Free Nasa outer space pictures - Photography Project

NASA has released a new archive of images in a handy new platform that you can use for free in your personal projects.

NASA Hubble Space Telescope captures the chaotic activity atop a three-light-year-tall pillar of gas and dust that is being eaten away by the brilliant light from nearby bright stars in a tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula.

Everything from pictures of the Earth and the Moon to wonders such as the Carina Nebula above and the Sombrero Galaxy below.

https://images.nasa.gov/

If you’re looking for free outer space pictures to use in your work you’re in luck. The above link allows you to search the NASA archive or images, video and audio and use the images for free (except of course for commercial gain).

The very cool, Sombrero Galaxy

The razor sharp eye of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) easily resolves the Sombrero galaxy, Messier 104 (M104). 50,000 light-years across, the galaxy is located 28 million light-years from Earth at the southern edge of the rich Virgo cluster of galaxies. Equivalent to 800 billion suns, Sombrero is one of the most massive objects in that group. The hallmark of Sombrero is a brilliant white, bulbous core encircled by the thick dust lanes comprising the spiral structure of the galaxy. As seen from Earth, the galaxy is tilted nearly edge-on. We view it from just six degrees north of its equatorial plane. This rich system of globular clusters is estimated to be nearly 2,000 in number which is 10 times as many as in our Milky Way galaxy. Similar to the clusters in the Milky Way, the ages range from 10-13 billion years old. Embedded in the bright core of M104 is a smaller disk, which is tilted relative to the large disk. The HST paired with the Spitzer infrared telescope, offers this striking composite capturing the magnificence of the Sombrero galaxy. In the Hubble view, the galaxy resembles a broad-rimmed Mexican hat, whereas in the Spitzer striking infrared view, the galaxy looks more like a bulls eye. The full view provided by Spitzer shows the disk is warped, which is often the result of a gravitational encounter with another galaxy, and clumpy areas spotted in the far edges of the ring indicate young star forming regions. Spitzer detected infrared emission not only from the ring, but from the center of the galaxy as well, where there is a huge black hole believed to be a billion times more massive than our Sun. The Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) had responsibility for design, development, and construction of the HST.

Below I’ve pasted the usage notice so you know if what you’re planning on doing with the images, video and audio is compliant with their terms.

Still Images, Audio Recordings, Video, and Related Computer Files for Non-Commercial Use

NASA content – images, audio, video, and computer files used in the rendition of 3-dimensional models, such as texture maps and polygon data in any format – generally are not copyrighted. You may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages. This general permission extends to personal Web pages.

News outlets, schools, and text-book authors may use NASA content without needing explicit permission. NASA content used in a factual manner that does not imply endorsement may be used without needing explicit permission. NASA should be acknowledged as the source of the material. NASA occasionally uses copyrighted material by permission on its website. Those images will be marked copyright with the name of the copyright holder. NASA’s use does not convey any rights to others to use the same material. Those wishing to use copyrighted material must contact the copyright holder directly.

NASA has extensive image and video galleries online, including historic images, current missions, astronomy pictures, Earth images and ways to search for NASA images. Generally, each mission and program has a video and image collection on the topic page. For example, Space Station videos can be found at https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/videos/index.html. Content can also be found on our extensive social media channels.

All images Copyright their respective owners, this page is intended to inform only. Thank you to NASA and the dedicated work of all those involved with the organisations to further our understanding of the great unknown.