Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 May 21
An usual looking creature is pictured which may appear alien but is
actually a Earth-dwelling tardigrade. The tardigrade has no apparent
eyes, a light brown body, a circular gear-like snout, and claws at the
end of its numerous feet. The tardigrade is seen perched on green moss.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Tardigrade in Moss
Image Credit & Copyright: Nicole Ottawa & Oliver Meckes / Eye of
Science / Science Source Images

Explanation: Is this an alien? Probably not, but of all the animals on
Earth, the tardigrade might be the best candidate. That's because
tardigrades are known to be able to go for decades without food or
water, to survive temperatures from near absolute zero to well above
the boiling point of water, to survive pressures from near zero to well
above that on ocean floors, and to survive direct exposure to dangerous
radiations. The far-ranging survivability of these extremophiles was
tested in 2011 outside an orbiting space shuttle. Tardigrades are so
durable partly because they can repair their own DNA and reduce their
body water content to a few percent. Some of these miniature
water-bears almost became extraterrestrials in 2011 when they were
launched toward to the Martian moon Phobos, and again in 2021 when they
were launched toward Earth's own moon, but the former launch failed,
and the latter landing crashed. Tardigrades are more common than humans
across most of the Earth. Pictured here in a color-enhanced electron
micrograph, a millimeter-long tardigrade crawls on moss.

Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?
(post 1995)
Tomorrow's picture: sea blue sky
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 May 22
A sprawling spiral galaxy is pictured with a new bright spot visible
near the image bottom. This spot is a recently discovered supernova. A
roll-over image shows the same galaxy in an image taken the previous
month without the new supernova spot. Please see the explanation for
more detailed information.

Supernova Discovered in Nearby Spiral Galaxy M101
Image Credit & Copyright: Craig Stocks

Explanation: A nearby star has exploded and humanity's telescopes are
turning to monitor it. The supernova, dubbed SN 2023ixf, was discovered
by Japanese astronomer Koichi Itagaki three days ago and subsequently
located on automated images from the Zwicky Transient Facility two days
earlier. SN 2023ixf occurred in the photogenic Pinwheel Galaxy M101,
which, being only about 21 million light years away, makes it the
closest supernova seen in the past five years, the second closest in
the past 10 years, and the second supernova found in M101 in the past
15 years. Rapid follow up observations already indicate that SN 2023ixf
is a Type II supernova, an explosion that occurs after a massive star
runs out of nuclear fuel and collapses. The featured image shows home
spiral galaxy two days ago with the supernova highlighted, while the
roll-over image shows the same galaxy a month before. SN 2023ixf will
likely brighten and remain visible to telescopes for months. Studying
such a close and young Type II supernova may yield new clues about
massive stars and how they explode.

Tomorrow's picture: just above jupiter
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 May 23
The cloud tops of Jupiter are pictured in a closeup flyby of the Juno
spacecraft. A big white oval cloud is visible in the foreground, while
many swirls of many muted colors are visible trailing behind. A dark
night sky is in the background. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Jupiter's Swirls from Juno
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Processing & License: Kevin
M. Gill

Explanation: Big storms are different on Jupiter. On Earth, huge
hurricanes and colossal cyclones are centered on regions of low
pressure, but on Jupiter, it is the high-pressure, anti-cyclone storms
that are the largest. On Earth, large storms can last weeks, but on
Jupiter they can last years. On Earth, large storms can be as large as
a country, but on Jupiter, large storms can be as large as planet
Earth. Both types of storms are known to exhibit lightning. The
featured image of Jupiter's clouds was composed from images and data
captured by the robotic Juno spacecraft as it swooped close to the
massive planet in August 2020. A swirling white oval is visible
nearby, while numerous smaller cloud swirls extend into the distance.
On Jupiter, light-colored clouds are usually higher up than dark
clouds. Despite their differences, studying storm clouds on distant
Jupiter provides insights into storms and other weather patterns on
familiar Earth.

Surf the Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: double occultation
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 May 24
A dark mountain lies in the center with an observatory building
sporting two telescope domes. The background sky appears dark blue.
Behind the center of the observatory is part of a crescent moon, with
an unusual bright spot to its upper left. Please see the explanation
for more detailed information.

Observatory Aligned with Moon Occulting Jupiter
Image Credit & Copyright: Rick Whitacre; Text: Natalia Lewandowska
(SUNY Oswego)

Explanation: Sometimes we witness the Moon moving directly in front of
-- called occulting -- one of the planets in our Solar System. Earlier
this month that planet was Jupiter. Captured here was the moment when
Jupiter re-appeared from behind the surface of our Moon. The Moon was
in its third quarter, two days before the dark New Moon. Now, our Moon
is continuously half lit by the Sun, but when in its third quarter,
relatively little of that half can be seen from the Earth. Pictured,
the Moon itself was aligned behind the famous Lick Observatory in
California, USA, on the summit of Mount Hamilton. Coincidentally, Lick
enabled the discovery of a moon of Jupiter: Amalthea, the last visually
detected moon of Jupiter after Galileo's observations.

Gallery: Moon Occults Jupiter in 2023 May: Notable Submissions to APOD
Tomorrow's picture: in a cat's eye
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 May 25

Cat's Eye Wide and Deep
Image Credit & Copyright: Jean-Fran+ºois Bax, Guillaume Gruntz

Explanation: The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known
planetary nebulae in the sky. Its more familiar outlines are seen in
the brighter central region of the nebula in this impressive wide-angle
view. But this wide and deep image combining data from two telescopes
also reveals its extremely faint outer halo. At an estimated distance
of 3,000 light-years, the faint outer halo is over 5 light-years
across. Planetary nebulae have long been appreciated as a final phase
in the life of a sun-like star. More recently, some planetary nebulae
are found to have halos like this one, likely formed of material
shrugged off during earlier episodes in the star's evolution. While the
planetary nebula phase is thought to last for around 10,000 years,
astronomers estimate the age of the outer filamentary portions of this
halo to be 50,000 to 90,000 years. Visible on the right, some 50
million light-years beyond the watchful planetary nebula, lies spiral
galaxy NGC 6552.

Tomorrow's picture: Virgo Cluster Galaxies
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 May 26

Virgo Cluster Galaxies
Image Credit & Copyright: Abdullah Alharbi

Explanation: Galaxies of the Virgo Cluster are scattered across this
nearly 4 degree wide telescopic field of view. About 50 million
light-years distant, the Virgo Cluster is the closest large galaxy
cluster to our own local galaxy group. Prominent here are Virgo's
bright elliptical galaxies Messier catalog, M87 at bottom center, and
M84 and M86 (top to bottom) near top left. M84 and M86 are recognized
as part of Markarian's Chain, a visually striking line-up of galaxies
on the left side of this frame. Near the middle of the chain lies an
intriguing interacting pair of galaxies, NGC 4438 and NGC 4435, known
to some as Markarian's Eyes. Of course giant elliptical galaxy M87
dominates the Virgo cluster. It's the home of a super massive black
hole, the first black hole ever imaged by planet Earth's Event Horizon
Telescope.

Tomorrow's picture: Crescent Neptune and Triton
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 May 27
The picture shows the planet Neptune and its moon Triton, both in
crescent phases, as captured by the passing Voyager 2 spacecraft in
1989. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Crescent Neptune and Triton
Image Credit: NASA, Voyager 2

Explanation: Gliding through the outer Solar System, in 1989 the
Voyager 2 spacecraft looked toward the Sun to find this view of most
distant planet Neptune and its moon Triton together in a crescent
phase. The elegant image of ice-giant planet and largest moon was taken
from behind just after Voyager's closest approach. It could not have
been taken from Earth because the most distant planet never shows a
crescent phase to sunward eyes. Heading for the heliopause and beyond,
the spacecraft's parting vantage point also robs Neptune of its
familiar blue hue.

Tomorrow's picture: an unexpected moon
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 May 28
A pair of asteroids are shown with a large, elongated and cratered one
on the left and a much smaller one on the far right. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Ida and Dactyl: Asteroid and Moon
Image Credit: NASA, JPL, Galileo Mission

Explanation: This asteroid has a moon. The robot spacecraft Galileo on
route to Jupiter in 1993 encountered and photographed two asteroids
during its long interplanetary voyage. The second minor planet it
photographed, 243 Ida, was unexpectedly discovered to have a moon. The
tiny moon, Dactyl, is only about 1.6 kilometers across and seen as a
small dot on the right of the sharpened featured image. In contrast,
the potato-shaped Ida is much larger, measuring about 60 kilometers
long and 25 km wide. Dactyl is the first moon of an asteroid ever
discovered -- now many asteroids are known to have moons. The names Ida
and Dactyl are from Greek mythology.

Tomorrow's picture: sea blue sky
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 May 29
A shoreline glowing with blue bioluminescent plankton is shown, with a
stand of trees in the distance. Above all is a starry sky which
includes red nebulae and the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Milky Way over a Turquoise Wonderland
Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Hor+ílek / Institute of Physics in Opava,
Sovena Jani

Explanation: What glows there? The answer depends: sea or sky? In the
sea, the unusual blue glow is bioluminescence. Specifically, the
glimmer arises from Noctiluca scintillans, single-celled plankton
stimulated by the lapping waves. The plankton use their glow to startle
and illuminate predators. This mid-February display on an island in the
Maldives was so intense that the astrophotographer described it as a
turquoise wonderland. In the sky, by contrast, are the more familiar
glows of stars and nebulas. The white band rising from the
artificially-illuminated green plants is created by billions of stars
in the central disk of our Milky Way Galaxy. Also visible in the sky is
the star cluster Omega Centauri, toward the left, and the famous
Southern Cross asterism in the center. Red-glowing nebulas include the
bright Carina Nebula, just right of center, and the expansive Gum
Nebula on the upper right.

Tomorrow's picture: nebular bell
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 May 30
An expansive interstellar gas cloud is shown with an orange interior
and outer blue filaments. Many stars are visible in the dark
background. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

M27: The Dumbbell Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Patrick A. Cosgrove

Explanation: Is this what will become of our Sun? Quite possibly. The
first hint of our Sun's future was discovered inadvertently in 1764. At
that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list of diffuse objects not
to be confused with comets. The 27th object on Messier's list, now
known as M27 or the Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula, one of the
brightest planetary nebulae on the sky and visible with binoculars
toward the constellation of the Fox (Vulpecula). It takes light about
1000 years to reach us from M27, featured here in colors emitted by
sulfur (red), hydrogen (green) and oxygen (blue). We now know that in
about 6 billion years, our Sun will shed its outer gases into a
planetary nebula like M27, while its remaining center will become an
X-ray hot white dwarf star. Understanding the physics and significance
of M27 was well beyond 18th century science, though. Even today, many
things remain mysterious about planetary nebulas, including how their
intricate shapes are created.

Tomorrow's picture: watch a galaxy form
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 May 31

Simulation: A Disk Galaxy Forms
Video Credit: TNG Collaboration, MPCDF, FAS Harvard U.; Music: World's
Sunrise (YouTube: Jimena Contreras)

Explanation: How did we get here? We know that we live on a planet
orbiting a star orbiting a galaxy, but how did all of this form? Since
our universe moves too slowly to watch, faster-moving computer
simulations are created to help find out. Specifically, this featured
video from the IllustrisTNG collaboration tracks gas from the early
universe (redshift 12) until today (redshift 0). As the simulation
begins, ambient gas falls into and accumulates in a region of
relatively high gravity. After a few billion years, a well-defined
center materializes from a strange and fascinating cosmic dance. Gas
blobs -- some representing small satellite galaxies -- continue to fall
into and become absorbed by the rotating galaxy as the present epoch is
reached and the video ends. For the Milky Way Galaxy, however, big
mergers may not be over -- recent evidence indicates that our large
spiral disk Galaxy will collide and coalesce with the slightly larger
Andromeda spiral disk galaxy in the next few billion years.

Open Science: Browse 3,000+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code
Library
Tomorrow's picture: recycling a star
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 1

Recycling Cassiopeia A
Image Credit: X-ray - NASA, CXC, SAO; Optical - NASA,STScI

Explanation: Massive stars in our Milky Way Galaxy live spectacular
lives. Collapsing from vast cosmic clouds, their nuclear furnaces
ignite and create heavy elements in their cores. After a few million
years, the enriched material is blasted back into interstellar space
where star formation can begin anew. The expanding debris cloud known
as Cassiopeia A is an example of this final phase of the stellar life
cycle. Light from the explosion which created this supernova remnant
would have been first seen in planet Earth's sky about 350 years ago,
although it took that light about 11,000 years to reach us. This
false-color image, composed of X-ray and optical image data from the
Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope, shows the still
hot filaments and knots in the remnant. It spans about 30 light-years
at the estimated distance of Cassiopeia A. High-energy X-ray emission
from specific elements has been color coded, silicon in red, sulfur in
yellow, calcium in green and iron in purple, to help astronomers
explore the recycling of our galaxy's star stuff. Still expanding, the
outer blast wave is seen in blue hues. The bright speck near the center
is a neutron star, the incredibly dense, collapsed remains of the
massive stellar core.

Tomorrow's picture: massive galaxy
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 2

Messier 101
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CFHT, NOAO;
Acknowledgement - K.Kuntz (GSFC), F.Bresolin (U.Hawaii), J.Trauger
(JPL), J.Mould (NOAO), Y.-H.Chu (U. Illinois)

Explanation: Big, beautiful spiral galaxy M101 is one of the last
entries in Charles Messier's famous catalog, but definitely not one of
the least. About 170,000 light-years across, this galaxy is enormous,
almost twice the size of our own Milky Way. M101 was also one of the
original spiral nebulae observed by Lord Rosse's large 19th century
telescope, the Leviathan of Parsontown. Assembled from 51 exposures
recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope in the 20th and 21st centuries,
with additional data from ground based telescopes, this mosaic spans
about 40,000 light-years across the central region of M101 in one of
the highest definition spiral galaxy portraits ever released from
Hubble. The sharp image shows stunning features of the galaxy's face-on
disk of stars and dust along with background galaxies, some visible
right through M101 itself. Also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, M101 lies
within the boundaries of the northern constellation Ursa Major, about
25 million light-years away.

Tomorrow's picture: Portrait of Charon
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 3

Charon: Moon of Pluto
Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research
Institute, U.S. Naval Observatory

Explanation: A darkened and mysterious north polar region known to some
as Mordor Macula caps this premier high-resolution view. The portrait
of Charon, Pluto's largest moon, was captured by New Horizons near the
spacecraft's closest approach on July 14, 2015. The combined blue, red,
and infrared 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 view was used by James Christy and Robert Harrington
at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Flagstaff to discover Charon in June
of 1978.

Tomorrow's picture: look beyond
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 4
A black and white line drawing depicts a person peering outside of a
spherical room into a greater universe. Please see the explanation for
more detailed information.

Color the Universe
Image Credit: Unknown, possibly C. Flammarion

Explanation: Wouldn't it be fun to color in the universe? If you think
so, please accept this famous astronomical illustration as a
preliminary substitute. You, your friends, your parents or children,
can print it out or even color it digitally. While coloring, you might
be interested to know that even though this illustration has appeared
in numerous places over the past 100 years, the actual artist remains
unknown. Furthermore, the work has no accepted name -- can you think of
a good one? The illustration, first appearing in a book by Camille
Flammarion in 1888, is frequently used to show that humanity's present
concepts are susceptible to being supplanted by greater truths.

Tomorrow's picture: a nebular trifecta
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 5
A bright red gaseous nebula is pictures with three dark dust lanes
meeting in the center. The top of the nebula appears blue. Please see
the explanation for more detailed information.

In the Center of the Trifid Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Pugh

Explanation: What's happening at the center of the Trifid Nebula? Three
prominent dust lanes that give the Trifid its name all come together.
Mountains of opaque dust appear near the bottom, while other dark
filaments of dust are visible threaded throughout the nebula. A single
massive star visible near the center causes much of the Trifid's glow.
The Trifid, cataloged as M20, is only about 300,000 years old, making
it among the youngest emission nebulas known. The star forming nebula
lies about 9,000 light years away toward the constellation of the
Archer (Sagittarius). The region pictured here spans about 20 light
years.

Portal Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: planet killer
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 6

Star Eats Planet
Illustrative Video Credit: K. Miller & R. Hurt (Caltech, IPAC)

Explanation: ItCÇÖs the end of a world as we know it. Specifically, the
Sun-like star ZTF SLRN-2020 was seen eating one of its own planets.
Although many a planet eventually dies by spiraling into their central
star, the 2020 event, involving a Jupiter-like planet, was the first
time it was seen directly. The star ZTF SLRN-2020 lies about 12,000
light years from the Sun toward the constellation of the Eagle
(Aquila). In the featured animated illustration of the incident, the
gas planet's atmosphere is first pictured being stripped away as it
skims along the outskirts of the attracting star. Some of the planet's
gas is absorbed into the star's atmosphere, while other gas is expelled
into space. By the video's end, the planet is completely engulfed and
falls into the star's center, causing the star's outer atmosphere to
briefly expand, heat up, and brighten. One day, about eight billion
years from now, planet Earth may spiral into our Sun.

Tomorrow's picture: ring galaxy ring
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 7
A spiral galaxy is seen in the image center with a distinct purple hue.
The galaxy features a bright inner ring, but even outside of that
appears another large ring. The outer rings appears light brown.
Foreground stars are visible throughout the image. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

M94: A Double Ring Galaxy
Image Credit & Copyright: Brian Brennan

Explanation: Most galaxies don't have any rings of stars and gas -- why
does M94 have two? First, spiral galaxy M94 has an inner ring of newly
formed stars surrounding its nucleus, giving it not only an unusual
appearance but also a strong interior glow. A leading origin hypothesis
holds that an elongated knot of stars known as a bar rotates in M94 and
has generated a burst of star formation in this inner ring.
Observations have also revealed another ring, an outer ring, one that
is more faint, different in color, not closed, and relatively complex.
What caused this outer ring is currently unknown. M94, pictured here,
spans about 45,000 light years in total, lies about 15 million light
years away, and can be seen with a small telescope toward the
constellation of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici).

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Tomorrow's picture: open space
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 8

Elephant's Trunk and Caravan
Image Credit & Copyright: Steve Cannistra (StarryWonders)

Explanation: Like an illustration in a galactic Just So Story, the
Elephant's Trunk Nebula winds through the emission region and young
star cluster complex IC 1396, in the high and far off constellation of
Cepheus. Seen on the left the cosmic elephant's trunk, also known as
vdB 142, is over 20 light-years long. This detailed telescopic view
features the bright swept-back ridges and pockets of cool interstellar
dust and gas that abound in the region. But the dark, tendril-shaped
clouds contain the raw material for star formation and hide protostars
within. Nearly 3,000 light-years distant, the relatively faint IC 1396
complex
covers a large region on the sky, spanning over 5 degrees. This
rendition spans a 1 degree wide field of view though, about the angular
size of 2 full moons. Of course the dark shapes below and to the right
of the outstretched Elephant's Trunk, are known to some as The Caravan.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 9

Pandora's Cluster of Galaxies
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ivo Labbe (Swinburne), Rachel Bezanson
(University of Pittsburgh), Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Explanation: This deep field mosaicked image presents a stunning view
of galaxy cluster Abell 2744 from the James Webb Space Telescope's
NIRCam. Also dubbed Pandora's Cluster, Abell 2744 itself appears to be
a ponderous merger of three different massive galaxy clusters some 3.5
billion light-years away toward the constellation Sculptor. Dominated
by dark matter, the mega-cluster warps and distorts the fabric of
spacetime, gravitationally lensing even more distant objects. Redder
than the Pandora cluster galaxies many of the lensed sources are very
distant galaxies in the early Universe, stretched and distorted into
arcs. Of course distinctive diffraction spikes mark foreground Milky
Way stars. At the Pandora Cluster's estimated distance this cosmic box
spans about 6 million light-years. But don't panic. You can explore the
tantalizing region in a 2 minute video tour.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 10

Mars and the Beehive
Image Credit & Copyright: Rolando Ligustri

Explanation: This month, bright Mars and brilliant Venus are the
prominent celestial beacons in planet Earth's western skies after
sunset. Wandering through the constellation Cancer the Crab, the Red
Planet was captured here on the evening of June 3 near the stars of
open cluster Messier 44. Recognized since antiquity this nearby,
naked-eye star cluster is also known as the Praesepe or the Beehive
cluster. A swarm of stars all much younger than the Sun, the Beehive
cluster is a mere 600 light-years distant. Seen with a yellowish hue,
Mars is about 17 light-minutes away. On June 12/13 Venus will take its
turn posing next to the stars of the Beehive cluster. But the dazzling
light of Venus will make the Beehive stars difficult to see by eye
alone.

Tomorrow's picture: the spectrum of the Sun
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 11
A rainbow of the Sun's colors is shown from deep red on the upper left
to deep blue on the lower right. Some horizontal lines have gaps that
appear dark where some colors are missing. the image. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

The Sun and Its Missing Colors
Image Credit: Nigel Sharp (NSF), FTS, NSO, KPNO, AURA, NSF

Explanation: Here are all the visible colors of the Sun, produced by
passing the Sun's light through a prism-like device. The spectrum was
created at the McMath-Pierce Solar Observatory and shows, first off,
that although our white-appearing Sun emits light of nearly every
color, it appears brightest in yellow-green light. The dark patches in
the featured spectrum arise from gas at or above the Sun's surface
absorbing sunlight emitted below. Since different types of gas absorb
different colors of light, it is possible to determine what gasses
compose the Sun. Helium, for example, was first discovered in 1870 on a
solar spectrum and only later found here on Earth. Today, the majority
of spectral absorption lines have been identified - but not all.

Tomorrow's picture: largest satellites
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 12
A crescent moon is shown against blue background. Many craters are
visible in great detail. To the upper left appears some kind of small
machine which is actually the International Space Station also in orbit
around the Earth. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

The Largest Satellites of Earth
Image Credit & Copyright: Tianyao Yang

Explanation: WhatCÇÖs that near the Moon? ItCÇÖs the International Space
Station (ISS). Although the ISS may appear to be physically near the
Moon, it is not CÇö it is physically near the Earth. In low Earth orbit
and circulating around our big blue marble about every 90 minutes, the
ISS was captured photographically as it crossed nearly in front of the
Moon. The Moon, itself in a month-long orbit around the Earth, shows a
crescent phase as only a curving sliver of its Sun-illuminated half is
visible from the Earth. The featured image was taken in late March from
Shanghai, China and shows not only details of Earth's largest
human-made satellite, but details of the cratered and barren surface of
Earth's largest natural satellite. Over the next few years, humanity is
planning to send more people and machines to the Moon than ever before.

Tomorrow's picture: another two
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 13

Moons Across Jupiter
Image Credit: NASA; ESA, JPL, Cassini Imaging Team, SSI; Processing:
Kevin M. Gill

Explanation: Jupiter's moons circle Jupiter. The featured video depicts
Europa and Io, two of Jupiter's largest moons, crossing in front of the
grand planet's Great Red Spot, the largest known storm system in our
Solar System. The video was composed from images taken by the robotic
Cassini spacecraft as it passed Jupiter in 2000, on its way to Saturn.
The two moons visible are volcanic Io, in the distance, and icy Europa.
In the time-lapse video, Europa appears to overtake Io, which is odd
because Io is closer to Jupiter and moves faster. The explanation is
that the motion of the fast Cassini spacecraft changes the camera
location significantly during imaging. Jupiter is currently being
visited by NASA's robotic Juno spacecraft, while ESA's Jupiter Icy
Moons Explorer (JUICE), launched in April, is enroute.

Tomorrow's picture: interstellar predator
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 14
A dark brown cloud that appears similar to a shark is seen against a
background filled with stars and less prominent blue-shaded nebulas.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

The Shark Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Stephen Kennedy

Explanation: There is no sea on Earth large enough to contain the Shark
nebula. This predator apparition poses us no danger as it is composed
only of interstellar gas and dust. Dark dust like that featured here is
somewhat like cigarette smoke and created in the cool atmospheres of
giant stars. After being expelled with gas and gravitationally
recondensing, massive stars may carve intricate structures into their
birth cloud using their high energy light and fast stellar winds as
sculpting tools. The heat they generate evaporates the murky molecular
cloud as well as causing ambient hydrogen gas to disperse and glow red.
During disintegration, we humans can enjoy imagining these great clouds
as common icons, like we do for water clouds on Earth. Including
smaller dust nebulae such as Lynds Dark Nebula 1235 and Van den Bergh
149 & 150, the Shark nebula spans about 15 light years and lies about
650 light years away toward the constellation of the King of Aethiopia
(Cepheus).

Tomorrow's picture: open space
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 15

M15: Dense Globular Star Cluster
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Legacy Archive; Processing: Ehsan
Ebrahimian

Explanation: Messier 15 is an immense swarm of over 100,000 stars. A 13
billion year old relic of the early formative years of our galaxy it's
one of about 170 globular star clusters that still roam the halo of the
Milky Way. Centered in this sharp reprocessed Hubble image, M15 lies
some 35,000 light-years away toward the constellation Pegasus. Its
diameter is about 200 light-years, but more than half its stars are
packed into the central 10 light-years or so, making one of the densest
concentrations of stars known. Hubble-based measurements of the
increasing velocities of M15's central stars are evidence that a
massive black hole resides at the center of the dense cluster. M15 is
also known to harbour a planetary nebula. Called Pease 1 (aka PN Ps 1),
it can be seen in this image as a small blue blob below and just right
of center.

Tomorrow's picture: when time lapses
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 16

Sunset to Sunrise over the Baltic Sea
Image Credit & Copyright: Bernd Pr++schold (TWAN)

Explanation: This serene view from the coast of Sweden looks across the
Baltic sea and compresses time, presenting the passage of one night in
a single photograph. From sunset to sunrise, moonlight illuminates the
creative sea and skyscape. Fleeting clouds, fixed stars, and flowing
northern lights leave their traces in planet Earth's sky. To construct
the timelapse image, 3296 video frames were recorded on the night of
June's Full Moon between 7:04pm and 6:35am local time. As time
progresses from left to right, a single column of pixels was taken from
the corresponding individual frame and combined in sequence into a
single digital image 3296 pixels wide.

Happy Birthday APOD
Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 17

Planet Earth at Night II
Video Credit: NASA, Gateway to Astronaut Photography, ISS Expedition
53; Music: The Low Seas (The 126ers)

Explanation: Recorded during 2017, timelapse sequences from the
International Space Station are compiled in this serene video of planet
Earth at Night. Fans of low Earth orbit can start by enjoying the view
as green and red aurora borealis slather up the sky. The night scene
tracks from northwest to southeast across North America, toward the
Gulf of Mexico and the Florida coast. A second sequence follows
European city lights, crosses the Mediterranean Sea, and passes over a
bright Nile river in northern Africa. Seen from the orbital outpost,
erratic flashes of lightning appear in thunder storms below and stars
rise above the planet's curved horizon through a faint atmospheric
airglow. Of course, from home you can always check out the vital signs
of Planet Earth Now.

Tomorrow's picture: How many sides does northern Saturn have?
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
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2023 June 18
Saturn's north pole is shown with vibrant false colors. The outer
boundary appears as a rounded hexagon. Please see the explanation for
more detailed information.

Saturn's Northern Hexagon
Image Credit & Copyright: NASA, ESA, JPL, SSI, Cassini Imaging Team

Explanation: Why would clouds form a hexagon on Saturn? Nobody is sure.
Originally discovered during the Voyager flybys of Saturn in the 1980s,
nobody has ever seen anything like it anywhere else in the Solar
System. Acquiring its first sunlit views of far northern Saturn in late
2012, the Cassini spacecraft's wide-angle camera recorded this
stunning, false-color image of the ringed planet's north pole. The
composite of near-infrared image data results in red hues for low
clouds and green for high ones, giving the Saturnian cloudscape a vivid
appearance. This and similar images show the stability of the hexagon
even 20+ years after Voyager. Movies of Saturn's North Pole show the
cloud structure maintaining its hexagonal structure while rotating.
Unlike individual clouds appearing like a hexagon on Earth, the Saturn
cloud pattern appears to have six well defined sides of nearly equal
length. Four Earths could fit inside the hexagon. Beyond the cloud tops
at the upper right, arcs of the planet's eye-catching rings are tinted
bright blue.

Tomorrow's picture: space tornado
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 19
The center of the Lagoon Nebula is pictured in false colors. Toward the
center left, dark dust swirls around glowing gas and bright stars.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

The Busy Center of the Lagoon Nebula
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing: Francisco Javier Pobes
Serrano

Explanation: The center of the Lagoon Nebula is a whirlwind of
spectacular star formation. Visible near the image center, at least two
long funnel-shaped clouds, each roughly half a light-year long, have
been formed by extreme stellar winds and intense energetic starlight. A
tremendously bright nearby star, Herschel 36, lights the area. Vast
walls of dust hide and redden other hot young stars. As energy from
these stars pours into the cool dust and gas, large temperature
differences in adjoining regions can be created generating shearing
winds which may cause the funnels. This picture, spanning about 15
light years, combines images taken in four colors by the orbiting
Hubble Space Telescope. The Lagoon Nebula, also known as M8, lies about
5000 light years distant toward the constellation of the Archer
(Sagittarius).

Tomorrow's picture: large galactic bird
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 20
Two identical images are shown side by side. On each, a silhouette of a
person holding a long stick is shown standing on a rock before the sea.
Above the person, running diagonally, is the central band of our Milky
Way Galaxy. On the right image, a type of bird called a Nandu is shown
in outline. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

The +æand+| in the Milky Way
Image Credit & Copyright: Fefo Bouvier; Line Drawing: Alfonso Rosso

Explanation: Have you seen the bird in the Milky Way? Beyond the man in
the Moon, the night sky is filled with stories, and cultures throughout
history have projected some of their most enduring legends onto the
stars and dust above. Generations of people see these celestial icons,
hear their associated stories, and pass them down. Pictured here is not
only a segment of the central band of our Milky Way galaxy, but,
according to folklore of several native peoples of Uruguay, the outline
of a great bird called +æand+|. Furthermore, +æand+|'s footprint is
associated with the Southern Cross asterism. In the foreground, in
silhouette, is a statue of Mar+¡a Micaela Guyunusa, an indigenous woman
of the Charr+|a people who lived in the 1800s and endures as a symbol of
colonial resistance. The composite image was taken in mid-April in Cabo
Polonio, Uruguay, with the Atlantic Ocean in the background.

Tomorrow's picture: the way of the Sun
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 21
The Sun's path is shown while setting in multiple exposures over three
separate days. The top path was taken during a summer solstice, the
middle path during an equinox, and the lower path during a winter
solstice. The foreground shows grass and some rocks and trees. Please
see the explanation for more detailed information.

Three Sun Paths
Image Credit & Copyright: Marcella Giulia Pace & Giuseppe De Don+á

Explanation: Does the Sun follow the same path every day? No. The Sun's
path changes during the year, tracing a longer route during the summer
than the winter. Pictured here, the Sun's arc was captured from noon to
sunset on three days, from highest in the sky to lowest: summer
solstice, equinox, and winter solstice. The images were taken near
Gatto Corvino Village in Sicily, Italy in 2020 and 2021. The path and
time the Sun spends in the sky is more important in determining the
season than how close the Earth is to the Sun. In fact, the Earth is
closest to the Sun in January, during northern winter. Today is a
solstice, so today the Sun is taking its longest path of the year
across the sky in Earth's northern hemisphere, but the shortest path in
the southern hemisphere.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 22

Stars and Dust across Corona Australis
Image Credit & Copyright: Alessandro Cipolat Bares

Explanation: Cosmic dust clouds cross a rich field of stars in this
telescopic vista near the northern boundary of Corona Australis, the
Southern Crown. Part of a sprawling molecular cloud complex this star
forming region is a mere 500 light-years away. That's about one third
the distance of the more famous stellar nursery known as the Orion
Nebula. The 2 degree wide frame would span 15 light-years at the
clouds' estimated distance. Mixed with bright nebulosities the dust
clouds effectively block light from more distant background stars in
the Milky Way and obscure from view embedded stars still in the process
of formation. Large dark nebula Bernes 157 is on the left. To its right
are a group of pretty reflection nebulae cataloged as NGC 6726, 6727,
6729, and IC 4812. Their characteristic blue color is produced as light
from hot stars is reflected by the cosmic dust. The more compact NGC
6729 surrounds young variable star R Coronae Australis. Just below it,
filamentary arcs and loops are identified as Herbig Haro objects
associated with energetic newborn stars. In fact, at the heart of this
area lies the Coronet Cluster, one of the nearest and most active star
forming regions.

Tomorrow's picture: the condor galaxy
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 23

Giant Galaxies in Pavo
Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby, Observatorio El Sauce

Explanation: Over 500,000 light years across, NGC 6872 (top right) is a
truly enormous barred spiral galaxy, at least 5 times the size of our
own very large Milky Way. The appearance of this giant galaxy's
distorted and stretched out spiral arms suggests the magnificent wings
of a giant bird. Of course its popular moniker is the Condor galaxy. It
lies about 200 million light-years distant toward the southern
constellation Pavo, the Peacock. Lined with star-forming regions, the
distorted spiral arms are due to NGC 6872's gravitational interaction
with the nearby smaller galaxy IC 4970, seen just above the giant
galaxy's core. The Pavo galaxy group's dominant giant elliptical
galaxy, NGC 6876 is below and left of the soaring Condor galaxy.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 24

3D Ingenuity
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS, ASU

Explanation: The multicolor, stereo imaging Mastcam-Z on the
Perseverance rover zoomed in to capture this 3D close-up (get out your
red/blue glasses) of the Mars Ingenuity helicopter on mission sol 45.
That's Earth-date 2021 April 5. Casting a shadow on the Martian
surface, Ingenuity is standing alone on its four landing legs next to
the rover's wheel tracks. The experimental helicopter's solar panel,
charging batteries that keep it warm through the cold Martian nights
and power its flight, sits just above Ingenuity's two 1.2 meter (4
foot) long counter-rotating blades. Thirteen sols later, on April 19,
Ingenuity became the first aircraft to perform powered, controlled
flight on another planet. It has since gone on to complete more than 50
flights through the thin atmosphere of Mars.

Tomorrow's picture: Jovian lightning
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 25
A large swirling cloud on Jupiter is shown with a bright green spot
near its top. The cloud is surrounded by other less descript parts of
Jupiter's upper atmosphere. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Lightning on Jupiter
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Processing & License: Kevin
M. Gill

Explanation: Does lightning occur only on Earth? No. Spacecraft in our
Solar System have detected lightning on other planets, including Mars,
Jupiter and Saturn, and lightning is likely on Venus, Uranus, and
Neptune. Lightning is a sudden rush of electrically charged particles
from one location to another. On Earth, drafts of colliding ice and
water droplets usually create lightning-generating charge separation,
but what happens on Jupiter? Images and data from NASA's
Jupiter-orbiting Juno spacecraft bolster previous speculation that
Jovian lightning is also created in clouds containing water and ice. In
the featured Juno photograph, an optical flash was captured in a large
cloud vortex near Jupiter's north pole. During the next few months,
Juno will perform several close sweeps over Jupiter's night side,
likely allowing the robotic probe to capture more data and images of
Jovian lightning.

Tomorrow's picture: mountains below venus
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 26
An orange sky hovers above snow-covered mountains. A blurry line
divides the orange sky from a darker sky. In the foreground are hills
and a house. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

The Belt of Venus over Mount Everest
Image Credit & Copyright: Soumyadeep Mukherjee

Explanation: You've surely seen it, but you might not have noticed it.
During a cloudless twilight, just before sunrise or after sunset, part
of the atmosphere above the horizon appears slightly dark and
off-color. Called the Belt of Venus, this transitional band between the
dark eclipsed sky and the bright day sky can be seen most prominently
in the direction opposite the Sun. Straight above, blue sky is normal
sunlight reflecting off the atmosphere, while near the horizon the
clear sky can appear more orange or red. In the Belt of Venus, the
atmosphere reflects more light from the setting (or rising) Sun and so
appears more red. Featured here, the Belt of Venus was photographed
over several Himalayan mountains including, second from the right,
Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth. Although usually not
mentioned, the belt is frequently caught by accident in other
photographs.

Tomorrow's picture: ultraviolet red planet
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 27

MAVEN's Ultraviolet Mars
Image Credit: MAVEN, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics,
Univ. Colorado, NASA

Explanation: These two global views of Mars were captured at
ultraviolet wavelengths, beyond the spectrum visible to human eyes.
Recorded by the MAVEN spacecraft's Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph
instrument in July 2022 (left) and January 2023, three otherwise
invisible ultraviolet bands are mapped into red, green, and blue
colors. That color scheme presents the Red Planet's surface features in
shades of tan and green. Haze and clouds appear white or blue, while
high altitude ozone takes on a dramatic purple hue. On the left, Mars'
south polar ice cap is in brilliant white at the bottom but shrinking
during the southern hemisphere's summer season. On the right, the
northern hemisphere's polar region is seen shrouded in clouds and
atmospheric ozone. Known to some as the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile
EvolutioN spacecraft, MAVEN has been exploring Mars' tenuous upper
atmosphere, ionosphere, and its interactions with the Sun and solar
wind since 2014.

Tomorrow's picture: galaxies away
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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written by a professional astronomer.

2023 June 28

Messier 24: Sagittarius Star Cloud
Image Credit & Copyright: Emmanuel Astronomono

Explanation: Unlike most entries in Charles Messier's famous catalog of
deep sky objects, M24 is not a bright galaxy, star cluster, or nebula.
It's a gap in nearby, obscuring interstellar dust clouds that allows a
view of the distant stars in the Sagittarius spiral arm of our Milky
Way galaxy. Direct your gaze through this gap with binoculars or small
telescope and you are looking through a window over 300 light-years
wide at stars some 10,000 light-years or more from Earth. Sometimes
called the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud, M24's luminous stars fill this
gorgeous starscape. Covering over 3 degrees or the width of 6 full
moons in the constellation Sagittarius, the telescopic field of view
includes dark markings B92 and B93 near center, along with other clouds
of dust and glowing nebulae toward the center of the Milky Way.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
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2023 June 29
The illustration shows the beams from pulsars around the image and a
pair of merging black holes on the upper left. A grid depicting the
warping of spacetime by passing gravitational waves spreads across the
image center. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

A Message from the Gravitational Universe
Illustration Credit: NANOGrav Physics Frontier Center; Text: Natalia
Lewandowska (SUNY Oswego)

Explanation: Monitoring 68 pulsars with very large radio telescopes,
the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves
(NANOGrav) has uncovered evidence for the gravitational wave (GW)
background by carefully measuring slight shifts in the arrival times of
pulses. These shifts are correlated between different pulsars in a way
that indicates that they are caused by GWs. This GW background is
likely due to hundreds of thousands or even millions of supermassive
black hole binaries. Teams in Europe, Asia and Australia have also
independently reported their results today. Previously, the LIGO and
Virgo detectors have detected higher-frequency GWs from the merging of
individual pairs of massive orbiting objects, such as stellar-mass
black holes. The featured illustration highlights this
spacetime-shaking result by depicting two orbiting supermassive black
holes and several of the pulsars that would appear to have slight
timing shifts. The imprint these GWs make on spacetime itself is
illustrated by a distorted grid.

Open Science: Browse 3,000+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code
Library
Tomorrow's picture: asteroid day
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 June 30
A dark background is filled with many light-blue ellipses. Toward the
center, near circles that are labelled as the orbits of the inner
planets of our Solar System are drawn. Please see the explanation for
more detailed information.

Orbits of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids
Illustration Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech

Explanation: Are asteroids dangerous? Some are, but the likelihood of a
dangerous asteroid striking the Earth during any given year is low.
Because some past mass extinction events have been linked to asteroid
impacts, however, humanity has made it a priority to find and catalog
those asteroids that may one day affect life on Earth. Pictured here
are the orbits of the over 1,000 known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids
(PHAs). These documented tumbling boulders of rock and ice are over 140
meters across and will pass within 7.5 million kilometers of Earth --
about 20 times the distance to the Moon. Although none of them will
strike the Earth in the next 100 years -- not all PHAs have been
discovered, and past 100 years, many orbits become hard to predict.
Were an asteroid of this size to impact the Earth, it could raise
dangerous tsunamis, for example. To investigate Earth-saving
strategies, NASA successfully tested the Double Asteroid Redirection
Test (DART) mission last year. Of course, rocks and ice bits of much
smaller size strike the Earth every day, usually pose no danger, and
sometimes create memorable fireball and meteor displays.

Today is: Asteroid Day Tomorrow's picture: three galaxies
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 1

Three Galaxies in Draco
Image Credit & Copyright: David Vernet , Jean-Fran+ºois Bax , Serge
Brunier, OCA/C2PU

Explanation: This tantalizing trio of galaxies sometimes called the
Draco Group, is located in the northern constellation of (you guessed
it) Draco, the Dragon. From left to right are face-on spiral NGC 5985,
elliptical galaxy NGC 5982, and edge-on spiral NGC 5981, all found
within this single telescopic field of view that spans a little more
than the width of the full moon. While the group is far too small to be
a galaxy cluster, and has not been catalogued as a compact galaxy
group, the three galaxies all do lie roughly 100 million light-years
from planet Earth. Not as well known as other tight groupings of
galaxies, the contrast in visual appearance still makes this triplet an
attractive subject for astroimagers. On close examination with
spectrographs, the bright core of striking spiral NGC 5985 shows
prominent emission in specific wavelengths of light, prompting
astronomers to classify it as a Seyfert, a type of active galaxy. This
impressively deep exposure hints at a faint dim halo along with
sharp-edged shells surrounding elliptical NGC 5982, evidence of past
galactic mergers. It also reveals many even more distant background
galaxies.

Tomorrow's picture: over and under
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 July 2
A long vertical image shows a band of the night sky from horizon at the
bottom to the opposite horizon -- at the image top. A person stands on
a snow covered landscape with the central band of the Milky Way running
between horizons. Each horizon is lit by red, yellow, and green
auroras. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Milky Way and Aurora over Antarctica
Image Credit & Copyright: LI Hang

Explanation: It was one of the better skies of this long night. In
parts of Antarctica, not only is it winter, but the Sun can spend weeks
below the horizon. At China's Zhongshan Station, people sometimes
venture out into the cold to photograph a spectacular night sky. The
featured image from one such outing was taken in mid-July of 2015, just
before the end of this polar night. Pointing up, the wide angle lens
captured not only the ground at the bottom, but at the top as well. In
the foreground, a colleague is taking pictures. In the distance, a
spherical satellite receiver and several windmills are visible.
Numerous stars dot the night sky, including Sirius and Canopus. Far in
the background, stretching overhead from horizon to horizon, is the
central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. Even further in the distance,
visible as extended smudges near the top, are the Large and Small
Magellanic Clouds, satellite galaxies near our huge Milky Way Galaxy.

Explore the Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: venus beyond blue
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
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2023 July 3
Planet Venus is pictured in ultraviolet light. The spherical planet
appears circular in tan colors with hints of blue. Complex cloud
patterns are evident. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Venus in Ultraviolet from Akatsuki
Image Credit & Copyright: JAXA, Planet-C Project Team; h/t: Mehmet
Hakan +ûzsara+º

Explanation: Why is Venus so different from Earth? To help find out,
Japan launched the robotic Akatsuki spacecraft which entered orbit
around Venus late in 2015 after an unplanned five-year adventure around
the inner Solar System. Even though Akatsuki was past its original
planned lifetime, the spacecraft and instruments were operating so well
that much of its original mission was reinstated. Also known as the
Venus Climate Orbiter, Akatsuki's instruments investigated unknowns
about Earth's sister planet, including whether volcanoes are still
active, whether lightning occurs in the dense atmosphere, and why wind
speeds greatly exceed the planet's rotation speed. In the featured
image taken by Akatsuki's UVI camera, the day-side of Venus is seen
shown with planet-scale V-shaped cloud pattern. The image displays
three ultraviolet colors and indicates a dip in the relative abundance
of sulfur dioxide shown in faint blue. Analyses of Akatsuki images and
data has shown, among other discoveries, that Venus has equatorial jet
similar to Earth's jet stream.

Tomorrow's picture: sudden sky surprise
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 July 4
Planet Venus is pictured in ultraviolet light. The spherical planet
appears circular in tan colors with hints of blue. Complex cloud
patterns are evident. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Aurora over Icelandic Waterfall
Image Credit & Copyright: Cari Letelier

Explanation: It seemed like the sky exploded. The original idea was to
photograph an aurora over a waterfall. After waiting for hours under
opaque clouds, though, hope was running out. Others left. Then,
unexpectedly, the clouds moved away. Suddenly, particles from a large
solar magnetic storm were visible impacting the Earth's upper
atmosphere with full effect. The night sky filled with colors and
motion in a thrilling auroral display. Struggling to steady the camera
from high Earthly winds, the 34 exposures that compose the featured
image were taken. The resulting featured composite image shows the
photogenic Godafoss (Go+#afoss) waterfall in northern Iceland in front
of a very active aurora in late February. The solar surface explosion
that expelled the energetic particles occurred a few days before. Our
Sun is showing an impressive amount of surface activity as it
approaches solar maximum, indicating that more impressive auroras are
likely to appear in Earth's northern and southern sky over the next few
years.

Tomorrow's picture: very large map
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
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2023 July 5
A map of the observable universe is illustrated in a wedge with the the
Earth on the bottom and the universe fanning out above. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

A Map of the Observable Universe
Image Credit & Copyright: B. M+¬nard & N. Shtarkman; Data: SDSS, Planck,
JHU, Sloan, NASA, ESA

Explanation: What if you could see out to the edge of the observable
universe? You would see galaxies, galaxies, galaxies, and then, well,
quasars, which are the bright centers of distant galaxies. To expand
understanding of the very largest scales that humanity can see, a map
of the galaxies and quasars found by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey from
2000 to 2020 -- out to near the edge of the observable universe -- has
been composed. Featured here, one wedge from this survey encompasses
about 200,000 galaxies and quasars out beyond a look-back time of 12
billion years and cosmological redshift 5. Almost every dot in the
nearby lower part of the illustration represents a galaxy, with redness
indicating increasing redshift and distance. Similarly, almost every
dot on the upper part represents a distant quasar, with blue-shaded
dots being closer than red. Clearly shown among many discoveries,
gravity between galaxies has caused the nearby universe to condense and
become increasingly more filamentary than the distant universe.

More Detailed Maps: Related to Today's APOD
Tomorrow's picture: open space
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 6

Fireworks vs Supermoon
Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Seeley

Explanation: On July 4, an almost Full Moon rose in planet Earth's
evening skies. Also known as a Buck Moon, the full lunar phase (full on
July 3 at 11:39 UTC) was near perigee, the closest point in the Moon's
almost monthly orbit around planet Earth. That qualified this July's
Full Moon as a supermoon, the first of four supermoons in 2023. Seen
from Cocoa Beach along Florida's Space Coast on July 4, any big,
bright, beautiful Full Moon would still have to compete for attention
though. July's super-moonrise was captured here against a
super-colorful fireworks display.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
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2023 July 7

The Double Cluster in Perseus
Image Credit & Copyright: M+Ñrten Frosth

Explanation: This pretty starfield spans about three full moons (1.5
degrees) across the heroic northern constellation of Perseus. It holds
the famous pair of open star clusters, h and Chi Persei. Also cataloged
as NGC 869 (top) and NGC 884, both clusters are about 7,000 light-years
away and contain stars much younger and hotter than the Sun. Separated
by only a few hundred light-years, the clusters are both 13 million
years young based on the ages of their individual stars, evidence that
they were likely a product of the same star-forming region. Always a
rewarding sight in binoculars, the Double Cluster is even visible to
the unaided eye from dark locations.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
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2023 July 8

Stickney Crater
Image Credit: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA

Explanation: Stickney Crater, the largest crater on the martian moon
Phobos, is named for Chloe Angeline Stickney Hall, mathematician and
wife of astronomer Asaph Hall. Asaph Hall discovered both the Red
Planet's moons in 1877. Over 9 kilometers across, Stickney is nearly
half the diameter of Phobos itself, so large that the impact that
blasted out the crater likely came close to shattering the tiny moon.
This enhanced-color image of Stickney and surroundings was recorded by
the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it passed
within some six thousand kilometers of Phobos in March of 2008. Even
though the surface gravity of asteroid-like Phobos is less than
1/1000th Earth's gravity, streaks suggest loose material slid down
inside the crater walls over time. Light bluish regions near the
crater's rim could indicate a relatively freshly exposed surface. The
origin of the curious grooves along the surface is mysterious but may
be related to tidal stresses experienced by close-orbiting Phobos or
the crater-forming impact itself.

Tomorrow's picture: doomed star
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 July 9
A Hubble image of the gas and dust surrounding the star Eta Carinae is
shown. The nebula has two distinct light-colored lobes, surrounded by
red glowing gas. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Doomed Star Eta Carinae
Image Credit & Copyright: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & License: Judy
Schmidt

Explanation: Eta Carinae may be about to explode. But no one knows when
- it may be next year, it may be one million years from now. Eta
Carinae's mass - about 100 times greater than our Sun - makes it an
excellent candidate for a full blown supernova. Historical records do
show that about 170 years ago Eta Carinae underwent an unusual outburst
that made it one of the brightest stars in the southern sky. Eta
Carinae, in the Keyhole Nebula, is the only star currently thought to
emit natural LASER light. This featured image brings out details in the
unusual nebula that surrounds this rogue star. Diffraction spikes,
caused by the telescope, are visible as bright multi-colored streaks
emanating from Eta Carinae's center. Two distinct lobes of the
Homunculus Nebula encompass the hot central region, while some strange
radial streaks are visible in red extending toward the image right. The
lobes are filled with lanes of gas and dust which absorb the blue and
ultraviolet light emitted near the center. The streaks, however, remain
unexplained.

Tomorrow's picture: stellar pandemonium
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 July 10
A busy star formation region is shown highlighted by red glowing clouds
and dark ominously-shaped dust. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Stars, Dust and Nebula in NGC 6559
Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Block, Telescope Live

Explanation: When stars form, pandemonium reigns. A textbook case is
the star forming region NGC 6559. Visible in the featured image are red
glowing emission nebulas of hydrogen, blue reflection nebulas of dust,
dark absorption nebulas of dust, and the stars that formed from them.
The first massive stars formed from the dense gas will emit energetic
light and winds that erode, fragment, and sculpt their birthplace. And
then they explode. The resulting morass can be as beautiful as it is
complex. After tens of millions of years, the dust boils away, the gas
gets swept away, and all that is left is a bare open cluster of stars.

Tomorrow's picture: sun spotted
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 July 11
Our Sun is pictured with hundreds of dark sunspots. The image is
actually a composite of all of the sunspots visible during the first
half of this year. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Sunspots on an Active Sun
Image Credit: NASA, SDO; Processing & Copyright: +Penol +Panl-#

Explanation: Why is our Sun so active now? No one is sure. An increase
in surface activity was expected because our Sun is approaching solar
maximum in 2025. However, last month our Sun sprouted more sunspots
than in any month during the entire previous 11-year solar cycle -- and
even dating back to 2002. The featured picture is a composite of images
taken every day from January to June by NASA's Solar Dynamic
Observatory. Showing a high abundance of sunspots, large individual
spots can be tracked across the Sun's disk, left to right, over about
two weeks. As a solar cycle continues, sunspots typically appear closer
to the equator. Sunspots are just one way that our Sun displays surface
activity -- another is flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that
expel particles out into the Solar System. Since these particles can
affect astronauts and electronics, tracking surface disturbances is of
more than aesthetic value. Conversely, solar activity can have very
high aesthetic value -- in the Earth's atmosphere when they trigger
aurora.

Tomorrow's picture: star bar with rings
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 12
A spiral galaxy is shown with a yellow center, blue rings and spiral
arms, and dark brown and red dust. The surrounding dark field contains
both local stars and more distant galaxies. Please see the explanation
for more detailed information.

Rings and Bar of Spiral Galaxy NGC 1398
Image Credit: Mark Hanson; Data: Mike Selby

Explanation: Why do some spiral galaxies have a ring around the center?
Spiral galaxy NGC 1398 not only has a ring of pearly stars, gas and
dust around its center, but a bar of stars and gas across its center,
and spiral arms that appear like ribbons farther out. The featured deep
image from Observatorio El Sauce in Chile shows the grand spiral galaxy
in impressive detail. NGC 1398 lies about 65 million light years
distant, meaning the light we see today left this galaxy when dinosaurs
were disappearing from the Earth. The photogenic galaxy is visible with
a small telescope toward the constellation of the Furnace (Fornax). The
ring near the center is likely an expanding density wave of star
formation, caused either by a gravitational encounter with another
galaxy, or by the galaxy's own gravitational asymmetries.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 13

Webb's Rho Ophiuchi
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pontoppidan (STScI),
Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Explanation: A mere 390 light-years away, Sun-like stars and future
planetary systems are forming in the Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud
complex, the closest star-forming region to our fair planet. The James
Webb Space Telescope's NIRCam peered into the nearby natal chaos to
capture this infrared image at an inspiring scale. The spectacular
cosmic snapshot was released to celebrate the successful first year of
Webb's exploration of the Universe. The frame spans less than a
light-year across the Rho Ophiuchi region and contains about 50 young
stars. Brighter stars clearly sport Webb's characteristic pattern of
diffraction spikes. Huge jets of shocked molecular hydrogen blasting
from newborn stars are red in the image, with the large, yellowish
dusty cavity carved out by the energetic young star near its center.
Near some stars in the stunning image are shadows cast by their
protoplanetary disks.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 14

Comet C/2023 E1 ATLAS near Perihelion
Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett

Explanation: Comet C/2023 E1 (ATLAS) was just spotted in March, another
comet found by the NASA funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert
System. On July 1 this Comet ATLAS reached perihelion, its closest
approach to the Sun. Shortly afterwards the telescopic comet was
captured in this frame sporting a pretty greenish coma and faint,
narrow ion tail against a background of stars in the far northern
constellation Ursa Minor. This comet's closest approach to Earth is
still to come though. On August 18 this visitor to the inner Solar
System will be a mere 3 light-minutes or so from our fair planet. Based
on its inclination to the ecliptic plane and orbital period of about 85
years C/2023 E1 (ATLAS) is considered a Halley-type comet.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 15

Webb's First Deep Field
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, NIRCam

Explanation: This stunning infrared image was released one year ago as
the James Webb Space Telescope began its exploration of the cosmos. The
view of the early Universe toward the southern constellation Volans was
achieved in 12.5 hours of exposure with Webb's NIRCam instrument. Of
course the stars with six spikes are well within our own Milky Way.
Their diffraction pattern is characteristic of Webb's 18 hexagonal
mirror segments operating together as a single 6.5 meter diameter
primary mirror. The thousands of galaxies flooding the field of view
are members of the distant galaxy cluster SMACS0723-73, some 4.6
billion light-years away. Luminous arcs that seem to infest the deep
field are even more distant galaxies though. Their images are distorted
and magnified by the dark matter dominated mass of the galaxy cluster,
an effect known as gravitational lensing. Analyzing light from two
separate arcs below the bright spiky star, Webb's NIRISS instrument
indicates the arcs are both images of the same background galaxy. And
that galaxy's light took about 9.5 billion years to reach the James
Webb Space Telescope.

Tomorrow's picture: view with a thrill
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 16
A person is seen facing away, standing on a peak. Other mountain peaks
surround them. City lights are seen in towns and along roads below.
Stars in the night sky are above. The band of the Milky Way galaxy
slants down from the upper left. A bright green meteor streak slants
down from above. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Meteor and Milky Way over the Alps
Image Credit & Copyright: Nicholas Roemmelt (Venture Photography)

Explanation: Now this was a view with a thrill. From Mount Tschirgant
in the Alps, you can see not only nearby towns and distant Tyrolean
peaks, but also, weather permitting, stars, nebulas, and the band of
the Milky Way Galaxy. What made the arduous climb worthwhile this
night, though, was another peak -- the peak of the 2018 Perseids Meteor
Shower. As hoped, dispersing clouds allowed a picturesque sky-gazing
session that included many faint meteors, all while a carefully
positioned camera took a series of exposures. Suddenly, a thrilling
meteor -- bright and colorful -- slashed down right next to the nearly
vertical band of the Milky Way. As luck would have it, the camera
caught it too. Therefore, a new image in the series was quickly taken
with one of the sky-gazers posing on the nearby peak. Later, all of the
images were digitally combined.

Tomorrow's picture: liberating carbon
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 17
A star surrounded by orange shells and arcs sit in the center of a dark
starfield. Galaxies from the distant universe can be seen around the
edges. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Shells and Arcs around Star CW Leonis
Image Credit: ESA, NASA, Hubble, T. Ueta (U. Denver), H. Kim (KASI)

Explanation: What's happening around this star? No one is sure. CW
Leonis is the closest carbon star, a star that appears orange because
of atmospheric carbon dispersed from interior nuclear fusion. But CW
Leonis also appears engulfed in a gaseous carbon-rich nebula. What
causes the nebula's complexity is unknown, but its geometry of shells
and arcs are surely intriguing. The featured image by the Hubble Space
Telescope details this complexity. The low surface gravity of carbon
stars enhances their ability to expel carbon and carbon compounds into
space. Some of this carbon ends up forming dark dust that is commonly
seen in the nebulas of young star-forming regions and the disks of
galaxies. Humans and all Earth-based life are carbon-based, and at
least some of our carbon was likely once circulating in the atmospheres
of near-death stars like carbon stars.

Tomorrow's picture: telescopes and sky
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 18
A mountaintop is shown covered by brush. Across the horizon are several
telescopes. Behind the mountaintop is a deep exposure of the sky
showing the central band of our Milky Way galaxy and several well-known
stars and nebulas. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Milky Way above La Palma Observatory
Image Credit & Copyright: Marcin Rosadzi+äski

Explanation: What's happening in the night sky? To help find out,
telescopes all over the globe will be pointing into deep space.
Investigations will include trying to understand the early universe,
finding and tracking Earth-menacing asteroids, searching for planets
that might contain extra-terrestrial life, and monitoring stars to help
better understand our Sun. The featured composite includes foreground
and background images taken in April from a mountaintop on La Palma
island in the Canary Islands of Spain. Pictured, several telescopes
from the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory are shown in front of a
dark night sky. Telescopes in the foreground include, left to right,
Magic 1, Galileo, Magic 2, Gran Canarian, and LST. Sky highlights in
the background include the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, the
constellations of Sagittarius, Ophiuchus and Scorpius, the red-glowing
Eagle and Lagoon Nebulas, and the stars Alrami and Antares. Due to
observatories like this, humanity has understood more about our night
sky in the past 100 years than ever before in all of human history.

Tomorrow's picture: beyond the birds
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 19
A rocket is seen after lift-off with a long smoke plume. The rocket is
captured against a blue sky and has gone through a cloud deck. In the
foreground is an empty tan-colored field. Please see the explanation
for more detailed information.

Chandrayaan-3 Launches to the Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Sruthi Suresh (Space Group)

Explanation: Birds don't fly this high. Airplanes don't go this fast.
The Statue of Liberty weighs less. No species other than human can even
comprehend what is going on, nor could any human just a millennium ago.
The launch of a rocket bound for space is an event that inspires awe
and challenges description. Pictured here last week, the Indian Space
Research Organization's LVM3 rocket blasted off from the Satish Dhawan
Space Centre on Sriharikota Island, India. From a standing start, the
600,000+ kilogram rocket ship lifted the massive Chandrayaan-3 off the
Earth. The Chandrayaan-3 mission is scheduled to reach the Moon in late
August and land a robotic rover near the lunar South Pole. Rockets
bound for space are now launched from somewhere on Earth every few
days.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 20

M64: The Black Eye Galaxy Close Up
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Processing: Jonathan Lodge

Explanation: This magnificent spiral galaxy is Messier 64, often called
the Black Eye Galaxy or the Sleeping Beauty Galaxy for its dark-lidded
appearance in telescopic views. The spiral's central region, about
7,400 light-years across, is pictured in this reprocessed image from
the Hubble Space Telescope. M64 lies some 17 million light-years
distant in the otherwise well-groomed northern constellation Coma
Berenices. The enormous dust clouds partially obscuring M64's central
region are laced with young, blue star clusters and the reddish glow of
hydrogen associated with star forming regions. But imposing clouds of
dust are not this galaxy's only peculiar feature. Observations show
that M64 is actually composed of two concentric, counter-rotating
systems. While all the stars in M64 rotate in the same direction as the
interstellar gas in the galaxy's central region, gas in the outer
regions, extending to about 40,000 light-years, rotates in the opposite
direction. The dusty eye and bizarre rotation are likely the result of
a billion year old merger of two different galaxies.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 21

Galactic Cirrus: Mandel Wilson 9
Image Credit & Copyright: Gabriel Rodrigues Santos

Explanation: The combined light of stars along the Milky Way are
reflected by these cosmic dust clouds that soar 300 light-years or so
above the plane of our galaxy. Known to some as integrated flux nebulae
and commonly found at high galactic latitudes, the dusty galactic
cirrus clouds are faint. But they can be traced over large regions of
the sky toward the North and South Galactic poles. Along with the
reflection of starlight, studies indicate the dust clouds produce a
faint reddish luminescence as interstellar dust grains convert
invisible ultraviolet radiation to visible red light. Also capturing
nearby Milky Way stars and distant background galaxies, this remarkably
deep, wide-field image explores a complex of faint galactic cirrus
known as Mandel Wilson 9. It spans over three degrees across planet
Earth's skies toward the far southern constellation Apus.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 22

Apollo 11: Armstrong's Lunar Selfie
Image Credit: NASA, Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong; Processing: Michael
Ranger

Explanation: A photograph of Buzz Aldrin standing on the Moon taken by
Neil Armstrong, was digitally reversed to create this lunar selfie.
Captured in July 1969 following the Apollo 11 moon landing, Armstrong's
original photograph recorded not only the magnificent desolation of an
unfamiliar world, but Armstrong himself reflected in Aldrin's curved
visor. In the unwrapped image, the spherical distortion of the
reflection in Aldrin's helmet has been reversed. The transformed view
features Armstrong himself from Aldrin's perspective. Since Armstrong
took the original picture, today the image represents a fifty-four year
old lunar selfie. Aldrin's visor reflection in the original image
appears here on the left. Bright (but distorted) planet Earth hangs in
the lunar sky above Armstrong's figure, toward the upper right. A
foil-wrapped leg of the Eagle lander and Aldrin's long shadow
stretching across the lunar surface are prominently visible. In 2024
NASA's Artemis II mission will return humans to the Moon.

Tomorrow's picture: unexpected clock
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 22

Apollo 11: Armstrong's Lunar Selfie
Image Credit: NASA, Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong; Processing: Michael
Ranger

Explanation: A photograph of Buzz Aldrin standing on the Moon taken by
Neil Armstrong, was digitally reversed to create this lunar selfie.
Captured in July 1969 following the Apollo 11 moon landing, Armstrong's
original photograph recorded not only the magnificent desolation of an
unfamiliar world, but Armstrong himself reflected in Aldrin's curved
visor. In the unwrapped image, the spherical distortion of the
reflection in Aldrin's helmet has been reversed. The transformed view
features Armstrong himself from Aldrin's perspective. Since Armstrong
took the original picture, today the image represents a fifty-four year
old lunar selfie. Aldrin's visor reflection in the original image
appears here on the left. Bright (but distorted) planet Earth hangs in
the lunar sky above Armstrong's figure, toward the upper right. A
foil-wrapped leg of the Eagle lander and Aldrin's long shadow
stretching across the lunar surface are prominently visible. In 2024
NASA's Artemis II mission will return humans to the Moon.

Tomorrow's picture: unexpected clock
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
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& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 23
An old and corroded mechanism is shown fronted by a large wheel. The
mechanism has patches of tan and brown color but it is mostly green.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

The Antikythera Mechanism
Image Credit & License: Marsyas, Wikipedia

Explanation: It does what? No one knew that 2,000 years ago, the
technology existed to build such a device. The Antikythera mechanism,
pictured, is now widely regarded as the first computer. Found at the
bottom of the sea aboard a decaying Greek ship, its complexity prompted
decades of study, and even today some of its functions likely remain
unknown. X-ray images of the device, however, have confirmed that a
main function of its numerous clock-like wheels and gears is to create
a portable, hand-cranked, Earth-centered, orrery of the sky, predicting
future star and planet locations as well as lunar and solar eclipses.
The corroded core of the Antikythera mechanism's largest gear is
featured, spanning about 13 centimeters, while the entire mechanism was
33 centimeters high, making it similar in size to a large book.
Recently, modern computer modeling of missing components is allowing
for the creation of a more complete replica of this surprising ancient
machine.

Tomorrow's picture: rainbow meteor
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 24
A bright colorful streak crossed the image center, which wisps of
colorful gas extending out. In the background is a dark starfield.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Chemicals Glow as a Meteor Disintegrates
Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Kleinburger

Explanation: Meteors can be colorful. While the human eye usually
cannot discern many colors, cameras often can. Pictured here is a
fireball, a disintegrating meteor that was not only one of the
brightest the photographer has ever seen, but colorful. The meteor was
captured by chance in mid-July with a camera set up on Hochkar Mountain
in Austria to photograph the central band of our Milky Way galaxy. The
radiant grit, likely cast off by a comet or asteroid long ago, had the
misfortune to enter Earth's atmosphere. Colors in meteors usually
originate from ionized chemical elements released as the meteor
disintegrates, with blue-green typically originating from magnesium,
calcium radiating violet, and nickel glowing green. Red, however,
typically originates from energized nitrogen and oxygen in the Earth's
atmosphere. This bright meteoric fireball was gone in a flash -- less
than a second -- but it left a wind-blown ionization trail that
remained visible for almost a minute.

Tomorrow's picture: X-ray eagle
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 25
Pillars of gas and dark dust extend diagonally from the bottom left to
the upper right. Bright X-ray sources are superimposed as bright dots
around the image. Infrared dust glows behind the pillars. Please see
the explanation for more detailed information.

The Eagle Nebula with X-ray Hot Stars
Image Credit: X-ray: Chandra: NASA/CXC/SAO, XMM: ESA/XMM-Newton; IR:
JWST: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI, Spitzer: NASA/JPL/CalTech; Visible: Hubble:
NASA/ESA/STScI, ESO; Image Processing: L. Frattare, J. Major, N. Wolk,
and K. Arcand

Explanation: What do the famous Eagle Nebula star pillars look like in
X-ray light? To find out, NASA's orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory
peered in and through these interstellar mountains of star formation.
It was found that in M16 the dust pillars themselves do not emit many
X-rays, but a lot of small-but-bright X-ray sources became evident.
These sources are shown as bright dots on the featured image which is a
composite of exposures from Chandra (X-rays), XMM (X-rays), JWST
(infrared), Spitzer (infrared), Hubble (visible), and the VLT
(visible). What stars produce these X-rays remains a topic of research,
but some are hypothesized to be hot, recently-formed, low-mass stars,
while others are thought to be hot, older, high-mass stars. These X-ray
hot stars are scattered around the frame -- the previously identified
Evaporating Gaseous Globules (EGGS) seen in visible light are not
currently hot enough to emit X-rays.

Tomorrow's picture: undersea overhead
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 26
A sprawling nebula is pictured with gold tinted gas covering the top,
blue, the middle, and dark brown the bottom. Stars cover the frame but
are most prominent near the bottom. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

IC 4628: The Prawn Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Stern

Explanation: South of Antares, in the tail of the nebula-rich
constellation Scorpius, lies emission nebula IC 4628. Nearby hot,
massive stars, millions of years young, irradiate the nebula with
invisible ultraviolet light, stripping electrons from atoms. The
electrons eventually recombine with the atoms to produce the visible
nebular glow, dominated by the red emission of hydrogen. At an
estimated distance of 6,000 light-years, the region shown is about 250
light-years across, spanning over three full moons on the sky. The
nebula is also cataloged as Gum 56 for Australian astronomer Colin
Stanley Gum, but seafood-loving deep sky-enthusiasts might know this
cosmic cloud as the Prawn Nebula. The graceful color image is a new
astronomical composition taken over several nights in April from Rio
Hurtado, Chile.

Tomorrow's picture: galaxies in the river
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 27

Galaxies in the River
Image Credit & License: CTIO/NOIRLab/DOE/NSF/AURA; R. Colombari, M.
Zamani & D. de Martin (NSFCÇÖs NOIRLab)

Explanation: Large galaxies grow by eating small ones. Even our own
galaxy engages in a sort of galactic cannibalism, absorbing small
galaxies that are too close and are captured by the Milky Way's
gravity. In fact, the practice is common in the universe and
illustrated by this striking pair of interacting galaxies from the
banks of the southern constellation Eridanus, The River. Located over
50 million light years away, the large, distorted spiral NGC 1532 is
seen locked in a gravitational struggle with dwarf galaxy NGC 1531, a
struggle the smaller galaxy will eventually lose. Seen nearly edge-on,
spiral NGC 1532 spans about 100,000 light-years. The merging galaxies
are captured in this sharp image from the Dark Energy Camera mounted on
the National Science FoundationCÇÖs Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro
Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The NGC 1532/1531 pair is
thought to be similar to the well-studied system of face-on spiral and
small companion known as M51.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 28

Young Stars, Stellar Jets
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Explanation: High-speed outflows of molecular gas from a pair of
actively forming young stars shine in infrared light, revealing
themselves in this NIRcam image from the James Webb Space Telescope.
Cataloged as HH (Herbig-Haro) 46/47, the young stars are lodged within
a dark nebula that is largely opaque when viewed in visible light. The
pair lie at the center of the prominent reddish diffraction spikes in
the NIRcam image. Their energetic stellar jets extend for nearly a
light-year, burrowing into the dark interstellar material. A
tantalizing object to explore with Webb's infrared capabilities, this
young star system is relatively nearby, located only some 1,140
light-years distant in the nautical constellation Vela.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 29

Apollo 11: Catching Some Sun
Image Credit: Apollo 11, NASA (Image scanned by Kipp Teague)

Explanation: Bright sunlight glints as long dark shadows mark this
image of the surface of the Moon. It was taken fifty-four years ago,
July 20, 1969, by Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first to walk
on the lunar surface. Pictured is the mission's lunar module, the
Eagle, and spacesuited lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin. Aldrin is
unfurling a long sheet of foil also known as the Solar Wind Composition
Experiment. Exposed facing the Sun, the foil trapped particles
streaming outward in the solar wind, catching a sample of material from
the Sun itself. Along with moon rocks and lunar soil samples, the solar
wind collector was returned for analysis in earthbound laboratories.

Tomorrow's picture: Sunday's Childe
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 30
A bright green spiral aurora is seen in a break in the clouds before a
purple background. The foreground contains green grassland and a
circular lake. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Spiral Aurora over Icelandic Divide
Image Credit & Copyright: Juan Carlos Casado (Starry Earth, TWAN)

Explanation: Admire the beauty but fear the beast. The beauty is the
aurora overhead, here taking the form of a great green spiral, seen
between picturesque clouds with the bright Moon to the side and stars
in the background. The beast is the wave of charged particles that
creates the aurora but might, one day, impair civilization. In 1859,
following notable auroras seen all across the globe, a pulse of charged
particles from a coronal mass ejection (CME) associated with a solar
flare impacted Earth's magnetosphere so forcefully that it created the
Carrington Event. This assault from the Sun compressed the Earth's
magnetic field so violently that it created high currents and sparks
along telegraph wires, shocking many telegraph operators. Were a
Carrington-class event to impact the Earth today, speculation holds
that damage might occur to global power grids and electronics on a
scale never yet experienced. The featured aurora was imaged in 2016
over Thingvallavatn Lake in Iceland, a lake that partly fills a fault
that divides Earth's large Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.

Almost Hyperspace: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: moon over mars
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 July 31
A dark irregularly-shaped moon is seen in front of the red planet Mars.
Craters are visible in the foreground and the edge of the planet is
just visible at the top of the image. Please see the explanation for
more detailed information.

Phobos over Mars
Image Credit: ESA, DLR, FU Berlin, Mars Express; Processing & CC BY 2.0
License: Andrea Luck

Explanation: Why is Phobos so dark? Phobos, the largest and innermost
of the two Martian moons, is the darkest moon in the entire Solar
System. Its unusual orbit and color indicate that it may be a captured
asteroid composed of a mixture of ice and dark rock. The featured
assigned-color picture of Phobos near the edge of Mars was captured in
late 2021 by ESA's robot spacecraft Mars Express, currently orbiting
Mars. Phobos is a heavily cratered and barren moon, with its largest
crater located on the far side. From images like this, Phobos has been
determined to be covered by perhaps a meter of loose dust. Phobos
orbits so close to Mars that from some places it would appear to rise
and set twice a day, while from other places it would not be visible at
all. Phobos' orbit around Mars is continually decaying -- it will
likely break up with pieces crashing to the Martian surface in about 50
million years.

Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?
(post 1995)
Tomorrow's picture: monster at the Sun's edge
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
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& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 August 1
The edge of the Sun is shown sporting a large gaseous prominence that
looks like a science-fiction alien. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Monster Solar Prominence
Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Wenz

Explanation: The monsters that live on the Sun are not like us. They
are larger than the Earth and made of gas hotter than in any teapot.
They have no eyes, but at times, many tentacles. They float. Usually,
they slowly change shape and just fade back onto the Sun over about a
month. Sometimes, though, they suddenly explode and unleash energetic
particles into the Solar System that can attack the Earth. Pictured is
a huge solar prominence imaged almost two weeks ago in the light of
hydrogen. Captured by a small telescope in Gilbert, Arizona, USA, the
monsteresque plume of gas was held aloft by the ever-present but
ever-changing magnetic field near the surface of the Sun. Our active
Sun continues to show an unusually high number of prominences,
filaments, sunspots, and large active regions as solar maximum
approaches in 2025.

Tomorrow's picture: super space wind
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 August 2
The spiral galaxy is shown with many complex red filaments extending
out. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

M82: Galaxy with a Supergalactic Wind
NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & Copyright: Harshwardhan Pathak

Explanation: Why is the Cigar Galaxy billowing red smoke? M82, as this
starburst galaxy is also known, was stirred up by a recent pass near
large spiral galaxy M81. This doesn't fully explain the source of the
red-glowing outwardly expanding gas and dust, however. Evidence
indicates that this gas and dust is being driven out by the combined
emerging particle winds of many stars, together creating a galactic
superwind. The dust particles are thought to originate in M82's
interstellar medium and are actually similar in size to particles in
cigar smoke. The featured photographic mosaic highlights a specific
color of red light strongly emitted by ionized hydrogen gas, showing
detailed filaments of this gas and dust. The filaments extend for over
10,000 light years. The 12-million light-year distant Cigar Galaxy is
the brightest galaxy in the sky in infrared light and can be seen in
visible light with a small telescope towards the constellation of the
Great Bear (Ursa Major).

APOD in world languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (Beijing),
Chinese (Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Dutch, French,
German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Japanese, Montenegrin, Polish, Russian,
Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish, Taiwanese, Turkish, and Ukrainian
Tomorrow's picture: launch and landing
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
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& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 August 3

The Falcon and the Redstone
Image Credit & Copyright: Matt Haskell

Explanation: In a photo from the early hours of July 29 (UTC), a
Redstone rocket and Mercury capsule are on display at Cape Canaveral
Launch Complex 5. Beyond the Redstone, the 8 minute long exposure has
captured the arcing launch streak of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The
Falcon's heavy communications satellite payload, at a record setting 9
metric tons, is bound for geosynchronous orbit some 22,000 miles above
planet Earth. The historic launch of a Redstone rocket carried
astronaut Alan Shepard on a suborbital spaceflight in May 1961 to an
altitude of about 116 miles. Near the top of the frame, this Falcon
rocket's two reusable side boosters separate and execute brief entry
burns. They returned to land side by side at Canaveral's Landing Zone 1
and 2 in the distance.

Tomorrow's picture: moonrays
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
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& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 August 3

The Falcon and the Redstone
Image Credit & Copyright: Matt Haskell

Explanation: In a photo from the early hours of July 29 (UTC), a
Redstone rocket and Mercury capsule are on display at Cape Canaveral
Launch Complex 5. Beyond the Redstone, the 8 minute long exposure has
captured the arcing launch streak of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The
Falcon's heavy communications satellite payload, at a record setting 9
metric tons, is bound for geosynchronous orbit some 22,000 miles above
planet Earth. The historic launch of a Redstone rocket carried
astronaut Alan Shepard on a suborbital spaceflight in May 1961 to an
altitude of about 116 miles. Near the top of the frame, this Falcon
rocket's two reusable side boosters separate and execute brief entry
burns. They returned to land side by side at Canaveral's Landing Zone 1
and 2 in the distance.

Tomorrow's picture: moonrays
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 August 4

Moonrays of August
Image Credit & Copyright: Gianni Tumino

Explanation: A Full Moon rose as the Sun set on August 1. Near perigee,
the closest point in its almost moonthly orbit, the brighter than
average lunar disk illuminated night skies around planet Earth as the
second supermoon of 2023. Seen here above Ragusa, Sicily, cloud banks
cast diverging shadows through the supermoonlit skies, creating
dramatic lunar crepuscular rays. The next Full Moon in 2023 will also
shine on an August night. Rising as the Sun sets on August 30/31, this
second Full Moon in a month is known as a Blue Moon. Blue moons occur
only once every 2 or 3 years because lunar phases take almost a
calendar month (29.5 days) to go through a complete cycle. But August's
Blue Moon will also be near perigee, the third supermoon in 2023.

Tomorrow's picture: a robin's egg
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
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& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 August 5

NGC 1360: The Robin's Egg Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Dong Liang

Explanation: This pretty nebula lies some 1,500 light-years away, its
shape and color in this telescopic view reminiscent of a robin's egg.
The cosmic cloud spans about 3 light-years, nestled securely within the
boundaries of the southern constellation Fornax. Recognized as a
planetary nebula, egg-shaped NGC 1360 doesn't represent a beginning
though. Instead it corresponds to a brief and final phase in the
evolution of an aging star. In fact, visible at the center of the
nebula, the central star of NGC 1360 is known to be a binary star
system likely consisting of two evolved white dwarf stars, less massive
but much hotter than the Sun. Their intense and otherwise invisible
ultraviolet radiation has stripped away electrons from the atoms in
their mutually surrounding gaseous shroud. The predominant blue-green
hue of NGC 1360 seen here is the strong emission produced as electrons
recombine with doubly ionized oxygen atoms.

Tomorrow's picture: supernova remnant
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 August 6
A thick transparent ribbon of red gas runs from the lower left to the
upper right. A dark starfield with stars and galaxies surrounds the
bright red ribbon. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

SN 1006: A Supernova Ribbon from Hubble
Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgement: W.
Blair et al. (JHU)

Explanation: What created this unusual space ribbon? The answer: one of
the most violent explosions ever witnessed by ancient humans. Back in
the year 1006 AD, light reached Earth from a stellar explosion in the
constellation of the Wolf (Lupus), creating a "guest star" in the sky
that appeared brighter than Venus and lasted for over two years. The
supernova, now cataloged at SN 1006, occurred about 7,000 light years
away and has left a large remnant that continues to expand and fade
today. Pictured here is a small part of that expanding supernova
remnant dominated by a thin and outwardly moving shock front that heats
and ionizes surrounding ambient gas. The supernova remnant SN 1006 now
has a diameter of nearly 60 light years.

Tomorrow's picture: pelican stars
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 August 7
Mulitple filaments of dark brown run from top to bottom while a bright
orange dome with small pillars occurs on the bottom right. In the
background is a blue-glowing gas. Stars dot the frame. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

The Pelican Nebula in Gas, Dust, and Stars
Credit & Copyright: Abe Jones

Explanation: The Pelican Nebula is slowly being transformed. IC 5070
(the official designation) is divided from the larger North America
Nebula by a molecular cloud filled with dark dust. The Pelican,
however, receives much study because it is a particularly active mix of
star formation and evolving gas clouds. The featured picture was
produced in three specific colors -- light emitted by sulfur, hydrogen,
and oxygen -- that can help us to better understand these interactions.
The light from young energetic stars is slowly transforming the cold
gas to hot gas, with the advancing boundary between the two, known as
an ionization front, visible in bright orange on the right.
Particularly dense tentacles of cold gas remain. Millions of years from
now, the Pelican nebula, bounded by dark nebula LDN 935, might no
longer be known as the Pelican, as the balance and placement of stars
and gas will surely leave something that appears completely different.

Tomorrow's picture: Jupiter and the Moons
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Would be nice if we could DL these pics. I don't see the point of just announcing them.

... Computers all wait at the same speed!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/01/28 (Windows/32)
* Origin: Black Flag <ACiD Telnet HQ> blackflag.acid.org:23 (1:135/210)

Would be nice if we could DL these pics. I don't see the point of just announcing them.

You can download them in many ways. If you run a BBS you can connect the NASA file area and you will get these files shortly after they are hatched.

Nodes are free to contact me if they need a link to the NASA area and we can do that.

These files are also avialable on the BBS. The BBS is available at..

telnet://trmb.ca:2030

There is also an ITN mailer listening at the above address and you can request any file in the filebase by name.

Anyone is also free to browse and download files from the BBS FTP site at..

ftp://trmb.ca

That's an old style FTP site. Be sure to enter "binary" (without the quotes) from command prompt before downloading binary files like zip files.

The nasa files are in the fido/nasa directory.

Aside from that these files are available at any connected BBS and also the NASA website at where these file originate.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/

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* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Hi Alan...

Would be nice if we could DL these pics. I don't see the point of just announcing them.

You can download them in many ways. If you run a BBS you can connect the NASA file area and you will get these files shortly after they are hatched.
Nodes are free to contact me if they need a link to the NASA area and we can do that.
These files are also avialable on the BBS. The BBS is available at.. telnet://trmb.ca:2030
There is also an ITN mailer listening at the above address and you can request any file in the filebase by name.
Anyone is also free to browse and download files from the BBS FTP site at..
ftp://trmb.ca
That's an old style FTP site. Be sure to enter "binary" (without the quotes) from command prompt before downloading binary files like zip files.
The nasa files are in the fido/nasa directory.
Aside from that these files are available at any connected BBS and also the NASA website at where these file originate.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/

Maybe an occasional how-to for fetching copies of images would be good.

--
/|ug
https://t.me/aabolins

--- Want fido for iOS/MacOS/Android/Win/Linux? https://shrtco.de/tpJ9yV
* Origin: Fido by Telegram BBS from Stas Mishchenkov (2:460/256)

Maybe an occasional how-to for fetching copies of images would be good.

Can you give me an example of what a how-to might look like?

Should that how-to be added to the new file announcement?

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-6
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 August 8
Earth Moon, in crescent phase, is seen just above the image center.
Directly below is a bright spot surrounded by four other spots, all in
a row, which are all moons of Jupiter. Please see the explanation for
more detailed information.

Moon Meets Jupiter
Credit & Copyright: Jordi L. Coy

Explanation: What's that below the Moon? Jupiter -- and its largest
moons. Many skygazers across planet Earth enjoyed the close conjunction
of Earth's Moon passing nearly in front of Jupiter in mid-June. The
featured image is a single exposure of the event taken from Mor+|n de la
Frontera, Spain. The sunlit lunar crescent on the left is overexposed,
while the Moon's night side, on the right, is only faintly illuminated
by Earthshine. Lined up diagonally below the Moon, left to right, are
Jupiter's bright Galilean satellites: Callisto, Ganymede, Io (hard to
see as it is very near to Jupiter), and Europa. In fact, Callisto,
Ganymede, and Io are larger than Earth's Moon, while Europa is only
slightly smaller. NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno is currently orbiting
Jupiter and made a close pass near Io only a week ago. If you look up
in the night sky tonight, you will again see two of the brightest
objects angularly close together -- because tonight is another
Moon-Jupiter conjunction.

Tomorrow's picture: falling space dust
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
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Hello Alan Ianson!

** On Monday 07.08.23 - 13:34, Alan Ianson wrote to Aug:

Maybe an occasional how-to for fetching copies of images would be good.

Can you give me an example of what a how-to might look like?

You just want me to do all the work?!? :D

Actually, what you posted was pretty good, just streamline it
down to the essentials.

Should that how-to be added to the new file announcement?

An occassional post to the echo would be a fine reminder.
--
../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.57
* Origin: (2:221/1.58)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 August 9
Mulitple streaks cover a night sky filled with stars. An observtory
dome is visible in the foreground. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Meteor Shower: Perseids from Perseus
Credit & Copyright: Petr Hor+ílek / Institute of Physics in Opava

Explanation: This is a good week to see meteors. Comet dust will rain
down on planet Earth, streaking through dark skies during peak nights
of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower. The featured composite image was
taken during the 2018 Perseids from the Poloniny Dark Sky Park in
Slovakia. The dome of the observatory in the foreground is on the
grounds of Kolonica Observatory. Although the comet dust particles
travel parallel to each other, the resulting shower meteors clearly
seem to radiate from a single point on the sky in the eponymous
constellation Perseus. The radiant effect is due to perspective, as the
parallel tracks appear to converge at a distance, like train tracks.
The Perseid Meteor Shower is expected to reach its highest peak on
Saturday after midnight. Since a crescent Moon will rise only very late
that night, cloudless skies will be darker than usual, making a high
number of faint meteors potentially visible this year.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
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& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 August 10

Five Meters over Mars
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Ingenuity

Explanation: On mission sol 872 (Earth date August 3) Ingenuity snapped
this sharp image on its 54th flight above the surface of the Red
Planet. During the flight the Mars Helicopter hovered about 5 meters,
or just over 16 feet, above the Jezero crater floor. Tips of
Ingenuity's landing legs peek over the left and right edges in the
camera's field of view. Tracks visible near the upper right corner lead
to the Perseverance Mars Rover, seen looking on from a distance at the
top right edge of the frame. Planned as a brief "pop-up" flight,
Ingenuity's 54th flight lasted less than 25 seconds. It followed
Ingenuity's 53rd flight made on July 22 that resulted in an unscheduled
landing.

Tomorrow's picture: 255 hours
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
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& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 August 11

Messier 51 in 255 Hours
Image Credit & Copyright: The Deep Sky Collective - Carl Bj++rk,
Thomas B+ñhnck, Sebastian Donoso, Jake Gentillon, Antoine and Dalia
Grelin, Stephen Guberski, Richard Hall,
Tino Heuberger, Jason Jacks, Paul Kent, Brian Meyers, William Ostling,
Nicolas Puig, Tim Schaeffer, Felix Sch++fb+ñnker, Mikhail Vasilev

Explanation: An intriguing pair of interacting galaxies, M51 is the
51st entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog. Perhaps the original
spiral nebula, the large galaxy with whirlpool-like spiral structure
seen nearly face-on is also cataloged as NGC 5194. Its spiral arms and
dust lanes sweep in front of a companion galaxy (right), NGC 5195. Some
31 million light-years distant, within the boundaries of the
well-trained constellation Canes Venatici, M51 looks faint and fuzzy to
the eye in direct telescopic views. But this remarkably deep image
shows off stunning details of the galaxy pair's striking colors and
extensive tidal debris. A collaboration of astro-imagers using
telescopes on planet Earth combined over 10 days of exposure time to
create this definitive galaxy portrait of M51. The image includes 118
hours of narrowband data that also reveals a vast glowing cloud of
reddish ionized hydrogen gas discovered in the M51 system.

Tomorrow's picture: 26 squiggles
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 August 12

Ghirigori - Star Scribbles
Image Credit & Copyright: Paolo Palma

Explanation: It's fun to scribble on the canvas of the sky. You can use
a creative photographic technique to cause the light of point-like
stars to dance across a digital image by tapping lightly on the
telescope while making an exposure. The result will be a squiggly line
traced by the star (or two squiggles traced by binary stars) that can
reveal the star's color. Colorful lines, dubbed Ghirigori, made from
stars found in the northern sky constellations Bootes, Corona Borealis,
Ophiucus, and Coma Berenices, are captured in this artistic mosaic. The
25 stars creating the varied and colorful squiggles are identified
around the border. Of course, temperature determines the color of a
star. While whitish stars tend to be close to the Sun's temperature,
stars with bluer hues are hotter, and yellow and red colors are cooler
than the Sun.

Weekend Watch: Perseid Meteor Shower
Tomorrow's picture: a tip of the sombrero
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2023 August 13
A red-tinged ring of dust is seen nearly on edge. In the ring's center
and extending around the frame, blue gas and stars are shown. Please
see the explanation for more detailed information.

The Sombrero Galaxy in Infrared
Credit: R. Kennicutt (Steward Obs.) et al., SSC, JPL, Caltech, NASA

Explanation: This floating ring is the size of a galaxy. In fact, it is
a galaxy -- or at least part of one: the photogenic Sombrero Galaxy,
one of the largest galaxies in the nearby Virgo Cluster of Galaxies.
The dark band of dust that obscures the mid-section of the Sombrero
Galaxy in optical light actually glows brightly in infrared light. The
featured image, digitally sharpened, shows the infrared glow, recently
recorded by the orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope, superposed in
false-color on an existing image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope
in visible light. The Sombrero Galaxy, also known as M104, spans about
50,000 light years across and lies 28 million light years away. M104
can be seen with a small telescope in the direction of the
constellation Virgo.

Tomorrow's picture: ring strings
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2023 August 14
An oval nebula is seen in false color. The nebula appears blue in the
center, orange and red around the rim, and orange and purple filaments
extending to the edge of the frame. Stars are seen throughout the
frame. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

The Ring Nebula from Webb
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, JWST; Processing: Zi Yang Kong

Explanation: The Ring Nebula (M57), is more complicated than it appears
through a small telescope. The easily visible central ring is about one
light-year across, but this remarkable exposure by the James Webb Space
Telescope explores this popular nebula with a deep exposure in infrared
light. Strings of gas, like eyelashes around a cosmic eye, become
evident around the Ring in this digitally enhanced featured image in
assigned colors. These long filaments may be caused by shadowing of
knots of dense gas in the ring from energetic light emitted within. The
Ring Nebula is an elongated planetary nebula, a type of gas cloud
created when a Sun-like star evolves to throw off its outer atmosphere
to become a white dwarf star. The central oval in the Ring Nebula lies
about 2,500 light-years away toward the musical constellation Lyra.

Tomorrow's picture: triple iced sky
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 August 15
A body of water is seen in front of a night sky. The water reflects the
sky. In the sky, on the right are green aurora. In the center is an
orange plume. On the right are three while plumes. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

A Triply Glowing Night Sky over Iceland
Credit & Copyright: Wioleta Gorecka; Text: Natalia Lewandowska (SUNY
Oswego)

Explanation: The Sun is not the quiet place it seems. It expels an
unsteady stream of energetic electrons and protons known as the solar
wind. These charged particles deform the Earth's magnetosphere, change
paths, and collide with atoms in Earth's atmosphere, causing the
generation of light in auroras like that visible in green in the image
left. Earth itself is also geologically active and covered with
volcanoes. For example, Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland, seen
emitting hot gas in orange near the image center. Iceland is one of the
most geologically active places on Earth. On the far right is the
Svartsengi geothermal power plant which creates the famous human-made
Blue Lagoon, shown emitting white gas plumes. The featured composition
therefore highlights three different sky phenomena, including both
natural and human-made phenomena.

Tomorrow's picture: a cosmic embrace
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 August 16

Arp 93: A Cosmic Embrace
Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby, Observatorio El Sauce

Explanation: Locked in a cosmic embrace, two large galaxies are merging
at the center of this sharp telescopic field of view. The interacting
system cataloged as Arp 93 is some 200 million light-years distant
toward the constellation Aquarius in planet Earth's sky. Individually
the galaxies are identified as NGC 7285 (right) and NGC 7284. Their
bright cores are still separated by about 20,000 light-years or so, but
a massive tidal stream, a result of their ongoing gravitational
interaction, extends over 200,000 light-years toward the bottom of the
frame. Interacting galaxies do look peculiar, but are now understood to
be common in the Universe. In fact, closer to home, the large spiral
Andromeda Galaxy is known to be approaching the Milky Way. Arp 93 may
well present an analog of their distant future cosmic embrace.

Tomorrow's picture: a cosmic zoo
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2023 August 17

A Cosmic Zoo in Cepheus
Image Credit & Copyright: Yann Sainty

Explanation: Sprawling emission nebulae IC 1396 and Sh2-129 mix glowing
interstellar gas and dark dust clouds in this nearly 12 degree wide
field of view toward the northern constellation Cepheus the King.
Energized by its central star IC 1396 (left), is hundreds of
light-years across and some 3,000 light-years distant. The nebula's
intriguing dark shapes include a winding dark cloud popularly known as
the Elephant's Trunk below and right of center. Tens of light-years
long, it holds the raw material for star formation and is known to hide
protostars within. Located a similar distance from planet Earth, the
bright knots and swept back ridges of emission of Sh2-129 on the right
suggest its popular name, the Flying Bat Nebula. Within the Flying Bat,
the most recently recognized addition to this royal cosmic zoo is the
faint bluish emission from Ou4, the Giant Squid Nebula. Near the lower
right edge of the frame, the suggestive dark marking on the sky
cataloged as Barnard 150 is also known as the dark Seahorse Nebula.

Notable submissions to APOD: Perseids Meteor Shower 2023
Tomorrow's picture: northern Pluto
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2023 August 18

Northern Pluto
Image Credit: NASA, Johns Hopkins Univ./APL, Southwest Research
Institute

Explanation: Gaze across the frozen canyons of northern Pluto in this
contrast enhanced color scene. The image data used to construct it was
acquired in July 2015 by the New Horizons spacecraft as it made the
first reconnaissance flight through the remote Pluto system six billion
kilometers from the Sun. Now known as Lowell Regio, the region was
named for Percival Lowell, founder of the Lowell Observatory. Also
famous for his speculation that there were canals on Mars, Lowell
started the search that ultimately led to Pluto's discovery in 1930 by
Clyde Tombaugh. In this frame Pluto's North Pole is above and left of
center. The pale bluish floor of the broad canyon on the left is about
70 kilometers (45 miles) wide, running vertically toward the south.
Higher elevations take on a yellowish hue. New Horizon's measurements
were used to determine that in addition to nitrogen ice, methane ice is
abundant across Lowell Regio. So far, Pluto is the only Solar System
world named by an 11-year-old girl.

Tomorrow's picture: ringed ice giant
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 August 19

Ringed Ice Giant Neptune
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, NIRCam

Explanation: Ringed ice giant Neptune lies near the center of this
sharp near-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope. The dim
and distant world is the farthest planet from the Sun, about 30 times
farther away than planet Earth. But in the stunning Webb view, the
planet's dark and ghostly appearance is due to atmospheric methane that
absorbs infrared light. High altitude clouds that reach above most of
Neptune's absorbing methane easily stand out in the image though.
Coated with frozen nitrogen, Neptune's largest moon Triton is brighter
than Neptune in reflected sunlight, seen at the upper left sporting the
Webb telescope's characteristic diffraction spikes. Including Triton,
seven of Neptune's 14 known moons can be identified in the field of
view. Neptune's faint rings are striking in this space-based planetary
portrait. Details of the complex ring system are seen here for the
first time since Neptune was visited by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in
August 1989.

Tomorrow's picture: long cloud
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2023 August 20
Building in a city are pictured. Above the buildings appears a long
dark cylindrical cloud that goes to the horizon. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

A Roll Cloud Over Wisconsin
Credit: Megan Hanrahan (Pierre cb), Wikipedia

Explanation: What kind of cloud is this? A type of arcus cloud called a
roll cloud. These rare long clouds may form near advancing cold fronts.
In particular, a downdraft from an advancing storm front can cause
moist warm air to rise, cool below its dew point, and so form a cloud.
When this happens uniformly along an extended front, a roll cloud may
form. Roll clouds may actually have air circulating along the long
horizontal axis of the cloud. A roll cloud is not thought to be able to
morph into a tornado. Unlike a similar shelf cloud, a roll cloud is
completely detached from their parent cumulonimbus cloud. Pictured
here, a roll cloud extends far into the distance as a storm approaches
in 2007 in Racine, Wisconsin, USA.

Tomorrow's picture: comet unknown
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2023 August 21
A dark starfield is shown with a dim green blur in the middle. Faintly
extending from the green blur is a tail toward the left. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Introducing Comet Nishimura
Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett

Explanation: Will Comet Nishimura become visible to the unaided eye?
Given the unpredictability of comets, no one can say for sure, but it
currently seems like a good bet. The comet was discovered only ten days
ago by Hideo Nishimura during 30-second exposures with a standard
digital camera. Since then, C/2023 P1 Nishimura has increased in
brightness and its path across the inner Solar System determined. As
the comet dives toward the Sun, it will surely continue to intensify
and possibly become a naked-eye object in early September. A problem is
that the comet will also be angularly near the Sun, so it will only be
possible to see it near sunset or sunrise. The comet will get so close
to the Sun -- inside the orbit of planet Mercury -- that its nucleus
may break up. Pictured, Comet Nishimura was imaged three days ago from
June Lake, California, USA while sporting a green coma and a thin tail.

Tomorrow's picture: nebula unknown
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2023 August 22
A diffuse nebula is seen against a dark starfield. The center of the
nebula is blue and it is surrounded by a red glow. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

The Pistachio Nebula
Credit & Copyright: Bray Falls & Chester Hall-Fernandez

Explanation: This nebula had never been noted before. Newly discovered
nebulas are usually angularly small and found by professionals using
large telescopes. In contrast, the Pistachio Nebula was discovered by
dedicated amateurs and, although faint, is nearly the size of the full
Moon. In modern times, amateurs with even small telescopes can create
long exposures over sky areas much larger than most professional
telescopes can see. They can therefore discover both previously unknown
areas of extended emission around known objects, as well as entirely
unknown objects, like nebulas. The pictured Pistachio Nebula is shown
in oxygen emission (blue) and hydrogen emission (red). The nature of
the hot central star is currently unknown, and the nebula might be
labeled a planetary nebula if it turns out to be a white dwarf star.
The featured image is a composite of over 70 hours of exposure taken in
early June under the dark skies of Namibia.

Tomorrow's picture: comet rain
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2023 August 23
A color meteor streak is seen above the Andromeda spiral galaxy. Please
see the explanation for more detailed information.

The Meteor and the Galaxy
Credit & Copyright: Jose Pedrero

Explanation: It came from outer space. It -- in this case a sand-sized
bit of a comet nucleus -- was likely ejected many years ago from
Sun-orbiting Comet Swift-Tuttle, but then continued to orbit the Sun
alone. When the Earth crossed through this orbit, the piece of comet
debris impacted the atmosphere of our fair planet and was seen as a
meteor. This meteor deteriorated, causing gases to be emitted that
glowed in colors emitted by its component elements. The featured image
was taken last week from Castilla La Mancha, Spain, during the peak
night of the Perseids meteor shower. The picturesque meteor streak
happened to appear in the only one of 50 frames that also included the
Andromeda galaxy. Stars dot the frame, each much further away than the
meteor. Compared to the stars, the Andromeda galaxy (M31) is, again,
much further away.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
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2023 August 24

Meteors along the Milky Way
Image Credit & Copyright: Ali Hosseini Nezhad

Explanation: Under dark and mostly moonless night skies, many denizens
of planet Earth were able to watch this year's Perseid meteor shower.
Seen from a grassy hillside from Shiraz, Iran these Perseid meteors
streak along the northern summer Milky Way before dawn on Sunday,
August 13. Frames used to construct the composited image were captured
near the active annual meteor shower's peak between 02:00 AM and 04:30
AM local time. Not in this night skyscape, the shower's radiant in the
heroic constellation Perseus is far above the camera's field of view.
But fans of northern summer nights can still spot a familiar asterism.
Formed by bright stars Deneb, Vega, and Altair, the Summer Triangle
spans the luminous band of the Milky Way.

Tomorrow's picture: seasons of Saturn
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2023 August 25

A Season of Saturn
Image Credit & Copyright: Andy Casely

Explanation: Ringed planet Saturn will be at its 2023 opposition,
opposite the Sun in Earth's skies, on August 27. While that puts the
sixth planet from the Sun at its brightest and well-placed for viewing,
its beautiful ring system isn't visible to the unaided eye. Still, this
sequence of telescopic images taken a year apart over the last six
years follows both Saturn and rings as seen from inner planet Earth.
The gas giant's ring plane tilts from most open in 2018 to approaching
edge-on in 2023 (top to bottom). That's summer to nearly the autumn
equinox for Saturn's northern hemisphere. In the sharp planetary
portraits, Saturn's northern hexagon and a large storm system are
clearly visible in 2018. In 2023, ice moon Tethys is transiting,
casting its shadow across southern hemisphere cloud bands, while
Saturn's cold blue south pole is emerging from almost a decade of
winter darkness.

Tomorrow's picture: phases of Venus
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 August 26

Crescents of Venus
Image Credit & Copyright: Roberto Ortu

Explanation: Just as the Moon goes through phases, Venus' visible
sunlit hemisphere waxes and wanes. This sequence of telescopic images
illustrates the steady changes for Venus during its recent 2023
apparition as our evening star. Gliding along its interior orbit
between Earth and Sun, Venus grows larger during that period because it
is approaching planet Earth. Its crescent narrows though, as the inner
planet swings closer to our line-of-sight to the Sun. Closest to the
Earth-Sun line but passing about 8 degrees south of the Sun, on August
13 Venus reached its (non-judgmental) inferior conjunction. And now
Venus shines above the eastern horizon in predawn skies, completing its
transition to planet Earth's morning star. On August 21, NASA's Parker
Solar Probe completed its sixth gravity assist flyby of Venus, using
the encounter to maneuver the probe toward its closest approach yet to
the Sun.

Tomorrow's picture: Three Galaxies and a Comet
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2023 August 27
A rocky landscape is capped by a dark night sky. In the sky, the band
of our Milky Way Galaxy runs along the right, while two fuzzy patches
that are the LMC and SMC are visible on the right. Thousands of stars
are resolved all over the frame. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Three Galaxies and a Comet
Credit & Copyright: Miloslav Druckmuller (Brno University of
Technology)

Explanation: Diffuse starlight and dark nebulae along the southern
Milky Way arc over the horizon and sprawl diagonally through this
gorgeous nightscape. The breath-taking mosaic spans a wide 100 degrees,
with the rugged terrain of the Patagonia, Argentina region in the
foreground. Along with the insider's view of our own galaxy, the image
features our outside perspective on two irregular satellite galaxies -
the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The scene also captures the
broad tail and bright coma of Comet McNaught, the Great Comet of 2007.

Tomorrow's picture: game stars
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 August 28
A nebula that appears blue in the middle and is surrounded by
red-glowing gas is featured. Dramatic lanes of dark dust cut through
the nebula's left side. A group of stars is visible toward the nebula's
center. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Star Formation in the Pacman Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Craig Stocks

Explanation: Look through the cosmic cloud cataloged as NGC 281 and you
might miss the stars of open cluster IC 1590. Formed within the nebula,
that cluster's young, massive stars ultimately power the pervasive
nebular glow. The eye-catching shapes looming in the featured portrait
of NGC 281 are sculpted dusty columns and dense Bok globules seen in
silhouette, eroded by intense, energetic winds and radiation from the
hot cluster stars. If they survive long enough, the dusty structures
could also be sites of future star formation. Playfully called the
Pacman Nebula because of its overall shape, NGC 281 is about 10,000
light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. This sharp composite
image was made through narrow-band filters. It combines emission from
the nebula's hydrogen and oxygen atoms to synthesize red, green, and
blue colors. The scene spans well over 80 light-years at the estimated
distance of NGC 281.

Tomorrow's picture: spiral webb
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 August 29
Spiral galaxy M66 is shown in infrared light as seen by the orbiting
James Webb Space Telescope. A reddish-brown center is seen in the
galaxy with a blue-colored spiral arms surrounding it. A close
inspection will reveal that these spiral arms are not symmetrical.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Unusual Spiral Galaxy M66 from Webb
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, JWST; Processing: Brian Tomlinson

Explanation: Why isn't spiral galaxy M66 symmetric? Usually, density
waves of gas, dust, and newly formed stars circle a spiral galaxy's
center and create a nearly symmetric galaxy. The differences between
M66's spiral arms and the apparent displacement of its nucleus are all
likely caused by previous close interactions and the tidal
gravitational pulls of nearby galaxy neighbors M65 and NGC 3628. The
galaxy, featured here in infrared light taken by the James Webb Space
Telescope, spans about 100,000 light years, lies about 35 million light
years distant, and is the largest galaxy in a group known as the Leo
Triplet. Like many spiral galaxies, the long and intricate dust lanes
of M66 are seen intertwined with the bright stars and intergalactic
dust that follow the spiral arms.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 August 30

Full Moons of August
Image Credit & Copyright: Gianni Tumino

Explanation: Near perigee, the closest point in its almost moonthly
orbit, a Full Moon rose as the Sun set on August 1. Its brighter than
average lunar disk was captured in this dramatic moonrise sequence over
dense cloud banks along the eastern horizon from Ragusa, Sicily.
Illuminating night skies around planet Earth it was the second
supermoon of 2023. Yet again near perigee, the third supermoon of 2023
will also shine on an August night. Rising as the Sun sets tonight this
second Full Moon in August will be known to some as a Blue Moon, even
though scattered sunlight gives the lunar disk a reddened hue. Defined
as the second full moon in a calendar month, blue moons occur only once
every 2 or 3 years. That's because lunar phases take 29.5 days, almost
a calendar month, to go through a complete cycle. Tonight an August
Blue Moon will find itself beside bright planet Saturn.

Tomorrow's picture: the Crew-7 nebula
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 August 31

The Crew-7 Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Seeley

Explanation: Not the James Webb Space Telescope's latest view of a
distant galactic nebula, this illuminated cloud of gas and dust dazzled
early morning spacecoast skygazers on August 26. The snapshot was taken
about 2 minutes after the launch of of a Falcon 9 rocket on the SpaceX
Crew-7 mission, the seventh commercial crew rotation mission for the
International Space Station. It captures drifting plumes and exhaust
from the separated first and second stage illuminated against the still
dark skies. Near the center of the image, within the ragged blueish
ring, are two bright points of light. The lower one is the second stage
of the rocket carrying 4 humans to space in a Crew Dragon spacecraft.
The bright point above is the Falcon 9 first stage booster orienting
itself for the trip back to Landing Zone-1 at Cape Canaveral, planet
Earth.

Tomorrow's picture: a great little patch
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 September 1

The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules
Image Credit & Copyright: Serge Brunier, Jean-Fran+ºois Bax, David
Vernet OCA/C2PU

Explanation: In 1716, English astronomer Edmond Halley noted, "This is
but a little Patch, but it shows itself to the naked Eye, when the Sky
is serene and the Moon absent." Of course, M13 is now less modestly
recognized as the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, one of the
brightest globular star clusters in the northern sky. Sharp telescopic
views like this one reveal the spectacular cluster's hundreds of
thousands of stars. At a distance of 25,000 light-years, the cluster
stars crowd into a region 150 light-years in diameter. Approaching the
cluster core, upwards of 100 stars could be contained in a cube just 3
light-years on a side. For comparison, the closest star to the Sun is
over 4 light-years away. The remarkable range of brightness recorded in
this image follows stars into the dense cluster core.

Tomorrow's picture: wisdom in a flower
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 September 2

NGC 7023: The Iris Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Lorand Fenyes

Explanation: These cosmic clouds have blossomed 1,300 light-years away
in the fertile starfields of the constellation Cepheus. Called the Iris
Nebula, NGC 7023 is not the only nebula to evoke the imagery of
flowers. Still, this deep telescopic image shows off the Iris Nebula's
range of colors and symmetries embedded in surrounding fields of
interstellar dust. Within the Iris itself, dusty nebular material
surrounds a hot, young star. The dominant color of the brighter
reflection nebula is blue, characteristic of dust grains reflecting
starlight. Central filaments of the reflection nebula glow with a faint
reddish photoluminescence as some dust grains effectively convert the
star's invisible ultraviolet radiation to visible red light. Infrared
observations indicate that this nebula contains complex carbon
molecules known as PAHs. The dusty blue petals of the Iris Nebula span
about six light-years.

Tomorrow's picture: a cosmic souffle
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 September 3
A fuzzy comet is shown in gray on the upper left against a dark space
background. The comet's tail extends diagnonally to the lower right.
The main part of the comet is seen broken up into many trailing pieces.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 Fragments
Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Weaver (JHU / APL), M. Mutchler and Z. Levay
(STScI)

Explanation: Periodic comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 has broken up at
least twice. A cosmic souffle of ice and dust left over from the early
solar system, this comet was first seen to split into several large
pieces during the close-in part of its orbit in 1995. However, in the
2006 passage, it disintegrated into dozens of fragments that stretched
several degrees across the sky. Since comets are relatively fragile,
stresses from heat, gravity and outgassing, for example, could be
responsible for their tendency to break up in such a spectacular
fashion when they near the hot Sun. The Hubble Space Telescope
recorded, in 2006, the featured sharp view of prolific Fragment B,
itself trailing a multitude of smaller pieces, each with its own
cometary coma and tail. The picture spans over 3,000 kilometers at the
comet's distance of 32 million kilometers from planet Earth.

Tomorrow's picture: star bursts
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 September 4
Red glowing gas is seen before a dark starfield. On the upper right is
a complicated filamentary nebula in blue and red. On the lower left is
a simple circular nebula in blue. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Cygnus: Bubble and Crescent
Credit & Copyright: Abdullah Al-Harbi

Explanation: As stars die, they create clouds. Two stellar death clouds
of gas and dust can be found toward the high-flying constellation of
the Swan (Cygnus) as they drift through rich star fields in the plane
of our Milky Way Galaxy. Caught here within the telescopic field of
view are the Soap Bubble (lower left) and the Crescent Nebula (upper
right). Both were formed at the final phase in the life of a star. Also
known as NGC 6888, the Crescent Nebula was shaped as its bright,
central massive Wolf-Rayet star, WR 136, shed its outer envelope in a
strong stellar wind. Burning through fuel at a prodigious rate, WR 136
is near the end of a short life that should finish in a spectacular
supernova explosion. Discovered in 2013, the Soap Bubble Nebula is
likely a planetary nebula, the final shroud of a lower mass,
long-lived, Sun-like star destined to become a slowly cooling white
dwarf. Both stellar nebulas are about 5,000 light-years distant, with
the larger Crescent Nebula spanning about 25 light-years across. Within
a few million years, both will likely have dispersed.

Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?
(post 1995)
Tomorrow's picture: blue supermoon
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 September 5
A large Moon is seen behind a historic stone structure. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Blue Supermoon Beyond Syracuse
Credit & Copyright: Kevin Saragozza

Explanation: The last full moon was doubly unusual. First of all, it
was a blue moon. A modern definition of a blue moon is a second full
moon to occur during one calendar month. Since there are 13 full moons
in 2023, one month has to have two -- and that month was August. The
first full moon was on August 1 and named a Sturgeon Moon. The second
reason that the last full moon was unusual was because it was a
supermoon. A modern definition of supermoon is a moon that reaches its
full phase when it is relatively close to Earth -- and so appears a bit
larger and brighter than average. Pictured, the blue supermoon of 2023
was imaged hovering far behind a historic castle and lighthouse in
Syracuse, Sicily, Italy.

Gallery: Selected August 2023 supermoon images submitted to APOD
Tomorrow's picture: sky in motion
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 September 6

HESS Telescopes Explore the High-Energy Sky
Credit & Copyright: Video Credit & Copyright: Jeff Dai (TWAN), H.E.S.S.
Collaboration;
Music: Ibaotu catalog number 1044988 (Used with permission)

Explanation: They may look like modern mechanical dinosaurs, but they
are enormous swiveling eyes that watch the sky. The High Energy
Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) Observatory is composed of four 12-meter
reflecting-mirror telescopes surrounding a larger telescope housing a
28-meter mirror. They are designed to detect strange flickers of blue
light -- Cherenkov radiation --emitted when charged particles move
slightly faster than the speed of light in air. This light is emitted
when a gamma ray from a distant source strikes a molecule in Earth's
atmosphere and starts a charged-particle shower. H.E.S.S. is sensitive
to some of the highest energy photons (TeV) crossing the universe.
Operating since 2003 in Namibia, H.E.S.S. has searched for dark matter
and has discovered over 50 sources emitting high energy radiation
including supernova remnants and the centers of galaxies that contain
supermassive black holes. Pictured in June, H.E.S.S. telescopes swivel
and stare in time-lapse sequences shot in front of our Milky Way Galaxy
and the Magellanic Clouds -- as the occasional Earth-orbiting satellite
zips by.

Surf the Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: large star cloud
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 September 7

The Large Cloud of Magellan
Image Credit & Copyright: Chris Willocks

Explanation: The 16th century Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan
and his crew had plenty of time to study the southern sky during the
first circumnavigation of planet Earth. As a result, two fuzzy
cloud-like objects easily visible to southern hemisphere skygazers are
known as the Clouds of Magellan, now understood to be satellite
galaxies of our much larger, spiral Milky Way galaxy. About 160,000
light-years distant in the constellation Dorado, the Large Magellanic
Cloud is seen in this sharp galaxy portrait. Spanning about 15,000
light-years or so, it is the most massive of the Milky Way's satellite
galaxies and is the home of the closest supernova in modern times, SN
1987A. The prominent patch above center is 30 Doradus, also known as
the magnificent Tarantula Nebula, a giant star-forming region about
1,000 light-years across.

Tomorrow's picture: large star factory
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 September 8

Star Factory Messier 17
Image Credit & Copyright: Kim Quick, Terry Hancock, and Tom Masterson
(Grand Mesa Observatory)

Explanation: Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, the star factory
known as Messier 17 lies some 5,500 light-years away in the nebula-rich
constellation Sagittarius. At that distance, this 1/3 degree wide field
of view spans over 30 light-years. The sharp composite, color image
highlights faint details of the region's gas and dust clouds against a
backdrop of central Milky Way stars. Stellar winds and energetic light
from hot, massive stars formed from M17's stock of cosmic gas and dust
have slowly carved away at the remaining interstellar material,
producing the cavernous appearance and undulating shapes. M17 is also
known as the Omega Nebula or the Swan Nebula.

Tomorrow's picture: large galaxy cloud
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 September 9
A comet is shown with its green coma on the bottom right and a long and
structured ion tail flowing diagonally across the image toward the top
left. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Comet Nishimura Grows
Credit & Copyright: Peter Kennett

Explanation: Comet Nishimura is growing. More precisely, the tails
C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) are growing as it nears the Sun. Discovered only
last month, the comet is already near naked eye brightness as it now
moves inside the Earth's orbit. The comet will be nearest the Earth
next week, but nearest the Sun the week after -- on September 17.
Speculation holds that expelled ice and dust from Comet Nishimura's
last visit to the inner Solar System may have created the Sigma Hydrids
meteor shower which peaks yearly in December. If so, then this meteor
shower may become more active, refreshed with new comet debris.
Pictured, Comet Nishimura was captured from Edgewood, New Mexico, USA
four nights ago, showing a long ion tail structured by interactions
with the Sun's wind. Look for this comet near your eastern horizon just
before sunrise for the next few mornings, but very near your western
horizon just after sunset next week -- as its coma continues to
brighten and its tails continue to grow.

Gallery: Selected Comet Nishimura images submitted to APOD
Tomorrow's picture: person, moon, sun
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 September 10
A person is seen standing at the top of a ridge. The person appears as
a silhouette onto the central dark region of an annular solar eclipse.
The annular solar eclipse is a bright ring with a large dark hole in
the middle. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

An Annular Solar Eclipse over New Mexico
Credit & Copyright: Colleen Pinski

Explanation: What is this person doing? In 2012, an annular eclipse of
the Sun was visible over a narrow path that crossed the northern
Pacific Ocean and several western US states. In an annular solar
eclipse, the Moon is too far from the Earth to block out the entire
Sun, leaving the Sun peeking out over the Moon's disk in a ring of
fire. To capture this unusual solar event, an industrious photographer
drove from Arizona to New Mexico to find just the right vista. After
setting up and just as the eclipsed Sun was setting over a ridge about
0.5 kilometers away, a person unknowingly walked right into the shot.
Although grateful for the unexpected human element, the photographer
never learned the identity of the silhouetted interloper. It appears
likely that the person is holding a circular device that would enable
them to get their own view of the eclipse. The shot was taken at sunset
on 2012 May 20 at 7:36 pm local time from a park near Albuquerque. Next
month, on October 14, a different narrow swath across North and South
America will be exposed to a different annular solar eclipse, if the
sky is clear. Simultaneously, cloud-free observers almost anywhere on
either continent will be able to see a partial solar eclipse.

Tomorrow's picture: active comet
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 September 11
A scenic and hilly landscape is shown just before sunrise. On the left
is Comet Nishimura near the horizon with a long tail fading off toward
the top of the frame. On the right is a bright spot that is Venus. The
sunrise sky is dark blue at the top but morphs into tan at the horizon,
while the foreground hills are green. Please see the explanation for
more detailed information.

Beautiful Comet Nishimura
Credit & Copyright: Petr Hor+ílek / Institute of Physics in Opava

Explanation: This scene would be beautiful even without the comet. By
itself, the sunrise sky is an elegant deep blue on high, with faint
white stars peeking through, while near the horizon is a pleasing tan.
By itself, the foreground hills of eastern Slovakia are appealingly
green, with the Zad+êa hura and Ve-'k+í hora hills in the distance, and
with the lights of small towns along the way. Venus, by itself on the
right, appears unusually exquisite, surrounded by a colorful
atmospheric corona. But what attracts the eye most is the comet. On the
left, in this composite image taken just before dawn yesterday morning,
is Comet Nishimura. On recent mornings around the globe, its bright
coma and long ion tail make many a morning panoramic photo unusually
beautiful. Tomorrow, C/2023 P1 (Nishimura) will pass its nearest to the
Earth for about the next 434 years.

Tomorrow's picture: galaxies galore
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 September 12

Galaxy Cluster Abell 370 and Beyond
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Jennifer Lotz and the HFF Team (STScI)

Explanation: Some 4 billion light-years away, massive galaxy cluster
Abell 370 is captured in this sharp Hubble Space Telescope snapshot.
The cluster of galaxies only appears to be dominated by two giant
elliptical galaxies and infested with faint arcs. In reality, the
fainter, scattered bluish arcs, along with the dramatic dragon arc
below and left of center, are images of galaxies that lie far beyond
Abell 370. About twice as distant, their otherwise undetected light is
magnified and distorted by the cluster's enormous gravitational mass,
overwhelmingly dominated by unseen dark matter. Providing a tantalizing
glimpse of galaxies in the early universe, the effect is known as
gravitational lensing. A consequence of warped spacetime, lensing was
predicted by Einstein almost a century ago. Far beyond the spiky
foreground Milky Way star at lower right, Abell 370 is seen toward the
constellation Cetus, the Sea Monster. It was the last of six galaxy
clusters imaged in the Frontier Fields project.

Tomorrow's picture: partly hidden
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 September 13
A galaxy with blue spiral arms is seen in the image center in the midst
of numerous foreground stars. This galaxy is surrounded by a white
envelope, which was found to be hydrogen gas. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

NGC 4632: Galaxy with a Hidden Polar Ring
Credit: Jayanne English (U. Manitoba), Nathan Deg (Queen's University)
& WALLABY Survey, CSIRO/ASKAP, NAOJ/Subaru Telescope; Text: Jayanne
English (U. Manitoba)

Explanation: Galaxy NGC 4632 hides a secret from optical telescopes. It
is surrounded by a ring of cool hydrogen gas orbiting at 90 degrees to
its spiral disk. Such polar ring galaxies have previously been
discovered using starlight. However, NGC 4632 is among the first in
which a radio telescope survey revealed a polar ring. The featured
composite image combines this gas ring, observed with the highly
sensitive ASKAP telescope, with optical data from the Subaru telescope.
Using virtual reality, astronomers separated out the gas in the main
disk of the galaxy from the ring, and the subtle color gradient traces
its orbital motion. Why do polar rings exist? They could be material
pulled from one galaxy as it gravitationally interacts with a
companion. Or hydrogen gas flows along the filaments of the cosmic web
and accretes into a ring around a galaxy, some of which gravitationally
contracts into stars.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 September 14

NGC 7331 and Beyond
Image Credit & Copyright: Ian Gorenstein

Explanation: Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 7331 is often touted as
an analog to our own Milky Way. About 50 million light-years distant in
the northern constellation Pegasus, NGC 7331 was recognized early on as
a spiral nebula and is actually one of the brighter galaxies not
included in Charles Messier's famous 18th century catalog. Since the
galaxy's disk is inclined to our line-of-sight, long telescopic
exposures often result in images that evokes a strong sense of depth.
The effect is further enhanced in this sharp image by galaxies that lie
beyond the gorgeous island universe. The most prominent background
galaxies are about one tenth the apparent size of NGC 7331 and so lie
roughly ten times farther away. Their close alignment on the sky with
NGC 7331 occurs just by chance. Lingering above the plane of the Milky
Way, this striking visual grouping of galaxies is known to some as the
Deer Lick Group.

Tomorrow's picture: good morning moon
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 September 15

Venus, Moon, and the Smoking Mountain
Image Credit & Copyright: Luis Miguel Meade Rodr+¡guez

Explanation: Venus has returned as a brilliant morning star. From a
window seat on a flight to Mexico City, the bright celestial beacon was
captured just before sunrise in this astronomical snapshot, taken on
September 12. Venus, at the upper right, shared the early predawn skies
with an old crescent Moon. Seen from this stratospheric perspective,
both mountain peaks and clouds appear in silhouette along a glowing
eastern horizon. The dramatic, long, low cloud bank was created by
venting from planet Earth's active volcano Popocat+¬petl.

Tomorrow's picture: Fire over Ice
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2023 September 16

Fireball over Iceland
Image Credit & Copyright: Jennifer Franklin

Explanation: On September 12, from a location just south of the Arctic
Circle, stones of Iceland's modern Arctic Henge point skyward in this
startling scene. Entertaining an intrepid group of aurora hunters
during a geomagnetic storm, alluring northern lights dance across the
darkened sky when a stunning fireball meteor explodes. Awestruck, the
camera-equipped skygazers captured video and still images of the boreal
bolide, at its peak about as bright as a full moon. Though quickly
fading from view, the fireball left a lingering visible trail or
persistent train. The wraith-like trail was seen for minutes wafting in
the upper atmosphere at altitudes of 60 to 90 kilometers along with the
auroral glow.

Tomorrow's picture: Magnified Moon Mountains
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 September 18
A lone tree is seen on the right of a dark grassy field. Above and on
the right, a bright red filamentary glow is seen in the sky. The
filaments of this glow may seem similar to the branches of the tree.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

The Red Sprite and the Tree
Credit & Copyright: Maxime Villaeys

Explanation: The sprite and tree could hardly be more different. To
start, the red sprite is an unusual form of lightning, while the tree
is a common plant. The sprite is far away -- high in Earth's
atmosphere, while the tree is nearby -- only about a football field
away. The sprite is fast -- electrons streaming up and down at near
light's speed, while the tree is slow -- wood anchored to the ground.
The sprite is bright -- lighting up the sky, while the tree is dim --
shining mostly by reflected light. The sprite was fleeting -- lasting
only a small fraction of a second, while the tree is durable -- living
now for many years. Both however, when captured together, appear oddly
similar in this featured composite image captured early this month in
France as a thunderstorm passed over mountains of the Atlantic
Pyrenees.

Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?
(post 1995)
Tomorrow's picture: star jets from webb
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 September 19
Two jets are seen in red and blue moving out from a central object
shroueded by a diffuse dark brown. The rest of the frame is dark but
with an few bright stars. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

HH 211: Jets from a Forming Star
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Webb; Processing: Tom Ray (DIAS Dublin)

Explanation: Do stars always create jets as they form? No one is sure.
As a gas cloud gravitationally contracts, it forms a disk that can spin
too fast to continue contracting into a protostar. Theorists
hypothesize that this spin can be reduced by expelling jets. This
speculation coincides with known Herbig-Haro (HH) objects, young
stellar objects seen to emit jets -- sometimes in spectacular fashion.
Pictured is Herbig-Haro 211, a young star in formation recently imaged
by the Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in infrared light and in great
detail. Along with the two narrow beams of particles, red shock waves
can be seen as the outflows impact existing interstellar gas. The jets
of HH 221 will likely change shape as they brighten and fade over the
next 100,000 years, as research into the details of star formation
continues.

Tomorrow's picture: another star's planets
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 September 20
An artist's illustration pictures a cloudy red planet orbiting a
distant red star. Near the exoplanet is a moon. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Methane Discovered on Distant Exoplanet
Illustration Credit: Ahmad Jabakenji (ASU Lebanon, North Star Space
Art); Data: NASA, ESA, CSA, JWST

Explanation: Where else might life exist? One of humanity's great
outstanding questions, locating planets where extrasolar life might
survive took a step forward in 2019 with the discovery of a significant
amount of water vapor in the atmosphere of distant exoplanet K2-18b.
The planet and its parent star, K2-18, lie about 124 light years away
toward the constellation of the Lion (Leo). The exoplanet is
significantly larger and more massive than our Earth, but orbits in the
habitable zone of its home star. K2-18, although more red than our Sun,
shines in K2-18b's sky with a brightness similar to the Sun in Earth's
sky. The 2019 discovery of atmospheric water was made in data from
three space telescopes: Hubble, Spitzer, and Kepler, by noting the
absorption of water-vapor colors when the planet moved in front of the
star. Now in 2023, further observations by the Webb Space Telescope in
infrared light have uncovered evidence of other life-indicating
molecules -- including methane. The featured illustration imagines
exoplanet K2-18b on the far right orbited by a moon (center), which
together orbit a red dwarf star depicted on the lower left.

Tomorrow's picture: space tag
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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& Michigan Tech. U.

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* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 September 21

Tagging Bennu
Image Credit: OSIRIS-REx, University of Arizona, NASA, Goddard
Scientific Visualization Studio

Explanation: The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft's arm reached out and touched
asteroid 101955 Bennu on October 20, 2020, after a careful approach to
the small, near-Earth asteroid's boulder-strewn surface. Dubbed a
Touch-And-Go (TAG) sampling event, the 30 centimeter wide sampling head
(TAGSAM) appears to crush some of the rocks in this close-up recorded
by the spacecraft's SamCam. The image was snapped just after surface
contact some 321 million kilometers from planet Earth. One second
later, the spacecraft fired nitrogen gas from a bottle intended to blow
a substantial amount of Bennu's regolith into the sampling head,
collecting the loose surface material. And now, nearly three years
later, on Sunday, September 24, that sample of asteroid Bennu is
scheduled to arrive on planet Earth. The sample return capsule will be
dropped off by the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft as it makes a close flyby of
Earth. Twenty minutes after the drop-off, the spacecraft will fire its
thrusters to divert past Earth and continue on to orbit near-Earth
asteroid 99942 Apophis.

Tomorrow's picture: reflections of the cosmos
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 September 22

Cosmos in Reflection
Image Credit & Copyright: Jeff Dai (TWAN)

Explanation: During the day, over 12,000 large mirrors reflect sunlight
at the 100-megawatt, molten-salt, solar thermal power plant at the
western edge of the Gobi desert near Dunhuang, Gansu Province, China.
Individual mirror panels turn to track the sun like sunflowers. They
conspire to act as a single super mirror reflecting the sunlight toward
a fixed position, the power station's central tower. During the night
the mirrors stand motionless though. They reflect the light of the
countless distant stars, clusters and nebulae of the Milky Way and
beyond. This sci-fi night skyscape was created with a camera fixed to a
tripod near the edge of the giant mirror matrix on September 15. The
camera's combined sequence of digital exposures captures concentric
arcs of celestial star trails through the night with star trails in
surreal mirrored reflection.

Tomorrow's picture: analog analemma's afternoon
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 September 23

Afternoon Analemma
Image Credit & Copyright: Ian Griffin (Otago Museum)

Explanation: An analemma is that figure-8 curve you get when you mark
the position of the Sun at the same time each day for one year. To make
this one, a 4x5 pinhole camera was set up looking north in southern New
Zealand skies. The shutter was briefly opened each clear day in the
afternoon at 4pm local time exposing the same photosensitized glass
plate for the year spanning September 23, 2022 to September 19, 2023.
On two days, the winter and summer solstices, the shutter was opened
again 15 minutes after the main exposure and remained open until sunset
to create the sun trails at the bottom and top of the curve. The
equinox dates correspond to positions in the middle of the curve, not
the crossover point. Of course, the curve itself is inverted compared
to an analemma traced from the northern hemisphere. And while fall
begins today at the Autumnal Equinox for the northern hemisphere, it's
the Spring Equinox in the south.

Tomorrow's picture: sunrise solar eclipse
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
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& Michigan Tech. U.

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* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 September 24

A Ring of Fire Sunrise Solar Eclipse
Video Credit: Colin Legg & Geoff Sims; Music: Peter Nanasi

Explanation: What's rising above the horizon behind those clouds? It's
the Sun. Most sunrises don't look like this, though, because most
sunrises don't include the Moon. In the early morning of 2013 May 10,
however, from Western Australia, the Moon was between the Earth and the
rising Sun. At times, it would be hard for the uninformed to understand
what was happening. In an annular eclipse, the Moon is too far from the
Earth to block the entire Sun, and at most leaves a ring of fire where
sunlight pours out around every edge of the Moon. The featured
time-lapse video also recorded the eclipse through the high refraction
of the Earth's atmosphere just above the horizon, making the unusual
rising Sun and Moon appear also flattened. As the video continues, the
Sun continues to rise, while the Sun and Moon begin to separate. The
next annular solar eclipse will occur in less than three weeks. On
Saturday, October 14, a ring of fire will be visible through clear
skies from a thin swath crossing both North and South America.

Tour the Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: big blue bird
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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& Michigan Tech. U.

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* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 September 25
A starfield with two bright stars at the top of the frame and two
galaxies at the bottom. The upper galaxy is a spiral galaxy and has an
appearance reminiscent of a hummingbird. The lower galaxy is a
featureless elliptical galaxy. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Arp 142: The Hummingbird Galaxy
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Processing & Copyright: Basudeb
Chakrabarti

Explanation: What's happening to this spiral galaxy? Just a few hundred
million years ago, NGC 2936, the upper of the two large galaxies shown
at the bottom, was likely a normal spiral galaxy -- spinning, creating
stars -- and minding its own business. But then it got too close to the
massive elliptical galaxy NGC 2937, just below, and took a turn.
Sometimes dubbed the Hummingbird Galaxy for its iconic shape, NGC 2936
is not only being deflected but also being distorted by the close
gravitational interaction. Behind filaments of dark interstellar dust,
bright blue stars form the nose of the hummingbird, while the center of
the spiral appears as an eye. Alternatively, the galaxy pair, together
known as Arp 142, look to some like Porpoise or a penguin protecting an
egg. The featured re-processed image showing Arp 142 in great detail
was taken recently by the Hubble Space Telescope. Arp 142 lies about
300 million light years away toward the constellation of the Water
Snake (Hydra). In a billion years or so the two galaxies will likely
merge into one larger galaxy.

Tomorrow's picture: big blue horse
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-6
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.

2023 September 26
A starfield surrounds a large nebula that is mostly brown and blue and
has an appearance reminiscent of the head of a horse. This nebula is
not the more famous

IC 4592: The Blue Horsehead Reflection Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Antoine & Dalia Grelin

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 above and to the right of the image
center.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
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& Michigan Tech. U.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-6
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)