NASA released satellite imagery on July 30, 2026, showing Stewart Island/Rakiura, New Zealand’s third-largest island located about 30 kilometers south of the South Island. The Operational Land Imager on the Landsat 9 satellite acquired the view in May 2026. Michala Garrison processed the image using Landsat data provided by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Rakiura National Park covers roughly 85 percent of the triangular island, which houses a human population of approximately 500. Stewart Island hosts thousands of Stewart Island tokoeka, a flightless subspecies of the Southern brown kiwi. Podocarp and hardwood forests blanket the northern half of the land, containing coniferous trees with ancient lineages. Tall podocarp trees produce fruit for bellbirds and the rare kākāpō, the world's heaviest and only flightless parrot species. Shrublands, wetlands, and coastal dunes lining Mason Bay complete the local ecosystems.
Conservationists have targeted Stewart Island/Rakiura for a major project to eliminate rats, possums, feral cats, and hedgehogs. Nearby Ulva Island, situated in an inlet near Halfmoon Bay, has remained mostly free of non-native predators after workers eradicated rats there in 1997. That smaller landmass functions as a sanctuary where native birds, eggs, and chicks remain protected from non-native species.
Darkness on the island reveals views of the aurora australis, nearby dwarf galaxies, and stars. DarkSky International designated the remote location an International Dark Sky Sanctuary in 2019. Amateur astronomers can search for southern night-sky targets highlighted by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope through Hubble's Night Sky Challenge. In May, targets visible from southern latitudes included the Jewel Box star cluster and Centaurus A, a peculiar elliptical galaxy that may have formed from two colliding galaxies.
