Planetary Society logo
  • “Exploration is in our nature.” - Carl Sagan

The coolest new space pictures: April 2024

This month, a total solar eclipse swept across North America, giving millions of people the chance to see a rare alignment of the Moon, Sun, and Earth. For those watching within the path of the darkest part of the Moon’s shadow, day turned to twilight, revealing the Sun’s corona. Even astronauts aboard the International Space Station had a chance to participate as the orbital complex flew directly through the eclipse.

Bailey's beads and solar prominences
Bailey's beads and solar prominences Bailey's Beads and solar prominences are seen just before totality from Dallas, Texas during a total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.Image: NASA/Keegan Barber
Total solar eclipse from Dallas
Total solar eclipse from Dallas A total solar eclipse is seen at the Dallas Arboretum on April 8, 2024, in Dallas, Texas.Image: NASA/Keegan Barber
Total solar eclipse 2024
Total solar eclipse 2024 A total solar eclipse is seen from Dallas, Texas on April 8, 2024.Image: NASA/Keegan Barber
Total solar eclipse 2024 as seen from ISS
Total solar eclipse 2024 as seen from ISS The Moon's shadow covers portions of the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick and the American state of Maine in this image from the International Space Station as it soared into the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.Image: NASA

Here are some other images that caught our attention this month:

Io's south pole
Io's south pole Io's south pole region, photographed for the first time ever thanks to the JunoCam instrument on NASA's Juno spacecraft.Image: Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS; Image processing: Gerald Eichstädt / Thomas Thomopoulos (CC BY)
Expedition 70 crew lands
Expedition 70 crew lands The crew of Expedition 70 smiles from inside their Soyuz capsule shortly after landing in Kazakhstan on April 6, 2024. From left: NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, and Belarus spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya.Image: NASA/Bill Ingalls
Asteroid photobombs Hubble galaxy image
Asteroid photobombs Hubble galaxy image An asteroid wanders through this image of galaxy UGC 12158 captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble took multiple exposures of the galaxy, causing the foreground asteroid to appear as a series of bright white dashes. The curved path is due to parallax as Hubble orbits the Earth. Instead of being a nuisance, photobombs like these are useful to scientists trying to estimate the asteroid population in our Solar System.Image: Image: NASA, ESA, Pablo García Martín (UAM) / Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
Starliner installed for crewed flight test
Starliner installed for crewed flight test A Boeing Starliner spacecraft is mated to its Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on April 16, 2024. The spacecraft will be used for the first Starliner crewed flight test to the International Space Station in May 2024.Image: NASA/Kim Shiflett
LRO images Danuri
LRO images Danuri NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image of Korea's Danuri spacecraft above the lunar surface in March 2024. Because the two vehicles passed each other at a relative speed of 11,500 kilometers per hour (7,200 miles per hour), Danuri appears as a smear. NASA released the image on April 5, 2024.Image: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Perseverance image of "Bunsen Peak" sample
Perseverance image of "Bunsen Peak" sample NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured this image of a sample cored from a rock called "Bunsen Peak" on March 11, 2024. The image was taken by Perseverance's Sampling and Caching System Camera, or CacheCam, located inside the rover's underbelly. The camera looks down into the top of sample tubes to take close-up pictures of the sampled material and the tubes as they are prepared for sealing and storage. NASA released this image on April 3, 2024.Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
'Spiders' near Inca City
'Spiders' near Inca City Near the south pole of Mars, plateaus intersperse with mounds, hills, and a set of geometric ridges commonly called "Inca City" (far left). The dark splotches near the ridges, known as 'spiders', are the result of sublimated carbon dioxide dredging up sand and dust from beneath the surface. Image taken by ESA's Mars Express on February 27, 2024 and released on April 24, 2024.Image: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin
Space junk survives atmosphere
Space junk survives atmosphere A stanchion used to mount batteries on the International Space Station survived re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere and hit a home in Naples, Florida on March 8, 2024. NASA released this image on April 15, 2024.Image: NASA