Most Stunning Space Photo

A handful of these photographs changed how people think about where they live, which is a lot to ask of an image.

Earthrise was taken by accident. Apollo 8 was photographing the lunar surface when the crew looked up, and the resulting picture is widely credited with helping start the modern environmental movement — the first time anyone had seen the whole planet as a small object with nothing behind it. Pale Blue Dot was taken because Carl Sagan spent years persuading NASA to turn Voyager around for a shot with no scientific value whatsoever. Pillars of Creation is a structure light years across that has quite possibly already been destroyed.

What you get is thirty-two images, from telescopes, probes and astronauts across sixty years. All of them are public domain, which is one of the few genuine advantages of publicly funded science.

Judging is harder than it looks because the images are doing different jobs. Some are beautiful and some are important, and only two or three manage both at once.