Free Space Pictures

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Here are some free space pictures. You can make any of these images into your computer desktop wallpaper. Just click on an image to enlarge it, and then choose “Set as Desktop Background”.

View From a Window

This image of the earth’s horizon, Soyuz 13 spacecraft and the Progress 22 resupply vehicle was taken from the International Space Station during the STS-116 mission. The STS-116 mission was succesfully flown by the space shuttle Discovery.

The Earth-Moon System

This is a nice view of the planet earth and the moon in one frame as seen from the Galileo spacecraft 6.2 million kilometers away.

Huge sunspot group

Here’s an image of the sun’s active region 9393 captured by the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) flying aboard the SOHO soacecraft on March 29, 2001. This was the largest sunspot group observed so far.

Double Black Holes

This is a nice image of the starburst galaxy M82 where two black holes are contained. This image was observed from the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Red Aurora as Seen from the Space Station

This image of a red aurora was taken from the International Space Station on October 2001. Red auroras was caused by the emission of 6300 Angstrom wavelength light from oxygen atoms.

We have written many articles that feature free space pictures for Universe Today. Here’s a collection of great space shuttle pictures, and here are some pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope.

If you’d like more free space pictures, the best place to look is NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day. I also recommend you check out the website for the Hubble Space Telescope.

We’ve recorded many episodes of Astronomy Cast, including one about Hubble. Check it out, Episode 88: The Hubble Space Telescope.