Space Image of the Day Gallery (July 2017)
'Jovey McJupiterface'
Tuesday, July 18, 2017: Jupiter's "face" looks awfully smug in this image from NASA's Juno spacecraft. Citizen scientist Jason Major reoriented a raw image of the planet's swirling storm clouds to make them look like facial features. He titled his work, "Jovey McJupiterface." — Hanneke Weitering
Little Moon, Big Jets
Wednesday, July 19, 2017: Huge jets erupt from the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus. Observations by NASA's Cassini spacecraft have revealed that the plumes are made of water vapor and suggest that the moon bears a subsurface ocean. — Hanneke Weitering
Buzz Aldrin on the Moon
Thursday, July 20, 2017: On this day in 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts became the first humans to walk on the moon. Neil Armstrong was the first to emerge from the lunar module "Eagle," and he took this photo of his crewmate Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the moon. — Hanneke Weitering
Phobos and Mars
Friday, July 21, 2017: As the Hubble Space Telescope was checking out Mars, it captured this view of the moon Phobos emerging from behind the Red Planet in its orbit. Hubble took 13 separate exposures over 22 minutes to create this composite image of the moon’s orbital path. — Hanneke Weitering
'Awesome Sauce' Aurora
Monday, July 24, 2017: NASA astronaut Jack Fischer captured this view of the northern lights from 250 miles (400 km) above the Earth at the International Space Station. "One of my favorite things to do in my free time is watch the aurora," Fischer tweeted on July 11. "It’s almost alive, as it slathers up the sky in awesome sauce." — Hanneke Weitering
NGC 7098
Tuesday, July 25, 2017: NGC 7098 is a barred spiral galaxy 95 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Octans. What looks like two circles of starlight around this galaxy's core are actually its spiral arms, which have wound themselves around it over time. — Hanneke Weitering
Robot Night Driver
The European Space Agency's Rover Autonomy Testbed, or RAT, takes a test drive at night during testing in the Moon-like environment of Teide National Park of Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands.
Get the Space.com Newsletter
Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!
Ireson Hill
Thursday, July 27, 2017: Mars' Ireson Hill rises 16 feet (5 meters) above the redder outcrop material on lower Mount Sharp. The Curiosity rover's Mastcam captured the hill Feb. 2 as it passed by, on Curiosity's 1,598th sol (Martian day) exploring the Red Planet, and the image has been white-balanced to show what it would look like if seen in daytime lighting on Earth. A portion of Gale Crater's rim can be seen in the background. — Sarah Lewin (See more recent Curiosity photos here.
Preparing for Launch
Friday, July 28, 2017: ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy and NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik pose during preparations to launch to the International Space Station July 28. The three have all been to space before. — Sarah Lewin
You can watch the liftoff live here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV.
Monday in Space
Monday, July 31, 2017: NASA astronaut Jack Fischer tweeted this gorgeous image taken on the International Space Station featuring sunrise on Earth.
"What do you need to start a Monday morning off right?" he wrote. "1. Floating coffee. 2. A pretty sunrise. Check and check!"
Fischer has more people to share the sunrise with now; with three new arrivals Friday, there are now six crewmembers aboard the space station crew. — Sarah Lewin
Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.
Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor.