Ages 4 and up · real photographs

Why I love it.

Pick the thing you love. Read why somebody else loves it too.

Every picture on these pages is a real photograph — a real telescope, a real volcano, a real scientist at a real bench — from NASA and the United States Geological Survey. Public domain, credited on every page. No drawings, no clip art, no invented images.

51 subjects × 4,299 US metro areas, cities and counties = 219,249 pages · sitemap

A research laboratory seen from outside through a glass window, with a scientist inside preparing samples for analysis. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Science" page.

Why I love science

I get to ask why, and then find out.

U.S. Geological Survey · Public domain

A wide-angle view of the flight control room of NASA's Mission Control Center, filled with rows of consoles and display screens. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Technology" page.

Why I love technology

Someone made this. That means I could make one too.

NASA · Public domain

Long rows of black cabinets housing the Discover supercomputer at the NASA Center for Climate Simulation. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Computers" page.

Why I love computers

It does exactly what I say. Even when I say it wrong.

NASA/Pat Izzo · Public domain

Two small AstroPi Raspberry Pi computers with camera modules floating in the Columbus laboratory of the space station. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Coding" page.

Why I love coding

I type words and something happens.

NASA · Public domain

A close-up of one row of the Discover supercomputer, showing about 2,000 processors stacked in cabinets with cabling. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Data" page.

Why I love data

Numbers tell me things people forgot to notice.

NASA/Pat Izzo · Public domain

The Robonaut 2 humanoid robot, with a gold-visored head and two jointed arms, mounted inside the Destiny laboratory of the space station. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Robotics" page.

Why I love robots

I build it and then it moves by itself.

NASA · Public domain

The tracked crawler-transporter carries a mobile launcher platform and twin solid rocket boosters along the crawlerway toward Launch Pad 39A. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Engineering" page.

Why I love engineering

I get to build it and then break it on purpose.

NASA · Public domain

The International Space Station with its newly attached Destiny laboratory, photographed from space shuttle Atlantis above a cloud-covered Earth. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Space" page.

Why I love space

It is really out there and it is really that big.

NASA · Public domain

A Hubble Space Telescope view of the faint blue spiral galaxy NGC 3274 surrounded by scattered stars on a black background. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Astronomy" page.

Why I love stars

The light I see left a long time ago.

NASA/ESA/Hubble · Public domain

A Rocket Lab Electron rocket lifts off from its launch pad, trailing a bright orange exhaust plume. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Rockets" page.

Why I love rockets

It pushes down and goes up.

NASA · Public domain

NASA's long-nosed X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft flies over the California desert alongside an F/A-18 chase plane. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Planes" page.

Why I love planes

Something that heavy stays up.

NASA · Public domain

A FreeFly Alta X quadcopter drone hovers in the air during wildfire response flight tests near Redding, California. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Drones" page.

Why I love drones

I can see from up there without going up there.

NASA/Joel Kowsky · Public domain

Twelve gold-coated hexagonal mirror segments of the James Webb Space Telescope installed side by side on the telescope's backplane at Goddard. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Telescopes" page.

Why I love telescopes

It catches more light than my eye can.

NASA · Public domain

The Cold Atom Laboratory, two white equipment containers packed with lasers and vacuum hardware, on a bench before flight. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Physics" page.

Why I love physics

The same rules work everywhere. Even out in space.

NASA/JPL-Caltech · Public domain

Five labeled water-quality sample bottles lined up in a bag, ready to be carried to the laboratory for analysis. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Chemistry" page.

Why I love chemistry

Two safe things can make a new thing.

Carly Maas, USGS · Public domain

A Keyence optical microscope set up on a laboratory bench with its monitor and sample stage. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Microscopes" page.

Why I love microscopes

There is a whole world I could not see before.

Renee Pillers, USGS · Public domain

An optical bench in the Laser Optics Laboratory at Ames Research Center, crowded with mirrors, lenses and beam paths. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Lasers" page.

Why I love lasers

The light goes in one straight line and stays there.

NASA · Public domain

The last of four gold solar array wings is lowered into place on the Orion spacecraft's European Service Module. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Solar Power" page.

Why I love the sun

Sunlight goes in and electricity comes out.

NASA · Public domain

Two large gantry 3D printers extrude curved concrete walls of subscale habitat structures side by side at NASA's 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love 3D Printing" page.

Why I love 3D printers

I draw it and then I can hold it.

NASA · Public domain

Pale rock outcroppings breaking through prairie grass in Big Cypress National Preserve. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Geology" page.

Why I love the earth

The ground is a stack of stories.

Tracy Enright, U.S. Geological Survey · Public domain

Cylindrical rock cores laid out in trays at the USGS Core Research Center, showing bands of different rock layers. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Rocks" page.

Why I love rocks

Every rock came from somewhere.

U.S. Geological Survey · Public domain

Three orange lava fountains jet more than 100 feet above the fissure 8 cone during the 2018 Kilauea eruption. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Volcanoes" page.

Why I love volcanoes

The inside of the earth comes out.

U.S. Geological Survey, Hawaiian Volcano Observatory · Public domain

A jagged crack running across desert ground with a yellow tape measure stretched over it, marking surface rupture from the 2019 Searles Valley earthquake. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Earthquakes" page.

Why I love earthquakes

The ground is made of pieces and they move.

Ben Brooks and Todd Ericksen, USGS · Public domain

Hundreds of dinosaur bones still embedded in the tilted rock wall inside the Dinosaur Quarry building at Dinosaur National Monument. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Fossils" page.

Why I love fossils

This was alive and now it is stone.

U.S. Geological Survey · Public domain

The historic quarry building at Dinosaur National Monument, built over steeply tilted Jurassic rock layers that hold a dinosaur bone bed. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Dinosaurs" page.

Why I love dinosaurs

They were real and they were enormous.

U.S. Geological Survey · Public domain

Hurricane Juliette photographed from the Terra satellite as a huge white spiral of cloud with a clear eye at its centre. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Weather" page.

Why I love weather

It is different tomorrow and someone can tell me why.

NASA/JPL-Caltech · Public domain

The branching channels of the Godavari River delta meeting the Bay of Bengal, photographed by the crew of space shuttle Endeavour. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Rivers" page.

Why I love rivers

Water always finds the low way down.

NASA · Public domain

The dark ragged skyline of a Douglas fir forest at Point Reyes, California, silhouetted against a pale grey sky. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Forests" page.

Why I love forests

It is all connected under the ground.

National Park Service, via U.S. Geological Survey · Public domain

A honeybee queen marked with a yellow dot on her back, surrounded by worker bees on the honeycomb. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Bees" page.

Why I love bees

They dance to tell each other where to go.

Marisa Lubeck, USGS · Public domain

A cultivated agricultural field stretching to the horizon with a wetland strip along its edge. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Farming" page.

Why I love farms

All of the food starts here.

U.S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center · Public domain

An alligator moving through a brackish waterway at Kennedy Space Center, only its eyes and back above the water. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Animals" page.

Why I love animals

Every one of them is built for something.

NASA · Public domain

Red leaf lettuce, mizuna mustard and green lettuce growing under pink-white LED lights in the Veggie plant growth hardware. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Plants" page.

Why I love plants

They eat light.

NASA · Public domain

A pair of American bald eagles perched on the rim of their large stick nest on Kennedy Space Center property. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Birds" page.

Why I love birds

They can go anywhere.

NASA · Public domain

A blacktip reef shark swims just under the sunlit surface, above a head of coral, at Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific Ocean. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Sharks" page.

Why I love sharks

They were here before trees were.

Kevin Lafferty, USGS · Public domain

Astronaut Mike Fincke reaches into the sealed Life Science Glovebox to run a biology experiment aboard the space station's Kibo module. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Biology" page.

Why I love living things

Everything alive is built from tiny pieces.

NASA · Public domain

A test model of the long magnetometer boom for the Europa Clipper spacecraft laid out for checkout at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Magnets" page.

Why I love magnets

It pushes without touching.

NASA/JPL-Caltech · Public domain

Technicians in clean-room gear install guidance, navigation and control electronics boxes into the Juno spacecraft. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Electronics" page.

Why I love electronics

Tiny parts doing exact jobs.

NASA/JPL-Caltech · Public domain

A technician sets up wiring and monitoring equipment at Launch Pad 39A for a shuttle tanking test. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Electricity" page.

Why I love electricity

It goes around in a loop or it does not go.

NASA · Public domain

Two rocket engine tests fire at once on the test stands at Stennis Space Center, throwing huge white exhaust plumes into the air. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Energy" page.

Why I love energy

It never disappears, it just changes clothes.

NASA · Public domain

The two-bladed Mod-1 wind turbine standing on its lattice tower on a hilltop at Boone, North Carolina. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Wind Power" page.

Why I love wind

Air pushes the blade and the blade makes power.

NASA · Public domain

An orange-and-white Saildrone autonomous research vessel under sail on the water near San Francisco Bay. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Oceans" page.

Why I love the ocean

Most of it has never been seen.

NASA/JPL-Caltech · Public domain

A USGS cartographer bends over a light table, scribing contour lines by hand onto a topographic map separation. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Maps" page.

Why I love maps

Somebody had to go and measure all of this.

U.S. Geological Survey · Public domain

A worker checks a replacement distillation assembly for the space station's water recycling system in a processing facility. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Recycling" page.

Why I love recycling

The stuff does not go away, it goes somewhere.

NASA · Public domain

An aerial photograph of the Vehicle Assembly Building under construction at Kennedy Space Center, its steel frame still open to the sky. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Building" page.

Why I love building

It has to hold itself up first.

NASA · Public domain

An aerial view of construction crews and barges working to complete the westbound span of the Indian River causeway bridge. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Bridges" page.

Why I love bridges

It holds up things much heavier than itself.

NASA · Public domain

The four-wheeled Artemis Jr. prototype rover, topped with a solar array, driving across a grass field beside the Operations and Checkout Building. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Cars" page.

Why I love cars

Thousands of parts and they all have to agree.

NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis · Public domain

A humpback whale launching most of its body out of the ocean in a breach, with spray flying off its flippers. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Whales" page.

Why I love whales

The biggest animal that ever lived is alive right now.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, via U.S. Geological Survey · Public domain

A bee crawling over the yellow centre of a wildflower while pollinating it on Kennedy Space Center property. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Insects" page.

Why I love bugs

There are more of them than anything else.

NASA · Public domain

A scientist looks through a microscope at human breast cancer cells in a cell bioassay laboratory, with an automated liquid handling robot behind her. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Medicine" page.

Why I love doctors

Somebody figured out how to fix this.

Abigail Nicole Henke, USGS · Public domain

Astronaut Kate Rubins holds a handheld DNA sequencer while running a gene sequencing experiment aboard the space station. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Genetics" page.

Why I love DNA

There are instructions inside me.

NASA · Public domain

Astronaut Ricky Arnold processes swab samples of microbes collected from space station surfaces at a work station. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Germs" page.

Why I love germs

They are alive and they are everywhere.

NASA · Public domain

Girls are great at math

One popular teacher said one sentence to one little girl who had just taken out the classroom trash without being asked. That girl now runs data engineering and advanced analytics at one of the largest technology companies in the world. The teacher never left her small town.

Read the whole story, and the evidence behind it →

About these photographs

Images are used under public-domain release from NASA and the US Geological Survey. Each photograph is credited to its originating agency on the page where it appears, with a link to the agency's own source record. Page design, written copy and layout are © Ellis Abel Learns, a Reject Mediocrity Venture Studio series.