NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

In today's image, we see the dog, Sandy by the gate off to the right. Up in the sky, we see the full moon from April. Ice crystals in the atmosphere form the halo around the Sun. There is another full moon just a day or so from now. Today is the summer solstice when the Sun reaches its highest point above the celestial equator. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel ....

In today's image, we see the Dragons of Ara. These are, in fact, bpetterns of gas and dust seen in the constellation of Ara, the altar. The patterns are sculpted by hot, young stars which have formed. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Pictur...

In today's image, we see large jets of lightning reaching upward from the storm clouds in the distance into Earth's ionosphere. The tops of these bear a resemblance to the red sprites we have looked at in previous images. This rare lightning is less understood than the more common cloud to cloud to cloud to ground lightning. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . Th...

In today's image, we see what is known as the Giant Squid nebula. This is an emission region that we see in the blue. With the blue color from the specific wavelength of light produced by doubly-ionized oxygen atoms. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at:...

In today's image, we will watch a video animation showing a black hole ripping apart a star which passes too close to it. We see it form an accretion disk around the black hole as well as a pair of jets perpendicular to this disk. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website...

In today's image, we seethe active Sun in an image taken a month ago. Here we see the Sun in the light of hydrogen. There are many filaments across the surface as well as prominences along the limb of the Sun. These are essentially the same thing, just observed from a different perspective. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Med...

In today's image, we see the star formation region known as RCW 85. Here we see the dark, dusty nebulae where stars are currently forming surrounded by the red glow of hydrogen gas energized by hot stars which have already formed. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website...

In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy, M66 in a close up view as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day . You can use the archive link below the image to select the photo corresponding...

In today's image, we see an image of the aurora taken this past month when material from a large solar coronal mass ejection struck Earth and caused powerful aurorae all over Earth. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day . You...

In today's image, we see the region around the stars Rho Ophiuchi and Antares which contains bright stars of different colors. We all see different illumination of the surrounding dust clouds by these stars. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy...

In today's image, we see the Lion Nebula which is a star forming region and shows the emission from various gases caused when they are excited by ultraviolet light from hot stars. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day . You ca...

In today's image, we see a flow chart which can, in a humorous way, help you to identify a light in the sky. By following the flowchart, you can differentiate between stars, planets, comets, and artificial satellites among other types of objects. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the i...

In today's image, we see a cluster of galaxies. Nearly every object in this image is a distant galaxy. When we measure the mass of galaxy cluster like this one, we find that there is a large amount of dark matter needed to explain the motions of the galaxies and the gravitational lensing caused by the cluster. Dark matter makes up the vast majority of the matter in the universe. My podcasts are av...

In today's image, we see the Dolphin Head Nebula which is the nebula around a young Wolf-Rayet star. These are some of the most massive stars and the type that are expected to become a supernova at the end of their lives. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly...

In today's image, we see an image of NGC 4565 which is a spiral galaxy like our own Milky Way. This galaxy is seen in an edge-on orientation giving it a very narrow appearance which is why its common name is the Needle Galaxy. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website dir...

In today's image, we see an image of the surface of Mars taken by the Perseverance Rover which has been exploring Mars since 2021. We can note the similarities to many desert areas on Earth with the exception that there is no sign of life. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image an...

In today's image, we see an image of comet Pons-Brooks which made its closest approach to Earth a couple of days ago and is heading back into the outer solar system We can see the two distinct tails - the ion tail pointing downward to the left and the dust tail toward the upper left, less distinct and more spread out. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podc...

In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy known as NGC 2403. This is a galaxy much like our own Milky Way in many ways and shows the distinct blue in the spiral arms from bright stars that have recently formed. We also see the pink color if ionized hydrogen (H II) regions. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site fo...

In today's image, we see the Moon in a short video put together from images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). This shows the near side of the Moon which always faces Earth, but also the far side which cannot be seen from the surface of Earth and has only been studied since the late 1950s. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an autho...

In today's image, we see one of the moons of Saturn, Helene in a 3D image which can be viewed with the red-blue 3D glasses. This moon orbits in a Lagrange point formed by the gravitation of Saturn and one of the other moons, Dione. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and websit...

In today's image, we see the region around the Wolf-Rayet star, WR 134. A Wolf-Rayet star is the type of star that is expected to become a supernova at the end of its short life. At that point, it will explode, sending heavier elements out into the universe to enrich the material from which future stars will form. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast...

In today's image, we see the Eiffel Tower in the foreground and the Moon above in the sky. Around the Moon, we see a lunar corona - this is a quantum mechanical effect caused by many rain drops which all have a similar size and each color of light by a different amount. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for AP...

In today's image, we see a stairway leading up a mountain and apparently to the Milky Way in the sky! Of course, the Milky Way is far beyond anything here on Earth, but this does give us a striking view. In the sky, we see the stars Vega and Altair as well as the airglow near the horizon. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media...

In today's image, we see an image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory showing the rotation of our Sun over the course of a day. Here were see the active region, AS 3446 as it returns around the limb of the Sun and gives off a powerful X-class flare. Over the coming days, it will move into better view and further eruptions will have the possibility of impacting Earth causing communication disruptio...

In today's image, we see the Chameleon I Molecular Cloud which is a region of star formation visible in the southern sky. Here we see a number of dark nebulae as well as a couple of reflection nebulae which are both associated with regions of newly forming stars. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You...