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The coolest new space pictures: September 2024

This month, the Polaris Dawn private space mission performed the first-ever commercial spacewalk and livestreamed the highlights back to Earth. Cameras looked on as billionaire Jared Isaacman and SpaceX’s senior space operations engineer Sarah Gillis each took turns standing in the hatch of the spacecraft and testing their spacesuits.

Polaris Dawn spacewalk
Polaris Dawn spacewalk Jared Isaacman performs the first-ever private spacewalk as he partially exits the hatch of SpaceX's Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft.Image: SpaceX

This mission is the second of three flights Isaacman has purchased from SpaceX. Over the span of five days inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule “Resilience,” the crew conducted scientific experiments, played violin, and read aloud a children’s book to patients at St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. Polaris Dawn safely splashed down on Sept. 15, concluding the mission successfully and marking a major step forward in private spaceflight.

Crew Dragon Resilience
Crew Dragon Resilience SpaceX's Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft in orbit above Earth as part of the Polaris Dawn mission.Image: SpaceX

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

Phobos over Mars
Phobos over Mars Phobos in orbit above Mars, with Olympus Mons visible toward the upper-right of the planet. Image taken by ESA's Mars Express orbiter; original available at https://tinyurl.com/48b9amsk.Image: Image Processing: AndreaLuck CC BY; Raw data: ESA / DLR / FUBerlin
Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud
Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud The Arsia Mons Elongated Cloud (AMEC), which forms daily above the surface of Mars during certain times of year, as seen by ESA's Mars Express orbiter.Image: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / A. Cowart
Clouds over Vastitas Borealis
Clouds over Vastitas Borealis Rows of clouds above Vastitas Borealis on Mars, as seen by ESA's Mars Express orbiter.Image: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / A. Cowart
Juice waves goodbye (color)
Juice waves goodbye (color) Earth and the Moon imaged by ESA's Juice mission as the spacecraft flies toward Venus. The photo was taken from a distance of over five million kilometers (3 million miles).Image: ESA / Juice / JANUS
BepiColombo's fourth Mercury flyby
BepiColombo's fourth Mercury flyby Mercury as seen by ESA/JAXA's BepiColombo spacecraft during its fourth flyby of the planet.Image: ESA / BepiColombo / MTM
NGC 1333
NGC 1333 A star-forming region, called NGC 1333, imaged in the infrared by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.Image: ESA / Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Scholz, K. Muzic, A. Langeveld, R. Jayawardhana
Aurora from ISS Expedition 71
Aurora from ISS Expedition 71 Aurora australis over the Indian Ocean, as seen from the International Space Station.Image: NASA, ISS Expedition 71
Bubbles on R Doradus
Bubbles on R Doradus This radio image of the giant star R Doradus, taken by the ALMA observatory, shows distinct "bubbles" that are each about 75 times wider than the Sun. The bubbles trace the motion of hotter material rising up to the surface of the star while cooler material falls down, a process called convection.Image: ALMA (ESO / NAOJ / NRAO) / W. Vlemmings et al.