35 Stunning Hi-Res “Public Domain” Astronomy Images

In the wake of Shepard Fairey’s debacle with the AP over the rights to the image he used as reference/inspiration for his wildy popular Obama poster, I wanted to share a list of Public Domain Licensed images, in this case, astronomy. Fairey’s situation should hit home with all pixel junkies out there and remind us that we have to pay close attention to the licenses associated with the images we use in our design work. I’ve compiled a list of beautiful, inspiring astronomy images that all have a Public Domain License.

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Astronomy intrigues me. I’m a regular APOD surfer. I love reading about space, and the images of the universe, I find inspiring. Here’s a list of “Public Domain” astronomy images that I put together, all of which I found on Wikimedia. If you aren’t familiar with Wikimedia, it doesn’t have a stellar (pun intended) selection, but it’s a very good source of Public Domain and GNU licensed images. So here we go, let’s start off the list with none other than our very own blue marble.

Earth

Full resolution: 3,000 × 3,075 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 2,048 × 2,048 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 2,048 × 2,048 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 3,000 × 3,002 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 1,696 × 2,074 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res .

Full resolution: 2,458 × 2,458 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 2,400 × 2,400 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 3,097 × 3,000 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

The Moon

Full resolution: 1,280 × 978 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 2,560 × 1,920 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 1,986 × 1,986 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Mars

Full resolution: 2,000 × 2,000 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 1,552 × 1,552 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Mars’ moon Phobos

Full resolution: 3,374 × 3,300 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Saturn

Full resolution: 2,766 × 1,364 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 4,000 × 2,527 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 8,888 × 4,544 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Saturn’s moon Rhea

Full resolution: 4,920 × 4,820 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Venus

Full resolution: 4,096 × 4,096 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Jupiter

Full resolution: 2,260 × 3,207 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Galaxies

Full resolution: 6,200 × 6,200 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 1,730 × 1,428 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 5,302 × 3,805 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 4,014 × 3,865 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 3,000 × 2,016 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 6,637 × 3,787 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 6,000 × 4,690 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 3,915 × 3,885 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 11,472 × 6,429 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 8,952 × 6,213 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Nebulae

Full resolution: 6,000 × 2,906 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 3,601 × 4,004 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 4,806 × 3,364 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 3,182 × 1,282 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

Full resolution: 18,000 × 18,000 pixels

35 Stunning Hi-Res

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 at 11:29 am and is filed under Inspiration, Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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127 Responses to “35 Stunning Hi-Res “Public Domain” Astronomy Images”

  1. Amazing stuff! Thanks for pointing this out.

  2. this is seriously an impressive amount of work.
    I love space, and pictures like these. I’ve always loved Saturn since very little and submitted work on it in a project fair. I could only imagine how cool my project could have been today! LOL diggin it

  3. 35 imágenes astronómicas en alta resolución con licencia "Public Domain"…

    Hay que prestar mucha atención a las imágenes que utilizamos en montajes y diseños, con estas 35 no tendrás ningún problema….

  4. Thank you for posting these wonderful photos.

    I gotta say, though, that your example of Shepard Fairey’s mixup with the AP is not a particularly good example of a copyright cautionary tale. I say this because the AP is egregiously overstepping in what amounts to a derivative work.

    Wikipedia on derivative works:
    “A typical example of a derivative work received for registration in the Copyright Office is one that is primarily a new work but incorporates some previously published material. This previously published material makes the work a derivative work under the copyright law. To be copyrightable, a derivative work must be different enough from the original to be regarded as a “new work” or must contain a substantial amount of new material. Making minor changes or additions of little substance to a preexisting work will not qualify the work as a new version for copyright purposes.”
    More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_work

    How the AP can argue that use of this picture hasn’t been transformed by Fairey to offer “new information, new aesthetics, new insights and understandings” is beyond comprehension. They will certainly lose their case.

    I’ve been reading reactions in the blogosphere for a week now, so far this one is the best since it covers the legal grounds: http://tinyurl.com/g7cq

  5. Wow. Really good list. Thanks!

  6. These are amazing photos. Thanks for taking the time to link and preview each one.

  7. OMG our galaxy looks stunning, I must say. Are those real images or an artist’s interpretation? Either way, I feel humbled.

  8. bad ass

  9. That’s not Mercury, it’s Venus in radar imaging to see through the clouds.

  10. Wow …

  11. Outer space shots are always amazing – you can’t beat nature for colors man, wow

  12. These are super. Very useful post.

  13. Wow… Very good!

    Bye!

  14. [...] Via Bittbox [...]

  15. [...] over at BittBox shared 35 stunning high-resolution astronomy images that are released into the public domain. In the wake of the legal scuffle between AP and Shepard [...]

  16. Amazing pictures!

  17. Quality posting as always! Thanks for all these great resources.

  18. can someone post a .zip so we don’t have to download each individually?

    thanks!!!
    awesome find!!!

  19. Indeed, great finds. Say, you wouldn’t happen to have “come across” any anatomy illustrations by any chance? ;)

  20. I can be so subtle at times.

  21. I am uploading a zip file for everyone to download right now

  22. Here is the link to download all in a zip file, this will only be up for a little while.

    http://willayers.net/2009/02/download-35-stunning-hi-res-astronomy-images/

  23. I actually used a number of NASA public domain images in a recent “Star Wars” parody project (last December):

    http://laryn.kragtbakker.com/print/climate-wars-darth-merkel

  24. [...] 35 Stunning Hi-Res “Public Domain” Astronomy Images | BittBox Awesome and Stunning Astronomy Images! (tags: design fotografia astronomy imagenes entertainment textures webdesign resources images desktop pictures earth science photography hi-res) [...]

  25. wow
    thanks man!

  26. thanks x infinity

  27. Self promo time … I made Venus and Earth renders a while back that looked pretty nice. Both are 512×512.

    http://lumeiredusoleil.deviantart.com/art/Earth-Render-104806553
    http://lumeiredusoleil.deviantart.com/art/Venus-Render-104806386

    Not quite as good as the second and third Earths up top, but an improvement on the Venus pic.

  28. Funny how I always find what I’m looking for when I don’t need it…
    Time after time I need images of this sort (especially of earth) for one project or another. This little gem of a resource will definitely come in handy.

    Thanks to you Mr. Jay!

  29. [...] ett länktips hos Digitalkameror – “35 Stunning Hi-Res Astronomy Images”. Helt fantastiska bilder, man börjar fundera på hur vackert universum egentligen [...]

  30. 35 Stunning Hi-Res “Public Domain” Astronomy Images…

    In the wake of Shepard Fairey’s debacle with the AP over the rights to the image he used as reference/inspiration for his wildy popular Obama poster, I wanted to share a list of Public Domain Licensed images, in this case, astronomy. Fairey’s situa…

  31. [...] 35 Stunning Hi-Res “Public Domain” Astronomy Images (tags: textures photos stock) [...]

  32. Great stuff as usual, thanks a bunch, I do Sci Fi book covers for a living, so that’s more than useful.
    However I would like to point out that according to Chip Kidd’s Website (http://www.goodisdead.com/index.php?journal/entry/brian_greene_at_the_edge_of_categorization) virtually ALL images by NASA are in the public domain (except illustrations I suppose) – “for all mankind” indeed.
    Regarding Shepard Fairey (who I absolutely worship btw) I agree with Tim Wayne. Actually my diploma in graphic design used similar illustrations of various musicians as a stylistic element and my professor assured me that I wasn’t violating any copyright laws with using them that way.
    My guess is the the AP thinks Shepard just ran “some fancy fotoshop-filter-thingy over it” ;-)
    I’m sure he’s on the safe side, he’s actually been through worse stuff I guess, like being denied his insulin by the New York Police Department.
    But I digress, keep up the good work, Bitt!

  33. Wonderful. I was looking at NASA for astronomy images 6 months ago. searching their images is time-consuming. Thanks for these. Can be very useful.

    As for Fairey…AP has a good point. You can’t just use an image and expect to be able to profit from it. Go AP. A simple, can I use it would have solved this case earlier.

  34. “Stunning” is an overused linkbait term, but I think these photos live up to that moniker.

  35. To MilkBerry: “OMG our galaxy looks stunning …” Just an FYI, not to be nit picky — just informative. None of these are pictures of “our” galaxy. You can’t really “see” our galaxy since to see it you’d have to be outside of it and far enough away so that it would fit into your field of view. It would take a very long time to get to this vantage point :-)

  36. Gorgeous! I have daily pictures from NASA as part of my news feed; I adore stuff like this. Thanks for sharing with us.

  37. Really Cool! Thanks!

  38. Amazing! Thanks for these!

  39. Awesome links – too bad they’re not all 18,000 x 18,000 px right?

    I’ll surely be gathering these up for my “stock photo” library. You can never have too many high-res, awesome quality space photos!

  40. The space shots are sometimes helped along with artist interpretations for color, since the telescopes used pick up wavelengths of light that the human eye can’t perceive (UV, infrared, etc). If they know the gases in an object, they can make a good guess at what color it reflects though. I just co-designed an exhibit about the Art and Science of the Hubble Space Telescope at Kennedy Space Center and learned all that. The NASA guy told me that it’s pretty hard to guess “wrong” on the coloring though when it’s artist enhanced.

    They’re beautiful anyway, though, no matter where the color comes from!

  41. Oh and PS, some of the images are pretty big (hundreds of megs). We printed images up to 8×8 FEET from the NASA site!

  42. Tim Wayne needs to chill out a do a little research.
    http://hubblesite.org/copyright/

    All photos taken by NASA and put up on the NASA site are in the public domain. They only ask for appropriate acknowledgment. We all know where they originally came from.

    Thanks for putting them all in one nice place.

  43. [...] ????????????????? 35 Stunning Hi-Res “Public Domain” Astronomy Images | BittBox ??????????????????????????????? [...]

  44. Amazing..thanks for share!

  45. What a stellar display…thanks for the links! I agree, you can never have too many of these images.

  46. Is one of those from Star Wars?

  47. [...] 35 Stunning Hi-Res “Public Domain” Astronomy Images | BittBox (tags: stock astronomy photos pictures) [...]

  48. [...] 35 Stunning Hi-Res “Public Domain” Astronomy Images [...]

  49. [...] 35 Stunning Hi-Res “Public Domain” Astronomy Images | BittBox (tags: photography images resources astronomy wallpaper pictures space earth) [...]

  50. What’s realy amazing is that most of what you see is just gas, dust, rocks & a lot of empty space.

    Meanwhile, down on little Earth, a speck so tiny it would not even show up on any of the pictures of galaxies, the dirt came alive and now looks upon the rest of the universe with some degree of understanding.

    It could all be ours if we just get out there and take it. No-one would mind, there’s plenty to go around.

    First of all though we have to learn to work together and stop destroying our planet, each other and ourselves.

    Peace & Love

    dR dMo

  51. These are great! I have an idea for some of these. Hopefully, I can post it soon on my blog. Thanks!

  52. [...] Eis um bom trabalho de pesquisa que fez Jay Hilgert, o autor do blogue BittBox – pelo menos para quem gosta de Fotografia e Astronomia. Jay reuniu num único post 35 fotos de alta resolução da Terra, dos planetas, galáxias, nebulosas, belíssimas imagens que se encontram sob domínio público e que ele encontrou na Wikimedia. Link [...]

  53. WOW!!! These pics are awesome… I usually go to National Geographic to finds pictures like these, but I must say the quality of these photos completely out-rank any I’ve seen before…thanks very much for sharing!

  54. [...] Bittbox has a great article that shares some awesome, very hi-res astronomy pictures that are in the….  There are some great shots of Earth and other planets, galaxies, and a drool-inducing collection of nebulae. [...]

  55. very good images.thank you for posting. I particularly enjoy nebulae…. interesting and nebulous… hmmn ;)

  56. [...] has done it again. Click here to go to their post for some beautiful, high resolution, astronomy images…all for [...]

  57. Def Photoshopped, due to my experience of pshopped photos of which I have seen hundreds of them, also due to the lighting, shadows and angles taken.

  58. Astronomy images – always beautiful…

  59. Can these jpegs be made into posters? I’d love to put these on my walls.

    I have an color photo printer, but I have a feeling they won’t turn out too well. Can shops like Kinko’s take these jpegs and make them into high-quality posters?

  60. Reality is awesome!

  61. 35 impactantes imágenes astronómicas en alta resolución…

    Jay Hilgert ha reunido en su blog esta colección de imágenes del universo en alta resolución, todas bajo dominio público, para disfrute de los aficcionados….

  62. [...] mars, naebulas, moon, saturn, galaxies, small planets and so on.. it’s a great resource, check it out! Share and [...]

  63. This is an amazing site! I LOVE it! Astro pictures mind-blowing–can’t thank you enough–I’ll go click on some links and check out your sponsors!!!!

    ps, my we site is offline at the mo

  64. What an awesome collection of photos. Thank you for taking the time to put them up.

  65. These are very nice photos. However, just to remind you all, all the photos on Nasa’s site are public domain. We the people pay for those photos with our tax dollars. There should be something like 30 million photos, not just 35 (not to state a debate, just MHO).

  66. [...] Bookmarked a link on Delicious. 35 Stunning Hi-Res “Public Domain” Astronomy Images | BittBox [...]

  67. blad3runn69

    wow amazing thank you :)

  68. [...] este caso entramos en el mundo enigmatico de la astronomía, en el artículo 35 Stunning Hi-Res “Public Domain” Astronomy Images, de Bittbox, encontramos una impresionante recopilación con una lista de hermosas imágenes que [...]

  69. elkosmonauta

    amazing !

  70. [...] Bittbox.com publicaron hace un tiempo una colección de 35 imágenes espaciales en alta resolución de uso [...]

  71. You gotta love that public domain.

  72. How amazing to know that the God of the bible designed our universe with such precision and beauty like a clockmaker designed a well handcrafted clock.

  73. [...] las 35 fotos | [bittbox.com] [...]

  74. 18000×18000 pixels is not fun to download on a wireless connection. Be ready for a wait

  75. [...] Acá las 35 fotos | [bittbox.com] [...]

  76. [...] administrador del sitio Bittbox quiso compartir con todos sus lectores, imágenes del espacio de gran calidad todas de licencia [...]

  77. very good collection of resource files, bookmarking for later use :) Thanks!

  78. [...] Imagenes astronomicas Publicado el Febrero 23, 2009 por jrolofer 35 Stunning Hi-Res “Public Domain” Astronomy Images [...]

  79. [...] 35 Stunning Hi-Res “Public Domain” Astronomy Images [...]

  80. ” JAW DROPPING ”

    It took along time for me to pick up my jaw!

  81. [...] 35 Stunning Hi Res Public Domain Astronomy Images [...]

  82. Excellent photos for my wallpapers. Valles Marineris on Mars is the best. Thanks.

  83. [...] you’ve never seen space in HD, get a load of these frames. All 35 of [...]

  84. Like laying eyes upon your gods themselves, these images inspire like no words, no mouth, could articulate. With incalculable beauty and immaculate detail, we are shown how infinitesimally insignificant and simultaneously fragile and prescious our lives are. For me, it is to look upon the true face of meaning, of beauty, and walk away changed. Images like these are the reason I decided to become an AAE (Aerospace/Astronautical Engineer); to touch the breath of ‘God’ in all of her or his or their infinate power and awe- to stand present amongst the stars. That is my place- that is my heaven- that is where my soul belongs.

  85. [...] our moon, Saturn, Venus, Jupiter & Mars. These images, along with others, were complied by bitbox and are from NASA under a Public Domain License. You can check out a previous post of Colors from [...]

  86. Now I know where my US tax dollars are going. To be honest, it actually seems worth it. Amazing pics, my favorite is phobos

  87. jose perez perere

    esto es una mierda pincha en un palo

  88. Thank you for compiling this wonderful set of images!

    I had already seen many of them, but the fascination that space awakens inside of me is endless.

    It’s always a beautiful, yet humbling experience to admire the vivid colors of unimaginably distant places in the Universe.

  89. [...] 35 Stunning Hi-Res “Public Domain” Astronomy Images | BittBox (tags: photos photography astronomy moon space earth) [...]

  90. Great combination of stunning images AND public domain access. Thanks for compiling and posting these – they will definitely be utilized in some upcoming projects.

  91. [...] Hi-Res Space Pics from Bittbox: [...]

  92. thats so cool i cant say anything even watch them

  93. For a moment you left me feeling like a real astronaut! This is a really good collection. The real thing. I’ve seen so many Photoshopped images that I was secretly craving for something like this for long. The galaxy photos rock. Love the resolutions too.

  94. Everything will be all right,Thanks anyway.

  95. [...] Hi-Res Space Pics from Bittbox: [...]

  96. verry nice page thnx..

  97. very beatiful!

  98. [...] 35 Stunning Hi-Res Public Domain Astronomy Images [...]

  99. [...] 35 Stunning Hi-Res Public Domain Astronomy Images [...]

  100. [...] 35 Stunning Hi-Res Public Domain Astronomy Images [...]

  101. Are these images real? Please answer!

  102. 35 Stunning Hi-Res Public Domain Astronomy Images

  103. This is for MAH. No, these are fake just like the ones
    taken of the landing on the moon 40 yrs ago.
    Go crawl into a hole somewhere.

  104. Hey Claus, that was irony right?

  105. Def Photoshopped, due to my experience of pshopped photos of which I have seen hundreds of them, also due to the lighting, shadows and angles taken.

  106. Wow, what an amazing collection. I’ll be using some of these as desktop wallpapers for sure :)

  107. [...] over at BittBox shared 35 stunning high-resolution astronomy images that are released into the public domain. In the wake of the legal scuffle between AP and Shepard [...]

  108. [...] Imatges des de l’espai 2 [...]

  109. Hey Claus, that was irony right

  110. 35 Stunning Hi-Res “Public Domain” Astronomy Images | BittBox…

    These pictures are amazing…….

  111. que interesante!

  112. Verse Infinitum

    Your photos are fantastic! When I look at the nebulae and galaxies I get a strange feeling in my chest. These pictures could easily be mistaken for paintings. Based upon the full color spectrum, these colors are the real colors in the universe. Our eyes could only detect a fraction. However, you photos reveal a hidden gift of beauty in the universe we wouldn’t be able to see with the naked eye. Thanks to your photos, you don’t need canvas and paint brushes to make a beautiful landscape or portrait.

  113. Alfredo Louro

    Great pictures, but I wonder if that moon image from Celestia qualifies?

  114. absolutly amazing pictures.

  115. one day i went shopping outside,and in an ed hardy store,I found some kinds of ed hardy i love most they are

  116. Great pictures, but I wonder if that moon image from Celestia qualifies?

  117. muy natural..

  118. beautifull!! impresive!! it makes me feel that i can reach the galaxis with a finger or they’re just around the corner…muy chingon!!

  119. Impreionante. Gracias por esas magnificas fotografías

  120. [...] # Mal wieder was für die Astro-Fans: Auf Bittbox gibt es 35 hochauflösende + gemeinfreie Astronomie-Fotos. [...]

  121. Great! I know that these pictures are under Public Domain Licence but I am still not absolutely sure that they can be used in our commercial projects. Can I use them absolutely freely?

    Thank you for answer

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  124. Blue-jean baby.

  125. What a stellar display…thanks for the links! I agree, you can never have too many of these images.

  126. Thanks a lot for the wonderful information

  127. Very informative article. Actually I was searching for exact this information. thanks for the sharing.

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