NASA Launched a Massive Search Engine Full of Space Photos

In the middle of tremulous times here on planet Earth, NASA has offered us a way out. Well, at least a look out.

By Kat Stubing | Published Apr 5, 2017

This story was first published on Outer Places.

NASA just launched a massive search engine called the NASA Image and Video Library that allows us Earth dwellers to find, study, and download high resolution pictures, videos, and audio from their many missions and archives. Since their missions include aeronautics, astrophysics, Earth science, and human spaceflight among others, we can expect a lot of material.

According to NASA's press release, although you can see all of this for yourself, each image comes with multiple sizes, captions, and tons of little pieces of information about each still. They also mention that they'll be adding new material over time as we keep finding new things in space, so this could end up being a valuable resource.

NASA search engine photos Crab Nebula — Crab Nebula, as seen by Herschel and Hubble
Photo Credit: NASA

The site allows you to search by upload date or popularity and filter by images, video, or audio. Once searching a keyword, you can filter by date, and the further back you go, the less planets you see and the more old scientists. Both are an equally important part of history, but only one of those is more pleasing to the eye.

It's an impressive feat and exciting news for space nerds and just about anyone who is interested in astrophysics or simply mind-blowing photographs. Although it will not be comprehensive of all the data NASA has available, the site will be continuously updated with content for public consumption. We can only guess they're hiding pictures of aliens, since they have no problem giving us astronaut selfies.