Planets

Beautiful images of the planets of our Solar System and their moons, captured by amateur and professional astrophotographers from around the world.

An illustration showing Jupiter and its four Galilean moons, from left to right Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto. Credit: NASA/JPL/DLR

Gallery Jupiter's Galilean moons

Uranus by Voyager 2

Gallery Uranus

Frosty white water ice clouds and swirling orange dust storms above a vivid rusty landscape reveal Mars as a dynamic planet in this sharpest view ever obtained by an Earth-based telescope. The Earth-orbiting Hubble telescope snapped this picture on June 26, when Mars was approximately 43 million miles (68 million km) from Earth - its closest approach to our planet since 1988. Hubble can see details as small as 10 miles (16 km) across. Especially striking is the large amount of seasonal dust storm activity seen in this image. One large storm system is churning high above the northern polar cap [top of image], and a smaller dust storm cloud can be seen nearby. Another large duststorm is spilling out of the giant Hellas impact basin in the Southern Hemisphere [lower right]. Acknowledgements: J. Bell (Cornell U.), P. James (U. Toledo), M. Wolff (Space Science Institute), A. Lubenow (STScI), J. Neubert (MIT/Cornell)

Gallery Mars

Image of Venus, observed in the 365nm waveband by the Venus Ultraviolet Imager (UVI) on board the Akatsuki probe. The observations were made on 6 May 2016, when the spacecraft saw the whole planet illuminated. J. Greaves / Cardiff University

Gallery Venus

A view of Jupiter and its moon Europa captured on 25 August 2020 by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M. H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL team.

Gallery Jupiter

Jupiter's Great Red Spot storm, as seen by NASA's Juno spacecraft. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin Gill

Gallery Jupiter's Great Red Spot

Mercury passing in front of the Sun captured in 2006 by the Solar Optical Telescope. Credit: Hinode JAXA/NASA/PPARC

Gallery Transit of Mercury

Venus Transit at Victory Tower by Atish Aman, Chittaurgarh, India. Equipment: Carl Zeiss Victory Diascope 85mm, 1000mm focal length, Nikon D90 camera.

Gallery Transit of Venus

Five Years by Tom Howard, Crawley, Sussex, UK.

Gallery Saturn