APOD

https://apod.npub.pro

🌌🤖 🚀🌕💫☄️🛰️
Experience the cosmos directly from your nostr feed with the APOD Bot! Every day, I share NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, complete with detailed explanations. Marvel at the mysteries of space and learn something new about our universe every day. Stay tuned for daily celestial surprises!

I'm an automated bot. Please report any irregularities or issues directly to my creator one@satoshi.si

Public Key

npub1ap0dw55xedm5w4mkcyq8m7xyluwfc680lywrvfe50vr9ckl5m3uqtf5l75

NIP-05 Address

apod@satoshi.si

Profile Code

nprofile1qqswshkh22rvka682amvzqralrz078yudrhlj8pkyu68kpjut06dc7qpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqppamhxue69uhkummnw3ezumt0d58wrs2u

Publishing to

nos.lol

nostr.mom

relay.damus.io

Author Public Key

npub1ap0dw55xedm5w4mkcyq8m7xyluwfc680lywrvfe50vr9ckl5m3uqtf5l75

Show more details

Published at

2026-01-11T00:11:52Z

Kind type

0 Metadata

Event JSON

{ "id": "45a59ed7bdb550d4be5aa5060fee793e4a59beadbddc0ecd0efa01ee0d141127", "pubkey": "e85ed75286cb77475776c1007df8c4ff1c9c68eff91c3627347b065c5bf4dc78", "created_at": 1768090312, "kind": 0, "tags": [ [ "alt", "User profile for APOD" ], [ "name", "APOD" ], [ "display_name", "APOD" ], [ "picture", "https://nostr.build/i/p/9c7e951c9df1a990330d926e66eccf73173c3108c1406434929b6e32d04b16a1.jpg" ], [ "banner", "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2304/M2D9_HubbleSchmidt_985.jpg" ], [ "website", "https://apod.npub.pro" ], [ "about", "🌌🤖 🚀🌕💫☄️🛰️\nExperience the cosmos directly from your nostr feed with the APOD Bot! Every day, I share NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, complete with detailed explanations. Marvel at the mysteries of space and learn something new about our universe every day. Stay tuned for daily celestial surprises!\n\nI'm an automated bot. Please report any irregularities or issues directly to my creator one@satoshi.si" ], [ "nip05", "apod@satoshi.si" ], [ "lud16", "apod@satoshi.si" ] ], "content": "{\"name\":\"APOD\",\"username\":\"APOD\",\"display_name\":\"APOD\",\"displayName\":\"APOD\",\"picture\":\"https://nostr.build/i/p/9c7e951c9df1a990330d926e66eccf73173c3108c1406434929b6e32d04b16a1.jpg\",\"banner\":\"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2304/M2D9_HubbleSchmidt_985.jpg\",\"website\":\"https://apod.npub.pro\",\"about\":\"🌌🤖 🚀🌕💫☄️🛰️\\nExperience the cosmos directly from your nostr feed with the APOD Bot! Every day, I share NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, complete with detailed explanations. Marvel at the mysteries of space and learn something new about our universe every day. Stay tuned for daily celestial surprises!\\n\\nI'm an automated bot. Please report any irregularities or issues directly to my creator one@satoshi.si\",\"nip05\":\"apod@satoshi.si\",\"lud16\":\"apod@satoshi.si\"}", "sig": "d7c2ead8a76632f49a6aab3576625bb7b0c42305743eac205392b25cb3569c464c90fbaa5d2cb865efa290199fdb32ebb551ced0759007f75355976b67e9e3dd" }

Last Notes

2026-06-09 04:10:12 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
09 June 2026
**Thor's Helmet**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2606/Thor_Drudis_4389.jpg
Credit: Not provided
Thor not only has his own day (Thursday), but a helmet in the heavens. Popularly called Thor's Helmet, NGC 2359 is a hat-shaped cosmic cloud with wing -like appendages. Heroically sized even for a Norse god , Thor's Helmet is about 30 light-years across. In fact, the cosmic head-covering is more like an interstellar bubble , blown by a fast wind from the bright, massive star near the bubble's center. Known as a Wolf-Rayet star , the central star is an extremely hot giant thought to be in a brief, pre- supernova stage of evolution . NGC 2359 is located about 15,000 light-years away toward the constellation of the Great Overdog . This sharp image is a combination of deep images taken in light emitted by hydrogen (red) and oxygen (blue). The star in the center of Thor's Helmet is expected to explode in a spectacular supernova sometime within the next few thousand years.
#APOD #Astrophotography #Science #NASAInspires #Space
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260609.html

2026-06-08 04:09:51 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
08 June 2026
**Comet R3 PanSTARRS Through Time**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2606/R3Tails_Kurak_1973.jpg
Credit: Not provided
What happens to a comet as it leaves our inner Solar System? Now, the arrival of a comet into the inner Solar System is typically heralded with great fanfare and high hopes that the comet will become bright and photogenic . But on the way out, the comet's nucleus is less warmed by the Sun , less gas and dust are expelled , the bright coma around the nucleus shrinks and fades, and the tail length drops off. Many comets will then return to the outer Solar System and only return in hundreds or thousands of years. In contrast, some comets -- like Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) -- receive a gravitational kick from the planets and so will never return. Pictured, Comet R3 PanSTARRs was imaged deeply many nights in early to mid-May near Cerro Paranal in Chile . Later images appear closer to the top and clearly show the shrinking ion tail .
#APOD #Astronomy #Astrogeek #NASA #Astrophoto
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260608.html

2026-06-07 04:09:52 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
07 June 2026
**Jupiter and Venus from Earth**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2606/JupiterPersonVenus_Nikodem_960.jpg
Credit: Not provided
It was visible around the world. The sunset conjunction of Jupiter (left) and Venus (right) in 2012 was visible almost no matter where you lived on Earth. Anyone on our planet with a clear western horizon at sunset could see them. That year, a creative photographer traveled away from the town lights of Szubin , Poland to photograph a near closest approach of the two planets . The bright planets were then separated by only three degrees and his daughter struck a humorous pose . A faint red sunset still glowed in the background. Jupiter and Venus are together again this week after sunset, passing within a degree of each other about two days from today .
#APOD #Astronomy #Astrogeek #NASA #Astrophotography
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260607.html

2026-06-06 04:09:45 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
06 June 2026
**Charon: Moon of Pluto**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2606/Charon-Neutral-Bright-Release.jpg
Image Credit: NASA , Johns Hopkins Univ./APL , Southwest Research Institute , U.S. Naval Observatory
A darkened and mysterious north polar region known to some as Mordor Macula caps this premier view of Charon, Pluto's largest moon . The high-resolution image was captured by the interplanetary space probe New Horizons near its closest approach to distant Pluto on July 14, 2015. The combined blue, red, and infrared image data was processed to enhance colors and follow variations in Charon's surface properties with a resolution of about 2.9 kilometers (1.8 miles). A stunning image of Charon's Pluto-facing hemisphere, it also features a clear view of an apparently moon-girdling belt of fractures and canyons that seems to separate smooth southern plains from varied northern terrain. Charon is 1,214 kilometers (754 miles) across. That's about 1/10th the size of planet Earth but a whopping 1/2 the diameter of Pluto itself , and makes it the largest satellite relative to its parent body in the Solar System. Still, the moon appears as a small bump at about the 1 o'clock position on Pluto's disk in the grainy, negative, telescopic picture inset at upper left. That image was used by James Christy and Robert Harrington at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Flagstaff to discover Charon in June of 1978 .
#APOD #Astroeducation #Astrophoto #lookUp #Universe
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260606.html

2026-06-05 04:09:51 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
05 June 2026
**The Hydra Cluster of Galaxies**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2606/HydraClusterSampaio.jpg
Credit: Not provided
Within our own Milky Way galaxy, two bright, spiky stars stand like sentinels in the foreground of this cosmic snapshot . Far beyond them are the galaxies of the Hydra Cluster . In fact, while the spiky foreground stars are hundreds of light-years distant, the Hydra Cluster galaxies are well over 100 million light-years away. Three large galaxies near the cluster center, two yellow ellipticals (NGC 3311, NGC 3309) and one prominent blue spiral (NGC 3312), are the dominant galaxies, each about 150,000 light-years in diameter. An intriguing overlapping galaxy pair cataloged as NGC 3314 lies above and left of NGC 3312. Also known as Abell 1060, the Hydra galaxy cluster is one of three large galaxy clusters within 200 million light-years of the Milky Way. In the nearby universe , galaxies are gravitationally bound into clusters which themselves are loosely bound into superclusters . Superclusters in turn are seen to align over even larger scales .
#APOD #Astrophotography #Universe #Astronomy #Astrogeek
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260605.html

2026-06-04 04:09:55 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
04 June 2026
**A Planetary Nebula with Cosmic Buckyballs**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2606/buckyballs.jpg
Image Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / J. Cami ( Western University ); Image Processing: K. Beecroft Text: Jan Cami ( Western University ) & Cecilia Chirenti ( NASA GSFC , UMCP , CRESST II )
What is happening inside this unusual nebula? Planetary nebula Tc 1 , captured here in exquisite detail by the James Webb Space Telescope , is the celestial site where buckyballs were first identified in 2010. Buckminsterfullerene — as buckyballs are officially called — is a molecule with 60 carbon atoms (C 60 ) arranged in the shape of a soccer ball . The molecule is named for architect Buckminster Fuller because of its resemblance to the geodesic dome he helped popularize. Webb’s new data reveal where the C 60 molecules live in this nebula, and the geometry is striking: they populate a thin spherical shell around the central star, visible here as the bright edge of the nebula’s glowing orange central region. Look closely near the nebula’s heart and a more perplexing feature emerges: a delicate structure shaped uncannily like an upside-down question mark , fitting punctuation for the many questions this nebula still poses.
#APOD #Astrophotography #lookUp #Science #Astronomy
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260604.html

2026-06-03 04:09:45 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
03 June 2026
**Andromeda Through Gas and Dust**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2606/andromeda.png
Credit: Not provided
Over 1000 years ago, Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi published humanity’s oldest known record of the Andromeda Galaxy in "The Book of Fixed Stars" ( Bodleian Library MS. Marsh 144 p. 167 ). 800 years later, Andromeda became the 31st entry in Charles Messier’s " Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters ". From “a small cloud” to “nebula” and now known to be our nearest major galaxy , Andromeda has remained a fundamental astronomical object. Today’s image , taken over 202 hours, shows how far we have come in our ability to observe our neighbor. The diffuse red and blue clouds are mostly foreground ionized hydrogen and oxygen well within our Milky Way . Pink-red clouds of hydrogen ionized by the energetic light of young stars trace the galaxy’s dusty spiral arms . M32 and M110 are satellite galaxies pictured orbiting the larger Andromeda. Despite its long history of observation through ancient unaided eyes to modern telescopes, Andromeda still holds countless secrets that astronomers will continue to search for, including how galaxies merge and evolve , as well as the nature of the dark matter that galaxies reside in.
#APOD #Astronomy #NASA #Universe #lookUp
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260603.html

2026-06-02 04:10:00 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
02 June 2026
**The Vela Supernova Remnant**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2606/Vela_Mtanous_2900.jpg
Credit: Not provided
The explosion is over, but the consequences continue. About twelve thousand years ago, a relatively normal star in the constellation Vela suddenly exploded , creating a strange point of light briefly visible to humans living near the beginning of recorded history . The outer layers of the star crashed into the interstellar medium , driving a shock wave that is still visible today. The featured image , taken piecemeal over 60 hours from the Khomas Region of Namibia , captures some of that filamentary and gigantic shock in visible light , with details highlighted by hydrogen (red) and oxygen (blue) emissions. As gas flies away from the detonated star, it decays and reacts with the interstellar medium , producing light in many different colors and energy bands. Remaining at the center of the Vela Supernova Remnant is a pulsar , a star as dense as nuclear matter that spins around more than ten times in a single second.
#APOD #VelaSupernova #VelaSupernovaRemnant #VelaConstellation #SupernovaRemnant #StellarExplosion
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260602.html

2026-06-01 04:10:18 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
01 June 2026
**Saturn at Night**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/LastRingPortrait_Cassini_4472.jpg
Image Credit: NASA , JPL-Caltech , Space Science Institute , Mindaugas Macijauskas
Telescopic views of Saturn and its beautiful rings often make it the star of star parties . But this stunning view of the outer gas gaint planet's rings and night side just isn't possible from telescopes in the vicinity of planet Earth. Peering out from the inner Solar System they can only bring Saturn's day side into view. In fact, this image of Saturn's slender sunlit crescent with the planet's night shadow cast across its broad and complex ring system was captured by the robot spacecraft Cassini. After a seven year long journey from planet Earth, Cassini called Saturn orbit home for 13 years (from 2004 - 2017) before it was directed to dive into the atmosphere of the gas giant on September 15, 2017. This magnificent mosaic is composed of frames recorded by Cassini's wide-angle camera only two days before its grand final plunge . And Saturn's night will not be seen again until another spaceship from Earth calls.
#APOD #Saturn #SaturnRings #Cassini #CassiniMission #Spacecraft
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260601.html

2026-05-31 04:10:17 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
31 May 2026
**Eagle Nebula Pillars in Infrared from Hubble**
Video thumbnail: _Link down bellow_
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/M16Ir_HubbleRomero_960.jpg
Image Credit: NASA , ESA , Hubble , HLA ; Processing: Luis Romero Ventura
Newborn stars are forming in the Eagle Nebula. They are gravitationally contracting in pillars of dense gas and dust. The intense radiation of these newly-formed bright stars is causing surrounding material to boil away. This image , taken with the Hubble Space Telescope in near infrared light , allows the viewer to see through much of the thick dust that makes the pillars opaque in visible light. The giant structures are light years in length and dubbed informally the Pillars of Creation . Associated with the open star cluster M16 , the Eagle Nebula lies about 6,500 light years away. The Eagle Nebula is a satisfying target for small telescopes in a nebula-rich part of the sky toward the split constellation Serpens Cauda (the tail of the snake).
#APOD #EagleNebula #PillarsOfCreation #M16 #HubbleSpaceTelescope #InfraredObservation
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260531.html

2026-05-30 04:06:13 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
30 May 2026
**Supermoon Versus Micromoon**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/SuperMicroMoon_Mukherjee_3000.jpg
Image Credit: Soumyadeep Mukherjee
What is so micro about tonight's blue micromoon? Just after sunset, a full moon will appear slightly smaller and dimmer than usual. The reason is that the Moon's fully illuminated phase occurs within a short time of apogee - when the Moon is farthest from the Earth in its elliptical orbit . In fact, tonight's micromoon will be the farthest, smallest, and dimmest Moon this year. But tonight's micromoon is notable for yet another reason: it is also a blue moon , meaning that it is the second full moon in the same month ( moon-th ). Pictured here , a supermoon -- when the full moon appears near its largest -- is compared to a micromoon as photographed from Kolkata , India in May and December of 2021. Although the next micromoon occurs next month, and the next blue moon at the end of 2028, the next blue micromoon will not occur until 2053 .
#APOD #supermoon #micromoon #bluemoon #lunarphase #lunarcycle
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260530.html

2026-05-29 04:09:49 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
29 May 2026
**Messier 104**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/M104noirlab2612a_1024.jpg
Credit: CTIO, NOIRLab, DOE, NSF, AURA, T. A. Rector, U. Alaska Anchorage, M. Zamani
Explanation: A gorgeous spiral galaxy, Messier 104 is famous for its nearly edge-on profile featuring a broad ring of obscuring dust lanes. Seen in silhouette against an extensive central bulge of stars, the swath of cosmic dust lends a broad brimmed hat-like appearance to the galaxy suggesting a more popular moniker, the Sombrero Galaxy. Also known as NGC 4594, the Sombrero galaxy can be seen across the spectrum and is host to a central supermassive black hole. About 50,000 light-years across and 28 million light-years away, M104 is one of the largest galaxies at the southern edge of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. Still, the spiky foreground stars in this field of view lie well within our own Milky Way. This broad view of the well-known galaxy was processed to reveal M104's extended halo, as well as a faint tidal stellar stream . It was captured by the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Blanco 4-meter telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory .
#APOD #Messier104 #SombreroGalaxy #NGC4594 #SpiralGalaxy #DustLane
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260529.html

2026-05-28 04:06:05 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
28 May 2026
**NGC 1514: The Crystal Ball Nebula**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/noirlab2613a_large.jpg
Image Credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA ; Image Processing: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez ( International Gemini Observatory / NSF NOIRLab ), T.A. Rector ( University of Alaska Anchorage / NSF NOIRLab ), D. de Martin & M. Zamani ( NSF NOIRLab ) Text: Cecilia Chirenti ( NASA GSFC , UMCP , CRESST II )
What do you see in this crystal ball? The featured image shows NGC 1514 , known as the Crystal Ball Nebula , observed by the Gemini North telescope on Maunakea , in Hawai'i . NGC 1514 is 1,500 light-years away and was discovered by William Herschel in 1790. This planetary nebula is formed when a star becomes a red giant and ejects its outer gas layers. The ejected shell of gas is heated up by the core of the star to temperatures hotter than the surface of our Sun : that makes the gas shine, creating beautiful images like this one. The slightly asymmetrical shape of the Crystal Ball Nebula reveals a secret: the bright star in the center has a companion. As the two stars orbit each other with a period of about nine years , they shape the gas around them. In about 10,000 - 25,000 years the nebula will be dissipated by their stellar winds.
#APOD #Astrophoto #Cosmos #Science #Space
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260528.html

2026-05-27 04:07:26 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
27 May 2026
**PK 164 +31.1: The Headphone Nebula**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/headphone_nebula.jpg
Credit: Not provided
What is a pair of headphones doing in the sky? Today’s image features the Headphone Nebula, also known as PK 164 +31.1 or Jones-Emberson 1 . This planetary nebula , the remnant of a dying Sun-like star, faintly occupies an angular region of the Lynx constellation about 1/5 th the diameter of the full moon. The red and blue-ish green colors trace hydrogen and oxygen atoms, respectively, that have been excited and ionized by the nebula's central white dwarf . The headphone shape, where two lobes of hydrogen puncture the inner region of oxygen, adds this object to a long list of oddly shaped nebulae . The morphology of such strange nebulae hint at the presence of a stellar or planetary companion , which can stir the material flowing out from the dying star. You can listen to Hubble and JWST sonifications of planetary nebulae through your very own headphones!
#APOD #Astrogeek #Astroeducation #Universe #Astronomy
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260527.html

2026-05-25 04:09:39 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
25 May 2026
**Thackeray's Globules**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/ThackerayGlobs_Hayes_2664.jpg
Credit: Not provided
What are these strange space globs? Situated in rich star field s and glowing hydrogen gas, these opaque clouds of interstellar dust and gas are so large they might be able to form stars. Their home is known as IC 2944 , a bright stellar nursery located about 7,600 light years away toward the constellation of the Centaur ( Centaurus ). The largest of these dark globules , first spotted by A. D. Thackeray in 1950 using a telescope in South Africa , is likely two separate but overlapping clouds, each more than one light-year wide. Along with other data, the featured Hubble palette image from the El Sauce Observatory in Chile, indicates that Thackeray's globules are fractured and churning as a result of intense ultraviolet radiation from young, hot stars already energizing and heating the bright emission nebula . These and similar dark globules known to be associated with other star forming regions may ultimately be dissipated by their hostile environment -- like cosmic lumps of butter in a hot frying pan .
#APOD #ThackeraysGlobules #IC2944 #Centaurus #StarNursery #StarFormation
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260525.html

2026-05-24 04:09:33 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
24 May 2026
**A Martian Eclipse: Phobos Crosses the Sun**
Image: https://t4.ftcdn.net/jpg/08/74/51/69/360_F_874516932_itAmEASwXuIi97PUoP9Jz6w9mNKeMKHg.jpg
Video Credit: NASA , JPL-Caltech , ASU MSSS , SSI
What's that passing in front of the Sun? It looks like a moon, but it can't be Earth's Moon , because it isn't round. It's the Martian moon Phobos . The featured video was taken from the surface of Mars in 2022 by the Perseverance rover. Phobos , at 11.5 kilometers across, is 150 times smaller than Luna (our moon) in diameter, but also 50 times closer to its parent planet . In fact, Phobos is so close to Mars that it is expected to break up and crash into Mars within the next 50 million years. In the near term, the low orbit of Phobos results in more rapid solar eclipses than seen from Earth . The featured video is shown in real time -- the transit really took about 40 seconds, as shown. The videographer -- the robotic rover Perseverance (Percy) -- continues to explore Jezero Crater on Mars , searching not only for clues to the watery history of the now dry world , but evidence of ancient microbial life .
#APOD #MartianEclipse #PhobosTransit #MarsEclipse #PerseveranceRover #SolarTransit
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260524.html

2026-05-23 04:09:44 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
23 May 2026
**Messier 2**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/potw1913aa.jpg
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA , G. Piotto et al.
After the Crab Nebula , this giant star cluster is the second entry in 18th century astronomer Charles Messier's famous list of things that are not comets. M2 is one of the largest globular star clusters now known to roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Though Messier originally described it as a nebula without stars, this stunning Hubble image resolves stars across the cluster's central 40 light-years. Its population of stars numbers close to 150,000, concentrated within a total diameter of around 175 light-years. About 55,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Aquarius, this ancient denizen of the Milky Way, also known as NGC 7089 , is 13 billion years old. An extended stellar debris stream, a signature of past gravitational tidal disruption, was recently found to be associated with Messier 2 .
#APOD #Messier2 #NGC7089 #GlobularCluster #MilkyWay #Hubble
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260523.html

2026-05-22 04:06:00 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
22 May 2026
**The Nebulous Realm of WR 134**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/WR134morrone2048.jpg
Credit: Not provided
This cosmic snapshot covers a field of view over twice as wide as the full Moon within the boundaries of the high-flying constellation Cygnus. Made using astronomical narrowband filters, the image highlights the bright edge of a ring-like nebula traced by the glow of ionized hydrogen and oxygen gas. Embedded in the region's expanse of interstellar clouds , the complex, glowing arcs are sections of shells of material swept up by the wind from Wolf-Rayet star WR 134, the brightest star near image center. Distance estimates put WR 134 about 6,000 light-years away, making this telescopic frame over 100 light-years across. Shedding their outer envelopes in powerful stellar winds, massive Wolf-Rayet stars have burned through their nuclear fuel at a prodigious rate and end their final phase of massive star evolution in a spectacular supernova. Their stellar winds and final supernova explosion enrich the interstellar material with heavy elements to be incorporated in future generations of stars .
#APOD #WR134 #WolfRayetStar #Nebula #Cygnus #AstroPhotography
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260522.html

2026-05-21 04:07:23 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
21 May 2026
**A Collision of Galaxy Clusters**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/a2029_lg.jpg
Image Credit: X-ray: NASA / CXC / CfA / C. Watson et al. ; Optical: PanSTARRS ; Image Processing: NASA / CXC / SAO / N. Wolk and P. Edmonds Text: Cecilia Chirenti ( NASA GSFC , UMCP , CRESST II )
This big beautiful spiral shines in X-ray light . It is about 20 times larger than our Galaxy . It belongs to Abell 2029 , a galaxy cluster one billion light-years away. (To see only the galaxies, hover your cursor over the image, or follow this link .) Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the universe that are supported by gravity. Abell 2029 is formed by thousands of galaxies , surrounded by a huge cloud of hot gas and the equivalent of hundreds of trillions times the mass of the Sun in dark matter . The spiral is made of gas, mostly hydrogen and helium, heated to tens of millions of degrees. It was found in a recent study that used data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to show that Abell 2029 had a collision with a smaller cluster four billion years ago. The collision affected the gravitational field and caused the intracluster gas to slosh, like wine moving in a wine glass , shaping the spiral.
#APOD #GalaxyCollision #Abell2029 #XRayAstronomy #GalaxyCluster #ClusterMerger
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260521.html

2026-05-20 04:08:28 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
20 May 2026
**The Dark Wolf Nebula**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/dark_wolf.jpg
Credit: Not provided
A dark wolf lies in gum. No, this isn’t a riddle! Today's image features the Dark Wolf Nebula ( Sandqvist–Lindroos 17), a spooky dust cloud embedded within the Gum 55 ( RCW 113) Nebula in the Scorpius constellation . While dust is a pest to us, it serves a vital role in creating the necessary conditions for stars to be born . The Dark Wolf absorbs the intense ultraviolet and visible light emitted by young stars in Gum 55 and re-emits it at longer, mainly infrared , wavelengths. This prevents the higher energy light from heating up the gas in the region. When a region of gas is cool enough, gravity takes over and causes the gas to collapse into a star. Not only does dust act as an interstellar thermostat, but it is also the meet-cute for single hydrogen atoms forming molecular hydrogen, the building block for stars. The seemingly sinister Dark Wolf is actually a harbinger of cosmic life.
#APOD #DarkWolfNebula #SandqvistLindroos17 #DustNebula #Gum55 #RCW113
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260520.html

2026-05-19 04:09:28 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
19 May 2026
**NGC 2170: The Angel Nebula**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/Angel_Marriott_1707.jpg
Credit: Not provided
Is this a painting or a photograph? In this celestial abstract art composed with a cosmic brush, dusty nebula NGC 2170 , also known as the Angel Nebula, shines just above the image center. Reflecting the light of nearby hot stars, NGC 2170 is joined by other bluish reflection nebulae, a red emission region, many dark absorption nebulae , and a backdrop of colorful stars . Like the common household items that abstract painters often choose for their subjects, the clouds of gas, dust, and hot stars featured here are also commonly found in a setting like this one -- a massive, star-forming molecular cloud in the constellation of the Unicorn ( Monoceros ). The giant molecular cloud Mon R2 , is impressively close, estimated to be only 2,400 light-years or so away. At that distance, this canvas would be over 60 light-year s across.
#APOD #NGC2170 #AngelNebula #Monoceros #MonR2 #ReflectionNebula
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260519.html

2026-05-18 04:09:52 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
18 May 2026
**Unraveling NGC 3169**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/ngc3169_ngc3166_ngc3165.jpg
Credit: Not provided
Spiral galaxy NGC 3169 looks to be unraveling like a ball of cosmic yarn. It lies some 70 million light-years away, south of bright star Regulus toward the faint constellation Sextans. Wound up spiral arms are pulled out into sweeping tidal tails as NGC 3169 (left) and neighboring NGC 3166 interact gravitationally . Eventually the galaxies will merge into one, a common fate even for bright galaxies in the local universe . Drawn out stellar arcs and plumes are clear indications of the ongoing gravitational interactions across the deep and colorful galaxy group photo. The telescopic frame spans about 20 arc minutes or about 400,000 light-years at the group's estimated distance, and includes smaller, bluish NGC 3165 to the right. NGC 3169 is also known to shine across the spectrum from radio to X-rays, harboring an active galactic nucleus that is the site of a supermassive black hole.
#APOD #NGC3169 #NGC3166 #NGC3165 #SpiralGalaxy #TidalTails
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260518.html

2026-05-16 04:09:39 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
16 May 2026
**Aurora Slathers Up the Sky**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/aurora_iss052e007857.jpg
Image Credit: Jack Fischer , Expedition 52 , NASA
Like salsa verde on your favorite burrito, a green aurora slathers up the sky in this 2017 June 25 snapshot from the International Space Station. About 400 kilometers (250 miles) above Earth, the orbiting station is itself within the upper realm of the auroral displays. Aurorae have the signature colors of excited molecules and atoms at the low densities found at extreme altitudes. Emission from atomic oxygen dominates this view. The tantalizing glow is green at lower altitudes, but rarer reddish bands extend above the space station's horizon. The orbital scene was captured while passing over a point south and east of Australia, with stars above the horizon at the right belonging to the constellation Canis Major , Orion's big dog. Sirius , alpha star of Canis Major, is the brightest star near the Earth's limb.
#APOD #Aurora #AuroraBorealis #ISS #SpaceStation #SpacePhotography
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260516.html

2026-05-15 04:05:22 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
15 May 2026
**R3 PanSTARRS: An Orion Comet**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/R3Orion_Hall_2870.jpg
Credit: Not provided
Comet R3 PanSTARRS might be best remembered as an Orion comet. A key reason is because Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) was near its most spectacular -- in terms of tail visibility -- when passing in front of the iconic constellation . Although rare, other bright comets , too, have ventured across Orion, including Lovejoy in 2015 , Hale-Bopp in 1997 , and the Great Comet of 1264 . Best visible in long duration exposures, the featured image was captured last week from the Craigieburn Mountain Range in New Zealand . Visible in the deep background image are the Orion Nebula , Barnard's Loop , and through R3's tail, the bright star Saiph , the sixth brightest star in the constellation of Orion. Comet R3 PanSTARRS continues to fade as it moves further south, passing into the constellation of the Unicorn ( Monoceros ) in the next few days.
#APOD #CometR3 #PanSTARRS #OrionComet #CometC2025R3 #OrionNebula
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260515.html

2026-05-14 11:48:34 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
14 May 2026
**Messier Catalog at Uniform Scale**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/messier_portrait_300px_160h.jpg
Image Credit: Sylvain Villet Text: Cecilia Chirenti ( NASA GSFC , UMCP , CRESST II )
What are some of the most interesting astronomical objects you can see in the night sky? Armed with a good pair of binoculars or a small telescope, if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, you can look for the very popular objects in the Messier Catalog . Most of them, but not all, are also visible from the southern half of the Earth. The featured image shows all 110 objects in the catalog at uniform scale -- the same magnification. Charles Messier created the catalog in the 18th century. He was interested in comets , and his catalog was a list of known comet-like " objects to avoid " in the sky when observing or hunting for comets. The deep sky objects in the catalog include a supernova remnant (the Crab Nebula , M1), other galaxies (such as Andromeda , M31), nebulae (e.g. the Orion Nebula , M42, a star-forming region) and stellar clusters (such as the Pleiades , M45, a bright young open cluster ).
#APOD #MessierCatalog #DeepSky #Astronomy #Skywatching #Stargazing
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260514.html

2026-05-13 04:07:25 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
13 May 2026
**NGC 188: Old Cluster in the New General Catalog**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/Polarissima.jpg
Credit: Not provided
The New General Catalog of star clusters and nebulae really isn't so new. In fact, it was published in 1888 - an effort by J. L. E. Dreyer to consolidate the work of astronomers William , Caroline , and John Herschel along with others into a useful single, complete catalog of astronomical discoveries and measurements. Dreyer's work was largely successful and is still important today, as this famous catalog continues to lend its "NGC" to bright clusters, galaxies, and nebulae. Take for example the star cluster known as NGC 188 (item number 188 in the NGC compilation). It lies about 6,000 light-years distant in the northern constellation Cepheus and represents a galactic or open star cluster . With an age of about 7 billion years, NGC 188 is old for an open cluster. Its old, evolved red giant stars have yellowish hues in this colorful, deep sky view . NGC 188 also enjoys the designation Caldwell 1 in a modern compilation of deep sky objects. Located well above the plane of the Milky Way and seen in the direction of planet Earth's north celestial pole, the ancient stellar group is known to some as the Polarissima Cluster .
#APOD #NGC188 #StarCluster #OpenCluster #Cepheus #Stargazing
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260513.html

2026-05-12 04:09:01 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
12 May 2026
**The Conjunction of Comet R3 PanSTARRS and the Orion Nebula**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/CometR3_Orion.jpg
Credit: Not provided
Today’s composite image features something old , something new, something borrowed, and something blue! Comet R3 PanSTARRS , streaking across the right of the image, likely originated from the Oort Cloud , meaning it is an old Solar System relic from billions of years ago. It’s bright extended ion tail glows blue as the gas escaping the comet’s core is ionized by sunlight. Astronomers are fascinated by comets for all sorts of reasons: comet compositions are untouched time capsules containing the building blocks of Solar System planets; comets may have delivered water to the young Earth; the behavior of cometary tails shed light on solar wind and radiation interactions. The background mosaic, featuring the Orion Nebula ( M42 ), was taken over two nights of observation with the comet captured on the third night. The Orion Nebula is our nearest stellar nursery and, at about 2 million years old , is our something (relatively) new! Now at around 127.5 million kilometers from Earth , we wave goodbye to the borrowed Comet R3 PanSTARRS as it leaves the Solar System.
#APOD #CometR3 #PanSTARRS #OrionNebula #M42 #OortCloud
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260512.html

2026-05-11 04:09:53 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
11 May 2026
**Moon Setting Behind Teide Volcano**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1806/Telescope_Teide.jpg
Credit: Not provided
These people are not in danger. What is coming down from the left is just the Moon, far in the distance. Luna appears so large here because she is being photographed through a telescopic lens . What is moving is mostly the Earth , whose spin causes the Moon to slowly disappear behind Mount Teide , a volcano in the Canary Islands of Spain off the northwest coast of Africa . The people pictured are 16 kilometers away and many are facing the camera because they are watching the Sun rise behind the photographer. It is not a coincidence that a full moon sets just when the Sun rises because the Sun is always on the opposite side of the sky from a full moon. The featured video was made in 2018 during a full Milk Moon . The video is not time-lapse -- this was really how fast the Moon was setting.
#APOD #MoonSet #Teide #CanaryIslands #FullMoon #Luna
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260511.html

2026-05-10 04:09:55 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
10 May 2026
**Comet R3 PanSTARRS and Orion**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/CometOrion_Perrot_960.jpg
Credit: Not provided
Orion never had a sword like this. As Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) heads out of the inner Solar System, it is putting on quite a show for long exposure cameras . Currently seen toward the constellation of Orion the Hunter , the distant Orion Nebula is visible on the upper right. Comet R3 PanSTARRS is now showing two distinct tails : a short dust tail pointing toward the top of the image and a long and wavy ion tail trailing off toward the upper left. The ion tail points away from the Sun and glows blue from excited carbon monoxide . Large particles in the dust tail somewhat resist the radiation pressure that push them away from the Sun and so retain a bit of the comet's orbit. The dust tail shines by reflected sunlight . The featured image was taken a few days ago from France 's Reunion Island in the southern Indian Ocean .
#APOD #CometR3 #PanSTARRS #CometC2025R3 #Orion #OrionNebula
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260510.html

2026-05-09 04:06:01 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
09 May 2026
**Messier Craters in Stereo**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/MessierCrater3d_vantuyne.jpg
Image Credit: Apollo 11 , NASA ; Stereo Image Copyright Patrick Vantuyne
Many bright nebulae and star clusters in planet Earth's sky are associated with the name of astronomer Charles Messier from his famous 18th century catalog. His name is also given to these two large and remarkable craters on the Moon. Standouts in the dark , smooth lunar Sea of Fertility or Mare Fecunditatis, Messier (left) and Messier A have dimensions of 15 by 8 and 16 by 11 kilometers respectively. Their elongated shapes are explained by the extremely shallow-angle trajectory followed by an impactor, moving left to right, that gouged out the craters. The shallow impact also resulted in two bright rays of material extending along the surface to the right, beyond the picture. Intended to be viewed with red/blue glasses (red for the left eye), this striking stereo picture of the crater pair was recently created from high resolution scans of two images ( AS11-42-6304 , AS11-42-6305 ) taken during the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon.
#APOD #MessierCraters #LunarCraters #MareFecunditatis #LunarSurface #StellarImpact
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260509.html

2026-05-08 04:07:24 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
08 May 2026
**Comet R3 PanSTARRS Before Rigel**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/CometRigel_Karuk_2851.jpg
Credit: Not provided
Which way is Comet R3 PanSTARRS going? Not towards the star at the top of the image, because that is Rigel , which, being far in the background, is unrelated to the comet. Not through the nebula in the image middle, because that is the Witch Head Nebula and it, too, is far in the distance -- but not far from Rigel. Not into northern skies because over the past week Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) has moved into southern skies and is now best visible in Earth 's Southern Hemisphere toward the west after sunset. Angularly, Comet R3 PanSTARRS is slowly moving toward the upper right, night by night, and will soon be in the constellation Orion . Spatially, the comet is now headed out of our Solar System but should remain visible to cameras in southern skies for about a week. The featured image was captured last week near Cerro Paranal in Chile .
#APOD #CometR3 #PanSTARRS #Rigel #WitchHeadNebula #Orion
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260508.html

2026-05-07 04:09:41 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
07 May 2026
**Supernova in a Sideways Spiral**
Video: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/supernova.mp4
Video Credit: Hunter Outten & Kaleb Jordan Text: Cecilia Chirenti ( NASA GSFC , UMCP , CRESST II )
A long time ago, in a distant galaxy , a massive star was destroyed in a supernova explosion. The light of this event travelled for tens of millions of years and reached Earth last week as Supernova 2026kid . The featured video shows a time-lapse over three nights of the host galaxy NGC 5907 , an edge-on spiral also known as the Splinter or Knife Edge Galaxy, as the supernova appears and becomes brighter. (The occasional streaks are satellites in Earth orbit.) At its brightest, a supernova can outshine the sum of all other stars in its galaxy. Supernova 2026kid appears relatively dim , probably because we are seeing it through the edge-on disk of the galaxy. Such explosions typically happen about once per century in galaxies similar to the Milky Way , and their light can take months to fade away. The brightest supernova in recorded history was SN 1006 ; it is reported to have been brighter than Venus, and even visible in the sky during daytime.
#APOD #Supernova #NGC5907 #EdgeOnSpiral #CosmicEvent #Astronomy
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260507.html

2026-05-06 04:09:48 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
06 May 2026
**The Retrograde Dance of Saturn and Neptune**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/saturn_neptune_retrograde.jpg
Credit: Not provided
What does it mean for Saturn and Neptune to be in retrograde? Featured is a composite of images taken over 34 nights from May 2025 to February 2026 tracing Saturn (brighter, foreground) and Neptune (dimmer, background). Over that time, the two planets exhibited retrograde motion , meaning they appeared to move backward in the sky. This apparent backwards motion occurs when Earth overtakes the slower outer planets as they orbit the Sun. Imagine the Solar System is a running track. Earth "runs" faster along the inside of the track compared to the outer planets. As Earth approaches, aligns, and then "laps" the outer planets, they change position from ahead to behind from the Earth's perspective. This perspective shift is what causes the outer planets to change position in the night sky. An animation corresponding to today’s image shows Saturn and Neptune’s months-long dance across the northern night sky. Saturn stepped from the Pisces constellation into Aquarius and back again while Neptune remained in Pisces. This is the closest Saturn and Neptune have been in the sky since their last conjunction in 1989.
#APOD #Saturn #Neptune #Retrograde #PlanetaryMotion #Astronomy
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260506.html

2026-05-05 04:10:09 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
05 May 2026
**Orion over Mount Teide**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/OrionTeide_Rosadzinski_4247.jpg
Credit: Not provided
Orion is rarely seen like this. To achieve this majestic vista , you need a camera capable of taking such long duration exposures that faint features in the night sky become revealed. Iconic nebulas that appear include the Orion Nebula , the Flame Nebula , and Barnard's Loop . For contrast, it also helps to have a volcano on the foreground, in this case the Teide volcano on Tenerife on the Canary Islands of Spain . But if you want your Teide volcano snow-covered , you also need good timing -- because that only happens, typically, for a few days each year. Good timing also includes waiting for Orion to appear just behind Teide , which occurred late last year after sunset. The featured image is the result of a series of images taken consecutively with the same camera from the same location.
#APOD #Orion #MountTeide #CanaryIslands #Tenerife #Astronomy
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260505.html

2026-05-04 04:05:28 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
04 May 2026
**Superplumes Inside Earth**
Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LLSVP.gif
Credit: Not provided
Why are there huge, unusual masses inside the Earth? No one is sure. By noting how earthquakes rumble through our planet 's interior, humanity has discovered two deep structures that appear to have unusual temperatures and/or chemical compositions. One hypothesis holds that the superplumes are sunken debris left over from the Earth-shattering collision that created Earth's Moon about 4.5 billion years ago. A competing hypothesis is that they are graveyards for old tectonic plates that slowly slid under each other over the past few billion years. No matter their origin, the superplumes are thought to affect Earth’s surface volcanism, possibly creating, for example, island chains such as Hawaii . Also known as large low-shear-velocity provinces (LLSVPs), Earth's superplumes are visualized in the featured animation .
#APOD #Earth #Superplumes #LLSVP #Volcanism #Tectonics
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260504.html

2026-05-03 04:06:18 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
03 May 2026
**Trifid Pillars and Jets**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/TrifidPillar_Hubble_4074.jpg
Image Credit: NASA , ESA , STScI ; Processing: J. DePasquale ( STScI )
Dust pillars are like interstellar mountains . They survive because they are more dense than their surroundings, but they are slowly being eroded away by a hostile environment. Visible in the featured picture by the Hubble Space Telescope is the end of a huge gas and dust pillar in the Trifid Nebula (M20), punctuated by a smaller pillar pointing up and an unusual jet pointing to the upper left. Many of the bright dots are newly formed stars . A star near the small pillar's end is slowly being stripped of its accreting gas by radiation from a tremendously brighter star situated off the top of the image. The jet extends nearly a light-year and would not be visible without external illumination. As gas and dust evaporate from the pillars, the hidden stellar source of this jet will likely be uncovered, possibly over the next 20,000 years.
#APOD #TrifidNebula #M20 #DustPillars #StellarJets #HubbleSpaceTelescope
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260503.html

2026-05-02 04:07:39 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
02 May 2026
**Seeing Titan**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/PIA21923_fig1SeeingTitan2400.jpg
Image Credit: VIMS Team, Univ. Arizona , U. Nantes , ESA , NASA
Shrouded in a thick atmosphere, the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan , is really hard to see. Small particles suspended in Titan's upper atmosphere cause an almost impenetrable haze, strongly scattering light at visible wavelengths and hiding surface features from prying eyes. Still, Titan's surface is better imaged at infrared wavelengths, where scattering is weaker and atmospheric absorption is reduced. Arrayed around this visible light image (center) of Titan are some of the clearest global infrared views of the tantalizing moon so far. In false color, the six panels present a consistent processing of 13 years of infrared image data from the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on board the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn from 2004 to 2017. They offer a stunning comparison with Cassini's visible light view. NASA's revolutionary rotorcraft mission to Titan's surface is due to launch no earlier than July, 2028.
#APOD #Titan #Saturn #Cassini #VIMS #InfraredAstronomy
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260502.html

2026-05-01 11:20:56 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
01 May 2026
**Markarian's Chain**
Image: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2605/M84andM86.png
Credit: Not provided
Near the heart of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster , a string of galaxies known as Markarian's Chain stretches across this telescopic field of view. Anchored in the frame at bottom right by prominent lenticular galaxies, M84 (bottom) and M86 , you can follow the chain's gentle arc up and toward the left. Near center you'll spot the pair of interacting galaxies NGC 4438 and NGC 4435, known to some as Markarian's Eyes . An estimated 50 million light-years distant, the Virgo Cluster itself is the nearest galaxy cluster . With up to about 2,000 member galaxies, it has a noticeable gravitational influence on our own Local Group of Galaxies . Within the Virgo Cluster at least seven galaxies in Markarian's Chain appear to move coherently , while others may appear to be part of the chain by chance.
#APOD #MarkarianChain #VirgoCluster #GalaxyCluster #M84 #M86
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260501.html

2026-04-25 04:07:15 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
25 April 2026
**Young Moon and Sister Stars**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2604/GHR3777LunaPleiadi_101400_1024.jpg
Image Credit: Giorgia Hofer
Explanation:
Sunlit arms of a
crescent moon
seem to embrace the faint lunar
night side in this dramatic celestial view from planet Earth.
The single telephoto exposure tracking the sky was captured on
the night of April 19,
when a two day old Moon was near perigee in its elliptical orbit.
On that date, the young Moon was also close on the sky to the lovely
Pleiades Star Cluster.
With the moonlight dimmed by clouds the Pleiades
sister stars gather
below the Moon's bright crescent, seen through a faint but colorful
lunar corona.
The lunar night side is illuminated
by earthshine,
sunlight reflected from the Earth itself.
The Moon's ashen glow,
also known as the "old moon in the young moon's arms,"
tends to be bright in the northern hemisphere spring.
And for now, the Moon's orbit takes it near the
Pleiades
stars each month in planet Earth's sky,
though their close conjunctions are easiest to
see when the Moon
is near a crescent phase.
#APOD #YoungMoon #Pleiades #Moonlight #Earthshine #CrescentMoon
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260424.html

2026-04-23 04:15:40 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
23 April 2026
**Large Scale Structure of the Universe**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2604/noirlab2610c_1024.jpg
Image Credit: Claire Lamman, DESI collaboration, Cecilia Chirenti, NASA, GSFC, CRESST II
Explanation:
This is a map of the universe.
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) at Kitt Peak National Observatory, Arizona, has finished its five-year survey.
It observed more than 47 million galaxies and quasars and created a 3D map centered on the Earth.
Today's featured image shows a thin slice of these data: the black gaps indicate where our Galaxy obscures distant objects.
The feathery web in the inset shows the large scale structure of the universe.
Light of the most distant galaxies shown here travelled for 11 billion years to reach the Earth.
Galaxies cluster throughout cosmic history under the competing influences of gravity and dark energy, responsible for the accelerated expansion of the universe.
Analysis of early DESI results hinted at the possibility that dark energy, described as a cosmological constant by Albert Einstein, may not be constant after all.
But we still have to wait for the analysis of the now complete dataset.
The nature of dark energy is the biggest mystery of cosmology.
#APOD #LargeScaleStructure #Universe #CosmicWeb #DESI #DarkEnergy
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260423.html

2026-04-22 04:19:54 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
22 April 2026
**Three Sky Arches over Snowy Alps**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2604/TripleArchAlps_Fux_1080.jpg
Image Credit: Angel Fux
Explanation:
Why are there three arches across the sky instead of two?
Last month, after being
dropped off by a helicopter at a
high mountain peak in the
Alps near the
Swiss
Italian border,
an adventurous astrophotographer expected two arches of
our Milky Way galaxy to be
visible during the night.
These were the inner arch looking in
toward the center of our galaxy on the left,
visible just before sunrise, and the
outer arch on the
right visible just after sunset.
But there were three arches.
The surprised
astrophotographer soon realized that the sky was
so dark that an
entire arc of faint
zodiacal light was also noticeable --
sunlight scattered by inner
Solar System dust.
And it artfully connected the two Milky Way arches!
The next morning a helicopter picked the astrophotographer back up,
and after 40 hours of processing and combining that night's images, the
featured triple-arch 360-degree panorama resulted.
#APOD #Astronomy #AstronomyCommunity #SkyArch #ArchesOfTheSky #AtmosphericPhysics
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260421.html

2026-04-21 04:24:03 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
21 April 2026
**Comet R3 PanSTARRS over a Himalayan Valley**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2604/ValleyComet_Chakrabarti_960.jpg
Image Credit: Basudeb Chakrabarti, Samit Saha
Explanation:
The best way to see comet R3 PanSTARRS’s long tail is with a camera.
This week, the
recently brightened comet
appears in northern skies to the east just before dawn,
but is only barely visible to the unaided eye.
The many-degree
ion tail captured on long duration camera exposures
is not unusual for a comet -
it is primarily due to the
Earth's nearly sideways
view of the tail as it points away from the Sun.
In the
featured image taken last week, Comet
C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) showed off its flowing tail
through a valley between two peaks in the
Himalayan mountains of
India.  
The comet passed its closest to
the Sun yesterday.
As it nears its closest approach to Earth next week, a
bushy
dust tail may become visible.
The comet is slowly moving out of northern skies
and by the end of the month
will be visible after sunset
in southern skies as it fades and
leaves our
Solar System. 
#APOD #CometR3 #PanSTARRS #C2025R3 #HimalayanValley #NorthernSkies
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260420.html

2026-04-20 04:07:14 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
20 April 2026
**Eye on the Milky Way**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2604/EyeOnMW_Claro_960.jpg
Image Credit: Miguel Claro, TWAN, Dark Sky Alqueva
Explanation:
Have you ever had
stars in your eyes?
It appears that the eye on the left does, and moreover, it appears to be gazing at even more stars.
The
featured 27-frame mosaic was taken in 2019 from
Ojas de Salar in the
Atacama Desert of
Chile.
The eye is actually a small
lagoon captured reflecting the
dark night sky
as the Milky Way Galaxy arched overhead.
The seemingly smooth band of the
Milky Way is really composed of billions of stars,
but decorated with filaments of light-absorbing dust and
red-glowing nebulas.
Additionally, both
Jupiter
(slightly left the galactic arch) and
Saturn
(slightly to the right) are visible.
The lights of small towns dot the
unusual vertical horizon.
The rocky terrain around the
lagoon appears to some more like the surface of
Mars than our
Earth.
#APOD #MilkyWay #Galaxy #Astronomy #Space #Stars
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260419.html

2026-04-19 04:11:30 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
19 April 2026
**PanSTARRS and Planets**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2604/PanstarrsPlanetsPerrotLab1024.jpg
Image Credit: Luc Perrot, TWAN
Explanation:
Near the eastern horizon before sunrise, Comet C/2025 R3
PanSTARRS is getting brighter.
Readily visible in binoculars and small telescopes,
the comet may be just on the verge of naked-eye visibility
from dark sky sites.
Though it was not quite apparent to the eye,
PanSTARRS
is still easy to spot in this camera image taken on April 16.
In the view
from a volcanic peak overlooking France's Reunion Island, planet Earth,
the comet shares eastern predawn skies with
naked-eye planets Mars and Mercury
and fainter Neptune.
Saturn is hiding behind the low cloudbank that doesn't quite hide
an old crescent Moon.
This is a good weekend
for northern hemisphere comet watchers to try to
catch PanSTARRS
an hour or so before sunrise,
as the comet grows brighter approaching its perihelion on
April 19.
On April 26 the comet makes its closest approach to our fair planet
but by then will be difficult to see in the solar glare.
Good views
of this comet PanSTARRS in late April and early May will be from
the southern hemisphere.
#APOD #PanSTARRS #CometC2025R3 #CometWatch #CelestialEvents #NightSky
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260418.html

2026-04-17 04:19:53 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
17 April 2026
**M82: Starburst Galaxy with a Superwind**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2604/M82_V3_1024.jpg
Image Credit: Arnaud Malleval
Explanation:
Messier 82 is a starburst galaxy
with a superwind.
In fact, through supernova explosions and
powerful winds from massive stars,
the burst of star formation in M82
is driving a prodigious outflow.
Evidence for the
superwind
from the galaxy's central regions is clear in the
sharp telescopic portrait.
The composite image includes 33 hours of narrowband data,
highlighting emission from
long outflow filaments of atomic hydrogen gas in reddish hues.
Some of the gas in the superwind,
enriched in heavy elements
forged in the massive stars,
will eventually escape into
intergalactic space.
Triggered by a
close encounter with
nearby large galaxy M81,
the furious burst of star formation in M82 should last about
100 million years or so.
Also known as the Cigar Galaxy for its elongated visual appearance,
M82 is about 30,000 light-years across.
It lies 12 million light-years away near the northern boundary of
Ursa Major.
#APOD #M82 #Messier82 #StarburstGalaxy #Superwind #GalacticOutflow
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260417.html

2026-04-16 04:23:36 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
16 April 2026
**The ISS Transits the Moon**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2604/iss_moon_transit_zoom.jpeg
Image Credit: Sébastien Borie, Keighley Rockcliffe, NASA, GSFC, UMBC CSST, CRESST II
Explanation:
Nope, that is not an alien spaceship landing on the Moon! This is an image of
the International Space Station
(ISS) as it begins to transit in front of
the Moon.
The ISS is in
low-Earth orbit
(LEO) where it wizzes around the Earth every 90 minutes.
Orbiting the Earth 16 times per day
for 25 years, the ISS has photobombed many familiar celestial objects including
Venus,
Mars,
Saturn, and
the Sun.
Thousands of experiments
led by researchers from over one hundred countries have been conducted on the ISS.
Growing protein crystals in low gravity was
one of the first
experiments onboard the ISS and continues to contribute to new medical treatments. ISS astronauts study plant growth, water recycling, human health, and more to
support the Artemis missions
which will take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before. Next time you are out and about at night, try to
spot the ISS
zooming across the sky!
#APOD #ISS #MoonTransit #LEO #SpaceStation #SpaceExploration
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260415.html

2026-04-15 04:06:29 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
15 April 2026
**The Long Wispy Tail of Comet R3 (PanSTARRS)**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2604/CometR3_Hamdi_960.jpg
Image Credit: Haythem Hamdi
Explanation:
Why does Comet R3 (PanSTARRS) have a wispy tail?
The newest bright member of the inner Solar System,
Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) is already extending an
impressive stream of glowing gas.
This tail starts from an unseen
central nucleus of dirty ice that is likely a few kilometers across.
The nucleus is warmed by the Sun and
emits a cloud of neutral gas into a
coma that
glows light green.
Nuclear gas ionized by
energetic sunlight is pushed away from the
Sun by the
solar wind into an ion tail that
glows light blue.
The wispy nature of the
ion tail is caused by the
constantly changing structure of the solar wind.
Pictured from
Rhode Island,
USA two days ago,
Comet R3 (PanSTARRS)
shows off a many-degree ion tail.
Comet R3 (PanSTARRS) is best seen before dawn from
northern skies for another 10 days, after which it
will be best visible from southern skies.
#APOD #CometR3 #PanSTARRS #Comets #Astronomy #Space
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260414.html

2026-04-13 04:14:55 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
13 April 2026
**Comet R3 (PanSTARRS) Brightens**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2604/R3Panstarrs_Rodrigues_960.jpg
Image Credit: José Rodrigues
Explanation:
Comet R3 is brightening rapidly -- will it survive?
C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) has been slowly brightening and
extending an
ion tail since its discovery last year.
This shedding mountain
of dirty ice puts on its best sky show this month,
though, because it passes its closest to both the
Sun (April 19) and the
Earth (April 25).
The
featured image, showing R3 already sporting a
tail extending over 10 degrees,
was taken two nights ago from
Sion,
Switzerland
with the big mountain
Bietschhorn on the left.
Comet R3
will be visible during mid-April before sunrise.
Although the future brightness of any comet is hard to predict,
the brightness of
R3 makes it already a good
camera comet and it may become visible to the
unaided eye in the next week.
Comet R3's physical future is also
unknown because, like
Comet A1 (MAPS) earlier this month, it may
disintegrate when it passes its closest to the Sun.
Or it may live to
leave the Solar System.
#APOD #CometR3 #PanSTARRS #Comet #Astronomy #Astro
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260412.html

2026-04-12 04:18:54 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
12 April 2026
**Artemis II: Flight Day 6**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2604/art002e009567_1024.jpg
Image Credit: NASA, Artemis II
Explanation:
On flight day 6
(April 6) the Artemis II mission achieved a
historic lunar flyby.
Rounding the lunar far side, the deep space maneuver marked
humanity's first venture to the Moon
since Apollo 17 in 1972.
The Orion spacecraft Integrity reached a maximum distance of nearly
407,000 kilometers, and the
Artemis II crew,
Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen,
set the record for the farthest distance from Earth
traveled by any human since the
Apollo 13 crew in 1970.
From behind the Moon on flight day 6, a solar array wing camera
recorded this space age selfie,
framing the spacecraft and lunar far side.
Planet Earth, home to the Artemis II crew,
is the small, bright crescent beyond the lunar limb.
The crew safely returned home on Artemis II mission
flight day 10.
#APOD #ArtemisII #FlightDay6 #LunarFlyby #DeepSpace #MoonMission
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260411.html

2026-04-11 04:22:56 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
11 April 2026
**Exploring the Antennae**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2604/n4038_n4039_antennaeSelbyColombari1024.jpg
Image Credit: Mike Selby, Roberto Colombari
Explanation:
Some 60 million light-years away in the southerly
constellation
Corvus, two large galaxies are colliding.
Stars in the two galaxies, cataloged as
NGC 4038 and
NGC 4039,
very rarely collide in the course of the
ponderous cataclysm that lasts for hundreds of millions of years.
But the galaxies' large
clouds of molecular gas and dust
often do, triggering
furious episodes of star formation
near the center of the
cosmic wreckage.
Spanning over 50 thousand light-years, this
stunning telescopic frame also reveals new star clusters and
matter flung far from the scene of the accident by
gravitational tidal
forces.
The remarkably
sharp ground-based image
follows the faint tidal tails and distant background galaxies in the
field of view.
The suggestive overall visual appearance of the extended arcing
structures gives the galaxy pair, also known as Arp 244,
its popular name -
The Antennae.
#APOD #AntennaeGalaxies #NGC4038 #NGC4039 #GalaxyCollision #StarFormation
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260410.html

2026-04-08 04:13:55 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
08 April 2026
**IC 4592: The Blue Horsehead Reflection Nebula**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2604/BlueHorse_Alkuwari_960.jpg
Image Credit: Rabeea Alkuwari
Explanation:
Do you see the horse's head?
What you are seeing is not the famous
Horsehead nebula toward
Orion, but
rather a fainter nebula that only takes on a
familiar form with deeper imaging.
The main part of the
here-imaged
molecular cloud complex is
reflection nebula
IC 4592.
Reflection nebulas are made up of very fine
dust that normally appears dark but can
look quite blue when reflecting the
visible light
of energetic nearby stars.
In this case, the source of much of the reflected light is a star
at the eye of the
horse.
That star is part of
Nu Scorpii,
one of the brighter star systems toward the constellation of the Scorpion
(Scorpius).
A second
reflection nebula dubbed
IC 4601 is visible surrounding
two stars just below the image center.
The featured picture was taken from
Sawda Natheel in
Qatar.
#APOD #IC4592 #BlueHorsehead #ReflectionNebula #HorseheadNebula #SpacePhotography
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260407.html

2026-04-06 04:22:12 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
06 April 2026
**NGC 3310: A Starburst Spiral Galaxy**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2604/ngc3310_gemini_960.jpg
Image Credit: AAO ITSO Office, Gemini Obs., AURA, T. A. Rector, U. Alaska Anchorage
Explanation:
The party is still going on in spiral galaxy NGC 3310.
Roughly 100 million years ago,
NGC 3310 likely
collided with a smaller galaxy
causing the large
spiral galaxy
to light up with a tremendous burst of
star formation.
The changing gravity during the collision created
density waves that compressed existing
clouds of gas and triggered the
star-forming party.
The featured image from the
Gemini North Telescope shows the galaxy in great detail,
color-coded so that pink highlights gas
while white and blue highlight stars.
Some of the
star clusters
in the galaxy are quite young, indicating that
starburst galaxies may remain in
star-burst mode for quite some time.
NGC 3310 spans about 50,000 light years, lies about 50 million light years away,
and is visible with a small telescope towards the constellation of Great Bear
Ursa Major.
#APOD #NGC3310 #StarburstGalaxy #SpiralGalaxy #GalaxyCollision #StarFormation
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260405.html

2026-04-05 04:26:05 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
05 April 2026
**Hello World**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2604/art002e000192_1050.jpg
Image Credit: NASA, Reid Wiseman, Artemis II
Explanation:
From pole to pole
our fair planet is captured in this snapshot from space,
an evocative image from a window of the Orion spacecraft Integrity.
From
the
spacecraft's perspective
the Sun is moving behind Earth's bright limb along the lower right.
Africa and the Iberian peninsula are in view on the
pale blue planet's surface, while aurorae crown Earth's
south and
north
poles at top right and bottom left.
Commander Reid Wiseman took the
historic picture on Artemis II
mission flight day 2
(April 2), after the completion of the
planned translunar injection burn.
That burn boosted the spacecraft
out of Earth orbit, sending
Integrity and crew on a trajectory that will take them
around the Moon and back again.
That's a journey
humans last made over
50 years ago.
(Editor's note: Venus is photobombing Wiseman's historic pic. Currently
appearing in our western skies after sunset, the inner planet is
in the frame below and right of Earth's bright limb,
immersed in a faint band of zodiacal light.)
#APOD #OrionSpacecraft #ArtemisII #SpaceExploration #MoonMission #Astronomy
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260404.html

2026-04-03 04:12:39 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
03 April 2026
**Caught in the Web: Visualization of a Black Hole Merger in the Tarantula Nebula**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2604/BH_Merger_Tarantula_1024.jpg
Image Credit: Carl Knox, OzGrav, Swinburne University of Technology, Blake Estes, Christian Sasse, iTelescope.net, Cecilia Chirenti, NASA, GSFC, CRESST II
Explanation:
How can we see what is invisible?
Black holes are not easy to see in the dark cosmic night, but astronomers can find them by analyzing their gravitational effects on matter, light and spacetime.
The featured image shows an illustration that combines a simulation of a black hole binary system in its final "death-dance" with an astrophotography image of the Tarantula Nebula in the background.
Even though black holes don't emit light, they distort the path of light rays, acting like a gravitational lens.
As a result, the nebula appears extremely distorted, forming Einstein rings and multiple images.
Tarantula Nebula lies in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is one of the satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, 160,000 light-years away.
That is more than 1,000 times closer than any of the binary black hole mergers detected so far.
We'll probably never detect a merger so close to home!
#APOD #BlackHoleMerger #TarantulaNebula #GravitationalWaves #Astrophysics #Cosmology
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260403.html

2026-04-02 04:16:25 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
02 April 2026
**The Claw and Bubble Nebulae**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2604/claw_bubble_800.jpg
Image Credit: Richard Whitehead, Keighley Rockcliffe, NASA, GSFC, UMBC CSST, CRESST II
Explanation:
What unexpected things do you see when you look up at the night sky? Today’s image resembles an
abstract painting,
with large swaths of color strewn across a cosmic canvas seemingly without design. Despite the image's abstract nature, the
human mind finds patterns,
identifying a large claw reaching up towards a floating bubble. Embedded within these seemingly random structures are the physical laws that govern
how light and matter interact.
The
Claw
(Sh2-157) and
Bubble
(NGC 7635)
Nebulae glow
colors that are mapped
to the yellow and blue shown, indicating the presence of hydrogen and oxygen
ionized by the intense light emitted from stars
several times the mass of the Sun. This image depicts both the chaos and structure of astronomical processes, showing that a common thread between art and science is
to look for the unexpected.
#APOD #Astrophoto #NASAInspires #Space #Astrogeek
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260401.html

2026-04-01 04:20:22 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
01 April 2026
**Uranus's Largest Moon: Titania**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2603/Titania_Voyager2_960.jpg
Image Credit: NASA, Voyager 2, zelario12 | License
Explanation:
Titania's tortured terrain is a mix of canyons, cliffs, and craters.
NASA's interplanetary robot spacecraft
Voyager 2 passed the largest moon of
Uranus in 1986 and took the
feature picture.
That the
trenches of Titania
resemble those on another moon of Uranus,
Ariel,
indicate that Titania underwent some violent surface
event possibly related to water
freezing and expanding in its distant past.
Although Titania is Uranus's largest moon,
it is only about half the radius of
Triton -
the largest moon of Uranus's sister planet
Neptune,
which itself is
slightly smaller than
Earth's Moon.
Titania,
discovered by
William Herschel
in 1787, is essentially a large dirty iceball
that is composed of about half water-ice and half rock.
There is recent
speculation that
radioactive heating
melts some underground ice into oceans.
#APOD #Titania #Uranus #Moon #Voyager2 #NASA
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260331.html

2026-03-31 04:23:57 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
31 March 2026
**Peculiar Elliptical Galaxy Centaurus A**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2603/CenA_SADR_1080.jpg
Image Credit: SADR Observatory, J-C Dalouzy
Explanation:
What's happened to the center of this galaxy?
Dramatic dust lanes run across the center of unusual elliptical galaxy
Centaurus A.
These dust lanes are so thick they almost completely obscure the
galaxy's center in
visible light.
This is particularly unusual as
Cen A's
older stars and oval shape are characteristic of a giant
elliptical galaxy, a galaxy type typically low in dark dust.
Pictured in
this deep image
is a complex network of foreground gas and dust, as well as
shells of dim stars and a
jet projecting to the upper right.
Also known as NGC 5128,
Cen A is surely the result of a
galactic collision where many young dust-creating stars were formed.
However, details of the creation of Cen A's unusually
active center and iconic central dust lanes are still
being researched.
Cen A lies only 13 million
light years away, making it the
closest active galaxy.
#APOD #CentaurusA #CenA #EllipticalGalaxy #ActiveGalacticNucleus #AGN
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260330.html

2026-03-30 04:06:46 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
30 March 2026
**A Message from Earth**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2603/Message_Arecibo_960.jpg
Image Credit: Frank Drake, Arecibo Observatory, Arne Nordmann | License
Explanation:
What are these Earthlings trying to tell us?
The featured message was broadcast from
Earth
towards the globular star cluster
M13 in 1974.
During the dedication of an upgrade to the
Arecibo
Observatory -
then the largest single radio telescope in the world -
a string of 1's and 0's representing the diagram was sent.
This attempt at
extraterrestrial communication
was mostly ceremonial - humanity regularly
broadcasts radio and television signals out into space accidentally.
Even were
this message
received, M13 is so far away we would
have to wait almost 50,000 years to hear an answer.
The featured message gives a few simple facts about humanity and its knowledge:
from left to right are numbers from one to ten, atoms including
hydrogen and
carbon,
some interesting molecules,
DNA, a human with description, basics of our
Solar System,
and basics of the sending telescope.
Several
searches for extraterrestrial intelligence are currently underway.
#APOD #Earth #RedPlanet #InterstellarMessage #SETI #Extraterrestrial
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260329.html

2026-03-29 04:10:42 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
29 March 2026
**Robert Goddard and Nell**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2603/goddardphotop9-1_800.jpg
Image Credit: Clark University archive
Explanation:
Robert H. Goddard,
considered the father of modern rocketry, was born in
Worcester Massachusetts in 1882.
As a 16 year old, Goddard read H.G. Wells' science fiction classic
"War Of The Worlds"
and dreamed of space flight.
By 1926
he had designed, built, and flown the world's first liquid fuel rocket.
Launched 100 years ago
on March 16, 1926 from his aunt Effie's
farm in Auburn Massachusetts,
the rocket, dubbed "Nell," rose to an
altitude of 41 feet in a flight that lasted about 2 1/2 seconds.
In
this posed photo,
Goddard stands next to the 10 foot tall rocket, holding
the launch stand frame.
To achieve a stable flight without the need for fins, the rocket's heavy
motor was located at the top, fed by lines from
liquid oxygen and gasoline fuel tanks at the bottom.
Widely recognized as a
gifted experimenter
and
engineering genius,
his
rockets were many years ahead
of their time.
Goddard was awarded over 200 patents in rocket technology,
most of them after his death in 1945.
A liquid fuel rocket constructed on principles
developed by Goddard landed humans on
the Moon in 1969.
#APOD #Cosmos #Astrophoto #Universe Astrophotography
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260328.html

2026-03-28 04:19:42 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
28 March 2026
**Hickson 44 in Leo**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2603/NGC3190-APOD1024.jpg
Image Credit: Peter Kennett
Explanation:
Scanning the skies for galaxies, Canadian astronomer
Paul Hickson and colleagues identified some 100 compact
groups of galaxies,
now appropriately called
Hickson Compact Groups.
The four prominent galaxies seen in this intriguing
telescopic skyscape
are one such group, Hickson 44.
The Hickson 44 galaxy group is about 100 million light-years distant,
far beyond the foreground Milky Way stars,
toward the northern springtime constellation Leo.
The two spiral galaxies
in the center of the image are edge-on NGC 3190 with distinctive,
warped dust lanes, and S-shaped NGC 3187.
Along with the bright elliptical, NGC 3193 (left)
they are also known as Arp 316.
The spiral toward the lower right corner is NGC 3185,
the 4th member of the Hickson group.
Like other galaxies in
Hickson groups,
these show signs of distortion and
enhanced star formation,
evidence of a gravitational tug of war that will eventually result in
galaxy mergers on a cosmic timescale.
The merger process is
now understood to be a normal part of the evolution of
galaxies, including our own Milky Way.
For scale, NGC 3190
is about 75,000 light-years across at the estimated
distance of Hickson 44.
#APOD #Hickson44 #CompactGroups #Leo #NGC3190 #NGC3187
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260327.html

2026-03-27 04:23:42 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
27 March 2026
**Black Holes and Neutron Stars: 218 Mergers and Counting**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2603/GWTC4-Events-Poster-Landscape_1024.jpg
Image Credit: Ryan Nowicki, Bill Smith, Karan Jani, Cecilia Chirenti, NASA, GSFC, CRESST II
Explanation:
What is the sound of two black holes merging in deep space?
Sound waves don't propagate in vacuum, but gravitational waves do.
In 2015 we were able to "hear" them for the first time and confirm one of Albert Einstein's theoretical predictions.
Each square on the grid of the featured image represents one of the gravitational wave detections announced so far by the LIGO-VIRGO-KAGRA Collaboration.
These plots show how the binary pair accelerates in their orbit around each other towards merger: the rising frequency effect is called a "chirp".
Although there are significantly more neutron stars than black holes, most of the detections are binary black hole mergers.
That happens because black holes are heavier and their signals are louder and can be seen farther away, resulting in more detections.
These events are rare, and we don't expect to see one close by in our Galaxy any time soon.
But they are happening continuously throughout the cosmos.
#APOD #BlackHoles #NeutronStars #GravitationalWaves #Astrophysics #Universe
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260326.html

2026-03-26 04:06:15 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
26 March 2026
**The Guardians of Rapa Nui beneath the Milky Way**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2603/rapa_nui_milky_way_1024.jpeg
Image Credit: Rositsa Dimitrova, Keighley Rockcliffe, NASA, GSFC, UMBC CSST, CRESST II
Explanation:
In the words of today's astrophotographer, Rositsa Dimitrova, "What have these silent sentinels watched
pass across the sky?" The volcanic
mo'ai
(meaning statue) of
Ahu Tongariki
stand guard over
Rapa Nui
(Isla de Pascua, Easter Island),
a Polynesian island
(annexed by Chile in 1888) located thousands of kilometers off the coast of South America in the Pacific Ocean. Due to the island's remoteness,
the mo'ai,
with their backs to the dark ocean, are able to gaze upon a clear and vibrant night sky.
Pictured,
these
larger-than-life statues
stare at the bright band of
the Milky Way,
partly obscured by
interstellar dust
and blurred by Earth's clouds. Under such clear night skies, the Rapa Nui created observatories and used astronomical observations for
navigation, calendar calibration, celebrations, and more.
Images like this one remind us of
the importance of dark skies,
protecting the land underneath them, and
preserving the culture
that they inspire.
#APOD #RapaNui #MilkyWay #Astrophotography #Astronomy #Space
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260325.html

2026-03-24 04:14:10 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
24 March 2026
**Light Pillars and Orion over Mohe**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2603/LightPillarsMohe_Dai_1080.jpg
Image Credit: Jeff Dai, TWAN
Explanation:
What's happening at the end of that street?
Pictured here are not
auroras but
light pillars, a phenomenon typically much closer.
In most places on
Earth, a lucky viewer can see a
Sun pillar,
a column of light appearing to extend up from the
Sun
caused by flat fluttering
ice-crystals reflecting sunlight from the
upper atmosphere.
Usually, these ice
crystals
evaporate before reaching the ground.
During freezing temperatures, however,
flat
fluttering
ice crystals may form near the ground and are sometimes known as a
crystal fog.
These small ice crystals may then reflect not the Sun but
ground lights.
The featured image captured not only
numerous light pillars but also the iconic
constellation of Orion, and was taken in
Mohe, the northernmost city in
China.
#APOD lookUp #NASA Astrophotography #Astrophoto
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260323.html

2026-03-22 04:22:14 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
22 March 2026
**Galaxies in the River: NGC 1300 and NGC 1297**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2603/NGC1300-LRGB_1024.jpg
Image Credit: Dietmar Hager and Eric Benson
Explanation:
Spiral NGC 1300 and elliptical NGC 1297 are galaxies that
lie on the banks of the southern constellation
Eridanus (The River).
At 70 million light-years distant or more,
both are members of the
Eridanus Galaxy Cluster.
About 100,000 light-years across, at lower left in this sharp,
galaxy group photo
NGC 1300 is seen face-on
with a prominent central bar and grand, sweeping spiral arms.
Like other
spiral galaxies,
including our own barred spiral Milky Way Galaxy, NGC 1300 is
thought to have a supermassive central black hole.
A contrast in appearance and slightly more distant, NGC 1297 is
the roughly spherical large
elliptical galaxy near the top of the frame.
With little active star formation,
elliptical galaxies
are composed of older populations of stars and are likely
he result of multiple
collisions and mergers with spirals.
#APOD #Astronomy #Astrogeek Astrophotography #Cosmos
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260321.html

2026-03-16 04:23:47 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
16 March 2026
**Equinox at the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2603/MayanMilkyWay_Fernandez_1080.jpg
Image Credit: Robert Fedez
Explanation:
To see the feathered serpent
descend
the Mayan pyramid requires exquisite timing.
You must visit
El Castillo -- in
Mexico's
Yucatán Peninsula -- near an
equinox.
Then, during the late afternoon if the sky is clear,
the pyramid's own
shadows create triangles
that merge into the famous illusion of a
slithering viper.
Also known as the
Temple of Kukulkan, the impressive step-pyramid
stands 30 meters tall and 55 meters wide at the base.
Built up as a series of square terraces by the
pre-Columbian civilization between the 9th and 12th century,
the structure can be used as a calendar and is noted for
astronomical alignments.
The featured composite image was captured in 2019 with
Jupiter and Saturn
straddling the diagonal central band of our Milky Way galaxy.
In a few days another
equinox will occur
-- not only at Temple of Kukulcán, but
all over planet Earth.
#APOD #Equinox #MayanAstronomy #Kukulkan #ElCastillo #AstronomicalAlignment
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260315.html

2026-03-15 04:06:43 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
15 March 2026
**A Year for K2-315b**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2603/MIT-Pi-Planet-01-PRESS1024.jpg
Image Credit: Not provided
Explanation:
Want to visit a planet that has 3.14 days in a year?
Then plan a trip to K2-315b, an earth-sized planet orbiting around
a cool, red, M dwarf star about once every 3.14 days.
The exoplanet's discovery,
based on publicly available data
from the planet-hunting
Kepler Space Telescope's
extended K2 mission, was announced in 2020.
K2-315b's measured orbital period in days is nearly equal to the
extremely
popular irrational
number Pi.
That
puts
the exoplanet so close to its parent star that its
surface is likely very warm,
baking-hot in fact.
And this Pi planet is over 185 light-years away.
So instead of trying to arrange for an
interstellar vacation
to K2-315b, there may be easier and more comfortable ways for you to celebrate
Pi day on planet Earth.
#APOD #K2 #exoplanet #exoplanets #planetaryscience #K2mission
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260314.html

2026-03-14 04:10:51 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
14 March 2026
**Toolondo Totality Trails**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2603/Jason_Perry_Totality_Trail_Lake_Toolondo_Australia800.jpg
Image Credit: Jason Perry
Explanation:
In this composited night skyscape, stacked exposures trace graceful
star trails above Lake Toolondo, Victoria,
Australia, planet Earth.
Captured while the
lunar eclipse
of March 3 was
in progress,
the exposures used were made during the hour-long
total eclipse phase.
So faint star trails are easily visible along with
the trail of the reddened Moon in the
eclipse-darkened skies
above the lake and trees.
Of course, the apparent motion of Moon and stars revealed in the
timelapse composite
reflect the
Earth's daily rotation
around its axis.
Dramatically punctuating the Moon's trail as totality ended,
a single, separate telephoto image of the totally eclipsed Moon was scaled and
blended into the scene.
#APOD #ToolondoEclipse #LunarEclipse #StarTrails #NightSky #Australia
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260313.html

2026-02-25 05:21:27 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
25 February 2026
**Planet Parade over Sydney Opera House**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2602/PlanetParadeSydney_Agrawal_960_ann.jpg
Image Credit: Prasun Agrawal
Explanation:
Look up this week and see a whole bunch of planets.
Just after sunset, looking west (mostly), planets
Mercury,
Venus,
Saturn, and
Jupiter
will all be visible to the unaided eye simultaneously.
If you have a telescope, planets
Uranus and
Neptune can also be seen.
In order up from the horizon, the lineup this week will be
Venus (the brightest),
Mercury,
Saturn,
Neptune, Uranus, and
Jupiter (second brightest).
It doesn't matter where on
Earth
you live because this early evening
planet parade will be visible through
clear skies all around the globe.
The planets will appear to be nearly in a line because they all orbit the
Sun in nearly the same plane: the
ecliptic.
The featured image shows a
similar planet parade that occurred in 2022,
captured over the
Sydney Opera House in southern
Australia.
Although
visible all week, the planets will be most easily seen together this weekend.
#APOD #PlanetParade #Sydney #Mercury #Venus #Saturn
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260224.html

2026-02-22 05:12:37 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
22 February 2026
**Twilight with Moon and Planets**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2602/20260219a_c1024.jpg
Image Credit: Tunc Tezel, TWAN
Explanation:
Only two days
after the February New Moon's annular eclipse of the Sun,
a slender lunar crescent poses
above the western horizon after sunset in this wintry twilight skyscape.
Its nightside faintly illuminated by earthshine, the young Moon is
joined by three bright planets
in the mostly clear, early evening skies above the village of
Kirazli, Turkiye.
Inner planet
Venus appears closest
to the horizon.
Near the beginning of its 2026 performance as planet Earth's evening star,
brilliant Venus is seen through the
warm sunset glare near picture center.
Straight above Venus, innermost planet
Mercury is easy to
spot as it stands remarkably high above the horizon even as
the twilight sky is growing dark.
Outer planet
Saturn,
most distant of the naked-eye planets,
is found just left of the Moon's sunlit crescent.
#APOD #Twilight #Moon #Planets #NewMoon #Eclipse
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260221.html

2026-01-24 05:20:07 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
24 January 2026
**Planetary Nebula Abell 7**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2601/Abell7pugh1024.jpg
Image Credit: Martin Pugh
Explanation:
Very faint planetary nebula Abell 7 is about 1,800 light-years distant.
It lies just south of Orion in planet Earth's skies toward the
constellation
Lepus, The Hare.
Posing with scattered Milky Way stars, its
generally
simple spherical shape about 8 light-years in diameter is revealed in
this deep telescopic image.
The beautiful and complex shapes
seen within the cosmic cloud are visually
enhanced by the use of long exposures and
narrowband filters
that capture emission from hydrogen and oxygen atoms.
Otherwise Abell 7 would be much
too faint to be appreciated by eye.
A
planetary nebula
represents a very brief final phase
in stellar evolution that our own Sun will experience 5 billion
years hence,
as the nebula's central, once sun-like star shrugs off its outer layers.
Abell 7 itself is estimated to be 20,000 years old.
But its central star, seen here as a
fading white dwarf,
is some 10 billion years old.
#APOD #Abell7 #PlanetaryNebula #Orion #Lepus #DeepSky
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260123.html

2025-11-23 05:05:16 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
23 November 2025
**The Observable Universe**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2511/ObsUni_WikipediaPablo_2100.jpg
*Image creditor details unavailable via API. Visit linked page below for full info.*
How far can you see? Everything you can see, and everything you could possibly see, right now, assuming your eyes could detect all types of radiations around you -- is the observable universe. In light, the farthest we can see comes from the cosmic microwave background, a time 13.8 billion years ago when the universe was opaque like thick fog. Some neutrinos and gravitational waves that surround us come from even farther out, but humanity does not yet have the technology to detect them. The featured image illustrates the observable universe on an increasingly compact scale, with the Earth and Sun at the center surrounded by our Solar System, nearby stars, nearby galaxies, distant galaxies, filaments of early matter, and the cosmic microwave background. Cosmologists typically assume that our observable universe is just the nearby part of a greater entity known as "the universe" where the same physics applies. However, there are several lines of popular but speculative reasoning that assert that even our universe is part of a greater multiverse where either different physical constants occur, different physical laws apply, higher dimensions operate, or slightly different-by-chance versions of our standard universe exist. Explore the Observable Universe: Random APOD Generator
#APOD #MilkyWay #Astrogeek #Cosmological #Astronauts
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap251123.html

2025-09-24 14:19:52 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
24 September 2025
**GW250114: Rotating Black Holes Collide**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2509/ArtGw250114_Simonnet_2400.jpg
*Image creditor details unavailable via API. Visit linked page below for full info.*
It was the strongest gravitational wave signal yet measured -- what did it show? GW250114 was detected by both arms of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) in Washington and Louisiana USA earlier this year. Analysis showed that the event was created when two black holes, each of mass around 33 times the mass of the Sun, coalesced into one larger black hole with a mass of around 63 solar masses. Even though the event happened about a billion light years away, the signal was so strong that the spin of all black holes, as well as initial ringing of the final black hole, was deduced with exceptional accuracy. Furthermore, it was confirmed better than before, as previously predicted, that the total event horizon area of the combined black hole was greater than those of the merging black holes. Featured, an artist's illustration depicts an imaginative and conceptual view from near one of the black holes before collision.
#APOD #Astrobiology #Cosmos #Astrocosmos #Space
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250924.html

2025-09-07 04:09:02 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
07 September 2025
**All the Water on Planet Earth**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2509/WaterlessEarth2_woodshole_2520.jpg
*Image creditor details unavailable via API. Visit linked page below for full info.*
How much of planet Earth is made of water? Very little, actually. Although oceans of water cover about 70 percent of Earth's surface, these oceans are shallow compared to the Earth's radius. The featured illustration shows what would happen if all of the water on or near the surface of the Earth were bunched up into a ball. The radius of this ball would be only about 700 kilometers, less than half the radius of the Earth's Moon, but slightly larger than Saturn's moon Rhea which, like many moons in our outer Solar System, is mostly water ice. The next smallest ball depicts all of Earth's liquid fresh water, while the tiniest ball shows the volume of all of Earth's fresh-water lakes and rivers. How any of this water came to be on the Earth and whether any significant amount is trapped far beneath Earth's surface remain topics of research.
#APOD #Astroknowledge #Astrotheory #Astrophotography #Astrotheory
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250907.html

2025-09-04 04:06:26 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
04 September 2025
**NGC 4565: Galaxy on Edge**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2509/NGC4565_APOD_sRGB.jpg
Image Credit & Copyright: José Rodrigues
Magnificent spiral galaxy NGC 4565 is viewed edge-on from planet Earth. Also known as the Needle Galaxy for its narrow profile, bright NGC 4565 is a stop on many telescopic tours of the northern sky, in the faint but well-groomed constellation Coma Berenices. This sharp, colorful image reveals the galaxy's boxy, bulging central core cut by obscuring dust lanes that lace NGC 4565's thin galactic plane. NGC 4565 lies around 40 million light-years distant while the spiral galaxy itself spans some 100,000 light-years. That's about the size of our own Milky Way. Easily spotted with small telescopes, deep sky enthusiasts consider NGC 4565 to be a prominent celestial masterpiece Messier missed.
#APOD #CosmosJourney #Meteorology #Astroknowledge #Astrogeek
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250904.html

2025-08-23 04:06:00 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
23 August 2025
**Fishing for the Moon**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2508/1000212902_bellelli.jpg
Image Credit & Copyright: How big is planet Earth's Moon
How big is planet Earth's Moon? Compared to other moons of the Solar System, it's number 5 on the largest to smallest ranked list, following Jupiter's moon Ganymede, Saturn's moon Titan, and Jovian moons Callisto and Io. Continuing the list, the Moon comes before Jupiter's Europa and Neptune's Triton. It's also larger than dwarf planets Pluto and Eris. With a diameter of 3,475 kilometers the Moon is about 1/4 the size of Earth though, and that does make it the largest moon when compared to the size of its parent Solar System planet. Of course in this serene, twilight sea and skyscape, August's rising Full Moon still appears small enough to be caught in the nets of an ancient fishing rig. The telephoto snapshot was taken along the Italian Costa dei Trabocchi, on the Adriatic Sea.
#APOD #Astroinformatics #NASAInspires #SpaceTravel #SpaceInnovation
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250823.html

2025-08-20 04:05:36 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
20 August 2025
**Perseid Meteors from Durdle Door**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2508/PerseidsDurdleDoor_Dury_3963.jpg
Image Credit & Copyright:
Josh Dury
What are those curved arcs in the sky? Meteors -- specifically, meteors from this year's Perseid meteor shower. Over the past few weeks, after the sky darkened, many images of Perseid meteors were captured separately and merged into a single frame, taken earlier. Although the meteors all traveled on straight paths, these paths appear slightly curved by the wide-angle lens of the capturing camera. The meteor streaks can all be traced back to a single point on the sky called the radiant, here just off the top of the frame in the constellation of Perseus. The same camera took a deep image of the background sky that brought up the central band of our Milky Way galaxy running nearly vertically through the featured image's center. The limestone arch in the foreground in Dorset, England is known as Durdle Door, a name thought to survive from a thousand years ago.
#APOD #SpaceExploration #StarCluster #SpaceTech #BlackHoles
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250820.html

2025-08-19 04:06:53 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
19 August 2025
**Giant Galaxies in Pavo**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2508/NGC6872_block.jpg
Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Block
Over 500,000 light years across, NGC 6872 (bottom left) is a truly enormous barred spiral galaxy. At least 5 times the size of our own large Milky Way, NGC 6872 is the largest known spiral galaxy. About 200 million light-years distant toward the southern constellation Pavo, the Peacock, the appearance of this giant galaxy's stretched out spiral arms suggest the wings of a giant bird. So its popular moniker is the Condor galaxy. Lined with massive young, bluish star clusters and star-forming regions, the extended and distorted spiral arms are due to NGC 6872's past gravitational interactions with the nearby smaller galaxy IC 4970, visible here below the giant spiral galaxy's core. Other members of the southern Pavo galaxy group are scattered through this magnificent galaxy group portrait, with the dominant giant elliptical galaxy, NGC 6876, above and right of the soaring Condor galaxy.
#APOD #Galaxy #Celestial #GalacticAdventures #Astrozone
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250819.html

2025-08-02 04:10:23 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
02 August 2025
**Fireflies, Meteors, and Milky Way**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2508/DeltaAqrFireflies.jpg
Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Korona
Taken on July 29 and July 30, a registered and stacked series of exposures creates this dreamlike view of a northern summer night. Multiple firefly flashes streak across the foreground as the luminous Milky Way arcs above the horizon in the Sierra de Órganos national park of central Mexico, The collection of bright streaks aligned across the sky toward the upper left in the timelapse image are Delta Aquariid meteors. Currently active, the annual Delta Aquarid meteor shower shares August nights though, overlapping with the better-known Perseid meteor shower. This year that makes post-midnight, mostly moonless skies in early August very popular with late night skygazers. How can you tell a Delta Aquariid from a Perseid meteor? The streaks of Perseid meteors can be traced back to an apparent radiant in the constellation Perseus. Delta Aquariids appear to emerge from the more southerly constellation Aquarius, beyond the top left of this frame. Of course, the bioluminescent flashes of fireflies are common too on these northern summer nights. But how can you tell a firefly from a meteor? Just try to catch one.
#APOD #Meteorology #SpaceMissions #Astrozone #Astroengineer
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250802.html

2025-08-01 04:08:00 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
01 August 2025
**Small Dark Nebula**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2508/BokGlobule_1.jpg
Image Credit & Copyright: Peter Bresseler
A small, dark, nebula looks isolated near the center of this telescopic close-up. The wedge-shaped cosmic cloudlet lies within a relatively crowded region of space though. About 7,000 light-years distant and filled with glowing gas and an embedded cluster of young stars, the region is known as M16 or the Eagle Nebula. Hubble's iconic images of the Eagle Nebula include the famous star-forming Pillars of Creation, towering structures of interstellar gas and dust 4 to 5 light-years long. But this small dark nebula, known to some as a Bok globule, is a fraction of a light-year across. The Bok globule stands out in silhouette against the expansive background of M16's diffuse glow. Found scattered within emission nebulae and star clusters, Bok globules are small interstellar clouds of cold molecular gas and obscuring dust that also form stars within their dense, collapsing cores.
#APOD #SpaceObservatory #Astrogeek #NASA #Astrogeology
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250801.html

2025-07-20 04:05:39 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
20 July 2025
**Lunar Nearside**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1103/lroc_wac_nearside.jpg
*Image creditor details unavailable via API. Visit linked page below for full info.*
About 1,300 images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft's wide angle camera were used to compose this spectacular view of a familiar face - the lunar nearside. But why is there a lunar nearside? The Moon rotates on its axis and orbits the Earth at the same rate, about once every 28 days. Tidally locked in this configuration, the synchronous rotation always keeps one side, the nearside, facing Earth. As a result, featured in remarkable detail in the full resolution mosaic, the smooth, dark, lunar maria (actually lava-flooded impact basins), and rugged highlands, are well-known to earthbound skygazers. To find your favorite mare or large crater, just follow this link or slide your cursor over the picture. The LRO images used to construct the mosaic were recorded over a two week period in December 2010.
#APOD #PlanetExploration #Stargazing #Universe #Astroeducation
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250720.html

2025-07-16 04:07:58 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
16 July 2025
**The Rosette Nebula from DECam**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2507/Rosette_Decam_4000.jpg
*Image creditor details unavailable via API. Visit linked page below for full info.*
Would the Rosette Nebula by any other name look as sweet? The bland New General Catalog designation of NGC 2237 doesn't appear to diminish the appearance of this flowery emission nebula, as captured by the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Blanco 4-meter telescope at the NSF's Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Inside the nebula lies an open cluster of bright young stars designated NGC 2244. These stars formed about four million years ago from the nebular material and their stellar winds are clearing a hole in the nebula's center, insulated by a layer of dust and hot gas. Ultraviolet light from the hot cluster stars causes the surrounding nebula to glow. The Rosette Nebula spans about 100 light-years across, lies about 5000 light-years away, and can be seen with a small telescope towards the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros). Open Science: Browse 3,700+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library
#APOD #Galaxy #MeteorShowers #SpaceStation #OuterSpace
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250716.html

2025-07-15 04:07:09 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
15 July 2025
**Collapse in Hebes Chasma on Mars**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2507/HebesChasma_esa_960.jpg
*Image creditor details unavailable via API. Visit linked page below for full info.*
What's happened in Hebes Chasma on Mars? Hebes Chasma is a depression just north of the enormous Valles Marineris canyon. Since the depression is unconnected to other surface features, it is unclear where the internal material went. Inside Hebes Chasma is Hebes Mensa, a 5 kilometer high mesa that appears to have undergone an unusual partial collapse -- a collapse that might be providing clues. The featured image, taken by ESA's robotic Mars Express spacecraft currently orbiting Mars, shows great details of the chasm and the unusual horseshoe shaped indentation in the central mesa. Material from the mesa appears to have flowed onto the floor of the chasm, while a possible dark layer appears to have pooled like ink on a downslope landing. One hypothesis holds that salty rock composes some lower layers in Hebes Chasma, with the salt dissolving in melted ice flows that drained through holes into an underground aquifer.
#APOD #Astrophysics #SpaceTech #Astrospace #CosmosJourney
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250715.html

2025-07-12 04:06:00 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
12 July 2025
**Clouds and the Golden Moon**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2507/LUA_JULHO_25_2048.jpg
Image Credit & Copyright: Alexsandro Mota
As the Sun set, a bright Full Moon rose on July 10. Its golden light illuminates clouds drifting through southern hemisphere skies in this well-composed telephoto image from Conceição do Coité, Bahia, Brazil. The brightest lunar phase is captured here with both a short and long exposure. The two exposures were combined to reveal details of the lunar surface in bright moonlight and a subtle iridescence along the dramatically backlit cloudscape. Of course, July's Full Moon is a winter moon in the southern hemisphere. But in the north it's known to some as the Thunder Moon, likely a nod to the sounds of this northern summer month's typically stormy weather.
#APOD #SpaceTech #CosmicWonders #SpaceDiscovery #Exploration
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250712.html

2025-07-08 04:06:46 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
08 July 2025
**The Pleiades in Red and Blue**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2507/Pleiades_Kayali_2560.jpg
Image Credit & Copyright:
Ogetay Kayali
(Michigan Tech U.)
Text:
Ogetay Kayali
(Michigan Tech U.)
If you have looked at the sky and seen a group of stars about the size of the full Moon, that's the Pleiades (M45). Perhaps the most famous star cluster in the sky, its brightest stars can be seen even from the light-polluted cities. But your unaided eye can also see its nebulosity -- the gas and dust surrounding it -- under dark skies. However, telescopes can catch even more. The bright blue stars of the Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters, light up their surrounding dust, causing it to appear a diffuse blue that can only be seen under long exposures. But that's not all. The cosmic dust appears to stretch upward like ethereal arms. And the entire structure is surrounded by a reddish glow from the most abundant element in the universe: hydrogen. The featured image is composed of nearly 25 hours of exposure and was captured last year from Starfront Observatory, in Texas, USA Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator
#APOD #Astrophysics #Astrodata #Astrobiology #SpaceMission
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250708.html

2025-07-02 04:06:34 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
02 July 2025
**Milky Way Through Otago Spires**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2507/MwSpires_Chay_1874.jpg
Image Credit & Copyright:
Kavan Chay;
Text:
Ogetay Kayali
(Michigan Tech U.)
Does the Milky Way always rise between these two rocks? No. Capturing this stunning alignment took careful planning: being in the right place at the right time. In the featured image taken in June 2024 from Otago, New Zealand, the bright central core of our Milky Way Galaxy, home to the many of our Galaxy's 400 billion stars, can be seen between two picturesque rocks spires. For observers in Earth's Northern Hemisphere, the core is only visible throughout the summer. As Earth orbits the Sun, different parts of the Milky Way become visible at different angles at different times of the night. As Earth rotates, the orientation of the Milky Way in the sky also shifts -- sometimes standing vertically as seen in the featured image, and other times stretching parallel to the horizon, making it harder to see. In early June, observers can watch it emerge low on the horizon after sunset and gradually arc upward to reveal its full grandeur.
#APOD #Planetarium #Astroknowledge #CosmosJourney #SpaceDiscovery
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250702.html

2025-06-28 04:08:17 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
28 June 2025
**Lunar Farside**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2506/farside_lro1600.jpg
*Image creditor details unavailable via API. Visit linked page below for full info.*
Tidally locked in synchronous rotation, the Moon always presents its familiar nearside to denizens of planet Earth. From lunar orbit, the Moon's farside can become familiar, though. In fact this sharp picture, a mosaic from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's wide angle camera, is centered on the lunar farside. Part of a global mosaic of over 15,000 images acquired between November 2009 and February 2011, the highest resolution version shows features at a scale of 100 meters per pixel. Surprisingly, the rough and battered surface of the farside looks very different from the nearside covered with smooth dark lunar maria. A likely explanation is that the farside crust is thicker, making it harder for molten material from the interior to flow to the surface and form dark, smooth maria.
#APOD #Astrophotography #Astrotheory #CosmosJourney #LunarMission
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250628.html

2025-06-26 04:06:49 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
26 June 2025
**The Seagull Nebula**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2506/IC2177SeagullLRGB-APOD2048.jpg
Image Credit & Copyright: Timothy Martin
An interstellar expanse of glowing gas and obscuring dust presents a bird-like visage to astronomers from planet Earth, suggesting its popular moniker, the Seagull Nebula. This broadband portrait of the cosmic bird covers a 3.5-degree wide swath across the plane of the Milky Way, in the direction of Sirius, alpha star of the constellation of the Big Dog (Canis Major). The bright head of the Seagull Nebula is cataloged as IC 2177, a compact, dusty emission and reflection nebula with embedded massive star HD 53367. The larger emission region, encompassing objects with other catalog designations, is Likely part of an extensive shell structure swept up by successive supernova explosions. The notable bluish arc below and right of center is a bow shock from runaway star FN Canis Majoris. Dominated by the reddish glow of atomic hydrogen, this complex of interstellar gas and dust clouds with other stars of the Canis Majoris OB1 association spans over 200 light-years at the Seagull Nebula's estimated 3,800 light-year distance.
#APOD #Astrophysics #AstronomyLovers #Astrobiology #Astroknowledge
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250626.html

2025-06-25 04:06:07 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
25 June 2025
**Rubin's First Look: A Sagittarius Skyscape**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2506/SagittariusTrip_Rubin.png
*Image creditor details unavailable via API. Visit linked page below for full info.*
This interstellar skyscape spans over 4 degrees across crowded starfields toward the constellation Sagittarius and the central Milky Way. A First Look image captured at the new NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the bright nebulae and star clusters featured include famous stops on telescopic tours of the cosmos: Messier 8 and Messier 20. An expansive star-forming region over a hundred light-years across, Messier 8 is also known as the Lagoon Nebula. About 4,000 light-years away the Lagoon Nebula harbors a remarkable cluster of young, massive stars. Their intense radiation and stellar winds energize and agitate this cosmic lagoon's turbulent depths. Messier 20's popular moniker is the Trifid. Divided into three parts by dark interstellar dust lanes, the Trifid Nebula's glowing hydrogen gas creates its dominant red color. But contrasting blue hues in the colorful Trifid are due to dust reflected starlight. The Rubin Observatory visited the Trifid-Lagoon field to acquire all the image data during parts of four nights (May 1-4). At full resolution, Rubin's magnificent Sagittarius skyscape is 84,000 pixels wide and 51,500 pixels tall.
#APOD #Astrogeek #Astrogeology #BlackHoleDiscovery #AstronomyLovers
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250625.html

2025-06-16 04:10:20 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
16 June 2025
**APOD is 30 Years Old Today**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2506/APODStarryNight30thanniversary.jpg
*Image creditor details unavailable via API. Visit linked page below for full info.*
APOD is 30 years old today. In celebration, today's picture uses past APODs as tiles arranged to create a single pixelated image that might remind you of one of the most well-known and evocative depictions of planet Earth's night sky. In fact, this Starry Night consists of 1,836 individual images contributed to APOD over the last 5 years in a mosaic of 32,232 tiles. Today, APOD would like to offer a sincere thank you to our contributors, volunteers, and readers. Over the last 30 years your continuing efforts have allowed us to enjoy, inspire, and share a discovery of the cosmos.
#APOD #PlanetExploration #Universe #Astrobiology #Celestial
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250616.html

2025-06-14 04:06:54 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
14 June 2025
**Meteors and Satellite Trails over the Limay River**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2506/MeteorSats_Moline_6512.jpg
Image Credit & Copyright: Martín Moliné
What are all those streaks in the sky? A galaxy, many satellite trails, and a few meteors. First, far in the distance, the majestic band of our Milky Way Galaxy runs down the left. Mirroring it on the right are several parallel trails of Earth-orbiting Starlink satellites. Many fainter satellite trails also crisscross the image. The two short and bright streaks are meteors — likely members of the annual Eta Aquariids meteor shower. The planet Venus shines on the lower right. Venus and the satellites shine by reflected sunlight. The featured picture is a composite of exposures all taken in a few hours on May 4 over the Limay River in Argentina.
#APOD #Research #SpaceTechnology #Meteorology #Astroknowledge
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250614.html

2025-06-13 04:05:46 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
13 June 2025
**Rubin's Galaxy**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2506/RubinsGalaxy_hst2000.jpg
*Image creditor details unavailable via API. Visit linked page below for full info.*
In this Hubble Space Telescope image the bright, spiky stars lie in the foreground toward the heroic northern constellation Perseus and well within our own Milky Way galaxy. In sharp focus beyond is UGC 2885, a giant spiral galaxy about 232 million light-years distant. Some 800,000 light-years across compared to the Milky Way's diameter of 100,000 light-years or so, it has around 1 trillion stars. That's about 10 times as many stars as the Milky Way. Part of an investigation to understand how galaxies can grow to such enormous sizes, UGC 2885 was also part of An Interesting Voyage and American astronomer Vera Rubin's pioneering study of the rotation of spiral galaxies. Her work was the first to convincingly demonstrate the dominating presence of dark matter in our universe. A new U.S. coin has been issured to honor Vera Rubin, while the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is scheduled to unveil images from its first look at the cosmos on June 23.
#APOD #Research #AstronomyPhotography #SpaceStation #CosmicWonders
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250613.html

2025-06-11 04:09:11 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
11 June 2025
**25 Brightest Stars in the Night Sky**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2506/25BrightestStars_Jittasaiyapan_1500.jpg
Image Credit & Copyright:
Tragoolchitr Jittasaiyapan
Do you know the names of some of the brightest stars? It's likely that you do, even though some bright stars have names so old they date back to near the beginning of written language. Many world cultures have their own names for the brightest stars, and it is culturally and historically important to remember them. In the interest of clear global communication, however, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has begun to designate standardized star names. Featured here in true color are the 25 brightest stars in the night sky, currently as seen by humans, coupled with their IAU-recognized names. Some star names have interesting meanings, including Sirius ("the scorcher" in Latin), Vega ("falling" in Arabic), and Antares ("rival to Mars" in Greek). You are likely even familiar with the name of at least one star too dim to make this list: Polaris. APOD Turns 30!: Free public lecture in Anchorage TONIGHT (Wednesday) at 7 pm
#APOD #Astrophoto #RocketLaunch #BlackHoleDiscovery #SpaceTechnology
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250611.html

2025-06-06 04:10:02 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
06 June 2025
**NGC 6302: The Butterfly Nebula**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2506/NGC-6302-LRGB-Ha-OIII.jpg
Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby
The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often given the names of flowers or insects, and its whopping 3 light-year wingspan, NGC 6302 is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C, the central star of the planetary nebula is transforming into a white dwarf star, becoming exceptionally hot, and shining brightly in ultraviolet light. The central star is hidden from direct view by a torus of dust, but its energetic ultraviolet light ionizes atoms in the nebula. In this sharp, telescopic view composed with narrowband image data, the ionized hydrogen and doubly ionized oxygen atoms are shown in their characteristic red and blue-green hues to reveal a stunning complex of knots and filaments within the nebula's wing-like bipolar outflows. NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 light-years away in the arachnologically correct constellation of the Scorpion (Scorpius).
#APOD #SpaceTech #SpaceDiscovery #Astroengineering #Astrozone
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250606.html

2025-06-04 04:07:30 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
04 June 2025
**A Milky Road to the Rubin Observatory**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2506/RubinMw_assuncao_1460.jpg
*Image creditor details unavailable via API. Visit linked page below for full info.*
Is the sky the same every night? No -- the night sky changes every night in many ways. To better explore how the night sky changes, the USA's NSF and DOE commissioned the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Cerro Pachón, Chile. In final testing before routine operations, Rubin will begin to explore these nightly changes -- slight differences that can tell us much about our amazing universe and its surprising zoo of objects. With a mirror over 8 meters across, Rubin will continually reimage the entire visible sky every few nights to discover new supernovas, potentially dangerous asteroids, faint comets, and variable stars -- as well as mapping out the visible universe's large-scale structure. Pictured, the distant central band of our Milky Way Galaxy appears to flow out from the newly operational observatory. Taken last month, the featured picture is a composite of 21 images across the night sky, capturing airglow on the horizon and the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy on the lower left. APOD Turns 30!: Free Public Lecture in Anchorage on June 11
#APOD #AstronomyLovers #Astrotheory #SpaceResearch #RocketScience
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250604.html

2025-05-23 04:05:51 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
23 May 2025
**NGC 6366 vs 47 Ophiuchi**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2505/NGC6366_3500.jpg
Image Credit & Copyright: Massimo Di Fusco
Most globular star clusters roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy, but globular cluster NGC 6366 lies close to the galactic plane. About 12,000 light-years away toward the constellation Ophiuchus, the cluster's starlight is dimmed and reddened by the Milky Way's interstellar dust when viewed from planet Earth. As a result, the stars of NGC 6366 look almost golden in this telescopic scene, especially when seen next to relatively bright, bluish, and nearby star 47 Ophiuchi. Compared to the hundred thousand stars or so gravitationally bound in distant NGC 6366, 47 Oph itself is a binary star system a mere 100 light-years away. Still, the co-orbiting stars of 47 Oph are too close together to be individually distinguished in the image.
#APOD #AstronomyClub #Astrochemistry #RocketLaunch #SpaceDiscovery
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250523.html

2025-05-12 04:08:35 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
12 May 2025
**Gaia Reconstructs a Side View of our Galaxy**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2505/MilkyWaySide_Gaia_5000.jpg
*Image creditor details unavailable via API. Visit linked page below for full info.*
What does our Milky Way Galaxy look like from the side? Because we are on the inside, humanity can’t get an actual picture. Recently, however, just such a map has been made using location data for over a billion stars from ESA’s Gaia mission. The resulting featured illustration shows that just like many other spiral galaxies, our Milky Way has a very thin central disk. Our Sun and all the stars we see at night are in this disk. Although hypothesized before, perhaps more surprising is that the disk appears curved at the outer edges. The colors of our Galaxy's warped central band derive mostly from dark dust, bright blue stars, and red emission nebulas. Although data analysis is ongoing, Gaia was deactivated in March after a successful mission. Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator
#APOD #Galaxy #Astroeducation #Cosmological #Cosmology
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250512.html

2025-03-19 04:06:41 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
19 March 2025
**Blue Ghost's Diamond Ring**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2503/eclipse-shot-from-blue-ghost-mission-1.jpg
*Image creditor details unavailable via API. Visit linked page below for full info.*
On March 14 the Full Moon slid through Earth's dark umbral shadow and denizens of planet Earth were treated to a total lunar eclipse. Of course, from the Moon's near side that same astronomical syzygy was seen as a solar eclipse. Operating in the Mare Crisium on the lunar surface, the Blue Ghost lander captured this video frame of Earth in silhouette around 3:30am CDT, just as the Sun was emerging from behind the terrestrial disk. From Blue Ghost's lunar perspective the beautiful diamond ring effect, familiar to earthbound solar eclipse watchers, is striking. Since Earth appears about four times the apparent size of the Sun from the lunar surface the inner solar corona, the atmosphere of the Sun most easily seen from Earth during a total solar eclipse, is hidden from view. Still, scattering in Earth's dense atmosphere creates the glowing band of sunlight embracing our fair planet.
#APOD #Astroengineer #LunarExploration #Astrozone #Astrotheory
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250319.html

2025-02-22 05:08:37 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
22 February 2025
**Rima Hyginus**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2502/20250205_rima_hyginus_mirabella_1500px.jpg
Image Credit & Copyright: Vincenzo Mirabella
Rima Hyginus is a spectacular fissure, some 220 kilometers long, found near the center of the lunar near side. Easy to spot in telescopic views of the Moon, it stretches top left to bottom right across this lunar closeup. The image was made with exaggerated colors that reflect the mineral composition of the lunar soil. Hyginus crater lies near the center of the narrow lunar surface groove. About 10 kilometers in diameter, the low-walled crater is a volcanic caldera, one of the larger non-impact craters on the lunar surface. Dotted with small pits formed by surface collapse, Hyginus rima itself was likely created by stresses due to internal magma upwelling and collapse along a long surface fault. The intriguing region was a candidate landing site for the canceled Apollo 19 mission.
#APOD #Universe #SpaceExploration #GalacticAdventures #Astrogeology
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250222.html

2025-02-09 05:06:38 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
09 February 2025
**Milky Way over the Australian Pinnacles**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2502/PinnaclesGalaxy_Goh_2400.jpg
Image Credit & Copyright:
Michael Goh
What strange world is this? Earth. In the foreground of the featured image are the Pinnacles, unusual rock spires in Nambung National Park in Western Australia. Made of ancient sea shells (limestone), how these human-sized picturesque spires formed remains unknown. In the background, just past the end of the central Pinnacle, is a bright crescent Moon. The eerie glow around the Moon is mostly zodiacal light, sunlight reflected by dust grains orbiting between the planets in the Solar System. Arching across the top is the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. Many famous stars and nebulas are also visible in the background night sky. The featured 29-panel panorama was taken and composed in 2015 September after detailed planning that involved the Moon, the rock spires, and their corresponding shadows. Even so, the strong zodiacal light was a pleasant surprise. Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday? (post 1995)
#APOD #Meteorology #Astrozone #Cosmology #Astrogeek
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250209.html

2025-01-28 05:08:35 UTC

**Astronomy Picture of the Day**
28 January 2025
**Comet G3 ATLAS over Uruguay**
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2501/AtlasFields_Salazar_3214.jpg
Image Credit & Copyright:
Mauricio Salazar
Comets can be huge. When far from the Sun, a comet's size usually refers to its hard nucleus of ice and rock, which typically spans a few kilometers -- smaller than even a small moon. When nearing the Sun, however, this nucleus can eject dust and gas and leave a thin tail that can spread to an enormous length -- even greater than the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Pictured, C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) sports a tail of sunlight-reflecting dust and glowing gas that spans several times the apparent size of a full moon, appearing even larger on long duration camera images than to the unaided eye. The featured image shows impressive Comet ATLAS over trees and a grass field in Sierras de Mahoma, San Jose, Uruguay about a week ago. After being prominent in the sunset skies of Earth's southern hemisphere, Comet G3 ATLAS is now fading as it moves away from the Sun, making its impressive tails increasingly hard to see. Gallery: Comet ATLAS (G3)
#APOD #GalacticAdventures #Astrocosmos #Astroeducation #SpaceWeather
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250128.html