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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 02/10/2026

Don't worry, that's not an astronaut lost in space, it's just an empty spacesuit. The suit was a decommissioned Russian spacesuit. It was dubbed Suitsat-1 and was pushed into orbit by the crew of the ISS in 2006. The suit orbited Earth for a few months before burning up in reentry. #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

A space suit floats away, well above the Earth

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 18/09/2026

The arc seen here within the Orion Nebula is an example of a bow shock, created when the stellar wind from the nearby young variable star, LL Orionis, collides with the slower moving gas of the nebula cloud. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

A colorful cloud in space. In center a clear arc shape can be seen.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 04/09/2026

This is M77, the Squid Galaxy, as seen by Webb. The bright orange light at its center is an example of an active galactic nucleus (AGN), with the large arms coming off it being diffraction spikes due to its intense brightness. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

$A close look at a spiral galaxy. The galaxy's core features a bright white light with diffraction spikes that spread all the way to the edge of the image.$

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 28/08/2026

What is up with this galaxy? NGC 474 is a elliptical galaxy. Rather than the spiral shape we're used to, an elliptical galaxy takes a round shape. This one in particular features several layers of shells, and we don't fully understand what causes them. (1/2) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 21/08/2026

This is NGC 346, an open star cluster in a nebula. Stars are born in large numbers inside of a nebula, resulting in an open cluster, a group of thousands of stars loosely bound together by their mutual gravity. They're like the children who aren't old enough to move out. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

A group of bright stars surrounded by swirling, nebulous structures.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 07/08/2026

From Earth, any observation of Saturn will only see its day time side, as when the planet is on the night side of Earth, it's opposite from the Sun, leaving the Sun-facing side also facing Earth. But this observation from the Cassini probe shows a crescent Saturn. (1/2) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

Saturn and its rings with part of Saturn in day time and part in night. Saturn casts a shadow on its rings.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 31/07/2026

This is a galaxy seen perfectly side-on. While this is a spiral galaxy the spiral shape can only be seen from above or below, but from the angle we see it, we can only see the side, making it look like a flat glowing line. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

A galaxy seen side-on. It appears like a glowing line in space.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 30/07/2026

Remember when TVs used to show static? The random white and black patterns was the TV displaying whatever random signals it picked up. As it turns out, about 1% of these signals originated from the Cosmic Microwave Background, the light of the Big Bang. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

An analog TV showing black and white static.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 24/07/2026

What looks like one galaxy is actually two. The round yellowish segment is one, and the blue and red spiral around it is another. What's truly impressive is that without the foreground galaxy blocking the background, we'd never actually be able to see the background. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

A bizarrely shaped galaxy with a smooth inner section and swirling outer section, each with distinct colors.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 17/07/2026

An aurora seen from space. This shot of the Aurora Australis, otherwise known as the Southern Lights, was taken from above by the International Space Station. The ISS actually orbits Earth at the same level as the uppermost portions of the aurora. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 10/07/2026

The dazzling light of tens of thousands of stars shine in this cluster. This is M69, a globular cluster, which is a group of tens of thousands of tightly packed stars that orbits around the Milky Way, rather than being a proper part of it. It's like a satellite for a galaxy. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 03/07/2026

Let's celebrate the USA's 250th with what looks to be North America in space. You can even see the US portion. This is the North America Nebula, named due to its striking resemblance to the North America Continent. It is an emission nebula, a cloud of gas where stars are born. (1/2) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

A cloud of gas in space. It is vaguely shaped like the North America continent, with parts that invoke the shape of Mexico, Florida, Alaska, and more.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 19/06/2026

This striking image features the Medulla Nebula, a brain-shaped nebula. The nebula is a supernova remnant, a type of gas cloud left behind from an explosion at the end of the life a massive star. The supernova that created this nebula occurred about 10,000 years ago. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

A red cloud in space shaped vaguely like a human brain. The background is filled with an even wispier red cloud.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 12/06/2026

An up close look into a barred spiral galaxy courtesy of James Webb. This is NGC 1365, and incredibly huge galaxy that's over 200,000 light-years in diameter. That's twice the size of the Milky Way! (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

The wispy tendrils of a galaxy's spiral arms around an elongated central core that glows far brighter than the rest.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 05/06/2026

A moon surfing the waves of Saturn's rings. This image shows Daphnis, an 8 km diameter moon of Saturn. This moon orbits right between two of the rings, in the Keeler Gap. As Daphnis orbits between the rings, it creates a rippling pattern of waves that follows behind it. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 29/05/2026

Is that a hand? In space? This is MSH 15-52, a pulsar wind nebula, but given its striking shape, it has been nicknamed "The Hand of God," as it looks like an arm and a hand reaching out to grab another nebula. (1/3) #Astronomy⚛️🧪🛰️

A blue nebula cloud in space that is vaguely shaped like a human hand reaching out to grab a red cloud above it. A bright light is in the hand's wrist.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 22/05/2026

When two different telescopes work together, you can get amazing results. This image is collaboration between James Webb and another space telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Each telescope sees the universe in a different way, painting a fuller picture when combined. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

A nebula cloud in space wraps around the image like a circular frame. Several bright red stars shine through the cloud. In the background are many more lights of various shapes and sizes.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 20/05/2026

A grain of sand held out at arm's length towards the sky will cover up over 10,000 galaxies. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field was an image by Hubble in 2004 with over 10,000 galaxies in the same image. But the area of sky the telescope was looking is only the size of a sand grain. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

A field of lights. Most look like single points, but some are larger and are clearly spiral and disk shaped galaxies.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 15/05/2026

A reverse view of an eclipse. In this image of Earth, you might notice the dark round area near the top of the planet. What could it be? It's actually the shadow of the Moon left during an annular solar eclipse in 2012. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

The Earth as seen from space. Near the north end of the globe, a large circular shadow is present.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 12/05/2026

This chart shows Venus' atmosphere. From 45 to 70 km, you get sulfuric acid (H2SO4) clouds. These clouds are dense and surround the entire planet. Any life in this potential "habitable layer" would have to contend with the nasty stuff. Again, not impossible, but not the most likely either. (1/3)

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 08/05/2026

This field of white dwarf stars was captured in 2002 by Hubble and is an important tool in determining the age of the universe. A white dwarf is the remnant of a dead star. They cool at a predictable rate, so by studying these stars, we can determine how old they are. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

$A field of white stars with four diffraction spikes on each.$

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 01/05/2026

A stellar baby photo. At a meager 400 light-years away, the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is one of the closest star-forming regions to us. With help from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope, we can peer through the clouds to see the stars forming inside. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

A vast cloud in space with two bright patches. In the center bright patch, several orbs of light are visible.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 24/04/2026

Today is Hubble's 36th anniversary of launch. This image was released to celebrate Hubble's 30th anniversary in 2020. It shows NGC 2014 (red) and NGC 2020 (blue). Together they are known as the Cosmic Reef. Both are completely different types of nebulae. (1/3) #Hubble 🔭⚛️🧪🛰️

Two stellar clouds. The much larger one is mostly red with some traces of blue and looks lumpy. The smaller one is all blue and looks like a shell.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 22/04/2026

For Earth Day, let's remind ourselves just how small the Earth is. This is The Pale Blue Dot. You see that tiny bluish pixel? That's the Earth in farthest photo ever taken of it. It was taken in 1990 by Voyager 1 as the probe left the Solar System, over 6 billion km from Earth. (1/3) #EarthDay 🔭⚛️🧪🛰️

A mostly black image with several beams of light stretched across it. Within one beam is a tiny bluish pixel that barely stands out against its background.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 17/04/2026

Two galaxies collide and are born anew. This image is of Arp 107, two galaxies that have collided and are in the process of combining together. While this may sound like the end these galaxies, it's actually a new beginning. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

Two distinct galaxies are in the process of merging into one. The one on the left is mostly pale light, while the one on the right has a rich red light around it in a nearly ring-like formation.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 10/04/2026

Artemis II is set to return to Earth in just a few hours. To celebrate, let's take a look at my favorite image taken during the mission. This image captures an Earthset, the Earth setting behind the Moon's horizon. Technically, there's actually no such thing as an Earthset. (1/3) #ArtemisII 🔭⚛️🧪🛰️

A view of the Earth lowering behind the horizon of the Moon from a perspective above the Moon's surface. An Earthset.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 03/04/2026

With Artemis II on its way to the Moon, let's remember the first time humans landed there. This photo was taken by Michael Collins of Apollo 11 in the command module as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were returning in the lunar module at the end of their mission. (1/2) #ArtemisII 🔭⚛️🧪🛰️

The Moon from above. The Earth can be seen as a small blue half-circle above the Moon's horizon. Apollo 11's lunar module floats above the Moon's surface.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 27/03/2026

A galaxy ablaze with star formation. NGC 2283 is barred spiral galaxy about 45 million light-years away from Earth. The dense knots of brightly glowing gas is the result of active star formation. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

A spiral galaxy seen close up and head on. The galaxy glows with knots and webs of red, orange, and yellow, and is brighter closer to the center.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 20/03/2026

Earth isn't the only planet with aurorae. Just like Earth's Northern Lights, Saturn's magnetic field diverts charged particles from the Sun to its poles, where the particles collide with gas molecules in the atmosphere to create a light show. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

Saturn with a colorful blue band around its north pole.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 13/03/2026

The Pillars of Creation from a whole new perspective. You've likely seen Hubble's famous "Pillars of Creation" image before, but here's an alternative look at it by the James Webb Space Telescope. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

Several pillars of dust in outer space stretch across the image with impressive detail. There are stars both around and within the pillars. It's the famous Pillars of Creation image, but with even more detail.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 06/03/2026

The James Webb Space Telescope is the most powerful telescope in use. For it to see as far as it does, it needs a massive mirror. Most telescopes, both grounded and space, use mirrors to collect light. The bigger the mirror, the more light collected and the better the image. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

Three technicians in full clean suits, masks, and gloves inspect a large, golden, hexagonal mirror, one of the panels of the primary mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 27/02/2026

This image is the groundbreaking proof of a long believed astronomical concept. This is the Serpens Nebula, an active star-forming region. Look closely, and you'll spot multiple stellar jets being ejected from the newly formed stars. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

A shadowy nebula with tints of orange, red, and blue. There are several bright, newly formed stars. Some of those stars have great jets of interstellar gas emerging from opposite ends. The jets of multiple stars are all at the same angle.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 25/02/2026

In this deep field image, nearly every light you see is a galaxy rather than a star. While the few bright lights with diffraction spikes are stars in the Milky Way that happen to be in sight, everything else is galaxies far away, which contain billions of stars of their own. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

A deep field showing countless galaxies. Several brighter lights with point-like glares coming off of them are stars in the foreground, while all theo ther lights are galaxies, some even having their spirals visible. At the center is an intensely bright galaxy cluster. Streaks of light, some looking like stretched galaxies, curve around the bright cluster thanks to gravitational lensing.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 22/02/2026

That's not an abstract painting, it's Jupiter's surface! As a gas giant planet, Jupiter has no solid surface. It's just one big atmosphere. This color-enhanced image from the Juno probe shows the turbulent and dynamic surface of Jupiter's bands and storms in vivid detail. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

The surface of Jupiter, with its color enhanced to better show the detail of its surface features. A swirling interaction between lighter and darker bands. Where the light and dark bands meet, there are bright spirals and ovals.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 20/02/2026

This is the Spider Nebula as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope. As JWST sees the world in infrared, the collapsed star at the nebula's center and its surroundings glow brightly, where they would normally be dim in visible light. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

A planetary nebula known as the Spider Nebula. A large hourglass-like cloud of gas in space. The center of the hourglass glows red, while the outer parts are blue. Behind it, numerous stars shine brightly.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 13/02/2026

The Space Shuttle Endeavour silhouetted by an orbital sunset as it approaches the ISS. As the Sun is fully behind the Earth, the Earth is a silhouette, but the atmosphere is able to scatter light around the planet. This is why it's not completely dark immediately after sunset. (1/5) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

A silhouette of a space shuttle against a sunset in orbit. Behind the shuttle are distinct bands of color. First red-orange, then white-blue, and finally dark blue before the black of space.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 06/02/2026

There comes a time in any star's life when it has to move out from its childhood home. This is part of the Tarantula Nebula, a stellar nursery. As the stars reach maturity, their stellar winds will push the remaining gas of the nebula away, leaving behind an open star cluster. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

A large diffuse nebula with a large concentration of bright blue stars at its center. Around the star cluster is a bubble where the nebula has been pushed away by the stellar winds of the stars.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 03/02/2026

The objects featured here are HH49 and HH50, as captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. HH stands for Herbig–Haro object, which is a type of nebula formed when narrow jets of gas are created from newborn stars colliding with the nearby gas clouds they formed out of. #Astronomy ⚛️🧪🛰️

An image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope featuring a towering, pillar-like cloud of interstellar gas and dust in shades of red and orange. The pillar extends diagonally from the bottom-right toward the top-left, appearing dense and semi-opaque with swirling, textured layers. At the very tip of the pillar, a bright, prominent blue light is surrounded by a faint, circular reddish ring. Stars and galaxies appear scattered across the background.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 02/02/2026

Compare Webb's image of IC 5332 to that taken by Hubble. Hubble sees the world in the visible and ultraviolet spectrums, which reveals a different picture. The interstellar dust of the Webb infrared image is just barely visible as dark patches where the visible and UV light is blocked. (2/3) 🔭⚛️🧪

IC 5332 as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. A typical spiral galaxy with clear spiral arms. Unlike the image from Webb, the finer structure of the spiral arms cannot clearly be seen.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 02/02/2026

We've all seen the grand spiral structures of galaxies, but have you ever seen the finer structure within? Usually, the interstellar dust that creates this form is invisible, but the James Webb Space Telescope is equipped to reveal the hidden detail using its infrared imaging. (1/3) #Astronomy ⚛️🧪

IC 5332 as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope. A spiral galaxy made up of an intricate and twisted web of filaments. Behind it, further away galaxies are visible in the background.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 31/01/2026

This is an up-close photo of Saturn's rings, but it also shows so much more. Those two little dots are actually the Earth and Moon as seen from over 1.4 billion kilometers away by the Cassini spacecraft. Everything you know and love is on that dot. #Astronomy ⚛️🧪

A close-up photograph of Saturn's rings, captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. The rings appear as wide, textured bands of beige, tan, and gold, stretching diagonally across the frame. To the left of the rings is the black void of space, featuring two tiny, bright white dots. In the upper-left corner, a much thinner ring of Saturn is visible.

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Amid the Stars @amidthestarstours.com · 30/01/2026

NGC 6357, known as the Lobster Nebula, is a diffuse nebula over 1,000 light-years across. This image is actually a composite of three different spectrums. The blue is visible light, the orange is infrared, and the pink is X-ray. #Astronomy ⚛️🧪

A wide-field composite view of NGC 6357, also known as the Lobster Nebula. The image reveals blue visible light, orange infrared, and pink X-ray data, highlighting long gas filaments coiling around huge cavities where massive new stars are forming.

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