NASA Photos: Here are 5 breathtaking pictures captured in the first half of 2020

For centuries space has been a subject of intrigue. Since the medieval period, the desire for space exploration has dominated human minds. And the Space Agency NASA has become the torchbearer of this desire since its inception in 1958. The satellites installed by the space agency NASA are at work round the clock and are looking deep into the universe and capturing some of its best-hidden secrets in pictures. Read on to find 5 of the most breathtaking NASA photos from the first half of 2020.

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5 Breathtaking NASA Photos from 2020

Typhoon in South Pacific

Source: NASA

On May 13, 2020, the astronauts at the International Space Station snapped the image of a typhoon in the South Pacific Ocean. The image looks surreal with the blue colour of oceans seeping through the thick blanket formed by dense white clouds. The image has now been added among other NASA Space Photos. Apart from the crew of the International Space Station, there are many Earth-observing satellites which are used for tracking the formation and movements of the potential hurricanes and other tropical storms wherever they occur on the planet.

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The Elongated Galaxy

Source: NASA

In the above picture, one can witness the galaxy NGC 5907 stretching wide across the image. The outstretching and luminous galaxy is 50 million light-years away from Earth. It appears mysterious with an elongated line of stars and dark dust spread all across its length and breadth. 

NGC 5907 is also known as the Knife Edge Galaxy and is categorised by scientists as a spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way. The breathtaking image has been captured from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. In the image, the beautiful spiral arms of the Knife Edge galaxy aren’t visible as we are viewing its edge-on. Thus it looks like the rim of a plate. This image was posted on NASA Photos gallery on June 26, 2020.  

Knife Edge lies in the northern constellation of Draco. It might not be visible in the photo but many sinister-looking streams of stars circle around this galaxy. Scientists believe that the remnants of a small dwarf galaxy which was violently torn apart by the Knife Edge galaxy and merged with it over 4 billion years ago.

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A Waning Gibbous Moon

Source: NASA

The above NASA photo features a waning gibbous Moon. Gibbous Moon is that phase of the moon in which its illuminated part is greater in proportion to its semicircle but it’s still less than a circle. As per NASA’s official website, the waning gibbous moon was captured image is captured right above the Earth's horizon on June 7, 2020, but was posted on June 10, 2020. The picture was captured by the International Space Station which was orbiting over the Atlantic Ocean at the time and had just off the coast of the African nation of Angola.

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Spacewalk and reparations 

Source: NASA

 On June 26, 2020, veteran NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Chris Cassidy conducted their first of two spacewalks. Their purpose was to swap batteries and upgrade power systems present on the International Space Station's Starboard-6 truss structure. Astronaut Behnken appears hard at work while still maintaining his balance firmly. The spacewalk was a massive six-hour and seven-minute excursion. The two astronauts conducted their second spacewalk on July 1, 2020, to complete the upgrades that were initiated in the previous one.

The Colourful Nebula

Source: NASA

The picture of this Planetary Nebula was posted on NASA’s official website on June 23, 2020. Acting as nuclear fusion engines, most stars live unperturbed lives for hundreds of millions to billions of years. But these calm celestial objects turn crazy towards the end of their life. Some of them can turn into crazy whirligigs. They might even puff off shells and jets of hot gas that can travel several light years far. This image features NGC 7027 which resembles a jewel bug or maybe an insect with a fantastically a colourful metallic shell.

While Hubble first spotted this planetary Nebula in 1998, recently, NGC 7027's central star was identified for the first time by using Hubble's unique abilities. These near-ultraviolet observations will help scientists to understand how much dust actually obscures the star and perhaps also how hot the star really is. NGC 7027 is approximately 3,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus and also from Earth.