NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

In today's image, we see a video clip which shows the Moon setting behind the rim of a volcano in the Canary Islands. The video will play about 2 minutes as we watch the Moon set. 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 an ancient observatory in Beijing including a giant Armillary Sphere which can be used to measure positions of objects in the sky. The star trails in the sky show the motion of Earth as it rotates on its axis making the stars appear to move across the sky. 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 Milky Way above the telescopes of the La Silla observatory in Chile. We are looking in the direction of the center of the galaxy which is obscured by dust clouds. However, radio waves can penetrate the dust, making this the brightest radio source in the sky. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media M...

In today's image, we see an image from day 13 of the flight of Artemis 1 from just a little over a year ago. This is when it reached its greatest distance from Earth. We see both Earth and Moon in the distance in this image. 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 direc...

In today's image, we see what is called a landspout - similar to a waterspout but occurring over land. These objects form around the edges of the thunderstorms rather than with the massive cells that form large tornadoes. 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 largest moon in the solar system, Ganymede as imaged by the Juno spacecraft back in 2021. This moon, larger than the planet Mercury, has an icy cratered surface, but also possible signed of activity and a liquid ocean well below the icy surface. 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 Eagle Ray Nebula, which bears a resemblance to a ray flying through space. This is an example of a dark nebula or a molecular cloud which is a denser area of space where larger molecules and dust particles are able to form in the region shielded from the ultraviolet light of nearby stars. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podca...

In today's image, we see a jet of material being emitted from the icy comet known as 67/P. The comet was studied by the Rosetta spacecraft back in 2016 which orbited it as it came in close to the Sun to be able to study changes in the nucleus of the comet at this active time for a comet. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media...

In today's image, we see a 360 degree image, condensing the horizon to the little planet in the center of the image. Around that, we see an intense auroral display from a few weeks ago. Also noted in the image are the Big Dipper (at the top) and Jupiter and the Pleiades star cluster to the lower right. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an author...

In today's image, we see two images of the planet Jupiter taken a week ago shortly after Jupiter's opposition. By looking at the center between the two images and crossing your eyes, you can merge the two into a single three dimensional image of the giant planet. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You...

In today's image, we see the region around the Taurus molecular cloud, near the bright star Aldebaran in the sky. In this region, we see Herbig-Haro objects which are regions excited by jets of material from young forming stars. In addition, we see the star T Tauri - a sunlike star, but only a few million years old. This gives us a glimpse of what our Sun might have been like shortly after it form...

In today's image, we see the Hidden Galaxy which is actually hidden because of its location which means we have to look at it through the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy. The dust in our galaxy will dim and redden the light from this galaxy making it harder to see. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You...

In today's image, we see a part of the veil supernova remnant. This is what is left behind by a star that was seen to explode from Earth about 5000 years ago. Since that time, the material has expanded out to a distance of many light years and will eventually become seed material for new generations of stars. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an...

In today's image, we see Barnard 33, popularly known at the Horsehead nebula for its distinctive shape. This is a dark nebula in the constellation of Orion and is a part of the Orion star forming region. 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 several different objects, including our own Sun with several solar prominences visible along the limb of the Sun. Transiting across the face of the Sun, is the International Space Station which is orbiting around 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 im...

In today's image, we see the Orion spacecraft with our Earth in the background. This was a part of the Artemis I mission to travel to our Moon and test the capabilities of the craft for future missions to carry astronauts to the Moon. The next step would be Artemis II which could be as early as the end of next year to take a crew of four astronauts around the Moon and back. My podcasts are availab...

In today's image, we see a prominent aurora from the recent solar storm that impacted Earth about ten days ago as seen in the sky over Greenland. 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 i...

In today's image, we see an occultation of the planet Venus by our Moon. An occultation occurs when one object passes directly in front of another, blocking out its light for a time. These occur because the solar system is relatively flat and objects pass close to one another in the sky. However, because of the small tilts of each orbit, they do not happen all the time. My podcasts are available i...

In today's image, we see the Crab Nebula which is the remnant of a star seen to explode from Earth nearly a thousand years ago. We are looking at two images taken 18 years apart which allows us to see the expansion of material during that time. 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 ima...

In today's image, we see three of the four brightest objects in the sky in a pattern around rock here on Earth. We have Jupiter to the left, Venus above the rock, and our Moon to the right. The brightest object, our Sun, is missing from the image although it would rise an hour or so after this was taken. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an auth...

In today's image, we see the Andromeda Galaxy. This is taken with a combination of two images - a shorter exposure of the Alps in the foreground and a much longer exposure to being out the detail of Andromeda. 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: Astrono...

In today's image, we see the waning gibbous moon (between full moon and third quarter) over the mountains of Sweden. In addition, a plane happened to be captured in the image passing in the same general direction as the Moon in the sky. 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 w...

In today's image, we see our Milky Way galaxy and a SAR (Stable Auroral Red) arc in the sky. The SAR is associated with auroral activity but does occur much higher in our atmosphere than the traditional aurora we are used to seeing. 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 websi...

In today's image, we see an extremely distant galaxy and one of the most distant black holes yet discovered. At a distance of 13.2 billion light years, we see this as it was when the universe was just 3% of its current age. This gives us a look at some of the earliest black holes to have formed. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized Ne...

In today's image, we see the Crab Nebula, the remnant of a star seen to explode here on Earth nearly a thousand years ago. The nebula is enriched in heavier elements from the explosion which will eventually form new stars - maybe a billion years from now. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel . This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can acc...