Image of The Day

X-ray Clues Reveal Destroyed Planet

In about 5 billion years, our Sun will run out of fuel and expand, possibly engulfing Earth. These end stages of a star’s life can be utterly beautiful – as is the case with this planetary nebula called the Helix Nebula. Astronomers study these objects by looking at all kinds of light. This images show X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (magenta), optical light data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (orange, light blue), infrared data from the European Southern Observatory VISTA telescope (gold, dark blue), and ultraviolet data from GALEX (purple) of the Helix Nebula.

Browse NASA Image Archive

The viking, the dragon and the god of thunder

Scandinavian mythology stories are rich in fantastic creatures, and a Nordic astronaut is about to write a new chapter as Space Viking Andreas Mogensen monitors the arrival of the Dragon cargo vessel at the International Space Station next week. The passenger: a state-of-the-art lightning hunter. Picture: ESA/DTU Space

Thunderstorms in space holds climate information

From it's position at ISS 400 km above the Earth ASIM will look into phenomena in the atmosphere powered by thunderstorms. ASIM will both survey thunderstorms and lightning above the clouds and the processes that power them. In this way new knowledge can be obtained about both this phenomena and climate related processes in the atmosphere. Picture: DTU Space/NASA

A space window to electrifying science

Lightning triggers powerful electrical bursts in Earth’s atmosphere almost every second. The inner workings of these magnificent forces of nature are still unknown, but a rare observation by an ESA astronaut gave a boost to the science community. A European detector will take on the challenge of hunting for thunderstorms from space next week. Picture: OTD/LIS/NASA

Astronaut Andreas Mogensen: “We practice faults and problems”

The countdown to the launch of Denmark's next large European space project ASIM has begun. Astronaut Andreas Mogensen is part of the ground team when ASIM is send to the International Space Station, ISS, from Cape Canaveral to survey thunderstorms. Picture: ESA

Danish-led space project ready for launch at Cape Canaveral

The last preparations are well-underway at Cape Canaveral in Florida leading up to the launch of the space project ASIM to survey thunderstorms from the International Space Station, ISS. Picture: Space-X

Denmark’s next space project ready in March 2018

The ASIM climate observatory will observe and photograph powerful electrical discharges from thunderclouds from space. Denmark’s next major European space project—The Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor (ASIM) observatory—is on its way to the USA in preparation for its launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the International Space Station (ISS). The launch is scheduled for 13 March 2018. Picture: Hasse Ferrold/Terma

Danish astronaut delivers superb results to DTU Space

Denmark can finally call itself a full member of the international space-faring community with the successful completion of Andreas Mogensen's mission to the Internation Space Station (ISS) in September. Since his return researchers at DTU Space have been busy processing the pictures he took of storm clouds and lightning as part of the Thor project. The results are beautiful to behold and far exceed the research team's expectations. Picture:ESA/Andreas Mogensen/DTU Space

Catapulted into the eye of a media storm

Torsten Neubert, Senior Executive Officer at DTU Space, landed with a splash in the media spotlight on 2 September, when Andreas Mogensen—the first Danish astronaut—travelled into space to carry out missions including photographing giant lightning bolts and thunderclouds for DTU Space. Here is what he has to say about the hectic days before, during and after the mission. Picture: DTU/Annette Refn

Danish Astronaut Strikes Gold for DTU Space

September 2015 will be remembered as the month when Denmark completed its apprenticeship as a Space-faring nation. Danish ESA astronaut, Andreas Mogensen, was launched on a 10-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS), and not only did the mission proceed with textbook precision, the patient astronaut collected valuable lightning data for DTU Space.