NASA research mathematician Katherine Johnson is photographed at her desk at Langley Research Center. Born on Aug. 26, 1918, in White Sulphur Springs, WV, Johnson worked at Langley from 1953 until her retirement in 1986, making critical technical contributions which included calculating the trajectory of Alan Shepard's historic 1961 flight. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/katherine_johnson_john_glenn.png

Jupiter's north polar region is coming into view as NASA's Juno spacecraft approaches the giant planet. This view of Jupiter was taken on August 27, when Juno was 437,000 miles (703,000 kilometers) away. The Juno mission successfully executed its first of 36 orbital flybys of Jupiter. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/img_2628-1041.png

An age-defying star designated as IRAS 19312+1950 (arrow) exhibits features characteristic of a very young star and a very old star. The object stands out as extremely bright inside a large, chemically rich cloud of material, as shown in this image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/spitzeriras19312rect_sm.jpg

The island of Hawaii rarely takes a direct hit from a hurricane. This week, two Pacific storms are lining up to change that. This natural-color image of Hurricane Madeline and Hurricane Lester is a composite built from two overpasses by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite on the Suomi NPP satellite on August 29, 2016. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/lestermadeline_vir_2016242_lrg.jpg

Ceres' lonely mountain, Ahuna Mons, is seen in this simulated perspective view. The elevation has been exaggerated by a factor of two. The view was made using enhanced-color images from NASA's Dawn mission. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia20915.png

This image from NASA's Juno spacecraft provides a never-before-seen perspective on Jupiter's south pole. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia21032_4_south_polar_full_disk_c.png

The Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 48 crew members NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin, and Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016 (Kazakh time). http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/nhq201609070003.jpg.jpeg

The Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 48 crew members NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin, and Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016(Kazakh time). Williams, Ovchinin, and Skripochka are returning after 172 days in space. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/28887232474_50be0f5286_o.jpg

The ULA Atlas V rocket with NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft on board is seen illuminated in the distance in this thirty second exposure on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. OSIRIS-REx is scheduled to launch Sept. 8. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/29451334281_0e977450ee_o.jpg

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft lifts off on from Space Launch Complex 41 on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/28929096574_85a647dc8e_o.jpg

Hubble sees a maelstrom of glowing gas and dark dust within one of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/potw1636a.jpg

As Tropical Storm Hermine charged up the East Coast Sept. 2, the hangar at NASA Langley was able to carefully sandwich in more than a dozen Air Force fighters and offer them protection from the wind. The hangar provides 85,200 square feet (7,915 square meters) of open space and large door dimensions that allow for entry of big aircraft. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/lrc-2016-h1_p_stormprep-0902031.jpg

This image shows a portion of Lethe Vallis, an outflow channel that also transported lava. This is one of only a few places on Mars where these pristine-appearing landforms have been identified. The channel formed by catastrophic floods, during which it produced the prominent crater-cored, teardrop-shaped island in the middle. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/esp_045833_1845.jpg

This illustration shows a glowing stream of material from a star, disrupted as it was being devoured by a supermassive black hole. The feeding black hole is surrounded by a ring of dust. This dust was previously illuminated by flares of high-energy radiation from the feeding black hole, and is now shown re-radiating some of that energy. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia20027_updated.jpg

NASA's IceBridge, an airborne survey of polar ice, flew over the Helheim/Kangerdlugssuaq region of Greenland on Sept. 11, 2016. This photograph from the flight captures Greenland's Steenstrup Glacier, with the midmorning sun glinting off of the Denmark Strait in the background. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/steenstrup.jpeg

Pan may be small as satellites go, but like many of Saturn's ring moons, it has a has a very visible effect on the rings. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia20499_1041.jpg

The southern tip of Italy is visible in this image taken by the Expedition 49 crew aboard the International Space Station on Sept. 17, 2016. The brightly lit city of Naples can be seen in the bottom section of the image. A Russian Soyuz spacecraft can be seen in the foreground. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/29185512413_b2e78e5bc2_o.jpg

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins checks a sample for air bubbles prior to loading it in the biomolecule sequencer. When Rubins’ expedition began, zero base pairs of DNA had been sequenced in space. Within just a few weeks, she and the Biomolecule Sequencer team had sequenced their one billionth base of DNA aboard the orbiting laboratory. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/iss048e069879.jpg

A group of U.S. Navy divers, Air Force pararescuemen and Coast Guard rescue swimmers practice Orion underway recovery techniques in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center to prepare for the first test flight of an uncrewed Orion spacecraft with the agency’s Space Launch System rocket during Exploration Mission (EM-1). http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/29759265711_c40946f688_o.jpg

This star is ending its life by casting off its outer layers of gas, which formed a cocoon around the star's remaining core. http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/heic0703a.jpg