Playlist - Earth Science Focus || 40414: Webb AR App Media || 40410: Earth at Night Imagery || 40046: NASA's Heliophysics Gallery || Educational Content || 40447: Visualizations for Educators ||

We can’t clean up your messy desktop, but we can provide a bit of beauty from the universe to act as a backdrop to it. Here you’ll find a collection of images from across the universe. Download these phone and desktop wallpapers for your screens. || || 14866 || Cosmic Desktop & Phone Wallpapers || We can’t clean up your messy desktop, but we can provide a bit of beauty from the universe to act as a backdrop to it. Here you’ll find a collection of images from across the universe. Download these phone and desktop wallpapers for your screens. || A multigenerational stellar portrait The Cepheus B and C regions contain multiple star clusters of different ages that were all born from the same dense clumps of material, as seen in this celestial mosaic from NASA's retired Spitzer Space Telescope. The green and orange triangular shape filling the left side of the image is a cloud of gas and dust that has been carved away by radiation from stars. The bright region at the tip of the triangle is dust that has been heated by the stars, which creates the surrounding red glow. Near the middle of the left edge is a grouping of newborn stars known as Cepheus C. In the upper right corner is a star cluster, known as Cepheus B, whose members are slightly older than the stars in Cepheus C. The image is made of four colors (blue, green, orange, and red), each representing a different wavelength of infrared light. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechFor more information: NASA’s Spitzer Captures Stellar Family Portrait Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Alt text: Infrared mosaic from Spitzer of the Cepheus B and Cepheus C region, with multiple generations of stars formed from the same cloud of gas and dust.Image description (desktop wallpaper): A roughly triangular region takes up the left side of this image of the Cepheus B and C regions of the sky. One corner of the triangle sits at the top, just right of center, and it features a bright dot with a red halo. The rest of the triangle spills off the bottom and left edges and is filled with green and orange wisps. A second region of green and orange wisps takes up the lower right side of the image, anchored by two bright white dots near the bottom edge, directly below the triangle’s tip. In the background is the darkness of space punctured by countless stars that appear as small red and blue dots. || CepheusC_CepheusB_Spitzer_desktop.png (1920x1080) [3.6 MB] || CepheusC_CepheusB_Spitzer_mobile.png (1080x1920) [3.6 MB] || A flower from WISE Known formally as NGC 2237, the Rosette Nebula is a flower-shaped star-forming cloud of dust and gas in our Milky Way galaxy. It is located within the constellation Monoceros, or the Unicorn. At the center of the flower is a cluster of young stars called NGC 2244. The massive stars in the cluster have eroded away the cloud, carving out a hole with their strong stellar winds. This image was captured by NASA’s retired WISE (Wide-Field Infrared Explorer) satellite in 2010, and each color represents a different wavelength of infrared light. The streak seen at upper left is the trail of a satellite, captured as WISE snapped the multiple frames that make up this view.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLAFor more information: WISE Captures the Unicorn’s Rose Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Alt text: Infrared image from WISE showing the Rosette Nebula. Image description (desktop wallpaper): The Rosette nebula fills this infrared image. The nebula resembles a red flower with a halo of green leaves. The center of the flower lies just below the middle of the image. It is a rough circle filled with the blackness of space and dotted with blue stars. A streak of bright red runs partway across it. Surrounding this is a thick, irregular ring of red clouds that spills off the bottom edge. Encircling the red is a wide ring of green cloudy structures that give the red “flower” a scalloped edge. The green extends past the top and right edges. The top left corner reveals black space, and the entire image is speckled with blue stars. || RosetteNebula_WISE_desktop.png (1920x1080) [2.9 MB] || RosetteNebula_WISE_mobile.png (1080x1920) [2.9 MB] || Stars blowing bubbles within bubbles The star-forming region known as W39, located within the constellation Scutum, features several bubbles, as shown in this infrared image from NASA’s WISE (Wide-Field Infrared Explorer) satellite and Spitzer Space Telescope. In the center is a giant bubble that has been carved out of cosmic dust by massive stars. As bubbles like this push outward, they can trigger further star formation, including massive stars that subsequently create their own bubbles. Two such smaller bubbles can be seen here in yellow on the rim of the larger bubble. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of WisconsinFor more information: Bubbles Within Bubbles Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Alt text: Infrared image from WISE and Spitzer of W39, a star-forming region with bubbles created by winds from massive stars. Image description (desktop wallpaper): The W39 star-forming region appears in shades of green, red, and yellow on a black starry background. A rough egg shape dominates the center of the image, outlined by red clouds that are thick on the top and sides but barely visible along the bottom. Surrounding this are two lines of clouds, first yellow then green, that just hug the red oval on the left but then widen out to fill the image on the right. Several bright white and red spots dot the image, with two prominent ones lying on the oval’s edge. || W39_Spitzer_WISE_desktop.png (1920x1080) [4.1 MB] || W39_Spitzer_WISE_mobile.png (1080x1920) [4.1 MB] || CW Leonis Plows Ahead A runaway star plows through the depths of space piling up interstellar material before it, in this ultraviolet image from NASA's GALEX (Galaxy Evolution Explorer). The star, called CW Leonis, is hurtling through space at about 204,000 mph (328,000 kilometers per hour), or roughly 265 times the speed of sound on Earth. It is moving from right to left in this image. For more information: Plowing Through the Depths of Space Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechAlt text: Ultraviolet image of runaway star CW Leonis imaged by GALEX.Image description (desktop wallpaper): Runaway star CW Leonis lies in the center of a dark sky filled with hundreds of teal and orange dots in various sizes. The star is embedded in a pale blue knot that is surrounded by a translucent blue bubble. Faint, wispy tendrils appear to connect this bubble to clouds clustered in the lower right. Another bright blue spot on the left is surrounded by a small blue bubble, while several other wispy clouds cross the image. || CW Leo From GALEX_desktop.png (1920x1080) [4.4 MB] || CW Leo From GALEX_mobile.png (1080x1920) [4.0 MB] || CW_Leo_From_GALEX_desktop.jpg (1920x1080) [1.1 MB] || A Window to the Milky Way The glow of the Milky Way — our galaxy seen edgewise — cuts across a sea of stars in this image from our exoplanet hunter, TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite). Those puffy cloud-like structures are how we see our home galaxy from our place inside its starry disk. This snapshot was captured by TESS during a 30-minute period on June 12, 2019. Black lines in the images are gaps between TESS’s camera detectors. Some stars are so bright they saturate an entire column of pixels on the detectors, creating long spikes of light.For more information: NASA’s TESS Presents Panorama of Southern Sky Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterAlt text: A star-filled image captured in just 30 minutes from one of TESS’s cameras in June 2019. Image description (desktop wallpaper): This image resembles part of a window with 10 panes that looks out onto a starry sky. One stark black bar cuts the image in half horizontally while four more slice it vertically. These lines are the gaps between detectors in the TESS camera system. Inside each pane are countless white dots of varying sizes against a blue-black backdrop. The stars are so dense in parts of the image it appears as though there are clouds running across the panes from the lower left toward the upper right. This is the plane of our Milky Way galaxy. A few stars have long streaks running horizontally on either side of them. || TESS_Southern_Sky_Sector_12_desktop.jpg (1920x1080) [1.3 MB] || TESS_Southern_Sky_Sector_12_desktop.png (1920x1080) [5.2 MB] || TESS_Southern_Sky_Sector_12_mobile.png (1080x1920) [5.2 MB] || Star cluster’s superbubble Hot, speedy material carves a bubble out of star cluster NGC 1929. New stars form in the cluster, and some are very massive. Those massive stars produce intense radiation, expel matter at high speed, and race through their evolution to explode as supernovae. The outflows and shock waves sculpt huge cavities called superbubbles in the surrounding gas. X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue) show hot regions created by these processes, while infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (red) outline where the dust and cooler gas are found. The optical light from the 2.2-meter Max-Planck-ESO telescope (yellow) in Chile shows where ultraviolet radiation from hot, young stars is causing gas in the nebula to glow.For more information: A Surprisingly Bright Superbubble Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/U.Mich./S.Oey, IR: NASA/JPL, Optical: ESO/WFI/2.2-meterAlt text: Composite image from Chandra, Spitzer, and the 2.2-meter Max-Planck-ESO telescope of NGC 1929, a star cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Image description (desktop wallpaper): The blackness of space is speckled with hundreds of dots in yellow, red, blue, and white. Puffy red and yellow cloudy features dominate the central region, spilling off the top and bottom edges. Near the center, a blue and white haze breaks up the clouds, resembling a cartoon shark swimming upward. Its imagined eye has a white dot surrounded by a small blue halo, and its dorsal fin points off to the left. || NGC_1929_from_Spitzer_Chandra_ESO_desktop.png (1920x1080) [3.2 MB] || NGC_1929_from_Spitzer_Chandra_ESO_mobile.png (1080x1920) [3.4 MB] || NGC_192_ from_Spitzer_Chandra_ESO_desktop.jpg (1920x1080) [644.6 KB] || Messier 81 and Messier 82 in an intergalactic dance This image from NASA's WISE (Wide-Field Infrared Explorer) features Messier 81 and Messier 82, which swung past each other a few hundred million years ago. For more information: WISE Beholds a Pair of Dancing Galaxies Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLAAlt text: Infrared image of galaxies Messier 81 and Messier 82, which are eventually going to merge. Image description (desktop wallpaper): Against a black backdrop speckled with blue dots are two bright galaxies. In the lower left, M81 is a grand spiral galaxy. Its arms appear as green vines twisting inward toward a blue central bright spot. Embedded in those arms are spots of yellow and orange light. In the upper right, M82 appears as an elongated white oval with a bright yellow halo. || M81andM82_Wallpaper_desktop_print.jpg (1024x576) [282.2 KB] || M81andM82_Wallpaper_mobile.png (1080x1920) [3.1 MB] || M81andM82_Wallpaper_desktop.png (1920x1080) [3.2 MB] || The Penguin and the Egg Collectively known as Arp 142, this cosmic penguin is actually a galaxy called NGC 2936 that has been twisted by the gravitational pull of another galaxy, called NGC 2937. Over time, gravity is slowly pulling the pair together and they will eventually merge. Data from NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes have been combined to show these dramatic galaxies in light that spans the visible and infrared parts of the spectrum. For more information: Arp 142: The Penguin and the Egg Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Credit: NASA-ESA/STScI/AURA/JPL-CaltechAlt text: Two glowing, colorful galaxies look like a penguin and its egg and are shown here in infrared from the retired Spitzer Space Telescope and visible light from the Hubble Space Telescope.Image description (desktop wallpaper): A penguin-shaped arc of bright dust and gas that includes bright streaks and spots of pink, orange, and purple sits on the left side of a black backdrop speckled by small, bright, green, and blue stars. Just above this is a bright white oval resembling an egg and surrounded by glowing turquoise. Two bright stars marked by X-shaped spikes of light lay across a bright blue swath at the right of the image. || Arp142_Wallpaper_desktop_print.jpg (1024x576) [105.3 KB] || Arp142_Wallpaper_mobile.png (1080x1920) [2.3 MB] || Arp142_Wallpaper_desktop.png (1920x1080) [2.4 MB] || Arp142_Wallpaper_desktop_searchweb.png (320x180) [60.1 KB] || Arp142_Wallpaper_desktop_thm.png (80x40) [4.3 KB] || Whirlpool Galaxy Tangoing with M51b Bright green sources of high-energy X-ray light captured by NASA's NuSTAR satellite are overlaid on an optical-light image of the Whirlpool galaxy (center) and its companion galaxy, M51b (the large greenish-white spot to the right of the Whirlpool), taken by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The bright green spots at the center of the Whirlpool and M51b are created by material surrounding supermassive black holes, and additional X-ray sources in the vicinity contribute to the emission. Shining just as brightly is a neutron star, located at the top of the Whirlpool in this image.For more information: In Colliding Galaxies, a Pipsqueak Shines Bright Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech, IPACAlt text: Image of Messier 51, also known as the Whirlpool galaxy, captured by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and NASA's NuSTAR mission.Image description (desktop wallpaper): Living up to its nickname, the galaxy resembles a swirling whirlpool, with two large purple arms twisting around the galaxy’s bright center. The arms are veiny and spotted with white, indicating areas of high density. One of the spiraling arms curves down toward the bottom left, where it appears to dissipate in a pool of pale purple light. The other arm stretches up and to the right where it appears to end in a large white and green knob. This is the Whirlpool’s companion galaxy, Messier 51b. Splotches of bright green light seen across the galaxy indicate the presence of high-energy X-rays detected by NuSTAR, likely produced by objects such as supermassive black holes and at least one ultraluminous neutron star. || Whirlpool_Wallpaper_desktop.png (1920x1080) [2.3 MB] || Whirlpool_Wallpaper_mobile.png (1080x1920) [2.3 MB] || Whirlpool_Wallpaper_desktop_print.jpg (1024x576) [116.9 KB] || Universe || Ast || Astrophysics || Galaxy || Wallpaper || Astrophysics Stills || Scott Wiessinger (eMITS) as Project support || Barb Mattson (University of Maryland College Park) as Producer || Barb Mattson (University of Maryland College Park) as Writer ||

At 4.3 light-years away, Alpha Centauri A and B are the nearest Sun-like stars to our solar system. They orbit with Proxima Centauri as a triple star system.Alpha Centauri A is a Class G star that is 1.1 times the mass of the Sun. Alpha Centauri B is slightly cooler Class K star that is 0.9 times the mass of the Sun. Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun, is a much smaller and cooler star, called a red dwarf. While no planets have been found around Alpha Centauri A or B, Proxima Centauri has two confirmed planets. || || 20377 || Alpha Centauri Stellar System || At 4.3 light-years away, Alpha Centauri A and B are the nearest Sun-like stars to our solar system. They orbit with Proxima Centauri as a triple star system.Alpha Centauri A is a Class G star that is 1.1 times the mass of the Sun. Alpha Centauri B is slightly cooler Class K star that is 0.9 times the mass of the Sun. Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun, is a much smaller and cooler star, called a red dwarf. While no planets have been found around Alpha Centauri A or B, Proxima Centauri has two confirmed planets. || Pan from our Sun to the Alpha Centauri Stellar System || Shot_1-2_ProRes_notext.00018_print.jpg (1024x576) [78.3 KB] || Shot_1-2_withtextH.264.mov (1920x1080) [154.3 MB] || Shot_1-2_withtextH.264.webm (1920x1080) [1.6 MB] || Shot_1-2_H264_notext.mov (1920x1080) [240.2 MB] || Shot_1-2_ProRes_notext.mov (3840x2160) [475.7 MB] || || An alternate view || Alternate_Shot2-1.00016_print.jpg (1024x576) [38.5 KB] || Alternate_Shot2-1.00016_searchweb.png (320x180) [24.8 KB] || Alternate_Shot2-1.00016_web.png (320x180) [24.8 KB] || Alternate_Shot2-1.00016_thm.png (80x40) [3.2 KB] || Alternate_Shot2-1_ProRes.mov (1920x1080) [122.9 MB] || Alternate_Shot2-1.webm (3840x2160) [3.3 MB] || Alternate_Shot2-1_H264.mov (3840x2160) [467.3 MB] || || Pan from our sun to the Alpha Centauri Stellar system 4.3 Light-years away. || Shot_3_H264_withtext.00001_print.jpg (1024x576) [55.8 KB] || Shot_3_H264_withtext.00001_searchweb.png (320x180) [32.4 KB] || Shot_3_H264_withtext.00001_thm.png (80x40) [3.5 KB] || Shot_3_withtext_prores.mov (1920x1080) [137.9 MB] || Shot_3_H264_withtext.webm (1920x1080) [1.3 MB] || Shot_3_H264_withtext.mp4 (1920x1080) [12.2 MB] || Shot_3_H264_notext.mp4 (1920x1080) [20.6 MB] || Shot_3_ProRes_notext.mov (3840x2160) [350.5 MB] || || An alternate view || Shot_3_Alternate_H.264.00016_print.jpg (1024x864) [63.5 KB] || Shot_3_Alternate_H.264.webm (1280x1080) [1.2 MB] || Shot_3_Alternate_H264.mp4 (1920x1080) [25.3 MB] || Shot_3_Alternate_H.264.mov (1280x1080) [160.8 MB] || Shot_3_Alternate_ProRes.mov (3840x2160) [437.4 MB] || || The Alpha Centauri system, with a focus on A and B. || Shot_4_withtext.H.264.00016_print.jpg (1024x864) [36.0 KB] || Shot_4_notext_H.264.mov (1920x1080) [130.1 MB] || Shot_4_withtext.H.264.webm (1280x1080) [1.5 MB] || Shot_4_withtext_prores.mov (1920x1080) [130.4 MB] || Shot_4_withtext.H.264.mov (1280x1080) [182.8 MB] || Shot_4_ProRes_notext.mov (3840x2160) [282.1 MB] || || An alternate view || Shot_4_Alternate.00016_print.jpg (1024x576) [31.0 KB] || Shot_4_Alternate.mov (3840x2160) [150.3 MB] || Shot_4_Alternate.webm (3840x2160) [560.7 KB] || || Universe || Jenny McElligott (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.) as Animator || Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET Systems, Inc.) as Technical support || Joy Ng (KBR Wyle Services, LLC) as Producer || Miles S. Hatfield (Telophase) as Producer ||

Dial-A-Moon || moon.0001.jpg (730x730) || comp.0001.tif (5760x3240) || || || 4955 || Moon Phase and Libration, 2022 || Dial-A-Moon || moon.0001.jpg (730x730) [51.9 KB] || comp.0001.tif (5760x3240) [13.1 MB] || || Click on the image to download a high-resolution version with feature labels and additional graphics. Hover over the image to reveal the animation frame number, which can be used to locate and download the corresponding frame from any of the animations on this page, including unlabeled high-resolution Moon images. The data in the table for the entire year can be downloaded as a JSON file or as a text file.The animation archived on this page shows the geocentric phase, libration, position angle of the axis, and apparent diameter of the Moon throughout the year 2022, at hourly intervals. Until the end of 2022, the initial Dial-A-Moon image will be the frame from this animation for the current hour.More in this series:Moon Phase and Libration GalleryLunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been in orbit around the Moon since the summer of 2009. Its laser altimeter (LOLA) and camera (LROC) are recording the rugged, airless lunar terrain in exceptional detail, making it possible to visualize the Moon with unprecedented fidelity. This is especially evident in the long shadows cast near the terminator, or day-night line. The pummeled, craggy landscape thrown into high relief at the terminator would be impossible to recreate in the computer without global terrain maps like those from LRO.The Moon always keeps the same face to us, but not exactly the same face. Because of the tilt and shape of its orbit, we see the Moon from slightly different angles over the course of a month. When a month is compressed into 24 seconds, as it is in this animation, our changing view of the Moon makes it look like it's wobbling. This wobble is called libration.The word comes from the Latin for "balance scale" (as does the name of the zodiac constellation Libra) and refers to the way such a scale tips up and down on alternating sides. The sub-Earth point gives the amount of libration in longitude and latitude. The sub-Earth point is also the apparent center of the Moon's disk and the location on the Moon where the Earth is directly overhead.The Moon is subject to other motions as well. It appears to roll back and forth around the sub-Earth point. The roll angle is given by the position angle of the axis, which is the angle of the Moon's north pole relative to celestial north. The Moon also approaches and recedes from us, appearing to grow and shrink. The two extremes, called perigee (near) and apogee (far), differ by as much as 14%.The most noticed monthly variation in the Moon's appearance is the cycle of phases, caused by the changing angle of the Sun as the Moon orbits the Earth. The cycle begins with the waxing (growing) crescent Moon visible in the west just after sunset. By first quarter, the Moon is high in the sky at sunset and sets around midnight. The full Moon rises at sunset and is high in the sky at midnight. The third quarter Moon is often surprisingly conspicuous in the daylit western sky long after sunrise.Celestial north is up in these images, corresponding to the view from the northern hemisphere. The descriptions of the print resolution stills also assume a northern hemisphere orientation. (There is also a south-up version of this page.) || The phase and libration of the Moon for 2022, at hourly intervals. Includes supplemental graphics that display the Moon's orbit, subsolar and sub-Earth points, and the Moon's distance from Earth at true scale. Craters near the terminator are labeled, as are Apollo landing sites and maria and other albedo features in sunlight. || comp.0300_print.jpg (1024x576) [104.2 KB] || comp.0300_searchweb.png (320x180) [58.0 KB] || comp.0300_thm.png (80x40) [5.8 KB] || phases_2022_fancy_720p30.mp4 (1280x720) [82.5 MB] || fancy (1920x1080) [8761 Item(s)] || phases_2022_fancy_720p30.webm (1280x720) [34.8 MB] || phases_2022_fancy_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [167.0 MB] || phases_2022_fancy_360p30.mp4 (640x360) [28.2 MB] || fancy (3840x2160) [8761 Item(s)] || fancy (5760x3240) [8761 Item(s)] || phases_2022_fancy_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [527.3 MB] || phases_2022_fancy_3840x2160p30.mov (3840x2160) [15.8 GB] || phases_2022_fancy_1080p30.mp4.hwshow [191 bytes] || The phase and libration of the Moon for 2022, at hourly intervals. Includes music, supplemental graphics that display the Moon's orbit, subsolar and sub-Earth points, and the Moon's distance from Earth at true scale. Craters near the terminator are labeled, as are Apollo landing sites and maria and other albedo features in sunlight.Music provided by Universal Production Music: Build the Future – Alexander HitchensThis video can also be viewed on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. || music.0300_print.jpg (1024x576) [128.1 KB] || 4955_2022MoonPhasesNorthUp_YouTubeHD.webm (1920x1080) [39.3 MB] || 4955_2022MoonPhasesNorthUp_YouTubeHD.mp4 (1920x1080) [575.1 MB] || 4955_2022MoonPhasesNorthUp_CAPTIONS.en_US.srt [46 bytes] || 4955_2022MoonPhasesNorthUp_CAPTIONS.en_US.vtt [56 bytes] || 4955_2022MoonPhasesNorthUp_YouTube4K.mp4 (3840x2160) [1.4 GB] || 4955_2022MoonPhasesNorthUp_MASTER.mov (3840x2160) [16.2 GB] || The phase and libration of the Moon for 2022, at hourly intervals. The higher resolution frames include an alpha channel. || moon.0300_print.jpg (1024x576) [45.3 KB] || phases_2022_plain_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [94.5 MB] || phases_2022_plain_720p30.mp4 (1280x720) [41.5 MB] || plain (1920x1080) [8761 Item(s)] || 730x730_1x1_30p (730x730) [8761 Item(s)] || phases_2022_plain_720p30.webm (1280x720) [34.8 MB] || phases_2022_plain_360p30.mp4 (640x360) [11.2 MB] || plain (5760x3240) [8761 Item(s)] || plain (3840x2160) [8761 Item(s)] || exr (5760x3240) [8761 Item(s)] || phases_2022_plain_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [374.6 MB] || 216x216_1x1_30p (216x216) [8761 Item(s)] || phases_2022_plain_3840x2160p30.mov (3840x2160) [11.7 GB] || phases_2022_plain_1080p30.mp4.hwshow [191 bytes] || The Moon's Orbit || The orbit of the Moon in 2022, viewed from the north pole of the ecliptic, with the vernal equinox to the right. The sizes of the Earth and Moon are exaggerated by a factor of 15, 20, or 25, depending on the frame size. The frames include an alpha channel. || orbit.0300_print.jpg (1024x1024) [34.9 KB] || orbit_2022_1080p30.mp4 (1080x1080) [26.5 MB] || orbit_2022_850p30.mp4 (850x850) [26.7 MB] || 1080x1080_1x1_30p (1080x1080) [8761 Item(s)] || 850x850_1x1_30p (850x850) [8761 Item(s)] || orbit_2022_850p30.webm (850x850) [34.7 MB] || orbit_2022_420p30.mp4 (420x420) [11.6 MB] || 420x420_1x1_30p (420x420) [8761 Item(s)] || From this birdseye view, it's somewhat easier to see that the phases of the Moon are an effect of the changing angles of the Sun, Moon and Earth. The Moon is full when its orbit places it in the middle of the night side of the Earth. First and Third Quarter Moon occur when the Moon is along the day-night line on the Earth.The First Point of Aries is at the 3 o'clock position in the image. The Sun is in this direction at the March equinox. You can check this by freezing the animation at around the 1:03 mark, or by freezing the full animation with the time stamp near March 20. This direction serves as the zero point for both ecliptic longitude and right ascension.The north pole of the Earth is tilted 23.5 degrees toward the 12 o'clock position at the top of the image. The tilt of the Earth is important for understanding why the north pole of the Moon seems to swing back and forth. In the full animation, watch both the orbit and the "gyroscope" Moon in the lower left. The widest swings happen when the Moon is at the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock positions. When the Moon is at the 3 o'clock position, the ground we're standing on is tilted to the left when we look at the Moon. At the 9 o'clock position, it's tilted to the right. The tilt itself doesn't change. We're just turned around, looking in the opposite direction. || An animated diagram of the subsolar and sub-Earth points for 2022. The Moon's north pole, equator, and meridian are indicated. The frames include an alpha channel. || globe.0300_print.jpg (1024x1024) [69.4 KB] || subpnts_2022_960p30.mp4 (960x960) [37.3 MB] || subpnts_2022_640p30.mp4 (640x640) [19.7 MB] || 960x960_1x1_30p (960x960) [8761 Item(s)] || 640x640_1x1_30p (640x640) [8761 Item(s)] || subpnts_2022_960p30.webm (960x960) [34.8 MB] || subpnts_2022_320p30.mp4 (320x320) [7.0 MB] || 320x320_1x1_30p (320x320) [8761 Item(s)] || The subsolar and sub-Earth points are the locations on the Moon's surface where the Sun or the Earth are directly overhead, at the zenith. A line pointing straight up at one of these points will be pointing toward the Sun or the Earth. The sub-Earth point is also the apparent center of the Moon's disk as observed from the Earth.In the animation, the blue dot is the sub-Earth point, and the yellow cone is the subsolar point. The lunar latitude and longitude of the sub-Earth point is a measure of the Moon's libration. For example, when the blue dot moves to the left of the meridian (the line at 0 degrees longitude), an extra bit of the Moon's western limb is rotating into view, and when it moves above the equator, a bit of the far side beyond the north pole becomes visible.At any given time, half of the Moon is in sunlight, and the subsolar point is in the center of the lit half. Full Moon occurs when the subsolar point is near the center of the Moon's disk. When the subsolar point is somewhere on the far side of the Moon, observers on Earth see a crescent phase. || An animated diagram of the Moon's distance from the Earth for 2022. The sizes and distances are true to scale, and the lighting and Earth tilt are correct. The frames include an alpha channel. || dist.0300_print.jpg (1024x576) [4.6 KB] || distance_2022_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [2.2 MB] || distance_2022_720p30.mp4 (1280x720) [1.3 MB] || distance (1920x1080) [8761 Item(s)] || distance_2022_720p30.webm (1280x720) [10.2 MB] || distance_2022_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [6.3 MB] || distance_2022_360p30.mp4 (640x360) [652.2 KB] || distance (5760x3240) [8761 Item(s)] || distance (3840x2160) [8761 Item(s)] || distance_2022_1080p30.mp4.hwshow [187 bytes] || The Moon's orbit around the Earth isn't a perfect circle. The orbit is slightly elliptical, and because of that, the Moon's distance from the Earth varies between 28 and 32 Earth diameters, or about 356,400 and 406,700 kilometers. In each orbit, the smallest distance is called perigee, from Greek words meaning "near earth," while the greatest distance is called apogee. The Moon looks largest at perigee because that's when it's closest to us.The animation follows the imaginary line connecting the Earth and the Moon as it sweeps around the Moon's orbit. From this vantage point, it's easy to see the variation in the Moon's distance. Both the distance and the sizes of the Earth and Moon are to scale in this view. In the HD-resolution frames, the Earth is 50 pixels wide, the Moon is 14 pixels wide, and the distance between them is about 1500 pixels, on average.Note too that the Earth appears to go through phases just like the Moon does. For someone standing on the surface of the Moon, the Sun and the stars rise and set, but the Earth doesn't move in the sky. It goes through a monthly sequence of phases as the Sun angle changes. The phases are the opposite of the Moon's. During New Moon here, the Earth is full as viewed from the Moon. || Feature labels. Crater labels appear when the center of the crater is within 20 degrees of the terminator (the day-night line). They are on the western edge of the crater during waxing phases (before Full Moon) and to the east during waning phases. Mare, sinus, and lacus features are labeled when in sunlight. Apollo landing site labels are always visible. The frames include an alpha channel. || label.0300_print.jpg (1024x576) [14.6 KB] || labels_2022_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [58.9 MB] || labels_2022_720p30.mp4 (1280x720) [28.2 MB] || labels (1920x1080) [8761 Item(s)] || labels_2022_720p30.webm (1280x720) [34.8 MB] || labels_2022_360p30.mp4 (640x360) [10.2 MB] || labels (5760x3240) [8761 Item(s)] || labels (3840x2160) [8761 Item(s)] || labels_2022_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [122.1 MB] || labels_2022_1080p30.mp4.hwshow [185 bytes] || The Named PhasesThe following is a gallery containing examples of each of the Moon phases that have names in English. New, full, and quarter phases occur on specific days, while crescent and gibbous phases are the transitions between these points and span multiple days. The quarters are so named because they occur when the Moon is one fourth or three fourths of the way through its cycle of phases. Many people find this confusing, though, since visually they are half moons. It might be helpful to remember that the visible half of the Moon's disk is really only one quarter of its spherical surface. || Waxing crescent. Visible toward the southwest in early evening. || phase_waxing_crescent.0398_print.jpg (1024x1024) [108.1 KB] || phase_waxing_crescent.0398_searchweb.png (320x180) [65.0 KB] || phase_waxing_crescent.0398.tif (3240x3240) [10.1 MB] || First quarter. Visible high in the southern sky in early evening. || phase_first_quarter.5440_print.jpg (1024x1024) [156.9 KB] || phase_first_quarter.5440_searchweb.png (320x180) [80.4 KB] || phase_first_quarter.5440.tif (3240x3240) [11.9 MB] || Waxing gibbous. Visible to the southeast in early evening, up for most of the night. || phase_waxing_gibbous.4801_print.jpg (1024x1024) [173.0 KB] || phase_waxing_gibbous.4801_searchweb.png (320x180) [85.0 KB] || phase_waxing_gibbous.4801.tif (3240x3240) [11.1 MB] || Full Moon. Rises at sunset, high in the sky around midnight. Visible all night. || phase_full.3492_print.jpg (1024x1024) [199.7 KB] || phase_full.3492_searchweb.png (320x180) [94.5 KB] || phase_full.3492.tif (3240x3240) [11.6 MB] || Waning gibbous. Rises after sunset, high in the sky after midnight, visible to the southwest after sunrise. || phase_waning_gibbous.2172_print.jpg (1024x1024) [188.8 KB] || phase_waning_gibbous.2172_searchweb.png (320x180) [90.7 KB] || phase_waning_gibbous.2172.tif (3240x3240) [11.6 MB] || Third quarter. Rises around midnight, visible to the south after sunrise. || phase_third_quarter.2243_print.jpg (1024x1024) [148.3 KB] || phase_third_quarter.2243_searchweb.png (320x180) [79.3 KB] || phase_third_quarter.2243.tif (3240x3240) [11.2 MB] || Waning crescent. Low to the east before sunrise. || phase_waning_crescent.0903_print.jpg (1024x1024) [107.7 KB] || phase_waning_crescent.0903_searchweb.png (320x180) [64.3 KB] || phase_waning_crescent.0903.tif (3240x3240) [11.0 MB] || New Moon. By the modern definition, New Moon occurs when the Moon and Sun are at the same geocentric ecliptic longitude. The part of the Moon facing us is completely in shadow then. Pictured here is the traditional New Moon, the earliest visible waxing crescent, which signals the start of a new month in many lunar and lunisolar calendars. || phase_new.1026_print.jpg (1024x1024) [78.0 KB] || phase_new.1026_searchweb.png (320x180) [57.0 KB] || phase_new.1026.tif (3240x3240) [9.4 MB] || Planets & Moons || 4K || Albedo || Elevation data || HDTV || Hyperwall || Laser Altimeter || LOLA || LRO || LROC || Lunar || Lunar Elevation Map || Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter || Lunar Surface || Lunar Topography || Moon || Presentation || Solar System || LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) || LRO - Animations || The Moon || DEM (Digital Elevation Map) [LRO: LOLA] || DE421 (JPL DE421) || LROC WAC Color Mosaic (Natural Color Hapke Normalized WAC Mosaic) [Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter: LRO Camera] || Ernie Wright (USRA) as Visualizer || David Ladd (USRA) as Producer || Noah Petro (NASA/GSFC) as Scientist || John Keller (NASA/GSFC) as Scientist ||

On Wednesday, August 12, 2026, the Moon passes in front of the Sun, casting its shadow across a broad swath of Earth's northern hemisphere. Totality is visible in Spain and Iceland, while the rest of Europe and parts of North America and Africa experience a partial eclipse. || 5647 || Map of the August 12, 2026, Total Solar Eclipse || A global map of the shadow path for the August 12, 2026, total solar eclipse. || eclipse_map_20260812_preview.jpg (1024x1024) [268.7 KB] || eclipse_map_20260812.tif (2400x2400) [6.6 MB] || On Wednesday, August 12, 2026, the Moon passes in front of the Sun, casting its shadow across a wide swath of Earth's Northern Hemisphere. The path of totality begins in far northern Siberia, near the North Pole, and travels south through the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans, passing over Iceland and Spain. The rest of Europe and parts of North America and Africa experience a partial eclipse.The Moon's shadow can be divided into two parts: the very narrow umbra, where the Sun is completely blocked, and the much broader penumbra, where the Sun is only partially blocked. Red lines on the map denote the path of the umbra, where a total solar eclipse is visible. Yellow ovals within this path show the intersection of the umbra with Earth's surface at 15-minute intervals. The yellow curves crossing the map trace the extent of the penumbra, where a partial eclipse is visible. Percentages on each of these curves give the maximum area of the Sun covered by the Moon during the eclipse. The green lines that cross the penumbra curves show the progress of the eclipse over time. The times on each indicate when maximum eclipse arrives at that line.The times are written in UTC or Coordinated Universal Time, successor to the former Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) standard. To find the local time, add the location's time zone offset from UTC. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) is four hours behind UTC, for example, so 18:00 UTC is 14:00 (2:00 p.m.) EDT.The orange loops at either end of the path are the sunrise and sunset lines. The loop at the western (left) end is the sunrise line. Within this loop, the eclipse is already in progress at sunrise. The left half of that loop is the line at which the eclipse ends at sunrise. The right half of the western loop is the line at which the eclipse begins at sunrise. Within the eastern loop, the eclipse is still in progress at sunset. The left side is the line at which the eclipse ends at sunset, and the right half is where the eclipse begins at sunset. The blue lines bisecting these loops are where maximum eclipse occurs at sunrise or sunset. All of these lines are based on an idealized model of the eclipse geometry. The true situation at the ends of the shadow path is much messier. The apparent positions of the Sun and Moon relative to the horizon are affected by local terrain and atmospheric refraction.Two aspects of eclipse mapping can be particularly confusing. The first is the difference between obscuration (the area of the Sun covered by the Moon) and magnitude (the diameter of the Sun covered). The partial eclipse contours on this map show the obscuration, while some other maps show magnitude contours. The contour for a given partial percentage will lie in different places for these two metrics because they measure somewhat different things, but they are both valid.Second, many people are puzzled by the eclipse shadow's motion from west to east, opposite the apparent motion of the Sun and the rest of the sky from east to west. The direction of the shadow's motion is determined by the orbital motion of the Moon, which is in the same direction as Earth's rotation but over twice as fast. The Moon is moving at roughly 2,300 miles per hour (3,700 km/hr) from west to east, while a spot on Earth's equator is traveling only a little over 1,000 mph (1,600 km/hr). And because of Earth's curvature, the speed of the shadow on the ground is even faster than this difference implies.The path of this eclipse also has a strong north-south component, the combined effect of Earth's rotation and the tilt of both Earth's axis and the Moon's orbit. The eclipse occurs near the Moon's descending node, where the Moon is moving south across the plane of the ecliptic, while from the Moon's point of view, Earth's North Pole is tilted to the left (celestial east). Combined with Earth's rotation, the umbra's eastern motion during the first half of its travel is effectively canceled out. || Earth || Planets & Moons || Sun || Eclipse || Moon || Solar Eclipse || solar irradiance || Sun and Earth || Sun-earth Interactions || Sun-Earth-Moon Interactions || DE421 (JPL DE421) || BMNG (Blue Marble: Next Generation) [Terra and Aqua: MODIS] || Ernie Wright (USRA) as Visualizer || Sarah Frazier (SGT) as Producer ||

A conceptual animation showing solar wind interacting with Earth's magnetic field and causing atmospheric loss at the polar cusps. || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_youtube_1080.00001_print.jpg (1024x576) [77.5 KB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_youtube_1080.00001_searchweb.png (320x180) [74.4 KB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_youtube_1080.00001_web.png (320x180) [74.4 KB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_youtube_1080.00001_thm.png (80x40) [6.3 KB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_youtube_1080.mp4 (1920x1080) [43.1 MB] || FACEBOOK_720_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_facebook_720.mp4 (1280x720) [32.8 MB] || TWITTER_720_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_twitter_720.mp4 (1280x720) [5.7 MB] || FACEBOOK_720_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_facebook_720.webm (1280x720) [3.0 MB] || PRORES_B-ROLL_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_prores_b-roll.mov (1280x720) [227.8 MB] || YOUTUBE_4K_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_youtube_4k.mp4 (3840x2160) [187.6 MB] || 13506_Atmospheric_Escape_Prores.mov (3840x2160) [2.4 GB] || || 13506 || Solar Wind Interacting with Earth's Magnetic Field || A conceptual animation showing solar wind interacting with Earth's magnetic field and causing atmospheric loss at the polar cusps. || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_youtube_1080.00001_print.jpg (1024x576) [77.5 KB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_youtube_1080.00001_searchweb.png (320x180) [74.4 KB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_youtube_1080.00001_web.png (320x180) [74.4 KB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_youtube_1080.00001_thm.png (80x40) [6.3 KB] || PRORES_B-ROLL_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_prores_b-roll.mov (1280x720) [227.8 MB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_youtube_1080.mp4 (1920x1080) [43.1 MB] || FACEBOOK_720_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_facebook_720.mp4 (1280x720) [32.8 MB] || TWITTER_720_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_twitter_720.mp4 (1280x720) [5.7 MB] || FACEBOOK_720_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_facebook_720.webm (1280x720) [3.0 MB] || 13506_Atmospheric_Escape_Prores.mov (3840x2160) [2.4 GB] || YOUTUBE_4K_13506_Atmospheric_Escape_youtube_4k.mp4 (3840x2160) [187.6 MB] || A conceptual animation showing solar wind interacting with Earth's magnetic field and causing atmospheric loss within the cusp aurora at the polar cusps. || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape+Aurora_youtube_1080.00001_print.jpg (1024x576) [77.4 KB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape+Aurora_youtube_1080.00001_searchweb.png (320x180) [74.3 KB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape+Aurora_youtube_1080.00001_web.png (320x180) [74.3 KB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape+Aurora_youtube_1080.00001_thm.png (80x40) [6.3 KB] || PRORES_B-ROLL_13506_Atmospheric_Escape+Aurora_prores_b-roll.mov (1280x720) [225.8 MB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape+Aurora_youtube_1080.mp4 (1920x1080) [42.8 MB] || FACEBOOK_720_13506_Atmospheric_Escape+Aurora_facebook_720.mp4 (1280x720) [32.7 MB] || TWITTER_720_13506_Atmospheric_Escape+Aurora_twitter_720.mp4 (1280x720) [5.6 MB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmospheric_Escape+Aurora_youtube_1080.webm (1920x1080) [3.2 MB] || 13506_Atmospheric_Escape+Aurora_Prores.mov (3840x2160) [2.4 GB] || YOUTUBE_4K_13506_Atmospheric_Escape+Aurora_youtube_4k.mp4 (3840x2160) [187.5 MB] || A conceptual animation showing solar wind interacting with Earth's magnetic field, causing the magnetic field lines to reconnect and causing atmospheric loss within the cusp aurora at the polar cusps. || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmopsheric_Escape+Reconnection+Aurora_youtube_1080.00001_print.jpg (1024x576) [86.4 KB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmopsheric_Escape+Reconnection+Aurora_youtube_1080.00001_searchweb.png (320x180) [79.8 KB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmopsheric_Escape+Reconnection+Aurora_youtube_1080.00001_web.png (320x180) [79.8 KB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmopsheric_Escape+Reconnection+Aurora_youtube_1080.00001_thm.png (80x40) [6.6 KB] || PRORES_B-ROLL_13506_Atmopsheric_Escape+Reconnection+Aurora_prores_b-roll.mov (1280x720) [225.7 MB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmopsheric_Escape+Reconnection+Aurora_youtube_1080.mp4 (1920x1080) [41.7 MB] || FACEBOOK_720_13506_Atmopsheric_Escape+Reconnection+Aurora_facebook_720.mp4 (1280x720) [31.9 MB] || TWITTER_720_13506_Atmopsheric_Escape+Reconnection+Aurora_twitter_720.mp4 (1280x720) [5.2 MB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Atmopsheric_Escape+Reconnection+Aurora_youtube_1080.webm (1920x1080) [3.3 MB] || 13506_Atmopsheric_Escape+Reconnection+Aurora_Prores.mov (3840x2160) [2.2 GB] || YOUTUBE_4K_13506_Atmopsheric_Escape+Reconnection+Aurora_youtube_4k.mp4 (3840x2160) [187.0 MB] || A conceptual animation showing Earth's polar cusps and the cusp aurora. || YOUTUBE_4K_13506_Cusp+Aurora_youtube_4k.00001_print.jpg (1024x576) [52.8 KB] || YOUTUBE_4K_13506_Cusp+Aurora_youtube_4k.00001_searchweb.png (320x180) [52.3 KB] || YOUTUBE_4K_13506_Cusp+Aurora_youtube_4k.00001_web.png (320x180) [52.3 KB] || YOUTUBE_4K_13506_Cusp+Aurora_youtube_4k.00001_thm.png (80x40) [5.3 KB] || PRORES_B-ROLL_13506_Cusp+Aurora_prores_b-roll.mov (1280x720) [290.5 MB] || YOUTUBE_1080_13506_Cusp+Aurora_youtube_1080.mp4 (1920x1080) [55.9 MB] || FACEBOOK_720_13506_Cusp+Aurora_facebook_720.mp4 (1280x720) [44.1 MB] || TWITTER_720_13506_Cusp+Aurora_twitter_720.mp4 (1280x720) [6.5 MB] || 13506_Cusp+Aurora_Prores.mov (3840x2160) [2.7 GB] || YOUTUBE_4K_13506_Cusp+Aurora_youtube_4k.mp4 (3840x2160) [257.3 MB] || YOUTUBE_4K_13506_Cusp+Aurora_youtube_4k.webm (3840x2160) [8.2 MB] || Earth || Sun || Atmospheric Loss || aurora || Cusp Aurora || Earth Science || Grand Challenge || HDTV || Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Dynamics || magnetic field || Magnetic Reconnection || Polar Cusp || Solar Wind || Sun || Sun-earth Interactions || VISIONS-2 || Josh Masters (Freelance) as Animator || Joy Ng (USRA) as Producer || Miles S. Hatfield (Telophase) as Producer ||

The Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard suffers a catastrophic anomaly moments after launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad 0A, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014, at NASA's Wallops Flight || || 10147 || Antares Launch Mishap at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility || The Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard suffers a catastrophic anomaly moments after launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad 0A, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014, at NASA's Wallops Flight || Shortly after lift-off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad 0A at 6:22 p.m. (EDT), the vehicle suffered a catastrophic failure. || Antares_Launch_Mishap.10.28.14_youtube_hq_print.jpg (1024x576) [68.0 KB] || Antares_Launch_Mishap.10.28.14_youtube_hq03802_print.jpg (1024x576) [63.6 KB] || Antares_Launch_Mishap.10.28.14_youtube_hq_searchweb.png (320x180) [66.9 KB] || Antares_Launch_Mishap.10.28.14_youtube_hq_web.png (320x180) [66.9 KB] || Antares_Launch_Mishap.10.28.14_youtube_hq_thm.png (80x40) [5.4 KB] || Antares_Launch_Mishap.10.28.14_1280x720.wmv (1280x720) [152.7 MB] || Antares_Launch_Mishap.10.28.14_prores.mov (1280x720) [5.0 GB] || Antares_Launch_Mishap.10.28.14_appletv.m4v (960x540) [163.9 MB] || Antares_Launch_Mishap.10.28.14_youtube_hq.mov (1280x720) [152.5 MB] || Antares_Launch_Mishap.10.28.14.webmhd.webm (960x540) [25.0 MB] || Antares_Launch_Mishap.10.28.14_nasaportal.mov (640x360) [125.5 MB] || Antares_Launch_Mishap.10.28.14_ipod_lg.m4v (640x360) [65.0 MB] || Antares_Launch_Mishap.10.28.14_ipod_sm.mp4 (320x240) [26.1 MB] || Broll of Antares Launch || No_audio_Image.png (1194x667) [918.4 KB] || No_audio_Image_print.jpg (1024x572) [66.8 KB] || No_audio_Image_searchweb.png (320x180) [70.5 KB] || No_audio_Image_web.png (320x178) [70.2 KB] || No_audio_Image_thm.png (80x40) [7.0 KB] || Antares_Explosion_no_Audio.mov (1920x1080) [2.5 GB] || Antares_Explosion_no_Audio.webm (1920x1080) [29.8 MB] || Antares_Explosion_no_Audio_lowres.mp4 (480x272) [36.7 MB] || Multi-Camera Feed || MultiCAMIMage.png (1586x895) [2.0 MB] || MultiCAMIMage_print.jpg (1024x577) [82.8 KB] || MultiCAMIMage_searchweb.png (320x180) [86.1 KB] || MultiCAMIMage_web.png (320x180) [86.6 KB] || MultiCAMIMage_thm.png (80x40) [10.8 KB] || Multi-Camera_Feed-Antares_Launch.mov (1280x720) [106.7 GB] || WEBM_Multi-Camera_Feed-Antares_Launch-2.webm (960x540) [1.8 GB] || YOUTUBE_HQ_Multi-Camera_Feed-Antares_Launch_youtube_hq-2.mov (1280x720) [19.8 GB] || Multi-Camera_Feed-Antares_Launch_lowres-2.mp4 (480x272) [622.9 MB] || Additional B-Roll of Antares Mishap || IMage.png (1108x616) [818.7 KB] || IMage_print.jpg (1024x569) [54.3 KB] || IMage_searchweb.png (320x180) [63.1 KB] || IMage_web.png (320x177) [62.4 KB] || IMage_thm.png (80x40) [9.2 KB] || WEBM_Antares_Cam1U40Ground.webm (960x540) [76.6 MB] || NASA_TV_Antares_Cam1U40Ground-2.mpeg (1280x720) [718.1 MB] || Antares_Cam1U40Ground.mov (1280x720) [4.6 GB] || PRORES_B-ROLL_Antares_Cam1U40Ground_prores.mov (1280x720) [2.7 GB] || NASA_TV_Antares_Cam1U40Ground.mpeg (1280x720) [718.1 MB] || YOUTUBE_HQ_Antares_Cam1U40Ground_youtube_hq.mov (1280x720) [274.6 MB] || Antares_Cam1U40Ground_lowres.mp4 (480x272) [32.5 MB] || NASA_PODCAST_Antares_Cam1U40Ground_ipod_sm.mp4 (320x240) [42.8 MB] || Broll of Antares Flames || Fire_Image.png (1265x743) [764.5 KB] || Fire_Image_print.jpg (1024x601) [34.5 KB] || Fire_Image_searchweb.png (320x180) [43.8 KB] || Fire_Image_web.png (320x187) [45.2 KB] || Fire_Image_thm.png (80x40) [8.6 KB] || WEBM_Antares_Post_Failure_Flames.webm (960x540) [340.7 MB] || Antares_Post_Failure_Flames.mov (1280x720) [49.0 GB] || Antares_Post_Failure_Flames_lowres.mp4 (480x272) [2.3 GB] || Broll of Antares Flames in Black and White || Screen_Shot_2015-12-11_at_1.08.42_PM.png (1551x880) [2.0 MB] || Screen_Shot_2015-12-11_at_1.08.42_PM_print.jpg (1024x580) [109.1 KB] || Screen_Shot_2015-12-11_at_1.08.42_PM_searchweb.png (320x180) [75.6 KB] || Screen_Shot_2015-12-11_at_1.08.42_PM_web.png (320x181) [76.4 KB] || Screen_Shot_2015-12-11_at_1.08.42_PM_thm.png (80x40) [10.3 KB] || WEBM_Antares_Launch_Camera_Feed_bw.webm (960x540) [1.8 GB] || Antares_Launch_Camera_Feed_bw.mov (1280x720) [106.7 GB] || YOUTUBE_HQ_Antares_Launch_Camera_Feed_bw_youtube_hq.mov (1280x720) [12.7 GB] || Antares_Launch_Camera_Feed_bw_lowres.mp4 (480x272) [624.0 MB] || Close Up of Antares Launch || Screen_Shot_2015-12-11_at_2.13.39_PM.png (1522x768) [1.4 MB] || Screen_Shot_2015-12-11_at_2.13.39_PM_print.jpg (1024x516) [43.0 KB] || Screen_Shot_2015-12-11_at_2.13.39_PM_searchweb.png (320x180) [58.9 KB] || Screen_Shot_2015-12-11_at_2.13.39_PM_web.png (320x161) [52.7 KB] || Screen_Shot_2015-12-11_at_2.13.39_PM_thm.png (80x40) [8.8 KB] || YOUTUBE_HQ_Antares_CU_Launch_youtube_hq.mov (1280x720) [620.4 MB] || Antares_CU_Launch.mov (1280x720) [13.5 GB] || WEBM_Antares_CU_Launch.webm (960x540) [119.4 MB] || Antares_CU_Launch_lowres.mp4 (480x272) [78.3 MB] || Broll of Fire Near Launchpad || Lunchpad_IMage.png (959x528) [867.6 KB] || Lunchpad_IMage_print.jpg (1024x563) [105.5 KB] || Lunchpad_IMage_searchweb.png (320x180) [100.5 KB] || Lunchpad_IMage_web.png (320x176) [98.4 KB] || Lunchpad_IMage_thm.png (80x40) [11.1 KB] || Antares_Post_Failure_Launchpad.mov (1280x720) [52.3 GB] || WEBM_Antares_Post_Failure_Launchpad.webm (960x540) [924.6 MB] || Antares_Post_Failure_Launchpad_lowres.mp4 (480x272) [304.7 MB] || For More Information || See NASA.gov || Antares || HDTV || Narrated || Stuart A. Snodgrass (HTSI) as Video editor || Pat Kennedy (HTSI) as Producer || Stuart A. Snodgrass (HTSI) as Producer || Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET Systems, Inc.) as Project support || Rob Andreoli (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.) as Videographer || Swarupa Nune (Vantage) as Videographer || Swarupa Nune (Vantage) as Technical support ||

While black holes can’t emit their own light, matter surrounding and falling toward it can create quite a light show. Here you’ll find a collection of data visualizations, illustrations, and telescope images of black hole environments. Download these phone and desktop wallpapers for your screens. || || 14146 || Black Hole Desktop & Phone Wallpapers || While black holes can’t emit their own light, matter surrounding and falling toward it can create quite a light show. Here you’ll find a collection of data visualizations, illustrations, and telescope images of black hole environments. Download these phone and desktop wallpapers for your screens. || Supermassive Black Hole Binary Simulation These two black holes are just 40 orbits away from merging in this simulation of the light their environment emits as they dance. Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Credit: Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Noble; simulation data, d'Ascoli et al. 2018 || SupermassiveBinaryBlackHoles_desktop_print.jpg (1024x576) [50.9 KB] || SupermassiveBinaryBlackHoles_desktop.png (1920x1080) [772.6 KB] || SupermassiveBinaryBlackHoles_phone.png (1080x1920) [632.0 KB] || SupermassiveBinaryBlackHoles_desktop_searchweb.png (320x180) [47.9 KB] || SupermassiveBinaryBlackHoles_desktop_thm.png (80x40) [4.8 KB] || Doubly Warped World of Binary Black HolesThis image shows the warped view of a larger supermassive black hole (red) when it passes almost directly behind a companion black hole (blue) with half its mass. The gravity of the foreground black hole transforms its partner into a surreal collection of arcs. Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here. (version 1) and here. (version 2). Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman and Brian P. Powell || DoublyWarpedBlackHole_desktop.png (1920x1080) [691.9 KB] || DoublyWarpedBlackHole_phone2.png (1080x1920) [906.3 KB] || DoublyWarpedBlackHole_phone1.png (1080x1920) [409.8 KB] || DoublyWarpedBlackHole_desktop_print.jpg (1024x576) [99.3 KB] || Black Hole Accretion Disk and CoronaA black hole pulls material off a neighboring star and into an accretion disk in this illustration of a black hole named MAXI J1820+070. Above the disk is a region of superhot subatomic particles called the corona.Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Credit: Aurore Simonnet and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center || BlackHoleDisk_desktop.png (1920x1080) [2.4 MB] || BlackHoleDisk_phone.png (1080x1920) [2.4 MB] || BlackHoleDisk_desktop_print.jpg (1024x576) [116.5 KB] || A Multiwavelength View of the Milky Way’s CenterThe central region of our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains an exotic collection of objects, including a supermassive black hole weighing about 4 million times the mass of the Sun, clouds of gas at temperatures of millions of degrees, neutron stars and white dwarf stars tearing material from companion stars, and beautiful tendrils of radio emission. This new composite image shows Chandra data (green and blue) combined with radio data (red) from the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa. Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Credit: X-Ray:NASA/CXC/UMass/D. Wang et al.; Radio:NRF/SARAO/MeerKAT || GalacticCenter_desktop.png (1920x1080) [2.5 MB] || GalacticCenter_phone.png (1080x1920) [3.1 MB] || GalacticCenter_desktop_print.jpg (1024x576) [232.0 KB] || Black Hole Jets in Hercules ASpectacular jets powered by the gravitational energy of a supermassive black hole in the core of the elliptical galaxy Hercules A as imaged by Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope in New Mexico.Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Baum and C. O'Dea (RIT), R. Perley and W. Cotton (NRAO/AUI/NSF), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) || HerculesA_desktop.png (1920x1080) [4.2 MB] || HerculesA_phone.png (1080x1920) [4.2 MB] || HerculesA_desktop_print.jpg (1024x576) [120.9 KB] || Black Hole Accretion Disk Visualization This visualization of a black hole illustrates how its gravity distorts our view, warping its surroundings as if seen in a carnival mirror. The visualization simulates the appearance of a black hole where infalling matter has collected into a thin, hot structure called an accretion disk. The black hole’s extreme gravity skews light emitted by different regions of the disk, producing the misshapen appearance. Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman || BH_accretion_disk_viz_desktop.png (1920x1080) [497.0 KB] || BH_accretion_disk_viz_mobile.png (1080x1920) [374.7 KB] || BH_accretion_disk_viz_desktop_print.jpg (1024x576) [64.1 KB] || Supercomputer Simulation Frame of a Star Distorted by a Black Hole This frame is from a simulation of a star weighing 15 percent of our Sun's mass passing close to a black hole that weighs about 1 million Suns. The black hole’s gravity stretches and deforms the star. These simulations show that destruction and survival depend on the stars’ initial densities. Yellow represents the greatest densities, blue the least dense.Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Taeho Ryu (MPA) || BH_shredding_star_desktop.png (1920x1080) [344.4 KB] || BH_shredding_star_mobile.png (1080x1920) [342.0 KB] || BH_shredding_star_desktop_print.jpg (1024x576) [31.3 KB] || Artist’s Concept of a Gamma-ray Burst Two neutron stars begin to merge in this artist’s concept, blasting jets of high-speed particles and producing a cloud of debris. Scientists think these kinds of events are factories for a significant portion of the universe’s heavy elements, including gold.Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Credit: A. Simonnet (Sonoma State University) and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center || GRB_artist_concept_desktop.png (1920x1080) [3.6 MB] || GRB_artist_concept_mobile..png (1080x1920) [3.3 MB] || GRB_artist_concept_desktop_print.jpg (1024x576) [210.4 KB] || Artist’s Concept of a Runaway Black Hole This is an artist's concept of a runaway supermassive black hole that was ejected from its host galaxy as a result of a tussle between it and two other black holes. As the black hole plows through intergalactic space it compresses tenuous gas in front of it. This precipitates the birth of hot blue stars. This illustration is based on Hubble Space Telescope observations of a 200,000-light-year-long trail of stars behind an escaping black hole.Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Credit: NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI) || runaway_black_hole_desktop.png (1920x1080) [1.8 MB] || runaway_black_hole_mobile.png (1080x1920) [1.9 MB] || runaway_black_hole_desktop_print.jpg (1024x576) [39.7 KB] || Dust Rings Illuminated by the Blast From the Birth of a Black Hole The most common gamma-ray bursts signal the birth of black holes that form when the cores of massive stars collapse under their own weight. A few bursts have even enabled astronomers to probe distant dust clouds in our own galaxy. This image shows 19 of 20 dust rings detected by XMM-Newton from a gamma-ray burst first detected on October 9, 2022. Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Credit: ESA/XMM-Newton/M. Rigoselli (INAF) || GRB_dust_rings_desktop.png (1920x1080) [2.3 MB] || GRB_dust_rings_mobile..png (1080x1920) [1.6 MB] || GRB_dust_rings_desktop_print.jpg (1024x576) [410.5 KB] || Surprisingly Lonely Galaxy This image features a galaxy called 3C 297 that is lonelier than expected after it likely pulled in and absorbed its former companion galaxies. The solo galaxy is located about 9.2 billion light-years from Earth and contains a quasar, a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy that pulls in gas and drives powerful jets of matter seen in radio waves.Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Credit: x-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Torino/V. Missaglia et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI & International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA; Infrared: NASA/ESA/STScI; Radio: NRAO/AUI/NSF || lonely_galaxy_desktop.png (1920x1080) [1.3 MB] || lonely_galaxy_mobile.png (1080x1920) [1.0 MB] || lonely_galaxy_desktop_print.jpg (1024x576) [46.3 KB] || Record-breaking Black Hole in Galaxy UHZ1 This image contains the most distant black hole ever detected in X-rays, a result that may explain how some of the first supermassive black holes in the universe formed. This discovery was made using X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple) and infrared data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (red, green, and blue).Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/Ákos Bogdán; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare & K. Arcand || uhz1_comp_desktop.png (1920x1080) [2.5 MB] || uhz1_comp_mobile.png (1080x1920) [2.5 MB] || uhz1_comp_desktop_print.jpg (1024x576) [181.2 KB] || Black Hole Jets in Centaurus A The galaxy Centaurus A (Cen A) shines bright in this image combining X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue) and IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) satellite (blue), and optical light from the European Southern Observatory in Chile (white and gray). In the center, a supermassive black hole feeds off the gas and dust encircling it, while large jets of high-energy particles and other material spew out.Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Credit: Credit: IXPE: NASA/MSFC/IXPE/S. Ehlert et al.; Chandra: NASA/CXC/SAO || cena_chandra_ixpe_desktop.png (1920x1080) [2.3 MB] || cena_chandra_ixpe_mobile.png (1080x1920) [2.3 MB] || cena_chandra_ixpe_desktop_print.jpg (1024x576) [146.8 KB] || Artist’s Concept Comparing the Sizes of Supermassive Black Holes This image compares the sizes of a few monster black holes that are found at the centers of galaxies. The largest one is TON 618, one of a handful of extremely distant and massive black holes for which astronomers have direct measurements. This behemoth contains more than 60 billion solar masses, and it boasts a shadow so large that a beam of light would take weeks to traverse it. The next smallest is M87 and then Cygnus A.Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab || SMBH_Scale_desktop.png (1920x1080) [2.9 MB] || SMBH_Scale_mobile.png (1080x1920) [2.9 MB] || SMBH_Scale_desktop_print.jpg (1024x576) [173.6 KB] || On the Brink Wallpaper In this wallpaper based on the movie-style poster, the viewer gets the feeling of being on a precipice, teetering just on the edge of a black hole’s event horizon. The event horizon isn’t a solid surface like Earth’s or even the Sun’s. It's the boundary where the black hole's escape velocity equals the speed of light, the speed limit of the universe. Once matter crosses the event horizon, it will never escape the black hole.Download the desktop version here.Download the smartphone version here.Download the square version here.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab || BHWP_Wallpaper_Horizontal.png (3840x2160) [7.0 MB] || BHWP_Wallpaper_Horizontal.jpg (3840x2160) [1.3 MB] || BHWP_Wallpaper_Sq.png (2160x2160) [4.3 MB] || BHWP_Wallpaper_Sq.jpg (2160x2160) [1.1 MB] || BHWP_Wallpaper_Vertical.png (2160x3840) [6.8 MB] || BHWP_Wallpaper_Vertical.jpg (2160x3840) [1.4 MB] || BHWP_Wallpaper_Horizontal_searchweb.png (320x180) [71.8 KB] || BHWP_Wallpaper_Horizontal_thm.png (80x40) [5.2 KB] || Universe || Ast || Astrophysics || Black Hole || Astrophysics Stills || Black Hole Week || Scott Wiessinger (KBR Wyle Services, LLC) as Support || Barb Mattson (University of Maryland College Park) as Producer || Francis Reddy (University of Maryland College Park) as Science writer || Jeanette Kazmierczak (University of Maryland College Park) as Science writer ||

This movie shows a complete revolution around a simulated black hole and its accretion disk following a path that is perpendicular to the disk. The black hole’s extreme gravitational field redirects and distorts light coming from different parts of the disk, but exactly what we see depends on our viewing angle. The greatest distortion occurs when viewing the system nearly edgewise. As our viewpoint rotates around the black hole, we see different parts of the fast-moving gas in the accretion disk moving directly toward us. Due to a phenomenon called "relativistic Doppler beaming," gas in the disk that's moving toward us makes that side of the disk appear brighter, the opposite side darker. This effect disappears when we're directly above or below the disk because, from that angle, none of the gas is moving directly toward us.When our viewpoint passes beneath the disk, it looks like the gas is moving in the opposite direction. This is no different that viewing a clock from behind, which would make it look like the hands are moving counter-clockwise.CORRECTION: In earlier versions of the 360-degree movies on this page, these important effects were not apparent. This was due to a minor mistake in orienting the camera relative to the disk. The fact that it was not initially discovered by the NASA scientist who made the movie reflects just how bizarre and counter-intuitive black holes can be! Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman || BH_Accretion_Disk_Sim_360_4k_Prores.00001_print.jpg (1024x1024) [33.2 KB] || BH_Accretion_Disk_Sim_360_4k_Prores.00001_searchweb.png (320x180) [17.0 KB] || BH_Accretion_Disk_Sim_360_4k_Prores.00001_thm.png (80x40) [1.9 KB] || BH_Accretion_Disk_Sim_360_1080.mp4 (1080x1080) [19.0 MB] || BH_Accretion_Disk_Sim_360_1080.webm (1080x1080) [2.8 MB] || 360 (3840x3840) [0 Item(s)] || BH_Accretion_Disk_Sim_360_4k.mp4 (3840x3840) [119.2 MB] || BH_Accretion_Disk_Sim_360_4k_Prores.mov (3840x3840) [1020.1 MB] || || 13326 || Black Hole Accretion Disk Visualization || This movie shows a complete revolution around a simulated black hole and its accretion disk following a path that is perpendicular to the disk. The black hole’s extreme gravitational field redirects and distorts light coming from different parts of the disk, but exactly what we see depends on our viewing angle. The greatest distortion occurs when viewing the system nearly edgewise. As our viewpoint rotates around the black hole, we see different parts of the fast-moving gas in the accretion disk moving directly toward us. Due to a phenomenon called "relativistic Doppler beaming," gas in the disk that's moving toward us makes that side of the disk appear brighter, the opposite side darker. This effect disappears when we're directly above or below the disk because, from that angle, none of the gas is moving directly toward us.When our viewpoint passes beneath the disk, it looks like the gas is moving in the opposite direction. This is no different that viewing a clock from behind, which would make it look like the hands are moving counter-clockwise.CORRECTION: In earlier versions of the 360-degree movies on this page, these important effects were not apparent. This was due to a minor mistake in orienting the camera relative to the disk. The fact that it was not initially discovered by the NASA scientist who made the movie reflects just how bizarre and counter-intuitive black holes can be! Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman || BH_Accretion_Disk_Sim_360_4k_Prores.00001_print.jpg (1024x1024) [33.2 KB] || BH_Accretion_Disk_Sim_360_4k_Prores.00001_searchweb.png (320x180) [17.0 KB] || BH_Accretion_Disk_Sim_360_4k_Prores.00001_thm.png (80x40) [1.9 KB] || BH_Accretion_Disk_Sim_360_1080.mp4 (1080x1080) [19.0 MB] || BH_Accretion_Disk_Sim_360_1080.webm (1080x1080) [2.8 MB] || BH_Accretion_Disk_Sim_360_4k_Prores.mov (3840x3840) [1020.1 MB] || 360 (3840x3840) [32768 Item(s)] || BH_Accretion_Disk_Sim_360_4k.mp4 (3840x3840) [119.2 MB] || This new visualization of a black hole illustrates how its gravity distorts our view, warping its surroundings as if seen in a carnival mirror. The visualization simulates the appearance of a black hole where infalling matter has collected into a thin, hot structure called an accretion disk. The black hole’s extreme gravity skews light emitted by different regions of the disk, producing the misshapen appearance. Bright knots constantly form and dissipate in the disk as magnetic fields wind and twist through the churning gas. Nearest the black hole, the gas orbits at close to the speed of light, while the outer portions spin a bit more slowly. This difference stretches and shears the bright knots, producing light and dark lanes in the disk. Viewed from the side, the disk looks brighter on the left than it does on the right. Glowing gas on the left side of the disk moves toward us so fast that the effects of Einstein’s relativity give it a boost in brightness; the opposite happens on the right side, where gas moving away us becomes slightly dimmer. This asymmetry disappears when we see the disk exactly face on because, from that perspective, none of the material is moving along our line of sight.Closest to the black hole, the gravitational light-bending becomes so excessive that we can see the underside of the disk as a bright ring of light seemingly outlining the black hole. This so-called “photon ring” is composed of multiple rings, which grow progressively fainter and thinner, from light that has circled the black hole two, three, or even more times before escaping to reach our eyes. Because the black hole modeled in this visualization is spherical and non-rotating, the photon ring looks nearly circular and identical from any viewing angle. Inside the photon ring is the black hole’s shadow, an area roughly twice the size of the event horizon — its point of no return. This visualization is “mass invariant,” which means it can represent a black hole of any mass. The size of the black hole's shadow is proportional to its mass, but so is the size of the accreetion disk, so its properties scale accordingly.Simulations and movies like these really help us visualize what Einstein meant when he said that gravity warps the fabric of space and time. || This movie shows the black hole visualization using a partial rotation, plus a long sequence where the black hole is viewed nearly edge on.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman || Black_Hole_Accretion_Disk_Sim_4k_ProRes.00386_print.jpg (1024x1024) [72.0 KB] || Black_Hole_Accretion_Disk_Sim_1080.mp4 (1080x1080) [28.9 MB] || Black_Hole_Accretion_Disk_Sim_1080.webm (1080x1080) [4.7 MB] || Black_Hole_Accretion_Disk_Sim_4k_ProRes.mov (3840x3840) [2.8 GB] || Long (3840x3840) [65536 Item(s)] || Black_Hole_Accretion_Disk_Sim_4k.mp4 (3840x3840) [178.7 MB] || This image highlights and explains various aspects of the black hole visualization. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman || BH_labeled.jpg (3851x2166) [2.3 MB] || This illustration shows how direct and bent light rays from a black hole's accretion disk produce the apparent image and motion seen by an observer. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman || BH_optics_explained.jpg (1920x1305) [1.4 MB] || GIF and MPEG-4 version with continuous full rotation.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_360_Continuous.gif (800x800) [6.7 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_360_Continuous_1080.mp4 (3840x3840) [72.7 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_360_Continuous_1080.webm (3840x3840) [5.1 MB] || GIF and MPEG-4 loop of edge-on view. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_Stationary_WebSize.gif (1040x600) [6.6 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_Stationary_WebSize.mp4 (1040x600) [4.8 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_Stationary_WebSize.webm (1040x600) [643.8 KB] || GIF with 360-degree rotation and a pause when the view is almost edge on; uses a square frame to show the complete accretion disk.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman || BH_AccretionDisk_360_800px.gif (800x800) [9.5 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_360_forGIF.mp4 (800x800) [9.2 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_360_forGIF.webm (800x800) [1.7 MB] || 16x9 GIF zoomed into the central region, highlighting the photon ring, with 360-degree rotation and a pause at almost edge on. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_360_Center_16x9.gif (500x281) [4.4 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_360_Center_16x9_1080.mp4 (1920x1080) [35.1 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_360_Center_16x9_1080.webm (1920x1080) [2.4 MB] || Square GIF zoomed into the central region, highlighting the photon ring, with 360-degree rotation and a pause at almost edge on. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_360_Center_Square.gif (500x500) [6.7 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_360_Center_Square_1080.mp4 (1080x1080) [34.8 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_360_Center_Square_1080.webm (1080x1080) [1.8 MB] || 16x9 GIF with 360-degree rotation and a pause when the view is almost edge on.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_360_Wide_16x9.gif (800x450) [7.5 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_360_wide_16x9_1080.mp4 (1920x1080) [36.3 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_360_wide_16x9_1080.webm (1920x1080) [1.8 MB] || Banner style looping GIF showing continuous 360-degree rotation. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_360_Banner_Continuous.gif (1044x320) [6.3 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_Banner_360_Continuous.mp4 (1044x320) [11.2 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_Banner_360_Continuous.webm (1040x320) [1.4 MB] || Banner style looping GIF showing 360-degree rotation and a pause at nearly edge on.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_Banner_360.gif (1042x320) [6.6 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_Banner_360.mp4 (1042x320) [13.4 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_Banner_360.webm (1040x320) [1.7 MB] || Banner style looping GIF showing edge-on view.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_Banner_Stationary.gif (1042x320) [4.8 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_Banner_Stationary.mp4 (1042x320) [6.1 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_Banner_Stationary.webm (1040x320) [643.4 KB] || 16x9 looping GIF showing edge-on view.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_Stationary.gif (1041x585) [4.4 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_Stationary_1080.mp4 (1920x1080) [11.9 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_Sim_Stationary_1080.webm (1920x1080) [685.2 KB] || 4K version of the visualization with 360-degree rotation and a pause when the view is almost edge on.Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman || BH_AccretionDisk_360_4k.00250_print.jpg (1024x1024) [45.8 KB] || BH_AccretionDisk_360_4k.mp4 (3840x3840) [85.1 MB] || BH_AccretionDisk_360_4k.webm (3840x3840) [5.8 MB] || For More Information || See https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/nasa-visualization-shows-a-black-hole-s-warped-world || Universe || Ast || Astrophysics || Black Hole || Blazar || Galaxy || Gamma Ray Burst || Neutron Star || Pulsar || Space || Star || Supernova || Universe || X-ray || Astrophysics Simulations || Astrophysics Visualizations || Black Hole Week || Jeremy Schnittman (NASA/GSFC) as Visualizer || Scott Wiessinger (USRA) as Producer || Francis Reddy (University of Maryland College Park) as Science writer || Francis Reddy (University of Maryland College Park) as Graphics ||

In this flight toward a supermassive black hole, labels highlight many of the fascinating features produced by the effects of general relativity along the way. This supercomputer visualization tracks a camera as it approaches, briefly orbits, and then crosses the event horizon — the point of no return — of a supersized black hole similar in mass to the one at the center of our galaxy. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. PowellMusic: “Tidal Force,” Thomas Daniel Bellingham [PRS], Universal Production Music“Memories” from Digital Juice“Path Finder,” Eric Jacobsen [TONO] and Lorenzo Castellarin [BMI], Universal Production MusicWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. || 14576_BHPlunge_Explain_Still.jpg (3840x2160) [1.2 MB] || 14576_PageThumbnail.jpg (3840x2160) [1.2 MB] || 14576_PageThumbnail_searchweb.png (180x320) [85.0 KB] || 14576_PageThumbnail_thm.png (80x40) [9.6 KB] || 14576_BHPlunge_Explainer_1080.mp4 (1920x1080) [319.5 MB] || 14576_BHPlunge_Explainer_Captions.en_US.srt [2.5 KB] || 14576_BHPlunge_Explainer_Captions.en_US.vtt [2.4 KB] || 14576_BHPlunge_Explainer_4k.mp4 (3840x2160) [1.5 GB] || 14576_BHPlunge_Explainer_4kYouTube.mp4 (3840x2160) [3.0 GB] || 14576_BHPlunge_Explainer_ProRes_3840x2160_2997.mov (3840x2160) [12.8 GB] || || 14576 || NASA Black Hole Visualization Takes Viewers Beyond the Brink || In this flight toward a supermassive black hole, labels highlight many of the fascinating features produced by the effects of general relativity along the way. This supercomputer visualization tracks a camera as it approaches, briefly orbits, and then crosses the event horizon — the point of no return — of a supersized black hole similar in mass to the one at the center of our galaxy. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. PowellMusic: “Tidal Force,” Thomas Daniel Bellingham [PRS], Universal Production Music“Memories” from Digital Juice“Path Finder,” Eric Jacobsen [TONO] and Lorenzo Castellarin [BMI], Universal Production MusicWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. || 14576_BHPlunge_Explain_Still.jpg (3840x2160) [1.2 MB] || 14576_PageThumbnail.jpg (3840x2160) [1.2 MB] || 14576_PageThumbnail_searchweb.png (180x320) [85.0 KB] || 14576_PageThumbnail_thm.png (80x40) [9.6 KB] || 14576_BHPlunge_Explainer_1080.mp4 (1920x1080) [319.5 MB] || 14576_BHPlunge_Explainer_Captions.en_US.srt [2.5 KB] || 14576_BHPlunge_Explainer_Captions.en_US.vtt [2.4 KB] || 14576_BHPlunge_Explainer_4k.mp4 (3840x2160) [1.5 GB] || 14576_BHPlunge_Explainer_4kYouTube.mp4 (3840x2160) [3.0 GB] || 14576_BHPlunge_Explainer_ProRes_3840x2160_2997.mov (3840x2160) [12.8 GB] || New, immersive visualizations produced on a NASA supercomputer let anyone take a trip into a black hole’s point of no return.The visualizations represent two scenarios, one where a camera — a stand-in for a daring astronaut — just misses the event horizon and slingshots back out, and another where the camera enters the event horizon, sealing its fate.The visualizations are available in multiple forms, including 360-degree videos that let viewers look all around during the trip. Explainer videos act as sightseeing guides, highlighting the bizarre effects of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Additional versions are rendered as flat all-sky maps.Goddard scientists created the visualizations on the Discover supercomputer at the NASA Center for Climate Simulation. The destination is a supermassive black hole with 4.3 million times the mass of our Sun, equivalent to the monster located at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. To simplify the complex calculations, the black hole is not rotating.A flat, swirling cloud of hot, glowing gas called an accretion disk surrounds the black hole and serves as a visual reference during the fall. So do glowing structures called photon rings, which form closer to the black hole from light that has orbited it one or more times. A backdrop of the starry sky as seen from Earth completes the scene. The project generated about 10 terabytes of data — equivalent to roughly half of the estimated text content in the Library of Congress — and took about 5 days running on just 0.3% of Discover’s 129,000 processors. The same feat would take more than a decade on a typical laptop.Movies and frame sets are available below. For more detailed information using specific frames, see Beyond the Brink: Tracking a Simulated Plunge into a Black Hole. Some numbers to think about:The outer edge of the accretion disk extends to a radius of about 97 million miles (156 million kilometers), comparable to the distance between Earth and the Sun.The inner edge of the accretion disk starts at a radius of around 23 million miles (38 million kilometers), about 25% of the Earth-Sun distance.The radius of the photon ring is 15.5 million miles (25 million kilometers).The event horizon radius is about 7.8 million miles (12.5 million kilometers).Spaghettification occurs around 79,500 miles (128,000 kilometers) from the singularity, the center of the black hole. || Labeled version of the rectangular view that includes an explanation of visual features. This image shows the entire sky as seen from a simulated camera plunging toward a 4-million-solar-mass black hole, similar to the one at the center of our galaxy. The camera lies about 10 million miles (16 million kilometers) from the black hole’s event horizon and is moving inward at 62% the speed of light.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. Powell || labels_4_BH_Viz_45rg_062c.jpg (2393x1197) [1.3 MB] || This version is encoded to play as a 360 VR movie. It follows the plunge of a simulated camera into a non-rotating supermassive black hole. The object's mass is 4.3 million Suns, equivalent to the black hole lying at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The orange structure surrounding the black hole represents the hot, glowing gas of its accretion disk, where infalling matter collects and slowly spirals inward. Interior to the disk is a thin set of photon rings, which are images of the disk produced by light that has orbited the black hole one or more times before reaching the camera. The camera completes almost two orbits before hitting the event horizon. During the journey, a variety of effects caused by the gravitationally warped space-time around the black hole and the camera's speed become increasingly apparent. Images of the disk and the background sky morph, duplicate, and even form mirror images. Structures in the direction of travel, at the center of the simulation, brighten greatly as speed increases. At 42 seconds, the camera crosses the event horizon, traveling ever closer to the speed of light. Due to the camera’s speed, the entire sky appears to shift progressively forward, shrinking before our eyes. After entering the event horizon, the camera would be destroyed by tidal forces 12.8 seconds later, then in microseconds rush to the singularity, a point in the black hole's center where the laws of physics as we know them no longer apply.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. PowellMusic: “Tidal Force,” Thomas Daniel Bellingham [PRS], Universal Production MusicWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. || 14576_BHPlunge_360_Still.jpg (3840x2160) [906.4 KB] || 14576_BHPlunge_360_FINAL_1080.mp4 (2160x1080) [169.2 MB] || 14576_BHPlunge_360_Captions.en_US.srt [211 bytes] || 14576_BHPlunge_360_Captions.en_US.vtt [211 bytes] || 14576_BHPlunge_360_FINAL_4k.mp4 (4096x2048) [636.4 MB] || 14576_BHPlunge_360_FINAL_8k.mp4 (8192x4096) [1.2 GB] || Camera plunge, equidistant rectangular projection. This all-sky movie follows the plunge of a simulated camera into a non-rotating supermassive black hole. The object's mass is 4.3 million Suns, equivalent to the black hole lying at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The orange structure surrounding the black hole represents the hot, glowing gas of its accretion disk, where infalling matter collects and slowly spirals inward. Interior to the disk is a thin set of photon rings, which are images of the disk produced by light that has orbited the black hole one or more times before reaching the camera. The camera completes almost two orbits before hitting the event horizon. During the journey, a variety of effects caused by the gravitationally warped space-time around the black hole and the camera's speed become increasingly apparent. Images of the disk and the background sky morph, duplicate, and even form mirror images. Structures in the direction of travel, at the center of the simulation, brighten greatly as speed increases. At 42 seconds, the camera crosses the event horizon, traveling ever closer to the speed of light. Due to the camera’s speed, the entire sky appears to shift progressively forward, shrinking before our eyes. After entering the event horizon, the camera would be destroyed by tidal forces 12.8 seconds later, then in microseconds rush to the singularity, a point in the black hole's center where the laws of physics as we know them no longer apply. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. Powell || Plunge_Rectilinear_Still_03528.jpg (8192x4096) [1.2 MB] || 14576_BH_Plunge_Rectilinear_2160x1080_30.mp4 (2160x1080) [105.3 MB] || Plunge_Rect (8192x4096) [3518 Item(s)] || 14576_BH_Plunge_Rectilinear_4096x2048_60.mp4 (4096x2048) [349.7 MB] || 14576_BH_Plunge_Rectilinear_8192x4096_60.mp4 (8192x4096) [699.3 MB] || 14576_BH_Plunge_Rectilinear_ProRes_8192x4096_60.mov (8192x4096) [23.9 GB] || Camera plunge, Mollweide equal-area projection. This all-sky movie follows the plunge of a simulated camera into a non-rotating supermassive black hole. The object's mass is 4.3 million Suns, equivalent to the black hole lying at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The orange structure surrounding the black hole represents the hot, glowing gas of its accretion disk, where infalling matter collects and slowly spirals inward. Interior to the disk is a thin set of photon rings, which are images of the disk produced by light that has orbited the black hole one or more times before reaching the camera. The camera completes almost two orbits before hitting the event horizon. During the journey, a variety of effects caused by the gravitationally warped space-time around the black hole and the camera's speed become increasingly apparent. Images of the disk and the background sky morph, duplicate, and even form mirror images. Structures in the direction of travel, at the center of the simulation, brighten greatly as speed increases. At 42 seconds, the camera crosses the event horizon, traveling ever closer to the speed of light. Due to the camera’s speed, the entire sky appears to shift progressively forward, shrinking before our eyes. After entering the event horizon, the camera would be destroyed by tidal forces 12.8 seconds later, then in microseconds rush to the singularity, a point in the black hole's center where the laws of physics as we know them no longer apply.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. Powell || Plunge_Mollweide_Still_02190.jpg (8192x4096) [3.5 MB] || 14576_BH_Plunge_Mollweide_2160x1080_30.mp4 (2160x1080) [105.5 MB] || Plunge_Moll (8192x4096) [3518 Item(s)] || 14576_BH_Plunge_Mollweide_4096x2048_60.mp4 (4096x2048) [349.7 MB] || 14576_BH_Plunge_Mollweide_8192x4096_60.mp4 (8192x4096) [699.0 MB] || 14576_BH_Plunge_Mollweide_ProRes_8192x4096_60.mov (8192x4096) [24.8 GB] || This sequence shows a zoom into the plunging camera’s direction of travel to reveal the detailed structure of the photon rings. Each band is a distorted image of the gas disk layered between the background sky. Successive bands are thinner, produced by photons that have taken an additional trip around the black hole before reaching the camera. Due to the camera’s speed, which approaches 99.9% that of light toward the end, the entire sky appears to shift progressively forward, seemingly shrinking before our eyes. The field of view is 10 degrees across, about the width of a fist held at arm’s length. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. Powell || Plunge_Zoom_Still_03607.jpg (3840x2160) [1.4 MB] || Plunge_Zoom (3840x2160) [2528 Item(s)] || 14576_BH_Plunge_Zoom2b_1080.mp4 (3840x2160) [74.0 MB] || 14576_BH_Plunge_Zoom2b_4k60.mp4 (3840x2160) [241.0 MB] || 14576_BH_Plunge_Zoom2b_ProRes_3840x2160_60.mov (3840x2160) [4.1 GB] || 14576_BH_Plunge_Zoom_ProRes_3840x2160_60.mov (3840x2160) [4.3 GB] || Plunge camera track. This movie tracks the position and orientation of the falling camera relative to the black hole. The inner circle represents the event horizon, the dashed circle represents the photon ring, which forms at the edge of the event horizon's shadow (twice the event horizon's size), and the dotted line shows the camera's path. A red line represents the plane of the accretion disk surrounding the black hole. At about 15 seconds, the image zooms in to follow the camera as it makes almost two loops around the black hole. At 42 seconds, the camera slips past the event horizon and arcs to the black hole's center.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. SchnittmanVisual description: On a black background, a white cartoon camera approaches a broken red line interrupted by a large dashed white circle at its center. Inside the dashed circle is a smaller white circle with a solid line. The camera, trailing a dotted line as it travels, spirals into the central white circle. || Plunge_Inset_Still_03170.jpg (900x480) [26.7 KB] || Plunge_Camera (900x480) [3518 Item(s)] || 14576_BH_Plunge_Inset_900x480_60.mp4 (900x480) [4.9 MB] || 14576_BH_Plunge_Inset_ProRes_900x480_60.mov (900x480) [153.1 MB] || Plunge clock comparison. This movie tracks the local time of the falling camera, the time as experienced by a faraway observer (coordinate time), and the maximum blueshift observed. This is the factor by which the frequency of light in the direction of travel is increased. At 42 seconds, coordinate time reads all 9s, indicating that the camera has crossed the event horizon and external time is infinite. The blueshift continues to climb, exceeding 43 by the end, which indicates motion exceeding 99.9% light speed.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. SchnittmanVisual description: A box on a white background contains three lines of text. The top line reads "local time," the second line reads "coord time," and the third reads "max blueshift." As the video plays, these times increase and diverge as described above. || Plunge_Times_Still_03900.jpg (900x480) [24.4 KB] || 14576_BH_Plunge_Times_900x480_60.mp4 (900x480) [15.8 MB] || Plunge_Times (900x480) [3518 Item(s)] || 14576_BH_Plunge_Times_ProRes_900x480_60.mov (900x480) [154.5 MB] || In this flight toward a supermassive black hole, labels highlight many of the fascinating features produced by the effects of general relativity along the way. This supercomputer visualization tracks a camera as it approaches, falls toward, briefly orbits, and escapes a supersized black hole similar in mass to the one at the center of our galaxy. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. PowellMusic: "Beautiful Awesome,” David Husband and James William Banbury [PRS], Universal Production Music“Awakening Yearning,” David Ashok Ramani and Jonathan Elias [ASCAP], Universal Production Music“Dawning,” Lorenzo Castellarin [BMI], Universal Production MusicWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. || 14576_BHFlyBy_Explain_Still.jpg (3840x2160) [1.1 MB] || 14576_BHFlyBy_Explainer_1080.mp4 (1920x1080) [294.7 MB] || 14576_BHFlyBy_Explainer_Captions.en_US.srt [2.4 KB] || 14576_BHFlyBy_Explainer_Captions.en_US.vtt [2.3 KB] || 14576_BHFlyBy_Explainer_4k.mp4 (3840x2160) [1.4 GB] || 14576_BHFlyBy_Explainer_4kYouTube.mp4 (3840x2160) [2.8 GB] || 14576_BHFlyBy_Explainer_ProRes_3840x2160_2997.mov (3840x2160) [12.9 GB] || This version is encoded to play as a 360 VR movie. It follows the trajectory of a simulated camera approaching and looping around a non-rotating supermassive black hole. The object's mass is 4.3 million Suns, equivalent to the black hole lying at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The orange structure surrounding the black hole represents the hot, glowing gas of its accretion disk, where infalling matter collects and slowly spirals inward. Interior to the disk is a thin set of photon rings, which are images of the disk produced by light that has orbited the black hole one or more times before reaching the camera. The camera completes two orbits before escaping back out to safety. During the journey, a variety of effects caused by the gravitationally warped space-time around the black hole and the camera's speed become increasingly apparent. Images of the disk and the background sky morph, duplicate, and even form mirror images. Structures in the direction of travel, at the center of the simulation, brighten greatly as speed increases. At 46 seconds, the camera makes its closest approach to the event horizon, reaching maximum velocity at 60% the speed of light.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. PowellMusic: "Beautiful Awesome,” David Husband and James William Banbury [PRS], Universal Production MusicWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. || 14576_BHFlyBy_360_Still.jpg (3840x2160) [1.1 MB] || 14576_BHFlyBy_360_FINAL_1080.mp4 (2160x1080) [188.8 MB] || 14576_BHFlyBy_360VR_FINAL_1080.mp4 (2160x1080) [188.9 MB] || 14576_BHFlyBy_360_Captions.en_US.srt [213 bytes] || 14576_BHFlyBy_360_Captions.en_US.vtt [213 bytes] || 14576_BHFlyBy_360_FINAL_4k.mp4 (4096x2048) [699.8 MB] || 14576_BHFlyBy_360VR_FINAL_4k.mp4 (4096x2048) [699.8 MB] || 14576_BHFlyBy_360_FINAL_8k.mp4 (8192x4096) [1.4 GB] || 14576_BHFlyBy_360VR_FINAL_8k.mp4 (8192x4096) [1.4 GB] || Camera flyby, equidistant rectangular projection. This all-sky movie follows the trajectory of a simulated camera approaching and orbiting a non-rotating supermassive black hole. The object's mass is 4.3 million Suns, equivalent to the black hole lying at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The orange structure surrounding the black hole represents the hot, glowing gas of its accretion disk, where infalling matter collects and slowly spirals inward. Interior to the disk is a thin set of photon rings, which are images of the disk produced by light that has orbited the black hole one or more times before reaching the camera. The camera completes two orbits before escaping back out to safety. During the journey, a variety of effects caused by the gravitationally warped space-time around the black hole and the camera's speed become increasingly apparent. Images of the disk and the background sky morph, duplicate, and even form mirror images. Structures in the direction of travel, at the center of the simulation, brighten greatly as speed increases. At 46 seconds, the camera makes its closest approach to the event horizon, reaching maximum velocity at 60% the speed of light. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. Powell || FlyBy_Rectilinear_01787.jpg (8192x4096) [3.9 MB] || 14576_BH_FlyBy_Rectilinear_2160x1080_30.mp4 (2160x1080) [118.4 MB] || FlyBy_Rect (8192x4096) [3978 Item(s)] || 14576_BH_FlyBy_Rectilinear_4096x2048_60.mp4 (4096x2048) [395.0 MB] || 14576_BH_FlyBy_Rectilinear_8192x4096_60.mp4 (8192x4096) [789.8 MB] || 14576_BH_FlyBy_Rectilinear_ProRes_8192x4096_60.mov (8192x4096) [33.3 GB] || Camera flyby, Mollweide equal-area projection. This all-sky movie follows the trajectory of a simulated camera approaching and orbiting a non-rotating supermassive black hole. The object's mass is 4.3 million Suns, equivalent to the black hole lying at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The orange structure surrounding the black hole represents the hot, glowing gas of its accretion disk, where infalling matter collects and slowly spirals inward. Interior to the disk is a thin set of photon rings, which are images of the disk produced by light that has orbited the black hole one or more times before reaching the camera. The camera completes two orbits before escaping back out to safety. During the journey, a variety of effects caused by the gravitationally warped space-time around the black hole and the camera's speed become increasingly apparent. Images of the disk and the background sky morph, duplicate, and even form mirror images. Structures in the direction of travel, at the center of the simulation, brighten greatly as speed increases. At 46 seconds, the camera makes its closest approach to the event horizon, reaching maximum velocity at 60% the speed of light. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. Powell || FlyBy_Mollweide_Still_01830.jpg (8192x4096) [3.6 MB] || FlyBy_Moll (8192x4096) [3978 Item(s)] || 14576_BH_FlyBy_Mollweide_4096x2048_60.mp4 (4096x2048) [395.1 MB] || 14576_BH_FlyBy_Mollweide_8192x4096_60.mp4 (8192x4096) [789.8 MB] || 14576_BH_FlyBy_Mollweide_ProRes_8192x4096_60.mov (8192x4096) [35.8 GB] || This sequence shows a zoom into the camera’s direction of travel as it loops around the black hole to reveal the detailed structure of the photon rings. Each band is a distorted image of the gas disk layered between the background sky. Successive bands are thinner, produced by photons that have taken an additional trip around the black hole before reaching the camera. The field of view is 10 degrees across, about the width of a fist held at arm’s length. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. Schnittman and B. Powell || FlyBy_Zoom_Still_01650.jpg (3840x2160) [914.1 KB] || 14576_BH_FlyBy_Zoom2_1920x1080_30.mp4 (1920x1080) [78.6 MB] || FlyBy_Zoom (3840x2160) [1981 Item(s)] || 14576_BH_FlyBy_Zoom2_3840x2160_60.mp4 (3840x2160) [196.6 MB] || 14576_BH_FlyBy_Zoom2_ProRes_3840x2160_60.mov (3840x2160) [3.0 GB] || Flyby camera track. This movie tracks the position and orientation of the falling camera relative to the black hole. The inner circle represents the event horizon, the dashed circle represents the photon ring, which forms at the edge of the event horizon's shadow (twice the event horizon's size), and At about 15 seconds, the image zooms in to follow the camera as it makes two loops around the black hole. At 46 seconds, the image zooms out as the camera escapes. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. SchnittmanVisual description: On a black background, a white cartoon camera approaches a broken red line interrupted by a large dashed white circle at its center. Inside the dashed circle is a smaller white circle with a solid line. The camera, trailing a dotted line as it travels, loops twice around the dashed circle. || FlyBy_Inset_Still_03126.jpg (900x480) [26.5 KB] || 14576_BH_FlyBy_Inset_900x480_60.mp4 (900x480) [8.6 MB] || FlyBy_Camera (900x480) [3978 Item(s)] || 14576_BH_FlyBy_Inset_ProRes_900x480_60.mov (900x480) [143.7 MB] || Flyby clock comparison. This movie tracks the local time of the falling camera, the time as experienced by a faraway observer (coordinate time), and the maximum blueshift observed. This is the factor by which the frequency of light in the direction of travel is increased. As the video plays, these times increase and diverge, and by the end, local time lags coordinate time by 36 minutes. At 46 seconds, the blueshift reaches 2.34 as the camera's motion peaks at 60% the speed of light.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/J. SchnittmanVisual description: A box on a white background contains three lines of text. The top line reads "local time," the second line reads "coord time," and the third reads "max blueshift." || FlyBy_Times_Still_04360.jpg (900x480) [23.6 KB] || FlyBy_Times (900x480) [3978 Item(s)] || 14576_BH_FlyBy_Timess_900x480_60.mp4 (900x480) [22.3 MB] || 14576_BH_FlyBy_Times_ProRes_900x480_60.mov (900x480) [172.6 MB] || For More Information || See NASA.gov || Universe || Ast || Astrophysics || Black Hole || Simulation || Space || Supercomputer || Supermassive Black Hole || Visualization || Astrophysics Features || Astrophysics Simulations || Astrophysics Visualizations || Black Hole Week || Narrated Movies || Scott Wiessinger (eMITS) as Producer || Francis Reddy (University of Maryland College Park) as Science writer || Jeremy Schnittman (NASA/GSFC) as Visualizer || Brian Powell (NASA/GSFC) as Support || Ernie Wright (USRA) as Support ||

The geocentric phase, libration, position angle of the axis, and apparent diameter of the Moon throughout the year 2025, at hourly intervals. || 5415 || Moon Phase and Libration, 2025 || || The data in the table for all of 2025 can be downloaded as a JSON file or as a text file. || Click on the image to download a high-resolution version with feature labels and additional graphics. Hover over the image to reveal the animation frame number, which can be used to locate and download the corresponding frame from any of the animations on this page, including unlabeled high-resolution Moon images.The animation archived on this page shows the geocentric phase, libration, position angle of the axis, and apparent diameter of the Moon throughout the year 2025, at hourly intervals. Until the end of 2025, the initial Dial-A-Moon image will be the frame from this animation for the current hour.More in this series:Moon Phase and Libration GalleryLunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has been in orbit around the Moon since the summer of 2009. Its laser altimeter (LOLA) and camera (LROC) are recording the rugged, airless lunar terrain in exceptional detail, making it possible to visualize the Moon with unprecedented fidelity. This is especially evident in the long shadows cast near the terminator, or day-night line. The pummeled, craggy landscape thrown into high relief at the terminator would be impossible to recreate in the computer without global terrain maps like those from LRO.The Moon always keeps the same face to us, but not exactly the same face. Because of the tilt and shape of its orbit, we see the Moon from slightly different angles over the course of a month. When a month is compressed into 24 seconds, as it is in this animation, our changing view of the Moon makes it look like it's wobbling. This wobble is called libration.The word comes from the Latin for "balance scale" (as does the name of the zodiac constellation Libra) and refers to the way such a scale tips up and down on alternating sides. The sub-Earth point gives the amount of libration in longitude and latitude. The sub-Earth point is also the apparent center of the Moon's disk and the location on the Moon where the Earth is directly overhead.The Moon is subject to other motions as well. It appears to roll back and forth around the sub-Earth point. The roll angle is given by the position angle of the axis, which is the angle of the Moon's north pole relative to celestial north. The Moon also approaches and recedes from us, appearing to grow and shrink. The two extremes, called perigee (near) and apogee (far), differ by as much as 14%.The most noticed monthly variation in the Moon's appearance is the cycle of phases, caused by the changing angle of the Sun as the Moon orbits the Earth. The cycle begins with the waxing (growing) crescent Moon visible in the west just after sunset. By first quarter, the Moon is high in the sky at sunset and sets around midnight. The full Moon rises at sunset and is high in the sky at midnight. The third quarter Moon is often surprisingly conspicuous in the daylit western sky long after sunrise.Celestial north is up in these images, corresponding to the view from the northern hemisphere. The descriptions of the print resolution stills also assume a northern hemisphere orientation. (There is also a south-up version of this page.) || The phase and libration of the Moon for 2025, at hourly intervals. Includes supplemental graphics that display the Moon's orbit, subsolar and sub-Earth points, and the Moon's distance from Earth at true scale. Craters near the terminator are labeled, as are Apollo landing sites, maria, and other albedo features in sunlight. || comp.0120_print.jpg (1024x576) [114.9 KB] || comp.0120_searchweb.png (320x180) [59.2 KB] || comp.0120_thm.png (80x40) [5.8 KB] || fancy (1920x1080) [8760 Item(s)] || phases_2025_fancy_720p30.mp4 (1280x720) [72.1 MB] || phases_2025_fancy_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [146.9 MB] || fancy (3840x2160) [8760 Item(s)] || fancy (5760x3240) [8760 Item(s)] || phases_2025_fancy_360p30.mp4 (640x360) [24.2 MB] || phases_2025_fancy_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [512.4 MB] || phases_2025_fancy_2160p30.mov (3840x2160) [15.1 GB] || Lunar_comp.hwshow || The phase and libration of the Moon for 2025, at hourly intervals. Includes music, supplemental graphics that display the Moon's orbit, subsolar and sub-Earth points, and the Moon's distance from Earth at true scale. Craters near the terminator are labeled, as are Apollo landing sites, maria and other albedo features in sunlight.Music provided by Universal Production Music: "Shine a Light," "Space and Time," and "Spiralling Stars" – Timothy James CornickThis video can also be viewed on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel. || music.0120_print.jpg (1024x576) [109.9 KB] || Phases_North_Up_2025_captions.en_US.srt [40 bytes] || Phases_North_Up_2025_captions.en_US.vtt [53 bytes] || Phases_North_Up_2025.mp4 (3840x2160) [421.2 MB] || Phases_North_Up_2025.mp4.hwshow || The phase and libration of the Moon for 2025, at hourly intervals. The vertical (portrait) aspect ratio is targeted for viewing on mobile devices. Includes supplemental graphics that display the Moon's orbit, subsolar and sub-Earth points, and the Moon's distance from Earth at true scale. Craters near the terminator are labeled, as are Apollo landing sites. || comp.0121_print.jpg (1024x1820) [325.7 KB] || v1 (1080x1920) [8760 Item(s)] || phases_2025_fancy_1920p30.mp4 (1080x1920) [141.2 MB] || The phase and libration of the Moon for 2025, at hourly intervals. This is an alternate portrait aspect version that may be more suitable for some social media posts. || comp.0122_print.jpg (1024x1820) [232.8 KB] || v2 (1080x1920) [8760 Item(s)] || phases_2025_fancy_v2_1920p30.mp4 (1080x1920) [107.5 MB] || phases_2025_fancy_v2_music_1920p30.mp4 (1080x1920) [98.2 MB] || The phase and libration of the Moon for 2025, at hourly intervals. This portrait aspect version is "plain," showing only the Moon. || phases_2025_plain_v_1920p30.mp4 (1080x1920) [81.3 MB] || vplain (1080x1920) [8760 Item(s)] || comp.0123_print.jpg (1080x1920) [198.4 KB] || The phase and libration of the Moon for 2025, at hourly intervals. The higher-resolution frames include an alpha channel, and the EXR frames are HDR (high dynamic range). The .mov file is a ProRes 4444 movie with alpha. || moon.0120_print.jpg (1024x576) [54.8 KB] || plain (1920x1080) [8760 Item(s)] || 730x730_1x1_30p (730x730) [8760 Item(s)] || phases_2025_plain_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [95.0 MB] || phases_2025_plain_720p30.mp4 (1280x720) [41.7 MB] || plain (3840x2160) [8760 Item(s)] || plain (5760x3240) [8760 Item(s)] || exr (5760x3240) [8760 Item(s)] || phases_2025_plain_360p30.mp4 (640x360) [11.2 MB] || phases_2025_plain_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [374.8 MB] || 216x216_1x1_30p (216x216) [8760 Item(s)] || phases_2025_plain_2160p30.mov (3840x2160) [31.1 GB] || phases_2025_plain_2160p30.mp4.hwshow || The Moon's Orbit || The orbit of the Moon in 2025, viewed from the north pole of the ecliptic, with the vernal equinox to the right. The sizes of the Earth and Moon are exaggerated. || orbit.0120_print.jpg (1024x1024) [124.8 KB] || 850x850_1x1_30p (850x850) [8760 Item(s)] || 1080x1080_1x1_30p (1080x1080) [8760 Item(s)] || moon_orbit_2025_1080p30.mp4 (1080x1080) [35.9 MB] || 420x420_1x1_30p (420x420) [8760 Item(s)] || From this birdseye view, it's somewhat easier to see that the phases of the Moon are an effect of the changing angles of the Sun, Moon and Earth. The Moon is full when its orbit places it in the middle of the night side of the Earth. First and Third Quarter Moon occur when the Moon is along the day-night line on the Earth. The Sun's direction is indicated by the yellow arrow.The view here is perpendicular to the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun, called the ecliptic. The teal-colored ring is the plane of the Moon's orbit around the Earth, which is tilted about five degrees to the ecliptic. The thickness of the ring shows the range of the Moon's distance, and the darker half is the part below (south of) the ecliptic. The two points where the orbit crosses the ecliptic are the ascending and descending nodes. Also labeled are the perigee and apogee, the points along the orbit that are nearest to and farthest from Earth.The First Point of Aries is at the 3 o'clock position in the image. The Sun is in this direction at the March equinox. You can check this by freezing the animation at around the 1:03 mark, or by freezing the full animation with the time stamp near March 20. This direction serves as the zero point for both ecliptic longitude and right ascension.The north pole of the Earth is tilted 23.5 degrees toward the 12 o'clock position at the top of the image. The tilt of the Earth is important for understanding why the north pole of the Moon seems to swing back and forth. In the full animation, watch both the orbit and the "gyroscope" Moon in the lower left. The widest swings happen when the Moon is at the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock positions. When the Moon is at the 3 o'clock position, the ground we're standing on is tilted to the left when we look at the Moon. At the 9 o'clock position, it's tilted to the right. The tilt itself doesn't change. We're just turned around, looking in the opposite direction. || An animated diagram of the subsolar and sub-Earth points for 2025. The Moon's north pole, equator, and meridian are indicated. The frames include an alpha channel. || globe.0120_print.jpg (1024x1024) [112.8 KB] || 960x960_1x1_30p (960x960) [8760 Item(s)] || 640x640_1x1_30p (640x640) [8760 Item(s)] || moon_subpnts_2025_960p30.mp4 (960x960) [37.5 MB] || 320x320_1x1_30p (320x320) [8760 Item(s)] || The subsolar and sub-Earth points are the locations on the Moon's surface where the Sun or the Earth are directly overhead, at the zenith. A line pointing straight up at one of these points will be pointing toward the Sun or the Earth. The sub-Earth point is also the apparent center of the Moon's disk as observed from the Earth.In the animation, the blue dot is the sub-Earth point, and the yellow cone is the subsolar point. The lunar latitude and longitude of the sub-Earth point is a measure of the Moon's libration. For example, when the blue dot moves to the left of the meridian (the line at 0 degrees longitude), an extra bit of the Moon's western limb is rotating into view, and when it moves above the equator, a bit of the far side beyond the north pole becomes visible.At any given time, half of the Moon is in sunlight, and the subsolar point is in the center of the lit half. Full Moon occurs when the subsolar point is near the center of the Moon's disk. When the subsolar point is somewhere on the far side of the Moon, observers on Earth see a crescent phase. || An animated diagram of the Moon's distance from the Earth for 2025. The sizes and distances are true to scale, and the lighting and Earth tilt are correct. The frames include an alpha channel. || dist.0120_print.jpg (1024x576) [7.9 KB] || distance (1920x1080) [8760 Item(s)] || moon_distance_2025_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [2.2 MB] || moon_distance_2025_720p30.mp4 (1280x720) [1.3 MB] || distance (3840x2160) [8760 Item(s)] || distance (5760x3240) [8760 Item(s)] || moon_distance_2025_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [6.3 MB] || moon_distance_2025_360p30.mp4 (640x360) [655.0 KB] || moon_distance_2025_2160p30.mp4.hwshow || The Moon's orbit around the Earth isn't a perfect circle. The orbit is slightly elliptical, and because of that, the Moon's distance from the Earth varies between 28 and 32 Earth diameters, or about 356,400 and 406,700 kilometers. In each orbit, the smallest distance is called perigee, from Greek words meaning "near earth," while the greatest distance is called apogee. The Moon looks largest at perigee because that's when it's closest to us.The animation follows the imaginary line connecting the Earth and the Moon as it sweeps around the Moon's orbit. From this vantage point, it's easy to see the variation in the Moon's distance. Both the distance and the sizes of the Earth and Moon are to scale in this view. In the HD-resolution frames, the Earth is 50 pixels wide, the Moon is 14 pixels wide, and the distance between them is about 1500 pixels, on average.Note too that the Earth appears to go through phases just like the Moon does. For someone standing on the surface of the Moon, the Sun and the stars rise and set, but the Earth doesn't move very much in the sky. It goes through a monthly sequence of phases as the Sun angle changes. The phases are the opposite of the Moon's. During New Moon here, the Earth is full as viewed from the Moon. || Feature labels. Crater labels appear when the center of the crater is within 20 degrees of the terminator (the day-night line). They are on the western edge of the crater during waxing phases (before Full Moon) and to the east during waning phases. Mare, sinus, and lacus features are labeled when in sunlight. Apollo landing site labels are always visible. The frames include an alpha channel. || label.0120_print.jpg (1024x576) [14.5 KB] || labels (1920x1080) [8760 Item(s)] || moon_labels_2025_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [24.1 MB] || labels (3840x2160) [8760 Item(s)] || labels (5760x3240) [8760 Item(s)] || moon_labels_2025_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [92.3 MB] || moon_labels_2025_2160p30.mp4.hwshow || The Named PhasesThe following is a gallery containing examples of each of the Moon phases that have names in English. New, full, and quarter phases occur on specific days, while crescent and gibbous phases are the transitions between these points and span multiple days. The quarters are so named because they occur when the Moon is one fourth or three fourths of the way through its cycle of phases. Many people find this confusing, though, since visually they are half moons. It might be helpful to remember that the visible half of the Moon's disk is really only one quarter of its spherical surface. || Waxing crescent. Visible toward the southwest in early evening. || phase_waxing_crescent.2028_print.jpg (1024x1024) [134.5 KB] || phase_waxing_crescent.2028.tif (3240x3240) [10.7 MB] || First quarter. Visible high in the southern sky in early evening. || phase_first_quarter.2091_print.jpg (1024x1024) [157.2 KB] || phase_first_quarter.2091.tif (3240x3240) [10.3 MB] || Waxing gibbous. Visible to the southeast in early evening, up for most of the night. || phase_waxing_gibbous.2158_print.jpg (1024x1024) [163.6 KB] || phase_waxing_gibbous.2158.tif (3240x3240) [9.3 MB] || Full Moon. Rises at sunset, high in the sky around midnight. Visible all night. || phase_full.1571_print.jpg (1024x1024) [184.7 KB] || phase_full.1571.tif (3240x3240) [9.4 MB] || Waning gibbous. Rises after sunset, high in the sky after midnight, visible to the southwest after sunrise. || phase_waning_gibbous.2403_print.jpg (1024x1024) [192.9 KB] || phase_waning_gibbous.2403.tif (3240x3240) [11.0 MB] || Third quarter. Rises around midnight, visible to the south after sunrise. || phase_third_quarter.1755_print.jpg (1024x1024) [162.4 KB] || phase_third_quarter.1755.tif (3240x3240) [11.2 MB] || Waning crescent. Low to the east before sunrise. || phase_waning_crescent.1810_print.jpg (1024x1024) [131.1 KB] || phase_waning_crescent.1810.tif (3240x3240) [11.5 MB] || New Moon. By the modern definition, New Moon occurs when the Moon and Sun are at the same geocentric ecliptic longitude. The part of the Moon facing us is completely in shadow then. Pictured here is the traditional New Moon, the earliest visible waxing crescent, which signals the start of a new month in many lunar and lunisolar calendars. || phase_new.1933_print.jpg (1024x1024) [91.8 KB] || phase_new.1933.tif (3240x3240) [10.3 MB] || Planets & Moons || Albedo || Elevation data || HDTV || Hyperwall || Laser Altimeter || LOLA || LRO || LROC || Lunar || Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter || Lunar Surface || Lunar Topography || LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) || LRO - Animations || The Moon || DEM (Digital Elevation Map) [LRO: LOLA] || DE421 (JPL DE421) || LROC WAC Color Mosaic (Natural Color Hapke Normalized WAC Mosaic) [Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter: LRO Camera] || Ernie Wright (USRA) as Visualizer || Noah Petro (NASA/GSFC) as Scientist || James Tralie (ADNET Systems, Inc.) as Producer ||

This page contains equirectangular versions of Perpetual Ocean 2's 'beauty version'. || 5505 || Perpetual Ocean 2: Equirectangular || # To view one of 70 high resolution subset movies, go to the picker page || perpetual_ocean2_EQUIREC_071_final_beauty_level0_A_1.mp4 (4096x2048) [2.3 GB] || 16384x8192_2x1_60p (16384x8192) [7204 Item(s)] || 9600x3240_16x9_60p (9600x3240) [3601 Item(s)] || This is a visualization of ocean currents around the world. NASA’s ocean model, Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO)), is used to visualize the currents. The ECCO ocean circulation model incorporates observations from spacecraft, buoys, and other in situ measurements to keep the model accurate. ECCO is a joint project between NASA/JPL and MIT. The model output used here is from ECCO-2 and covers the years 2021-2023.This page contains equirectangular versions of Perpetual Ocean 2's beauty pass. The beauty pass is the aesthetically pleasing version where what's driving the colors isn't as relevant. There are 7201 images rendered at very high resolution (16,384 x 8192 pixels per frame). These images total over 7 Terrabytes of data. You can download individual frames, all frames, or movies of subsections of these frames (see the picker below).In this visualization ocean currents at all depths are shown. Those closer to the surface (above 600 meters depth) are white while those from 600 meters depth and lower are darker and darker shades of blue). || The is a sample image showing the full resolution detail available from: • the smallest rectanglular regions available from the picker page• or from the high resolution source frames which are 16384 x 8192 pixels# To view one of 70 high resolution subset movies, go to the picker page || full_res_sample.png (1280x640) [1.8 MB] || This is a smaller (2048x1024) and faster (10x speed) version of the global movie that can be played on an interactive globe. || fast_global_small.mp4 (2048x1024) [75.1 MB] || This is the color bar applied to this 'beauty shot version' of the ocean currents. All currents above 600 meters depth are white. All currents at 600 meters and below use this blue-cyan-white colorbar below with value ranging from -3 to 22 celcius. || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_101_cbar_beauty.png (1920x1080) [309.1 KB] || Earth Information Center Visualization for the Hyperwall (32:9 Aspect ratio, 7680x2160 pixels resolution)This visualization showcases the Agulhas Current as it carries warm water along the east coast of Southern Africa. Giant spinning whirlpools called Agulhas Rings break off from this current, each one larger than many cities. These massive rings transport warm water from the Indian Ocean into the Atlantic Ocean, helping move heat around our planet and affecting global weather patterns.This visualization was created using frames from Perpetual Ocean 2's beauty pass, which is available on this webpage. || OceanFlows_AgulhasCurrent_3840x1080.mp4 (3840x1080) [178.4 MB] || OceanFlows_AgulhasCurrent_7680x2160.mp4 (7680x2160) [536.6 MB] || OceanFlows_3840x108030fps.png (3840x1080) [9.3 MB] || OceanFlows_7680x216030fps.png (7680x2160) [31.8 MB] || 7680x2160_32x1_30p (7680x2160) [2251 Item(s)] || Earth || Ocean || ocean circulation || Perpetual Ocean 2 || ECCO2 (ECCO2 High Resolution Ocean and Sea Ice Model) || ETOPO-30 || Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC) as Data visualizer || Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC) as Data visualizer || Atousa Saberi (NASA/GSFC) as Scientist ||

This is the 'beauty shot version' of Perpetual Ocean 2: Western Boundary Currents. The visualization starts with a rotating globe showing ocean currents. The camera then zooms into the Kuroshio current, moves over the Indian Ocean to the Agulhas Current, then over to the Gulf Stream. The flows from the surface down to 600 meters deep are all white. Flows below 600 meters depth use the blue-cyan-white color table below. || 5425 || Perpetual Ocean 2: Western Boundary Currents || This is the 'beauty shot version' of Perpetual Ocean 2: Western Boundary Currents. The visualization starts with a rotating globe showing ocean currents. The camera then zooms into the Kuroshio current, moves over the Indian Ocean to the Agulhas Current, then over to the Gulf Stream.The colors used to color the flow in this version where chosen to provide a pleasing look. The flows from the surface down to 600 meters deep are all white. Flows below 600 meters depth use the blue-cyan-white color table below. || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_093_clean_noDate_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [1.2 GB] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_093_clean_noDate_2160p60.mp4 (3840x2160) [5.0 GB] || beauty_all_depths (3840x2160) [19002 Item(s)] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_093_clean_noDate_1080p_carousel.jpg (1920x1080) [638.0 KB] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_093_4k_clean_noDate.00000_print.jpg (1024x576) [215.0 KB] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_093_4k_clean_noDate.00000_thm.png (80x40) [4.5 KB] || 9600x3240_16x9_30p (9600x3240) [9501 Item(s)] || perpetual_ocean2_beauty_hw5x3_810p30_5.mp4 (2400x810) [990.4 MB] || The narrated version of this visualization was accepted into ACM/SIGGRAPH's 2025 Electronic Theater.https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14745/ || SIGGRAPH_OfficialSelectionETWhite.png (1920x1080) [49.5 KB] || This is a visualization of ocean currents around the world. NASA’s ocean model, Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO)), is used to visualize the currents. The ECCO ocean circulation model incorporates observations from spacecraft, buoys, and other in situ measurements to keep the model accurate. ECCO is a joint project between NASA/JPL, MIT, and UT Austin. The model output used here is from ECCO-2 and covers the years 2021-2023.In 2011, we used ECCO2 to create a visualization called Perpetual Ocean. Perpetual Ocean continues to be extremely popular, but it only shows ocean currents on the surface. In this new visualization, we use the ocean’s 3D velocity field to visualize some of the strongest ocean currents. We release virtual particles in the ocean and allow them to move with the ocean’s three dimensional velocity field. Each particle has a trail to better see its direction of movement. The particles initialized above 600 meters in depth have a trail length of 3 days, those initialized deeper than 600 meters have a trail length of 6 days. The particle trails help identify the strongest currents in the world that are squeezed in narrow belts on the western side of each ocean basin. These are called western boundary currents. The looping meanders in the boundary currents sometimes form turbulent rings (eddies) that can trap cold or warm waters in their centers and then separate from the main flow (see 2:30 of temperature version for an example for trapped warm water). In general, the western boundary currents are warm and salty.The visualization starts from a global rotating view before slowing down to see the Western Boundary Current along the western edge of the Pacific Ocean along the coasts of Australia, and Asia. We zoom in to show the Kuroshio Current off the coast of Japan. Along the Japanese coast, the current exhibits large meanders that can persist for many months in more or less the same location. The Kuroshio current has a temperature range of 20 to 25 °C. Its salinity can change seasonally with an average value of 34.5.We then zoom out and move over the Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean exhibits large variations in salinity. The western Indian Ocean is quite salty (>36) due to overflow inputs from marginal Seas (e.g. Persian Gulf and Red Sea). The East Indian Ocean is fresher (~35) due to river inputs from India. The Indonesian Throughflow is quite fresh (33-34) and carries freshwater from the Pacific. We then zoom into the southern tip of Africa. The exchange of water from the Indian Ocean to the South Atlantic occurs here. The Agulhas Current is another Western Boundary current following the slope of the continental shelf closely. The continental shelf along the east coast of southern Africa is quite narrow and steep. This sloping topography stabilizes the Agulhas Current so that it shows no wide meanderings of the type familiar in other boundary currents such as the Kuroshio. The Agulhas Current overshoots the African continent, moving into the South Atlantic. Then retroflects back to the Indian Ocean. At the retroflection, shedding of warm (20 to 25 °C ) and salty (~35.5) rings happens. The eddies detached from the current have a lifetime of more than 2 years traveling across the south Atlantic ocean. These eddies are referred to as Agulhas Rings.Another Western Boundary Current, called the Gulf Stream comes into view along the east coast of North America. The Gulf Stream forms at the Florida Straits. It’s one of the fastest currents on Earth with surface speed of up to 2.5 meters per second. In the Gulf stream, cold cores (mostly anticyclonic ones) form when the Gulf Stream meanders eastward leaving the coast of North America (off Cape Hatteras in North Carolina). The eddy diameters can be as large as 1000 km. Zooming into the Gulf Stream, we can see that the warm surface water (>25°C) moves poleward (white particle trails). The Gulf Stream is generally the warmest and saltiest western boundary current. There’s a return current underneath at depth below 500m (the blue particle trails) moving southward carrying cold waters from the pole. The loop currents in the Gulf of Mexico are very large eddies persisting in the Gulf. They bring the warm and highly saline Caribbean water into the Gulf. As we zoom out from the Gulf Stream, the salinity version shows that the Atlantic is generally much more salty than the Pacific.Models like ECCO-2 help scientists to understand the characteristics of these currents better and ultimately understand how heat is transported globally in the Ocean. || This is the 'temperature version' of Perpetual Ocean 2: Western Boundary Currents. The visualization starts with a rotating globe showing ocean currents. The camera then zooms into the Kuroshio current, moves over the Indian Ocean to the Agulhas Current, then over to the Gulf Stream.The colors used to color the flow in this version vary from dark blue to purple to orange to yellow. See the colorbar below specified for the 'temperature version'. || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_096_temperature.00000_print.jpg (1024x576) [189.7 KB] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_096_temperature_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [903.8 MB] || temperature (3840x2160) [19001 Item(s)] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_096_temperature_2160p60.mp4 (3840x2160) [3.3 GB] || This is the 'salinity version' of Perpetual Ocean 2: Western Boundary Currents. See the colorbar below specified for the 'salinity version'. || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_103_salinity.00001_print.jpg (1024x576) [180.3 KB] || salinity (3840x2160) [19001 Item(s)] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_103_salinity_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [994.5 MB] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_103_salinity_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [3.9 GB] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_103_salinity.mp4 (3840x2160) [4.3 GB] || This is the '600 meter and deeper beauty version' showing only ocean currents below 600 meters in the Gulf Stream region. This is intended for fading in post production to better see the counter current. This uses the same color table as the 'beauty shot version'. || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_095_beauty_600m_and_below.14000_print.jpg (1024x576) [380.6 KB] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_095_beauty_600m_and_below_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [115.3 MB] || beauty_600m_and_lower (3840x2160) [2001 Item(s)] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_095_beauty_600m_and_below_2160p60.mp4 (3840x2160) [366.6 MB] || This is an overlay layer of the equator line and label to enable the enhancement of the equator in post production. It is rendered with a hold-out matte for the earth. || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_095_equator_holdout.00000_print.jpg (1024x576) [8.4 KB] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_095_equator_holdout_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [2.4 MB] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_095_equator_holdout.mp4 (3840x2160) [9.4 MB] || equator (3840x2160) [19001 Item(s)] || Optional sea ice only layer. || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_097_SEA_ICE_ONLY.00000_print.jpg (1024x576) [14.2 KB] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_097_SEA_ICE_ONLY_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [4.9 MB] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_097_SEA_ICE_ONLY.mp4 (3840x2160) [19.1 MB] || sea_ice (3840x2160) [19001 Item(s)] || Layer with land only || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_097_LAND_ONLY2.00000_print.jpg (1024x576) [113.3 KB] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_097_LAND_ONLY2_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [229.6 MB] || land_only (3840x2160) [19001 Item(s)] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_097_LAND_ONLY_2160p60.mp4 (3840x2160) [691.0 MB] || Land mask layer. This is intended to be used with the land layer which has changing snow. || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_097_LAND_MASK.00000_print.jpg (1024x576) [44.2 KB] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_097_LAND_MASK_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [46.3 MB] || land_mask (3840x2160) [19001 Item(s)] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_097_LAND_MASK.mp4 (3840x2160) [153.1 MB] || This is a dates only layer that corresponds to the 'beauty shot version' and 'temperature version' on this page. Dates range from 15 Jan 2021 to 25 Dec 2023. || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_093_datesOnly.00000_print.jpg (1024x576) [8.4 KB] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_093_datesOnly_1080p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [2.5 MB] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_093_datesOnly_2160p60.mp4 (3840x2160) [10.1 MB] || dates (3840x2160) [19001 Item(s)] || This color bar is applied to the 'salinity version' of the ocean currents. The colors range from greenish-cyan to gray to orange to red. Values range from 33 to 36 salinity units. || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_100_salinity_cbar.png (1920x1080) [311.4 KB] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_100_salinity_cbar_print.jpg (1024x576) [32.1 KB] || This is the color bar applied to the 'beauty shot version' and the '600 meters and deeper version' of the ocean currents. In the 'beauty shot version', all currents above 600 meters depth are white. All currents at 600 meters and below use this blue-cyan-white colorbar below with value ranging from -3 to 22 celcius. || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_101_cbar_beauty.png (1920x1080) [309.1 KB] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_101_cbar_beauty_print.jpg (1024x576) [34.6 KB] || Color bar applied to the 'temperature version' of the ocean currents. Colors range from blue to purple to yellow in degrees Celcius from 0 to 25. || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_101_cbar_temperature.png (1920x1080) [361.0 KB] || perpetual_ocean2_CLOSE_101_cbar_temperature_print.jpg (1024x576) [34.4 KB] || Earth || Earth Science || ocean circulation || ocean currents || Oceans || Physical oceanography || Perpetual Ocean 2 || BMNG (Blue Marble: Next Generation) [Terra and Aqua: MODIS] || ECCO2 (ECCO2 High Resolution Ocean and Sea Ice Model) || ETOPO-30 || Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC) as Visualizer || Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC) as Visualizer || Laurence Schuler (ADNET Systems, Inc.) as Technical support || Ian Jones (ADNET Systems, Inc.) as Technical support || Atousa Saberi (NASA/GSFC) as Scientist || Josh Willis (JPL) as Scientist || Kathleen Gaeta (Advocates in Manpower Management, Inc.) as Producer ||