Las mejores fotografías que dejó la NASA del espacio en el 2016

[Artist Concept] Neptune-mass exoplanets like the one shown in this artist's rendering may be the most common in the icy regions of planetary systems. Beyond a certain distance from a young star, water and other substances remain frozen, leading to an abundant population of icy objects that can collide and form the cores of new planets. In the foreground, an icy body left over from this period drifts past the planet. Credits: NASA/Goddard/Francis Reddy #nasa #neptune #exoplanet #space #nasabeyond #astronomy #planet #science

A photo posted by NASA (@nasa) on Dec 19, 2016 at 4:11am PST

A Barred Galaxy! In 1900, astronomer Joseph Lunt made a discovery: Peering through a telescope at Cape Town Observatory, the British-South African scientist spotted this beautiful sight in the southern constellation of Grus (The Crane): a barred spiral galaxy. Over a century later, the galaxy is still of interest to astronomers. For this image, the Hubble Space Telescope used its Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) to produce a beautiful and intricate image of the galaxy. Hubble's ACS can resolve individual stars within other galaxies, making it an invaluable tool to explore how various populations of stars sprang to life, evolved, and died throughout the cosmos. IC 5201 sits over 40 million light-years away from us. As with two thirds of all the spirals we see in the Universe - including the Milky Way - the galaxy has a bar of stars slicing through its center. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA #nasa #hst #hubble #nasabeyond #galaxy #astronomy #science

A photo posted by NASA (@nasa) on Dec 17, 2016 at 6:38am PST

A Jupiter 'Pearl!' This image, taken by our Juno spacecraft, highlights the seventh of eight features forming a 'string of pearls' on Jupiter -- massive counterclockwise rotating storms that appear as white ovals in the gas giant's southern hemisphere. Since 1986, these white ovals have varied in number from six to nine. There are currently eight white ovals visible. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was about 15,300 miles (24,600 kilometers) from the planet. JunoCam is a color, visible-light camera designed to capture remarkable pictures of Jupiter's poles and cloud tops. As Juno's eyes, it will provide a wide view, helping to provide context for the spacecraft's other instruments. JunoCam was included on the spacecraft specifically for purposes of public engagement; although its images will be helpful to the science team, it is not considered one of the mission's science instruments. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS (@NASAJPL) #nasa #jupiter #juno #nasabeyond #planets #solarsystem #science

A photo posted by NASA (@nasa) on Dec 14, 2016 at 3:58pm PST

The constellation of Virgo (The Virgin) is especially rich in galaxies, due in part to the presence of a massive and gravitationally-bound collection of more than 1300 galaxies called the Virgo Cluster. One particular member of this cosmic community is captured in this image, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. Located some 60 million light-years away, this galaxy is experiencing some of the less desirable effects that come with belonging to such a massive galaxy cluster. It is undergoing a transformation and has taken on a somewhat confused identity. While the galaxy's outskirts appear smooth and featureless, a classic feature of an elliptical galaxy, its center displays remarkable dust lanes constrained within two symmetric spiral arms, which emerge from the galaxy's glowing core - one of the obvious features of a spiral galaxy. Within the arms, speckles of bright blue mark the locations of young stars, indicating that NGC 4388 has hosted recent bursts of star formation. Image credits: ESA/NASA #nasa #space #nasabeyond #hubble #hst #galaxy #astronomy #cosmos #science

A photo posted by NASA (@nasa) on Dec 9, 2016 at 12:04pm PST

Sahara desert from space! Middle school students programmed a camera aboard the International Space Station (@ISS) -- the Sally Ride EarthKAM -- to photograph this portion of the Sahara desert in western Libya on October 3, 2016. In early November 2016, the Expedition 50 crew set up the EarthKAM gear once again in the Harmony module's Earth-facing hatch window, to allow students to photograph targets on Earth and downlink the imagery. EarthKAM is the only program providing students with such direct control of an instrument on a spacecraft orbiting Earth, teaching them about environmental science, geography and space communications. The project was initiated by Dr. Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, in 1995 and called KidSat. Image Credit: Sally Ride EarthKAM #nasa #space #iss #spacestation

A photo posted by NASA (@nasa) on Dec 6, 2016 at 4:19pm PST

宇宙からの夜景。 #JAXA #宇宙航空研究開発機構 #Aerospace #ISS #ピカピカ#キラキラ#Love

A photo posted by JAXA (@jaxajp) on Nov 30, 2016 at 6:47am PST

運命の糸を伸ばして。 #JAXA#宇宙航空研究開発機構 #Aerospace #KITE #デブリ除去 #良い夫婦の日 #運命共同体 #Love

A photo posted by JAXA (@jaxajp) on Nov 21, 2016 at 11:34pm PST

#JAXA #宇宙航空 #Aerospace #いい色の日 #オーロラ #Love

A photo posted by JAXA (@jaxajp) on Nov 15, 2016 at 10:58pm PST

#JAXA #space #宇宙航空 #moon #Love

A photo posted by JAXA (@jaxajp) on Nov 14, 2016 at 12:38am PST

Vote While You float: An Astronaut Voting Story - With the excitement of getting to the polls on Election Day many people will have a hard time keeping their feet on the ground, but astronauts who vote literally have to strap themselves down so they don't float away. Astronauts orbit the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour, but thanks to a bill passed by Texas legislatures in 1997 that put in place technical voting procedure for astronauts - nearly all of whom live in Texas - they also have the ability to vote from space! For astronauts, the voting process starts a year before launch, when astronauts are able to select which elections (local/state/federal) that they want to participate in while in space. Then, six months before the election, astronauts are provided with a standard form: the "Voter Registration and Absentee Ballot Request - Federal Post Card Application." While astronauts don't have to wait in line for their ballot like the rest of us, there is one disadvantage to voting in space: they miss out on the highly coveted "I Voted" sticker. Credit: NASA #nasa #space #spacestation #vote #voted #electionday #electionday2016 #govote #iss #astronauts

A photo posted by NASA (@nasa) on Nov 8, 2016 at 11:16am PST