#PPOD: The Expedition 74 crew on the International Space Station turned into meteor chasers as Earth passed through a cloud of dust and small debris left behind by comet Thatcher in 1861. ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot set up a camera to automatically capture thousands of images in hopes of catching a shooting star from the Lyrid meteor shower, an elusive event that often lasts only a fraction of a second. Credit: NASA/ESA – S. Adenot
#PPOD: After NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover drilled a sample from this rock on April 25, 2026, it withdrew its robotic arm and pulled the entire rock off the surface with it. Engineers spent several days repositioning the arm and vibrating the drill to try to loosen the rock. When it finally detached on May 1, the rock broke into pieces. This close-up image of the rock was produced by Curiosity’s Mast Camera, or Mastcam, on May 6. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
#PPOD: This image features two distinct families: a collection of ALMA antennas and a trio of vicuñas, a camelid related to llamas and alpacas. Unlike in almost every other way, the subjects of this image are linked by their extremely hostile home environment, high in the Chilean Andes. The Chajnantor plateau, site of the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) shown here, is 5000 meters above sea level, making it one of the driest places on Earth. Credit: S. Otarola/ESO
#PPOD: This image of Mars was captured by NASA’s Psyche mission on May 3, 2026, about 3 million miles from the planet as the spacecraft approaches for a gravity assist on May 15. Sunlight is reflected and scattered by dust in the Martian atmosphere, creating an extended crescent around the planet. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
#PPOD: A thin sliver of Earth’s edge is brightly illuminated against the vast darkness of space in this April 3, 2026, image taken during the Artemis II mission. This thin blue ribbon is what separates us from the abyss of space vacuum: the Earth's atmosphere, protecting life on the planet, one day at a time. Credit: NASA
#PPOD: A pair of spiral galaxies whirl across this excerpt from a First Look image captured by NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Although NGC 4411b (left) and NGC 4411a (right) appear right next to each other, they don’t show signs of interaction, such as distorted arms. Above the pair is RSCG 55, a group of interacting galaxies with trails of material between them. Credit: RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA
#PPOD: Photographer Josh Dury captured this gorgeous view of the Flower #Moon on May 1, 2026, hanging above a cherry tree in full bloom and giving weight to the origin of the moon's name. "May Day; the second quarter day. With rich smells and colours all around, it is yet another signal that solstice is not far away. Within the period of this lunar cycle - flowers come, flowers go. From vibrant blossom displays, to moonlight stretching across a carpet of bluebells." Credit: Josh Dury
#PPOD: A close-up view taken by the Artemis II crew of Vavilov Crater on the rim of the older and larger Hertzsprung basin. The right portion of the image shows the transition from smooth material within an inner ring of mountains to more rugged terrain around the rim. Vavilov and other craters and their ejecta are accentuated by long shadows at the terminator, the boundary between lunar day and night. Credit: NASA
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