NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

In today's image, we see a solar filament which erupted into a coronal mass ejection on the Sun back in 2012. The Sun has a cycle of activity that lasts about 11 years and is near the peak of that activity cycle again right now. So, we are seeing more events like this which cause aurora here on Earth like those we saw a couple of weeks ago. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouT...

In today's image, we see the Manicouagan impact crater as seen from the International Space Station. The crater, about 100km across has worn down over the past 200 million years so that we just see the remnants of the crater in the form of a circular lake. Because of weathering and erosion, craters last a much shorter time on Earth than on our Moon. My podcasts are available in video form through...

In today's image, we see the star forming region known as M78 as imaged in visible and infrared light from the Euclid Space Telescope. This telescope was launched last year and will be used to study the effects of dark matter and dark energy on our universe. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can...

In today's image, we see two galaxies in the process of colliding together. When galaxies collide, their gravitational fields interact so that material is pulled out in streams as we see around the galaxy on the left. The process also takes a very long time - hundred of millions of years - so we only see a single snapshot of the collision. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTu...

In today's image, we see an aurora from 2016 as seen over Sweden. The green color of the aurora is caused when charged particles from the Sun strike Earth's magnetic field and are funneled to the atmosphere near the north and south magnetic poles. They then excite oxygen atoms in Earth's upper atmosphere, causing the green glow. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel...

In today's image, we see what is known as a cemetery globule in the foreground. This is a region of star formation which is unrelated to comets in out solar system except for the rough appearance. We also see a distant galaxy, well beyond the globule in space, but by a chance superposition, close to it in the sky. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast...

In today's image, we see an image of the aurora taken back on May 10 after the emission of a coronal mass ejection from the Sun by a large sunspot group crossing its face. That sunspot group has now moved around to the back side of the Sun as seen from Earth, but may last long enough to still be visible as the Sun continues to rotate. The sunspot would be back on our side of the Sun in another wee...

In today's image, we see an animation created using data collected from the Juno spacecraft to simulate what it would be like to plunge into the upper atmosphere of Jupiter in the area around the Great Red Spot. 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: Astro...

In today's image, we see an image of the sky looking toward the North. We see how the stars make circular paths around the North Celestial Pole which is very close to the start Polaris in the sky. We also see an aurora caused by the increased solar activity for the past week or so. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror...

In today's image, we see the Aurora Australis which is the aurora when seen in the southern hemisphere. That cause is exactly the same as the aurora seen in the Northern Hemisphere. The aurora have been prominent this past week because of the large sunspot group AR 3664 which has recently moved around the limb of the Sun due to the Sun's rotation. My podcasts are available in video form through th...

In today's image, we see some of the auroral displays as seen over Georgia in the United States just about a week ago. The strong auroral displays were caused by the large sunspot group on the Sun which had emitted large numbers of charged particles which excite oxygen atoms in Earth's atmosphere, causing them to glow. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Pod...

In today's image, we see the large sunspot region known as AR 3664 as it moves around the limb of the Sun. The large prominence is larger than Earth and is now easily visible when seen against the darkness of space. One of the largest solar flares was also recently explode by this sunspot group although this is not seen in the image. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Cha...

In today's image, we see a small open cluster of stars. Some of the brighter stars seem to form the number 37 in the sky. While 42 may have been more appropriate for this who have read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it is still an interesting pattern of stars in our sky. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Sit...

In today's image, we see the large sunspot group known as AR 3664 which has been very active recently, sending solar flares and coronal mass ejection in the direction of Earth and giving up so beautiful auroral displays. 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 the red aurora as observed over Poland. The aurora have been especially strong the past couple of days because of the numerous coronal mass ejections from the large sunspot group currently moving across the face of the Sun. 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...

In today's image, we see the giant sunspot group AR 3664 which is currently crossing the face of the Sun. Sunspots are active regions on the Sun, slightly cooler than the surrounding surface. They are also associated with solar flares and coronal mass ejections when can affect us here on Earth and also contribute to auroral activity. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Cha...

In today's image, we see a simulation showing the merger of two black holes. This simulation depicts what would have been happening during the first detection of gravitational waves in 2015. As the black holes spiral together, their rapid motion releases gravitation waves that we were able to detect at a distance of 1.3 billion light years. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouT...

In today's image, we see the giant elliptical galaxy, M87. In addition, we see images of the central jets and the famous image from 2017 by the Event Horizon Telescope of the supermassive black hole at the center of the 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 di...

In today's image, we see an animation which shows the central regions around a black hole including the accretion disk. The 15-second video allows us to look at this from different orientations to see the differences that are visible. 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 web...

In today's image, we see an artist's conception of an event observed in 2014. A massive explosion was observed which has since been modeled as a star being ripped apart by a supermassive black hole. Here we see that as the material from the star is added to an accretion disk around the black hole. We also see jets of material expelled perpendicular to the accretion disk. My podcasts are available...

In today's image, we see time-lapse of the total solar eclipse of April 8 of this year. We will see the Moon appear in the lower right and move to full cover the Sun, allowing us to see the solar corona. 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 Pic...

In today's image, we see an artist's conception of what would happen as a black hole tears apart a passing star. Once the material crosses the event horizon, nothing can be known about it. However, material will often swirl in an accretion disk as it enters the black hole, giving off energy and allowing us to detect the black hole's presence. My podcasts are available in video form through this Yo...

In today's image, we see three Auxiliary Telescopes which are used with the VLT telescopes to simulate larger mirrors using interferometry. This allows observations from different telescope to be combined together to simulate the resolution of a much larger telescope. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD...

In today's image, we see an illustration of the orbit of the exoplanet WASP-43b. This is a nearby planet, less than 300 light years from Earth. It is an example of a "Hot Jupiter" - a large planet which orbits very close to its star. Measurement from the James Webb Space Telescope are helping us to learn more about the temperatures in the atmosphere of this planet. My podcasts are available in vid...

In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy known as M100 - this is an example of what is called a grand design spiral galaxy for its majestic spiral arms. We not the blue and pink color of the spiral arms. The blue is the light of many massive, hot blue stars that have formed within the spiral arms. The pick is the glow of hydrogen gas that is energized by the ultraviolet light from these stars. M...