The 20 Craziest NASA Artist Creations

Galactic Mash-Up
This artist's concept shows a celestial body about the size of our moon slamming at great speed into a planet the size of Mercury.
Backward Black Hole
Depicted here is a galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its core. The black hole is shooting out jets of radio waves.
Swift Spacecraft
An artist's rendering of the Swift spacecraft with a gamma-ray burst going off in the background.
Laser Power Stations
Laser power stations, perhaps drawing energy from the local environment, might one day propel spacecraft throughout the solar system, as seen in the futuristic artist's concept above. NASA has developed artwork like this over the years to help visualize various exploration concepts, from small robotic probes to multiple-spacecraft human exploration missions. 
Going Supernova
While searching the skies for black holes using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers discovered a giant supernova that was smothered in its own dust. In this artist's rendering, an outer shell of gas and dust -- which erupted from the star hundreds of years ago -- obscures the supernova within. This event in a distant galaxy hints at one possible future for the brightest star system in our own Milky Way.
Big Babies in Rosetta Nebula
This image from the Herschel Space Observatory shows most the cloud associated with the Rosette nebula, a stellar nursery about 5,000 light-years from Earth in the Monoceros, or Unicorn, constellation. Herschel collects the infrared light given out by dust. The bright smudges are dusty cocoons containing massive embryonic stars, which will grow up to 10 times the mass of our sun. The small spots near the center of the image are lower mass stellar embryos. The Rosette nebula itself, and its massive cluster of stars, is located to the right of the picture.
Pipsqueak Star's Monster Flare
For many years scientists have known that our sun gives off powerful explosions, known as flares, that contain millions of times more energy than atomic bombs. 
Package From Mars
A crucial step in the Mars Sample Return mission would be to launch the collected sample away from the surface of Mars. 
Comet 'Bites the Dust'
This artist's concept illustrates a comet being torn to shreds around G29-3, a so-called dead star, or white dwarf. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope observed a cloud of dust around this white dwarf that may have been generated from this type of comet disruption. The findings suggest that a host of other comet survivors may still orbit in this long-dead solar system. 
Massive Baby Star
Astronomers have obtained the first clear look at a dusty disk closely encircling a massive baby star, providing direct evidence that massive stars do form in the same way as their smaller brethren -- and closing an enduring debate. This artist's concept shows what such a massive disk might look like.
A Fledgling Solar System
ASA's Spitzer Space Telescope observed a fledgling solar system like the one depicted in this artist's concept, and discovered deep within it enough water vapor to fill the oceans on Earth five times.

Galactic Hearts of Glass
This artist's concept shows delicate greenish crystals sprinkled throughout the violent core of a pair of colliding galaxies. The white spots represent a thriving population of stars of all sizes and ages. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope detected more than 20 bright and dusty galactic mergers like the one depicted here, all teeming with the tiny gem-like crystals.


Ashes to Ashes
What did the first quasars look like? The nearest quasars are now known to be supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies. Gas and dust that falls toward a quasar glows brightly, sometimes outglowing the entire home galaxy. The quasars that formed in the first billion years of the universe are more mysterious, though, with even the nature of the surrounding gas still unknown. Above, an artist's impression shows a primordial quasar as it might have been, surrounded by sheets of gas, dust, stars and early star clusters.


Exotic Exoplanet
An unusual, methane-free world is partially eclipsed by its star in this artist's concept. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has found evidence that a hot, Neptune-sized planet orbiting a star beyond our sun lacks methane -- an ingredient common to many planets in our own solar system.


An Unwelcome Place
This artist's concept depicts a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy. NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer found evidence that black holes -- once they grow to a critical size -- stifle the formation of new stars in elliptical galaxies. Black holes are thought to do this by heating up and blasting away the gas that fuels star formation.


Space Lump
This artist's conception shows a lump of material in a swirling, planet-forming disk. Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope found evidence that a companion to a star -- either another star or a planet -- could be pushing planetary material together, as illustrated here. Planets are born out of spinning disks of gas and dust. 


Space Balls
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has at last found buckyballs in space, as illustrated by this artist's conception showing the carbon balls coming out from the type of object where they were discovered -- a dying star and the material it sheds, known as a planetary nebula.


A New World
This artist's conception shows a hypothetical young planet around a cool star. A soupy mix of potentially life-forming chemicals can be seen pooling around the base of the jagged rocks.


Neutron Star Explosion
Pressure and heat in the gas on the surface of this neutron star becomes so high that the gas detonates in a tremendous nuclear fusion explosion. The explosion distorts and illuminates the gas disk.