Where NASA Posts Its Best Space Photos, and How to Find Them
The recent mission to the moon by Artemis II astronauts was memorable, inspiring, and scientifically important for so many reasons. It also brought us a
The recent mission to the moon by Artemis II astronauts was memorable, inspiring, and scientifically important for so many reasons. It also brought us a treasure trove of new images and videos ready to be added to NASA's vast library of content. Consider this photo of Earth from more than 250,000 miles away, for example, taken from the other side of the moon. Or these widely shared pictures of our home planet from inside the Orion capsule, which were taken using iPhone 17 Pro Max phones. Truly out of this world snaps, but taken using a device many of us have in our pockets. These images have popped up all across social media, but what you might not know is that NASA makes its huge library of images and videos available for anyone to dig through, marvel at, and reshare.
Because NASA is funded by the US government, most of its published media is released into the public domain. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's not immediately obvious where this library is and how you can access it. If you're ready to browse through decades' worth of incredible photos and videoclips from NASA—from giant star constellations to spacesuit designs—here's how to get started. A word of warning though: It's easy to get lost for hours inside these collections. The NASA Image and Video Library The comprehensive NASA library portal. Courtesy of David Nield Let's start with the biggest resource: The NASA Image and Video Library. This is where you'll find just about every image, video, and audioclip that NASA wants to share, from astronaut photos and space conferences to planet shots and satellite imagery.
By default, you get to see the newest uploads first, but you can also click Trending & Popular to see frequently viewed content from across the years. Click on an image or video here to get a wealth of information about it, including what it shows and when it was captured. Some of the captions here are mini-essays, and a lot of the content on this portal comes with EXIF data included, which will be of interest to photographers (or anyone who wants to know which pictures were snapped with an iPhone 17 Pro Max). As wonderful as this resource is, it's also difficult to sift through, unless you specifically know what you're looking for. You're basically relying on the search box at the top, and common keywords can return dozens and dozens of pages of results.
Try being as specific as you can with search terms. Also, use the keywords on each photo and video listing to find related content. NASA Images The front page of NASA Images. Courtesy of David Nield In addition to the NASA Image and Video Library page, there's also NASA Images—which includes a link to the Image and Video Library. (Those of you at the back, try to keep up). NASA Images isn't as comprehensive as the Image and Video Library, but it is better organized, and it's easier to find recent content here.
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