Buzz
Neil Armstrong famously said, “I believe we’re journeying to the Moon because it's part of human nature to confront challenges. It's ingrained in our very essence. It's like how salmon instinctively swim upstream.”
Humans are driven not just by the need to face challenges but also by the urge to document our experiences. Throughout history, during the exploration of the Pacific by Polynesians or the age of European voyages, we recorded our discoveries through storytelling, written accounts, or artwork.
However, space exploration stands apart. Throughout our journey into the cosmos, we’ve had the unique ability to capture photos. Every new boundary crossed, and each new frontier explored, is immortalized through living images. These are 10 such groundbreaking photos, the first of their kind, taken in the vastness of space.
10. The Historic First Image Captured From Space
In October 1946, 15 years before humans ventured into space and just under a year after the end of World War II, a team of scientists and military personnel in New Mexico launched a V-2 rocket 105 kilometers (65 miles) into the sky. Equipped with a 35mm camera, the rocket captured a photograph every 1.5 seconds.
The rocket reached an altitude five times higher than the previous record for the highest photo taken. When the V-2 missile's photos were developed, the resulting images had a profound effect on the team in charge of the mission.
“They were overjoyed, bouncing up and down like children,” recalled Fred Rulli, a member of the camera recovery team. “The scientists were completely amazed.”
And for good reason. The photographs revealed a sight that no human had ever witnessed before—Earth as seen from beyond the atmosphere, Earth as viewed from space. In the years that followed, numerous missile launches took place, and over 1,000 images of Earth from space were captured between 1946 and 1950.
Those photographs taken in 1946 will always remain our first glimpse from beyond our world.
9. The First Ever Photograph of the Sun
The Sun has been with us throughout human history, yet its very brilliance made it difficult to understand for much of that time. Observing its features, such as the corona and sunspots, was often impossible without painful eye strain.
However, in 1845, during the early days of photography, two French physicists captured the first-ever image of the Sun. Louis Fizeau and Lion Foucault took the photograph using a 12.7-centimeter (5-inch) daguerreotype. While observations of sunspots date back to 28 BC, this photograph provided a clear depiction of that day's sunspots and offered a lasting record of the Sun's cycles and changes.
By 1858, a daily photographic record of the Sun had begun. Between 1858 and 1872, over 3,000 Sun images were captured and cataloged by Warren de la Rue at Kew Observatory in England.
De la Rue's team even managed to capture a solar eclipse in Spain in 1860. Today, you can observe the Sun anytime through NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which posts near-real-time images of the Sun taken with various methods and wavelengths.
8. The First Photograph Ever Taken from the Moon's Surface
After several unsuccessful attempts, the Soviet Union finally succeeded in landing the unmanned Luna 9 spacecraft on the Moon. It touched down on February 3, 1966, in an area known as Oceanus Procellarum, or the 'Ocean of Storms.'
Luna 9 utilized airbags to soften its rough landing and was equipped with a groundbreaking turret camera. This camera became the first ever to capture an image on the surface of a celestial body other than Earth.
Luna 9 relied on limited power supplied solely by batteries and ceased functioning three days after landing. However, that brief time was enough for it to capture and transmit a panoramic view from the Moon. The initial image sent back was intercepted and published in England before the Soviet Union could announce their achievement.
7. The First Photograph of Auroras and Lightning on Another Planet
Two of Earth's most stunning and luminous phenomena were captured on a different celestial body for the first time during the historic flyby of Jupiter by the Voyager 1 spacecraft on March 5, 1979. The black-and-white, grainy image shows the curved horizon of Jupiter illuminated by the planet's intense auroras.
Captured in the same shot, which was a 3-minute-and-12-second exposure with a wide-angle lens, are the bright flashes of lightning created by Jupiter’s immense planetwide storms.
The Voyager 1 flyby also made groundbreaking discoveries, including the first active volcanoes beyond Earth, the Jovian ring system, and two previously unknown moons of Jupiter. These images marked only the beginning of its exploration.
Voyager 1 continued its journey to Saturn and remains the furthest human-made object in existence. As of now, it is located about 21.9 billion kilometers (13.6 billion miles) from the Sun.
6. The First Photograph of an Interstellar Visitor to Our Solar System
On October 19, 2017, an object (initially named 1I/2017 U1) was spotted by the Pan-STARRS1 telescope at the University of Hawaii, and it puzzled scientists. Initially identified as a comet, it was reclassified as an asteroid after no signs of comet-like features (such as dust, ice, or water) were observed.
However, this theory didn’t hold up either. The object was found to be accelerating in a way that no asteroid should. Additionally, its brightness increased tenfold as it spun, revealing its strange shape—unlike anything seen in our solar system. It was long and cylindrical.
What was it?
Further studies confirmed that this object did not originate from our solar system. It became the first—and so far only—known interstellar object, later named Oumuamua (pronounced “oh MOO-uh MOO-uh”), a Hawaiian word meaning 'a messenger from afar arriving first.'
Orbital calculations suggest that Oumuamua came from what is now the Vega star system. However, when it passed through that region 300,000 years ago, Vega was not there, leaving the true origin of Oumuamua a mystery.
The image captured of Oumuamua offers only a fleeting glimpse of this interstellar traveler. As it zipped past Earth at 315,000 kilometers per hour (196,000 mph), the telescope tracking it had to follow its rapid movement. The result was a blurry snapshot of a tiny white dot surrounded by smeared stars—an unimpressive photo of a truly extraordinary visitor.
5. First Image Of A Comet Colliding With A Planet
Shoemaker-Levy 9, a comet discovered in March 1993 by Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker and David Levy, was not just another comet. This veteran team of comet hunters had found many comets before, but this one stood out as something truly special.
After months of observation, it became clear that Shoemaker-Levy 9 was the first comet known to orbit a planet rather than the Sun. This comet had been bound to Jupiter for decades, but we encountered it toward the end of its journey. Just over a year later, it collided with the very planet it had been circling.
Between July 16 and July 22, 1994, Shoemaker-Levy 9 broke apart into 21 separate fragments that impacted Jupiter’s surface. While the Galileo spacecraft was en route to Jupiter and too far to witness the event, astronomers across the globe were observing it closely.
Although the collisions took place on the side of Jupiter facing away from Earth, the impact site quickly rotated into view. Astronomers were able to capture images of the site just minutes after the impacts.
Shoemaker-Levy 9 left behind enormous dark streaks across Jupiter's surface, which remained visible for at least a month before being engulfed by the planet’s relentless storms.
4. First Image Of An Exoplanet
For a long time, we suspected the existence of planets beyond our own solar system. However, unlike the massive, glowing stars they orbit, these exoplanets are relatively small and dim. Their faintness makes them incredibly hard to spot, even with the most powerful telescopes. To detect them, we needed something far more advanced.
Enter the aptly named Very Large Telescope (VLT) array, a combination of four 8.2-meter (26.9 ft) main telescopes—Antu, Kueyen, Melipal, and Yepun—and four 1.8-meter (5.9 ft) auxiliary telescopes. These telescopes can work together or operate individually.
Each of these mirrors has the ability to detect light that is four billion times dimmer than what the naked eye can perceive. When the telescopes are combined, they can resolve details up to 25 times sharper than any single telescope can achieve.
Using this extraordinary technology, the first-ever image of an exoplanet was captured. The equipment was able to take this groundbreaking photo, aided by the fact that the exoplanet in question was enormous.
This particular exoplanet, which orbits a brown dwarf 230 light-years away, is five times larger than Jupiter. While many exoplanets have been discovered since, this was the first one large enough to be directly imaged. To date, more than 4,000 exoplanets have been identified.
3. The First Image Captured of a Survivor Following a Supernova
Supernovae are the most intense explosions in the universe. Their immense power is so overwhelming that even when a supernova occurs at a vast distance, its brightness can be visible in broad daylight.
One such supernova, observed in 1054, was visible during the day for nearly a month and at night for almost two years. These dramatic explosions often mark the end of a star’s life. A particularly intriguing case is the Type IIb stripped-envelope supernova, which occurs when most of a star’s hydrogen is stripped away before the explosion.
What triggers the occurrence of a Type IIb stripped-envelope supernova?
Many stars exist in pairs or triplets, unlike our solitary Sun. In such systems, a star may begin to siphon hydrogen from its companion. This was the case with supernova SN 2001ig, which exploded around 40 million light-years away (and 40 million years ago) in the galaxy NGC 7424.
Over millions of years, one star slowly stripped away its partner’s outer hydrogen layer, which plays a crucial role in channeling energy from the star's core outward. Without this outer layer, the star became unstable and ultimately exploded as a supernova, an event that was observed by scientists on Earth.
A decade after the explosion, when the light from the blast had dimmed, the Hubble Space Telescope captured a truly unprecedented image. It showed the survivor of the supernova, the very star that had caused its companion to explode.
2. The First Image Ever Captured of a Black Hole
Black holes are cosmic phenomena that have become almost mythical due to their mysterious nature and their recurring appearances in popular culture. These objects possess such immense mass and gravity that nothing, not even light, can escape their overwhelming gravitational pull.
It is impossible to capture an image of a black hole because no light, radio waves, or anything else can escape from its event horizon. Thus, it is more accurate to describe this as the first image of the black hole's silhouette—a 'shadow,' if you will, contrasting with the bright, heated material it devours.
Capturing this image required the coordination of a team of telescopes working together. Similar to how the VLT array functions, with its many telescopes working in unison, this global effort was the same method used to capture the silhouette of a black hole.
A network of telescopes called the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) was mobilized. Telescopes from across the world were synchronized to focus on a single object in space. The two furthest apart were stationed at the South Pole and in Spain. The aperture of the EHT was almost as wide as the Earth's diameter.
In total, eight telescopes from around the globe worked together to capture the image of a supermassive black hole—6.5 billion times more massive than our Sun—located at the center of a galaxy 53 million light-years away.
1. First Image Of An Unborn Exomoon
Finding exoplanets is challenging enough, so discovering an exomoon is even more difficult. However, spotting a moon in the process of formation can be significantly easier. With the help of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers captured an image of a debris ring surrounding a planet, known as a circumplanetary disk.
In contrast to Saturn's icy rings, which are formed by comets, a circumplanetary disk originates from the same material as the planet itself. Similar disks, known as circumstellar disks, have been observed around stars, where they give rise to planets.
This marks the first time a circumplanetary disk has been imaged around an exoplanet (or any planet for that matter, since no circumstellar disks are present in our own solar system). Over time, this disk will eventually condense into one or more moons, forming companions to this new planet.
