13 amazing things caught on camera for the first time

…and this is especially true when the picture includes never-before-seen images. From space discoveries to aviation breakthroughs, scroll through to take a look at these breathtaking photographs. Want to see more? Happy viewing!

Fifty years after astronomer John Wheeler coined the term “black hole” to describe extremely dense objects possessing such strong gravitational pull that even light cannot escape (the existence of which Einstein had first predicted 51 years before that), a team of scientists actually captured a black hole’s image on film. That was in 2017, but it took another two years for the image to make its way to the public – because photographing a black hole involved a worldwide network of radio telescopes from which all the data had to be strategically assembled into a cohesive whole. The photo helped scientists discover what is inside a black hole.

A total solar eclipse (in which the position of the moon causes a total obstruction of the sun from somewhere on Earth) occurs somewhere on Earth about once every year or two, but the location from which any given solar eclipse is visible can be so remote that no human is present to see it. Nevertheless, a Victorian-age photographer managed to capture the first image of a total solar eclipse in July 1860, just over 20 years after the very first photograph of anything was ever taken. Now that’s progress.

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Photos of airplanes flying are nothing special today, but back in 1903, aviation was still so new that no one had ever captured an image of an airplane flying, let alone taking off. But that’s precisely what happened here at Kitty Hawk when Orville Wright arranged for this photo to be taken of the first controlled, sustained, and powered heavier-than-air flight.

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The first aerial photograph of Mt. Everest’s summit was taken in April 1933 during another first: The first airplane flight over Mt. Everest. Many believe this photograph is dated April 3, 1933, but a nephew of the photographer and pilot of the plane from which the photograph was taken, writing for National Geographic, notes that the photos from April 3 didn’t come out. On April 16, 1933, they made another attempt and successfully returned with photos.

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On July 16, 1945, an atomic bomb was detonated for the first time ever in Alamogordo, New Mexico. It was only a test but led to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki less than a month later. One year later, the US military wanted to test what would happen if they detonated an atomic bomb underwater. This photo shows the detonating of the bomb called “Helen of Bikini” in the middle of Bikini Atoll, part of the Marshall Islands—the first atomic mushroom cloud that rose out of the water.

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On August 23, 1966, humans were given their first opportunity to see what Earth looks like from the moon. The photo was taken robotically, by Lunar Orbiter 1 from a distance of about 379,805 kilometres. Fun fact: It wasn’t the first time Earth had been photographed from space; that happened in 1946 via a 35 mm camera strapped to a rocket that a group of scientists managed to launch 104.6 kilometres into space.

Just as the first photograph of a black hole was accomplished through the assembly of disparate pieces of data from separate instruments, so too was the first colour photograph of Earth. In 1967, two different satellites that had been launched months apart took photographs of the Earth, which were put together to create this first colour image of Earth from space.

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On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on the moon as well as the first human to take a photo while standing on the moon. But, alas, Armstrong was not the first human to be photographed on the moon. That distinction went to Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, who was the second human to walk on the moon but wasn’t holding the camera. Both men left footprints on the moon that are still clearly visible.

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The crew of Apollo 17 took this photo of Earth from space – the first time the Apollo trajectory made it possible to photograph the South polar ice cap, according to NASA.