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.

2024 March 20
Two large galaxies are pictured. On the left is a distorted spiral
galaxy, while on the right is a relatively featureless yellow disk
galaxy. Together, these galaxies may look, to some, like a pair of
eyes. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

The Eyes in Markarian's Galaxy Chain
Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby

Explanation: Across the heart of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster lies a string
of galaxies known as Markarian's Chain. Prominent in Markarian's Chain
are these two interacting galaxies, NGC 4438 (left) and NGC 4435 - also
known as The Eyes. About 50 million light-years away, the two galaxies
appear to be about 100,000 light-years apart in this sharp close-up,
but have likely approached to within an estimated 16,000 light-years of
each other in their cosmic past. Gravitational tides from the close
encounter have ripped away at their stars, gas, and dust. The more
massive NGC 4438 managed to hold on to much of the material torn out in
the collision, while material from the smaller NGC 4435 was more easily
lost. The remarkably deep image of this crowded region of the universe
also includes many more distant background galaxies.

Tomorrow's picture: three galaxies
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, 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.

2024 March 21

The Leo Trio
Image Credit & Copyright: Steve Cannistra

Explanation: This popular group leaps into the early evening sky around
the March equinox and the northern hemisphere spring. Famous as the Leo
Triplet, the three magnificent galaxies found in the prominent
constellation Leo gather here in one astronomical field of view. Crowd
pleasers when imaged with even modest telescopes, they can be
introduced individually as NGC 3628 (left), M66 (bottom right), and M65
(top). All three are large spiral galaxies but tend to look dissimilar,
because their galactic disks are tilted at different angles to our line
of sight. NGC 3628, also known as the Hamburger Galaxy, is temptingly
seen edge-on, with obscuring dust lanes cutting across its puffy
galactic plane. The disks of M66 and M65 are both inclined enough to
show off their spiral structure. Gravitational interactions between
galaxies in the group have left telltale signs, including the tidal
tails and warped, inflated disk of NGC 3628 and the drawn out spiral
arms of M66. This gorgeous view of the region spans over 1 degree (two
full moons) on the sky in a frame that covers over half a million
light-years at the trio's estimated distance of 30 million light-years.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility 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.

2024 March 22

Phobos: Moon over Mars
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Zolt Levay (STScI) - Acknowledgment: J.Bell
(ASU) and M.Wolff (SSI)

Explanation: A tiny moon with a scary name, Phobos emerges from behind
the Red Planet in this timelapse sequence from the Earth-orbiting
Hubble Space Telescope. Over 22 minutes the 13 separate exposures were
captured near the 2016 closest approach of Mars to planet Earth.
Martians have to look to the west to watch Phobos rise, though. The
small moon is closer to its parent planet than any other moon in the
Solar System, about 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) above the Martian
surface. It completes one orbit in just 7 hours and 39 minutes. That's
faster than a Mars rotation, which corresponds to about 24 hours and 40
minutes. So on Mars, Phobos can be seen to rise above the western
horizon 3 times a day. Still, Phobos is doomed.

Tomorrow's picture: Ares 3 Landing Site
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 March 23

Ares 3 Landing Site: The Martian Revisited
HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA

Explanation: This close-up from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's
HiRISE camera shows weathered craters and windblown deposits in
southern Acidalia Planitia. A striking shade of blue in standard HiRISE
image colors, to the human eye the area would probably look grey or a
little reddish. But human eyes have not gazed across this terrain,
unless you count the eyes of NASA astronauts in the scifi novel The
Martian by Andy Weir. The novel chronicles the adventures of Mark
Watney, an astronaut stranded at the fictional Mars mission Ares 3
landing site corresponding to the coordinates of this cropped HiRISE
frame. For scale Watney's 6-meter-diameter habitat at the site would be
about 1/10th the diameter of the large crater. Of course, the Ares 3
landing coordinates are only about 800 kilometers north of the (real
life) Carl Sagan Memorial Station, the 1997 Pathfinder landing site.

Tomorrow's picture: looking back
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
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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.

2024 March 24
Part of the the Earth is pictured with blue seas and white clouds. On
the upper left is a deep space dark background. On the Earth a large
dark spot is apparent. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Looking Back at an Eclipsed Earth
Image Credit: Mir 27 Crew; Copyright: CNES

Explanation: Here is what the Earth looks like during a solar eclipse.
The shadow of the Moon can be seen darkening part of Earth. This shadow
moved across the Earth at nearly 2000 kilometers per hour. Only
observers near the center of the dark circle see a total solar eclipse
- others see a partial eclipse where only part of the Sun appears
blocked by the Moon. This spectacular picture of the 1999 August 11
solar eclipse was one of the last ever taken from the Mir space
station. The two bright spots that appear on the upper left are thought
to be Jupiter and Saturn. Mir was deorbited in a controlled re-entry in
2001. A new solar eclipse will occur over North America in about two
weeks.

Tomorrow's picture: open see
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, 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.

2024 March 25

Sonified: The Jellyfish Nebula Supernova Remnant
Image Credit: X-ray (blue): Chandra (NASA) & ROSAT (ESA); Optical
(red): DSS (NSF); Radio (green): VLA (NRAO, NSF); Sonification: NASA,
CXC, SAO, K. Arcand; SYSTEM Sounds: M. Russo, A. Santaguida)

Explanation: What does a supernova remnant sound like? Although sound
is a compression wave in matter and does not carry into empty space,
interpretive sound can help listeners appreciate and understand a
visual image of a supernova remnant in a new way. Recently, the
Jellyfish Nebula (IC 443) has been sonified quite creatively. In the
featured sound-enhanced video, when an imaginary line passes over a
star, the sound of a drop falling into water is played, a sound
particularly relevant to the nebula's aquatic namesake. Additionally,
when the descending line crosses gas that glows red, a low tone is
played, while green sounds a middle tone, and blue produces a tone with
a relatively high pitch. Light from the supernova that created the
Jellyfish Nebula left approximately 35,000 years ago, when humanity was
in the stone age. The nebula will slowly disperse over the next million
years, although the explosion also created a dense neutron star which
will remain indefinitely.

Tomorrow's picture: comet tails
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, 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.

2024 March 26
A large comet is shown with its head near the right and a light blue
flowing ion tail flowing across into the rest of the image. Please see
the explanation for more detailed information.

Comet Pons-Brooks' Ion Tail
Image Credit & License: James Peirce

Explanation: Comet Pons-Brooks has quite a tail to tell. First
discovered in 1385, this erupting dirty snowball loops back into our
inner Solar System every 71 years and, this time, is starting to put on
a show for deep camera exposures. In the featured picture, the light
blue stream is the ion tail which consists of charged molecules pushed
away from the comet's nucleus by the solar wind. The ion tail, shaped
by the Sun's wind and the comet's core's rotation, always points away
from the Sun. Comet 12P/PonsCÇôBrooks is now visible with binoculars in
the early evening sky toward the northwest, moving perceptibly from
night to night. The frequently flaring comet is expected to continue to
brighten, on the average, and may even become visible with the unaided
eye -- during the day -- to those in the path of totality of the coming
solar eclipse on April 8.

Tomorrow's picture: thousands of galaxies
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, 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.

2024 March 27
A picture filled with fuzzy yellow spots is presented. All of the
yellow spots are galaxies, and most of the galaxies are members of the
Coma Cluster of Galaxies. The two bright blue dots are foreground stars
in our own Milky Way Galaxy. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

The Coma Cluster of Galaxies
Image Credit & Copyright: Joe Hua

Explanation: Almost every object in the featured photograph is a
galaxy. The Coma Cluster of Galaxies pictured here is one of the
densest clusters known - it contains thousands of galaxies. Each of
these galaxies houses billions of stars - just as our own Milky Way
Galaxy does. Although nearby when compared to most other clusters,
light from the Coma Cluster still takes hundreds of millions of years
to reach us. In fact, the Coma Cluster is so big it takes light
millions of years just to go from one side to the other. Most galaxies
in Coma and other clusters are ellipticals, while most galaxies outside
of clusters are spirals. The nature of Coma's X-ray emission is still
being investigated.

Tomorrow's picture: millions of stars
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, 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.

2024 March 28

Millions of Stars in Omega Centauri
Image Credit & Copyright: Massimo Di Fusco and Mirco Turra

Explanation: Globular star cluster Omega Centauri, also known as NGC
5139, is 15,000 light-years away. The cluster is packed with about 10
million stars much older than the Sun within a volume about 150
light-years in diameter. It's the largest and brightest of 200 or so
known globular clusters that roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy.
Though most star clusters consist of stars with the same age and
composition, the enigmatic Omega Cen exhibits the presence of different
stellar populations with a spread of ages and chemical abundances. In
fact, Omega Cen may be the remnant core of a small galaxy merging with
the Milky Way. With a yellowish hue, Omega Centauri's red giant stars
are easy to pick out in this sharp, color telescopic view.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility 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.

2024 March 29

Galileo's Europa
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SETI Institute, Cynthia Phillips,
Marty Valenti

Explanation: Looping through the Jovian system in the late 1990s, the
Galileo spacecraft recorded stunning views of Europa and uncovered
evidence that the moon's icy surface likely hides a deep, global ocean.
Galileo's Europa image data has been remastered here, with improved
calibrations to produce a color image approximating what the human eye
might see. Europa's long curving fractures hint at the subsurface
liquid water. The tidal flexing the large moon experiences in its
elliptical orbit around Jupiter supplies the energy to keep the ocean
liquid. But more tantalizing is the possibility that even in the
absence of sunlight that process could also supply the energy to
support life, making Europa one of the best places to look for life
beyond Earth. The Juno spacecraft currently in Jovian orbit has also
made repeated flybys of the water world, returning images along with
data exploring Europa's habitability. This October will see the launch
of the NASA's Europa Clipper on a voyage of exploration. The spacecraft
will make nearly 50 flybys, approaching to within 25 kilometers of
Europa's icy surface.

Tomorrow's picture: Ptolemy's astronomy
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 March 30

Medieval Astronomy from Melk Abbey
Image Credit: Paul Beck (Univ. Vienna), Georg Zotti (Vienna Inst. Arch.
Science)
Copyright: Library of Melk Abbey, Frag. 229

Explanation: Discovered by accident, this manuscript page provides
graphical insight to astronomy in medieval times, before the
Renaissance and the influence of Nicolaus Copernicus, Tycho de Brahe,
Johannes Kepler, and Galileo. The intriguing page is from lecture notes
on astronomy compiled by the monk Magister Wolfgang de Styria before
the year 1490. The top panels clearly illustrate the necessary geometry
for a lunar (left) and solar eclipse in the Earth-centered Ptolemaic
system. At lower left is a diagram of the Ptolemaic view of the Solar
System with text at the upper right to explain the movement of the
planets according to Ptolemy's geocentric model. At the lower right is
a chart to calculate the date of Easter Sunday in the Julian calendar.
The illustrated manuscript page was found at historic Melk Abbey in
Austria.

Tomorrow's picture: eclipse below
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
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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.

2024 March 31
A totally eclipsed Sun is seen in the distance. Around the eclipse is a
dark region dipping down from above. Below that are clouds and below
that is the wing and engine of an airplane. Please see the explanation
for more detailed information.

Total Solar Eclipse Below the Bottom of the World
Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Hor+ílek (ESO Photo Ambassador, Inst. of
Physics in Opava) ; Acknowledgement: Xavier Jubier

Explanation: In late 2021 there was a total solar eclipse visible only
at the end of the Earth. To capture the unusual phenomenon, airplanes
took flight below the clouded seascape of Southern Ocean. The featured
image shows one relatively spectacular capture where the bright spot is
the outer corona of the Sun and the eclipsing Moon is seen as the dark
spot in the center. A wing and engine of the airplane are visible
across the left and bottom of the image, while another airplane
observing the eclipse is visible on the far left. The dark area of the
sky surrounding the eclipsed Sun is called a shadow cone. It is dark
because you are looking down a long corridor of air shadowed by the
Moon. A careful inspection of the eclipsed Sun will reveal the planet
Mercury just to the right. You won't have to travel to the end of the
Earth to see the next total solar eclipse. The total eclipse path will
cross North America on 2024 April 8, just over one week from today.

NASA Coverage: Total Solar Eclipse of 2024 April 8
Tomorrow's picture: black hole twister
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, 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.

2024 April 1
A donut-shaped orange figure is seen with lines extending along the
emission in a swirling pattern. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Swirling Magnetic Field around Our Galaxy's Central Black Hole
Image Credit: EHT Collaboration

Explanation: What's happening to the big black hole in the center of
our galaxy? It is sucking in matter from a swirling disk -- a disk that
is magnetized, it has now been confirmed. Specifically, the black
hole's accretion disk has recently been seen to emit polarized light,
radiation frequently associated with a magnetized source. Pictured here
is a close-up of Sgr A*, our Galaxy's central black hole, taken by
radio telescopes around the world participating in the Event Horizon
Telescope (EHT) Collaboration. Superposed are illustrative curved lines
indicating polarized light likely emitted from swirling magnetized gas
that will soon fall into the 4+ million mass central black hole. The
central part of this image is likely dark because little light-emitting
gas is visible between us and the dark event horizon of the black hole.
Continued EHT monitoring of this and M87's central black hole may yield
new clues about the gravity of black holes and how infalling matter
creates disks and jets.

NASA Predicts: Moon to Get in Way of Sun Tomorrow's picture:
corona-vision
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, 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.

2024 April 2
The Sun is shown during a total solar eclipse. Accentuated is the
expansive corona of the Sun, which is shown streaming out in all
directions. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Detailed View of a Solar Eclipse Corona
Image Credit & Copyright: Phil Hart

Explanation: Only in the fleeting darkness of a total solar eclipse is
the light of the solar corona easily visible. Normally overwhelmed by
the bright solar disk, the expansive corona, the sun's outer
atmosphere, is an alluring sight. But the subtle details and extreme
ranges in the corona's brightness, although discernible to the eye, are
notoriously difficult to photograph. Pictured here, however, using
multiple images and digital processing, is a detailed image of the
Sun's corona taken during the April 20, 2023 total solar eclipse from
Exmouth, Australia. Clearly visible are intricate layers and glowing
caustics of an ever changing mixture of hot gas and magnetic fields.
Bright looping prominences appear pink just around the Sun's limb. A
similar solar corona might be visible through clear skies in a narrow
swath across the North America during the total solar eclipse that
occurs just six days from today

NASA Coverage: Total Solar Eclipse of 2024 April 8
Tomorrow's picture: celestial fireworks
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, 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.

2024 April 3
A nebula is shown that appears like a firework. Radial filaments
connect a glowing halo to a star in the center that appears as a blue
dot. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Unusual Nebula Pa 30
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, USAF, NSF; Processing: G. Ferrand (U.
Manitoba), J. English (U. Manitoba), R. A. Fesen (Dartmouth), C.
Treyturik (U. Manitoba); Text: G. Ferrand & J. English

Explanation: What created this unusual celestial firework? The nebula,
dubbed Pa 30, appears in the same sky direction now as a bright "guest
star" did in the year 1181. Although Pa 30's filaments look similar to
that created by a nova (for example GK Per), and a planetary nebula
(for example NGC 6751), some astronomers now propose that it was
created by a rare type of supernova: a thermonuclear Type Iax, and so
is (also) named SN 1181. In this model, the supernova was not the
result of the detonation of a single star, but rather a blast that
occurred when two white dwarf stars spiraled together and merged. The
blue dot in the center is hypothesized to be a zombie star, the remnant
white dwarf that somehow survived this supernova-level explosion. The
featured image combines images and data obtained with infrared (WISE),
visible (MDM, Pan-STARRS), and X-ray (Chandra, XMM) telescopes. Future
observations and analyses may tell us more.

NASA Coverage: Total Solar Eclipse of 2024 April 8
Tomorrow's picture: the comet at night
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& 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.

2024 April 4

Comet Pons-Brooks at Night
Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett`

Explanation: In dark evening skies over June Lake, northern hemisphere,
planet Earth, Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks stood just above the western
horizon on March 30. Its twisted turbulent ion tail and diffuse
greenish coma are captured in this two degree wide telescopic field of
view along with bright yellowish star Hamal also known as Alpha
Arietis. Now Pons-Brooks has moved out of the northern night though,
approaching perihelion on April 21. On April 8 you might still spot the
comet in daytime skies. But to do it, you will have to stand in the
path of totality and look away from the spectacle of an alluring solar
corona and totally eclipsed Sun.

NASA Coverage: Total Solar Eclipse of 2024 April 8
Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility Notices
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.

2024 April 5

The Solar Corona Unwrapped
Image Credit & Copyright: Peter Ward (Barden Ridge Observatory)

Explanation: Changes in the alluring solar corona are detailed in this
creative composite image mapping the dynamic outer atmosphere of the
Sun during two separate total solar eclipses. Unwrapped from the
complete circle of the eclipsed Sun's edge to a rectangle and mirrored,
the entire solar corona is shown during the 2017 eclipse (bottom) seen
from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and the 2023 eclipse from Exmouth, Western
Australia. While the 2017 eclipse was near a minimum in the Sun's 11
year activity cycle, the 2023 eclipse was closer to solar maximum. The
2023 solar corona hints at the dramatically different character of the
active Sun, with many streamers and pinkish prominences arising along
the solar limb. Of course, the solar corona is only easily visible to
the eye while standing in the shadow of the Moon.

NASA Coverage: Total Solar Eclipse of 2024 April 8
Tomorrow's picture: M51 unwound
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility 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.

2024 April 6

Unwinding M51
Image Credit & Copyright: Data - Hubble Heritage Project, Unwinding -
Paul Howell

Explanation: The arms of a grand design spiral galaxy 60,000
light-years across are unwound in this digital transformation of the
magnificent 2005 Hubble Space Telescope portrait of M51. In fact, M51
is one of the original spiral nebulae, its winding arms described by a
mathematical curve known as a logarithmic spiral, a spiral whose
separation grows in a geometric way with increasing distance from the
center. Applying logarithms to shift the pixel coordinates in the
Hubble image relative to the center of M51 maps the galaxy's spiral
arms into diagonal straight lines. The transformed image dramatically
shows the arms themselves are traced by star formation, lined with
pinkish starforming regions and young blue star clusters. Companion
galaxy NGC 5195 (top) seems to alter the track of the arm in front of
it though, and itself remains relatively unaffected by this unwinding
of M51. Also known as the spira mirabilis, logarthimic spirals can be
found in nature on all scales. For example, logarithmic spirals can
also describe hurricanes, the tracks of subatomic particles in a bubble
chamber and, of course, cauliflower.

NASA Coverage: Total Solar Eclipse of 2024 April 8
Tomorrow's picture: clear skies
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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.

2024 April 7
A sequence of images showing the Moon covering increasing amounts of
the Sun is shown, with the center image showing a total solar eclipse.
The great corona of the Sun can be seen around the dark moon in the
center image. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

A Total Solar Eclipse over Wyoming
Image Credit & Copyright: Ben Cooper

Explanation: Will the sky be clear enough to see the eclipse? This
question is already on the minds of many North Americans hoping to see
tomorrow's solar eclipse. This question was also on the mind of many
people attempting to see the total solar eclipse that crossed North
America in August 2017. Then, the path of total darkness shot across
the mainland of the USA from coast to coast, from Oregon to South
Carolina -- but, like tomorrow's event, a partial eclipse occurred
above most of North America. Unfortunately, in 2017, many locations saw
predominantly clouds. One location that did not was a bank of the Green
River Lakes, Wyoming. Intermittent clouds were far enough away to allow
the center image of the featured composite sequence to be taken, an
image that shows the corona of the Sun extending out past the central
dark Moon that blocks our familiar Sun. The surrounding images show the
partial phases of the solar eclipse both before and after totality.

NASA Coverage: Tomorrow's Total Solar Eclipse
Tomorrow's picture: comet tails
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 April 8
A sequence of eight images of Comet Pons-Brooks, from top to bottom,
showing the comet and its changing tail over 9 days. The ion tail looks
very different in each of the images, sometimes being much more complex
than other times. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

The Changing Ion Tail of Comet Pons-Brooks
Image Credit & Copyright: Shengyu Li & Shaining

Explanation: How does a comet tail change? It depends on the comet. The
ion tail of Comet 12P/PonsCÇôBrooks has been changing markedly, as
detailed in the featured image sequenced over nine days from March 6 to
14 (top to bottom). On some days, the comet's ion tail was relatively
long and complex, but not every day. Reasons for tail changes include
the rate of ejection of material from the comet's nucleus, the strength
and complexity of the passing solar wind, and the rotation rate of the
comet. Over the course of a week, apparent changes even include a
change of perspective from the Earth. In general, a comet's ion tail
will point away from the Sun, as gas expelled is pushed out by the
Sun's wind. Today, Pons-Brooks may become a rare comet suddenly visible
in the middle of the day for those able to see the Sun totally eclipsed
by the Moon.

NASA Coverage: Today's Total Solar Eclipse
Total Eclipse Imagery: Notable Submissions to APOD Tomorrow's picture:
yesterday's eclipse
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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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written by a professional astronomer.

2024 April 9

Moon's Shadow over Lake Magog
Image Credit & Copyright: Stan Honda

Explanation: Captured in this snapshot, the shadow of the Moon came to
Lake Magog, Quebec, North America, planet Earth on April 8. For the
lakeside eclipse chasers, the much anticipated total solar eclipse was
a spectacle to behold in briefly dark, but clear skies. Of course Lake
Magog was one of the last places to be visited by the Moon's shadow.
The narrow path of totality for the 2024 total solar eclipse swept from
Mexico's Pacific Coast north and eastward through the US and Canada.
But a partial eclipse was visible across the entire North American
continent.

Total Eclipse Imagery: Notable Submissions to APOD Tomorrow's picture:
hot star mess
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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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2024 April 10
A totally eclipsed Sun is seen in the sky surrounded by a bright
corona. In the foreground several people watch it near a large tree. To
the right of the eclipsed Sun is the bright planet Venus, while the
nearly-as- bright planet Jupiter is to the left. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Planets Around a Total Eclipse
Image Credit: St+¬phane Vetter (Nuits sacr+¬es)

Explanation: What wonders appear when the Moon blocks the Sun? For many
eager observers of MondayCÇÖs total eclipse of the Sun, the suddenly dark
sky included the expected corona and two (perhaps surprise) planets:
Venus and Jupiter. Normally, in recent days, Venus is visible only in
the morning when the Sun and Jupiter are below the horizon, while
Jupiter appears bright only in the evening. On Monday, though, for
well-placed observers, both planets became easily visible during the
day right in line with the totally eclipsed Sun. This line was captured
Monday afternoon in the featured image from Mount Nebo, Arkansas, USA,
along with a line of curious observers CÇö and a picturesque tree.

Monday's Eclipse Imagery: Notable Submissions to APOD Tomorrow's
picture: open space
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 April 11

Eclipse in Seven
Image Credit & Copyright: Xiaofeng Tan

Explanation: Start at the upper left above and you can follow the
progress of April 8's total eclipse of the Sun in seven sharp, separate
exposures. The image sequence was recorded with a telescope and camera
located within the narrow path of totality as the Moon's shadow swept
across Newport, Vermont, USA. At center is a spectacular view of the
solar corona. The tenuous outer atmosphere of the Sun is only easily
visible to the eye in clear dark skies during the total eclipse phase.
Seen from Newport, the total phase for this solar eclipse lasted about
3 minutes and 26 seconds.

Monday's Eclipse Imagery: Notable Submissions to APOD Tomorrow's
picture: the beginning and the end
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 April 12

Total Totality
Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Korona

Explanation: Baily's beads often appear at the boundaries of the total
phase of an eclipse of the Sun. Pearls of sunlight still beaming
through gaps in the rugged terrain along the lunar limb silhouette,
their appearance is recorded in this dramatic timelapse composite. The
series of images follows the Moon's edge from beginning through the end
of totality during April 8's solar eclipse from Durango, Mexico. They
also capture pinkish prominences of plasma arcing high above the edge
of the active Sun. One of the first places in North America visited by
the Moon's shadow on April 8, totality in Durango lasted about 3
minutes and 46 seconds.

Solar Eclipse Imagery: Notable Submissions to APOD Tomorrow's picture:
palm tree pinholes
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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written by a professional astronomer.

2024 April 13

Palm Tree Partial Eclipse
Image Credit & Copyright: Lori Haffelt

Explanation: Only those along the narrow track of the Moon's shadow on
April 8 saw a total solar eclipse. But most of North America still saw
a partial eclipse of the Sun. From Clearwater, Florida, USA this single
snapshot captured multiple images of that more widely viewed celestial
event without observing the Sun directly. In the shade of a palm tree,
criss-crossing fronds are projecting recognizable eclipse images on the
ground, pinhole camera style. In Clearwater the maximum eclipse phase
was about 53 percent.

Solar Eclipse Imagery: Notable Submissions to APOD Tomorrow's picture:
Sunday's Childe
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 April 14

How a Total Solar Eclipse Ended
Video Credit & Copyright: David Duarte

Explanation: How does a total solar eclipse end? Yes, the Moon moves
out from fully blocking the Sun, but in the first few seconds of
transition, interesting things appear. The first is called a diamond
ring. Light might stream between mountains or through relative lowlands
around the Moon's edge, as seen from your location, making this sudden
first light, when combined with the corona that surrounds the Moon,
look like a diamond ring. Within seconds other light streams appear
that are called, collectively, Bailey's beads. In the featured video,
it may seem that the pink triangular prominence on the Sun is somehow
related to where the Sun begins to reappear, but it is not. Observers
from other locations saw Bailey's beads emerge from different places
around the Moon, away from the iconic triangular solar prominence
visible to all. The video was captured with specialized equipment from
New Boston, Texas, USA on April 8, 2024.

Solar Eclipse Imagery: Notable Submissions to APOD Tomorrow's picture:
Hubble vs Webb for Cigar
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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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2024 April 15
A picture of the unusual galaxy M82 is on the left, while the center is
expanding and shown in a JWST image on the right. Many red-glowing
filaments eminate out from the plane of the spiral galaxy. Please see
the explanation for more detailed information.

The Cigar Galaxy from Hubble and Webb
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Alberto Bolatto (UMD)

Explanation: Something strange happened to this galaxy, but what? Known
as the Cigar Galaxy and cataloged as M82, red glowing gas and dust are
being cast out from the center. Although this starburst galaxy was
surely stirred up by a recent pass near its neighbor, large spiral
galaxy M81, this doesn't fully explain the source of the red-glowing
outwardly expanding gas and dust. Evidence indicates that this material
is being driven out by the combined emerging particle winds of many
stars, together creating a galactic superwind. In the featured images,
a Hubble Space Telescope image in visible light is shown on the left,
while a James Webb Space Telescope image of the central region in
infrared light is shown on the right. Detailed inspection of the new
Webb image shows, unexpectedly, that this red-glowing dust is
associated with hot plasma. Research into the nature of this strange
nearby galaxy will surely continue.

Total Eclipse Imagery: Notable Submissions to APOD Tomorrow's picture:
hot star mess
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 April 16
Complex filaments of many colors cross the image in front of a starry
background. Some regions have a diffuse red or orange glow. Please see
the explanation for more detailed information.

Filaments of the Vela Supernova Remnant
Image Credit: CTIO, NOIRLab, DOE, NSF, AURA; Processing: T. A. Rector
(U. Alaska Anchorage), M. Zamani & D. de Martin (CÇÖs NOIRLab)

Explanation: The explosion is over, but the consequences continue.
About eleven thousand years ago, a star in the constellation of Vela
could be seen to explode, creating a strange point of light briefly
visible to humans living near the beginning of recorded history. The
outer layers of the star crashed into the interstellar medium, driving
a shock wave that is still visible today. The featured image captures
some of that filamentary and gigantic shock in visible light. As gas
flies away from the detonated star, it decays and reacts with the
interstellar medium, producing light in many different colors and
energy bands. Remaining at the center of the Vela Supernova Remnant is
a pulsar, a star as dense as nuclear matter that spins around more than
ten times in a single second.

Monday's Eclipse Imagery: Notable Submissions to APOD Tomorrow's
picture: two eclipse comets
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 April 17
The totally eclipsed Sun from 2024 April 8 is shown in the center. Two
comets and two planets are also visible, and labeled as 12P, Mercury,
SOHO-5008, and Venus. The two comets are shown in expanded form at the
top in two inset images. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Total Eclipse and Comets
Image Credit & Copyright: Lin Zixuan (Tsinghua U.)

Explanation: Not one, but two comets appeared near the Sun during last
week's total solar eclipse. The expected comet was Comet
12P/Pons-Brooks, but it was disappointingly dimmer than many had hoped.
However, relatively unknown Comet SOHO-5008 also appeared in long
duration camera exposures. This comet was the 5008th comet identified
on images taken by ESA & NASA's Sun-orbiting SOHO spacecraft. Likely
much smaller, Comet SOHO-5008 was a sungrazer which disintegrated
within hours as it passed too near the Sun. The featured image is not
only unusual for capturing two comets during an eclipse, but one of the
rare times that a sungrazing comet has been photographed from the
Earth's surface. Also visible in the image is the sprawling corona of
our Sun and the planets Mercury (left) and Venus (right). Of these
planets and comets, only Venus was easily visible to millions of people
in the dark shadow of the Moon that crossed North America on April 8.

Solar Eclipse Imagery: Notable Submissions to APOD 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

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2024 April 18

Facing NGC 1232
Image Credit & Copyright: Neil Corke

Explanation: From our vantage point in the Milky Way Galaxy, we see NGC
1232 face-on. Nearly 200,000 light-years across, the big, beautiful
spiral galaxy is located some 47 million light-years away in the
flowing southern constellation of Eridanus. This sharp, multi-color,
telescopic image of NGC 1232 includes remarkable details of the distant
island universe. From the core outward, the galaxy's colors change from
the yellowish light of old stars in the center to young blue star
clusters and reddish star forming regions along the grand, sweeping
spiral arms. NGC 1232's apparent, small, barred-spiral companion galaxy
is cataloged as NGC 1232A. Distance estimates place it much farther
though, around 300 million light-years away, and unlikely to be
interacting with NGC 1232. Of course, the prominent bright star with
the spiky appearance is much closer than NGC 1232 and lies well within
our own Milky Way.

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

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2024 April 19

The Great Carina Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Demison Lopes

Explanation: A jewel of the southern sky, the Great Carina Nebula is
more modestly known as NGC 3372. One of our Galaxy's largest star
forming regions, it spans over 300 light-years. Like the smaller, more
northerly Great Orion Nebula, the Carina Nebula is easily visible to
the unaided eye. But at a distance of 7,500 light-years it lies some 5
times farther away. This stunning telescopic view reveals remarkable
details of the region's glowing filaments of interstellar gas and
obscuring cosmic dust clouds. The Carina Nebula is home to young,
extremely massive stars, including the still enigmatic variable Eta
Carinae, a star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun. Eta
Carinae is the bright star above the central dark notch in this field
and left of the dusty Keyhole Nebula (NGC 3324).

Tomorrow's picture: diamond in the sky
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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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2024 April 20

Diamonds in the Sky
Image Credit & Copyright: Wright Dobbs

Explanation: When the dark shadow of the Moon raced across North
America on April 8, sky watchers along the shadow's narrow central path
were treated to a total solar eclipse. During the New Moon's shadow
play diamonds glistened twice in the eclipse-darkened skies. The
transient celestial jewels appeared immediately before and after the
total eclipse phase. That's when the rays of a vanishing and then
emerging sliver of solar disk are just visible behind the silhouetted
Moon's edge, creating the appearance of a shiny diamond set in a dark
ring. This dramatic timelapse composite from north-central Arkansas
captures both diamond ring moments of this total solar eclipse. The
diamond rings are separated by the ethereal beauty of the solar corona
visible during totality.

Tomorrow's picture: perijove 16
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 April 21

Perijove 16: Passing Jupiter
Video Credit & License: NASA, Juno, SwRI, MSSS, Gerald Eichstadt;
Music: The Planets, IV. Jupiter (Gustav Holst); USAF Heritage of
America Band (via Wikipedia)

Explanation: Watch Juno zoom past Jupiter. NASA's robotic spacecraft
Juno is continuing on its now month-long, highly-elongated orbits
around our Solar System's largest planet. The featured video is from
perijove 16, the sixteenth time that Juno passed near Jupiter since it
arrived in mid-2016. Each perijove passes near a slightly different
part of Jupiter's cloud tops. This color-enhanced video has been
digitally composed from 21 JunoCam still images, resulting in a
125-fold time-lapse. The video begins with Jupiter rising as Juno
approaches from the north. As Juno reaches its closest view -- from
about 3,500 kilometers over Jupiter's cloud tops -- the spacecraft
captures the great planet in tremendous detail. Juno passes light zones
and dark belts of clouds that circle the planet, as well as numerous
swirling circular storms, many of which are larger than hurricanes on
Earth. As Juno moves away, the remarkable dolphin-shaped cloud is
visible. After the perijove, Jupiter recedes into the distance, now
displaying the unusual clouds that appear over Jupiter's south. To get
desired science data, Juno swoops so close to Jupiter that its
instruments are exposed to very high levels of radiation.

Tomorrow's picture: volcano emits rings
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 April 22
A dark mountain ridge is pictured across the foreground at the bottom.
Smoke is rising about the ridge, and a close inspection reveals that
some of this smoke form rings. The background has a reddish hue, and a
crescent Moon is visible on the upper left. Please see the explanation
for more detailed information.

Moon and Smoke Rings from Mt. Etna
Image Credit & Copyright: Dario Giannobile

Explanation: Yes, but can your volcano do this? To the surprise of
some, Mt. Etna emits, on occasion, smoke rings. Technically known as
vortex rings, the walls of the volcano slightly slow the outside of
emitted smoke puffs, causing the inside gas to move faster. A circle of
low pressure develops so that the emitted puff of volcanic gas and ash
loops around in a ring, a familiar geometric structure that can be
surprisingly stable as it rises. Smoke rings are quite rare and need a
coincidence of the right geometry of the vent, the right speed of
ejected smoke, and the relative calmness of the outside atmosphere. In
the featured image taken about two weeks ago from Gangi, Sicily, Italy,
multiple volcanic smoke rings are visible. The scene is shaded by the
red light of a dawn Sun, while a crescent Moon is visible in the
background.

Tomorrow's picture: sky X
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 April 23
Two airplane contrails, crossing in an X, are shown across the middle
of the image. They are bright white against a dark blue background. A
high cloud deck is seen above the crossing, sunlit, contrails. A low
Sun creates a dark shadow X on the high while clouds. A row of
buildings runs across the lower part of the image. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Contrail Shadow X
Image Credit & Copyright: Fatih Ekmen

Explanation: What created this giant X in the clouds? It was the shadow
of contrails illuminated from below. When airplanes fly, humid engine
exhaust may form water droplets that might freeze in Earth's cold upper
atmosphere. These persistent streams of water and ice scatter light
from the Sun above and so appear bright from below. On rare occasions,
though, when the Sun is near the horizon, contrails can be lit from
below. These contrails cast long shadows upwards, shadows that usually
go unseen unless there is a high cloud deck. But that was just the case
over Istanbul, T+'rkiye, earlier this month. Contrails occur all over
planet Earth and, generally, warm the Earth when the trap infrared
light but cool the Earth when they efficiently reflect sunlight. The
image was taken by a surprised photographer in the morning on the way
to work.

Tomorrow's picture: a star's art
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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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2024 April 24
A blue star is seen in the center of a red nebula itself surrounded by
a faint blue nebula. The surrounding starfield itself has a faint
red-brown emission clouds. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Dragon's Egg Bipolar Emission Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Rowan Prangley

Explanation: How did a star form this beautiful nebula? In the middle
of emission nebula NGC 6164 is an unusually massive star. The central
star has been compared to an oyster's pearl and an egg protected by the
mythical sky dragons of Ara. The star, visible in the center of the
featured image and catalogued as HD 148937, is so hot that the
ultraviolet light it emits heats up gas that surrounds it. That gas was
likely thrown off from the star previously, possibly the result of a
gravitational interaction with a looping stellar companion. Expelled
material might have been channeled by the magnetic field of the massive
star, in all creating the symmetric shape of the bipolar nebula. NGC
6164 spans about four light years and is located about 3,600 light
years away toward the southern constellation Norma.

New Mirror: APOD now available via WhatsApp
Tomorrow's picture: open space
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 April 25

NGC 604: Giant Stellar Nursery
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Explanation: Located some 3 million light-years away in the arms of
nearby spiral galaxy M33, giant stellar nursery NGC 604 is about 1,300
light-years across. That's nearly 100 times the size of the Milky Way's
Orion Nebula, the closest large star forming region to planet Earth. In
fact, among the star forming regions within the Local Group of
galaxies, NGC 604 is second in size only to 30 Doradus, also known as
the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Cavernous bubbles
and cavities in NGC 604 fill this stunning infrared image from the
James Webb Space Telescope's NIRCam. They are carved out by energetic
stellar winds from the region's more than 200 hot, massive, young
stars, all still in early stages of their lives.

Tomorrow's picture: Regulus and the Dwarf Galaxy
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 April 26

Regulus and the Dwarf Galaxy
Image Credit & Copyright: Markus Horn

Explanation: In northern hemisphere spring, bright star Regulus is easy
to spot above the eastern horizon. The alpha star of the constellation
Leo, Regulus is the spiky star centered in this telescopic field of
view. A mere 79 light-years distant, Regulus is a hot, rapidly spinning
star that is known to be part of a multiple star system. Not quite lost
in the glare, the fuzzy patch just below Regulus is diffuse starlight
from small galaxy Leo I. Leo I is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy, a member
of the Local Group of galaxies dominated by our Milky Way Galaxy and
the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). About 800 thousand light-years away, Leo I
is thought to be the most distant of the known small satellite galaxies
orbiting the Milky Way. But dwarf galaxy Leo I has shown evidence of a
supermassive black hole at its center, comparable in mass to the black
hole at the center of the Milky Way.

Tomorrow's picture: all around eclipse
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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written by a professional astronomer.

2024 April 27

All Sky Moon Shadow
Image Credit & Copyright: Tunc Tezel (TWAN)

Explanation: If the Sun is up but the sky is dark and the horizon is
bright all around, you might be standing in the Moon's shadow during a
total eclipse of the Sun. In fact, the all-sky Moon shadow shown in
this composited panoramic view was captured from a farm near Shirley,
Arkansas, planet Earth. The exposures were made under clear skies
during the April 8 total solar eclipse. For that location near the
center line of the Moon's shadow track, totality lasted over 4 minutes.
Along with the solar corona surrounding the silhouette of the Moon
planets and stars were visible during the total eclipse phase. Easiest
to see here are bright planets Venus and Jupiter, to the lower right
and upper left of the eclipsed Sun.

Tomorrow's picture: rings around the ring
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 April 28
In the center is a colorful nebula, the most usually seen part of the
Ring Nebula. Several layers of red-glowing gas with different
structures are seen surrounding this center. Please see the explanation
for more detailed information.

Rings Around the Ring Nebula
Image Credit: Hubble, Large Binocular Telescope, Subaru Telescope;
Composition & Copyright: Robert Gendler

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 remarkably deep exposure - a collaborative
effort combining data from three different large telescopes - explores
the looping filaments of glowing gas extending much farther from the
nebula's central star. This composite image includes red light emitted
by hydrogen as well as visible and infrared light. The Ring Nebula is
an elongated planetary nebula, a type of nebula created when a Sun-like
star evolves to throw off its outer atmosphere and become a white dwarf
star. The Ring Nebula is about 2,500 light-years away toward the
musical constellation Lyra.

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

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written by a professional astronomer.

2024 April 29
A starry sky is seen over a dark grassy landscape. Three bright objects
are seen in the sky. They are Jupiter on the upper left, a crescent
Moon on the upper right, and Comet Pons-Brooks below them, making a
triangle. Two tails are seen extending nearly upwards from the comet.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Comet, Planet, Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Juan Carlos Casado (Starry Earth, TWAN)

Explanation: Three bright objects satisfied seasoned stargazers of the
western sky just after sunset earlier this month. The most familiar was
the Moon, seen on the upper left in a crescent phase. The rest of the
Moon was faintly visible by sunlight first reflected by the Earth. The
bright planet Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System, is seen
to the upper left. Most unusual was Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, below the
Moon and showing a stubby dust tail on the right but an impressive ion
tail extending upwards. The featured image, a composite of several
images taken consecutively at the same location and with the same
camera, was taken near the village of Llers, in Spain's Girona
province. Comet Pons-Brooks passed its closest to the Sun last week and
is now dimming as it moves into southern skies and returns to the outer
Solar System.

Almost Hyperspace: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: nova surprise
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 April 30
A faint nebula runs vertically in the image. In the center is a red
envelope surrounding diffuse blue emission. In the center is a bright
multicolored nebula that is nearly circular. Please see the explanation
for more detailed information.

GK Per: Nova and Planetary Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Deep Sky Collective

Explanation: The star system GK Per is known to be associated with only
two of the three nebulas pictured. At 1500 light years distant, Nova
Persei 1901 (GK Persei) was the second closest nova yet recorded. At
the very center is a white dwarf star, the surviving core of a former
Sun-like star. It is surrounded by the circular Firework nebula, gas
that was ejected by a thermonuclear explosion on the white dwarf's
surface -- a nova -- as recorded in 1901. The red glowing gas
surrounding the Firework nebula is the atmosphere that used to surround
the central star. This gas was expelled before the nova and appears as
a diffuse planetary nebula. The faint gray gas running across is
interstellar cirrus that seems to be just passing through coincidently.
In 1901, GK Per's nova became brighter than Betelgeuse. Similarly, star
system T CrB is expected to erupt in a nova later this year, but we
don't know exactly when nor how bright it will become.

Tomorrow's picture: sky fish
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 May 1
A colorful star forming region is shown that resembles a fish swimming
to the right. Dark dust is apparent across the lower right, and a
sparse starfield is visible all over the image. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

IC 1795: The Fishhead Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Roberto Colombari & Mauro Narduzzi

Explanation: To some, this nebula looks like the head of a fish.
However, this colorful cosmic portrait really features glowing gas and
obscuring dust clouds in IC 1795, a star forming region in the northern
constellation Cassiopeia. The nebula's colors were created by adopting
the Hubble color palette for mapping narrowband emissions from oxygen,
hydrogen, and sulfur atoms to blue, green and red colors, and further
blending the data with images of the region recorded through broadband
filters. Not far on the sky from the famous Double Star Cluster in
Perseus, IC 1795 is itself located next to IC 1805, the Heart Nebula,
as part of a complex of star forming regions that lie at the edge of a
large molecular cloud. Located just over 6,000 light-years away, the
larger star forming complex sprawls along the Perseus spiral arm of our
Milky Way Galaxy. At that distance, IC 1795 would span about 70
light-years across.

Open Science: Browse 3,300+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code
Library
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.

2024 May 2

M100: A Grand Design Spiral Galaxy
Image Credit & Copyright: Drew Evans

Explanation: Majestic on a truly cosmic scale, M100 is appropriately
known as a grand design spiral galaxy. The large galaxy of over 100
billion stars has well-defined spiral arms, similar to our own Milky
Way. One of the brightest members of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies,
M100, also known as NGC 4321 is 56 million light-years distant toward
the well-groomed constellation Coma Berenices. In this telescopic
image, the face-on grand design spiral shares a nearly 1 degree wide
field-of-view with slightly less conspicuous edge-on spiral NGC 4312
(at upper right). The 21 hour long equivalent exposure from a dark sky
site near Flagstaff, Arizona, planet Earth, reveals M100's bright blue
star clusters and intricate winding dust lanes which are hallmarks of
this class of galaxies. Measurements of variable stars in M100 have
played an important role in determining the size and age of the
Universe.

Tomorrow's picture: cloudy exoplanet
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 May 3

Temperatures on Exoplanet WASP-43b
Illustration Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
Science: Taylor Bell (BAERI), Joanna Barstow (The Open University),
Michael Roman (University of Leicester)

Explanation: A mere 280 light-years from Earth, tidally locked,
Jupiter-sized exoplanet WASP-43b orbits its parent star once every 0.8
Earth days. That puts it about 2 million kilometers (less than 1/25th
the orbital distance of Mercury) from a small, cool sun. Still, on a
dayside always facing its parent star, temperatures approach a torrid
2,500 degrees F as measured at infrared wavelengths by the MIRI
instrument on board the James Webb Space Telescope. In this
illustration of the hot exoplanet's orbit, Webb measurements also show
nightside temperatures remain above 1,000 degrees F. That suggests that
strong equatorial winds circulate the dayside atmospheric gases to the
nightside before they can completely cool off. Exoplanet WASP-43b is
now formally known as Astrol+íbos, and its K-type parent star has been
christened Gnomon. Webb's infrared spectra indicate water vapor is
present on the nightside as well as the dayside of the planet,
providing information about cloud cover on Astrol+íbos.

Tomorrow's picture: a new hope
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 May 4

3 ATs
Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas
Observatory, TWAN)

Explanation: Despite their resemblance to R2D2, these three are not the
droids you're looking for. Instead, the enclosures house 1.8 meter
Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) at Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert
region of Chile. The ATs are designed to be used for interferometry, a
technique for achieving extremely high resolution observations, in
concert with the observatory's 8 meter Very Large Telescope units. A
total of four ATs are operational, each fitted with a transporter that
moves the telescope along a track allowing different arrays with the
large unit telescopes. To work as an interferometer, the light from
each telescope is brought to a common focal point by a system of
mirrors in underground tunnels. Above these three ATs, the Large and
Small Magellanic Clouds are the far, far away satellite galaxies of our
own Milky Way. In the clear and otherwise dark southern skies, planet
Earth's greenish atmospheric airglow stretches faintly along the
horizon.

Tomorrow's picture: death by black hole
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 May 5
An illustration shows a small black dot in the center which is a black
hole. A red stream or gas arcs in from the top. The black hole is also
surrounded by a dark and dusty disk. Please see the explanation for
more detailed information.

A Black Hole Disrupts a Passing Star
Illustration Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech

Explanation: What happens to a star that goes near a black hole? If the
star directly impacts a massive black hole, then the star falls in
completely -- and everything vanishes. More likely, though, the star
goes close enough to have the black hole's gravity pull away its outer
layers, or disrupt, the star. Then, most of the star's gas does not
fall into the black hole. These stellar tidal disruption events can be
as bright as a supernova, and an increasing amount of them are being
discovered by automated sky surveys. In the featured artist's
illustration, a star has just passed a massive black hole and sheds gas
that continues to orbit. The inner edge of a disk of gas and dust
surrounding the black hole is heated by the disruption event and may
glow long after the star is gone.

Hole New Worlds: It's Black Hole Week at NASA!
Tomorrow's picture: ringing out the sun
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 May 6

A Total Solar Eclipse from Sliver to Ring
Video Credit & Copyright: Reinhold Wittich; Music: Sunrise from Also
sprach Zarathusra (R. Strauss) by Sascha Ende

Explanation: This is how the Sun disappeared from the daytime sky last
month. The featured time-lapse video was created from stills taken from
Mountain View, Arkansas, USA on 2024 April 8. First, a small sliver of
a normally spotted Sun went strangely dark. Within a few minutes, much
of the background Sun was hidden behind the advancing foreground Moon.
Within an hour, the only rays from the Sun passing the Moon appeared
like a diamond ring. During totality, most of the surrounding sky went
dark, making the bright pink prominences around the Sun's edge stand
out, and making the amazing corona appear to spread into the
surrounding sky. The central view of the corona shows an accumulation
of frames taken during complete totality. As the video ends, just a few
minutes later, another diamond ring appeared -- this time on the other
side of the Moon. Within the next hour, the sky returned to normal.

Celebrate the Voids: It's Black Hole Week at NASA!
Tomorrow's picture: black hole
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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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2024 May 7
A swirling blue disk is illustrated with a deep colorful indentation in
the middle. A light colored jet shoots out of this middle, from a small
dot that is a black hole. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Black Hole Accreting with Jet
Illustration Credit: NASA, Swift, Aurore Simonnet (Sonoma State U.)

Explanation: What happens when a black hole devours a star? Many
details remain unknown, but observations are providing new clues. In
2014, a powerful explosion was recorded by the ground-based robotic
telescopes of the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (Project
ASAS-SN), with followed-up observations by instruments including NASA's
Earth-orbiting Swift satellite. Computer modeling of these emissions
fit a star being ripped apart by a distant supermassive black hole. The
results of such a collision are portrayed in the featured artistic
illustration. The black hole itself is a depicted as a tiny black dot
in the center. As matter falls toward the hole, it collides with other
matter and heats up. Surrounding the black hole is an accretion disk of
hot matter that used to be the star, with a jet emanating from the
black hole's spin axis.

Fall towards eternity: It's Black Hole Week at NASA!
Tomorrow's picture: space, distorted
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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.

2024 May 8

Visualization: A Black Hole Accretion Disk
Visualization Credit: NASACÇÖs Goddard Space Flight Center, Jeremy
Schnittman

Explanation: What would it look like to circle a black hole? If the
black hole was surrounded by a swirling disk of glowing and accreting
gas, then the great gravity of the black hole would deflect light
emitted by the disk to make it look very unusual. The featured animated
video gives a visualization. The video starts with you, the observer,
looking toward the black hole from just above the plane of the
accretion disk. Surrounding the central black hole is a thin circular
image of the orbiting disk that marks the position of the photon sphere
-- inside of which lies the black hole's event horizon. Toward the
left, parts of the large main image of the disk appear brighter as they
move toward you. As the video continues, you loop over the black hole,
soon looking down from the top, then passing through the disk plane on
the far side, then returning to your original vantage point. The
accretion disk does some interesting image inversions -- but never
appears flat. Visualizations such as this are particularly relevant
today as black holes are being imaged in unprecedented detail by the
Event Horizon Telescope.

Singularity Impressive: It's Black Hole Week at NASA!
Tomorrow's picture: famous black hole
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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.

2024 May 9

The Galaxy, the Jet, and a Famous Black Hole
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration

Explanation: Bright elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M87) is home to the
supermassive black hole captured in 2017 by planet Earth's Event
Horizon Telescope in the first ever image of a black hole. Giant of the
Virgo galaxy cluster about 55 million light-years away, M87 is rendered
in blue hues in this infrared image from the Spitzer Space telescope.
Though M87 appears mostly featureless and cloud-like, the Spitzer image
does record details of relativistic jets blasting from the galaxy's
central region. Shown in the inset at top right, the jets themselves
span thousands of light-years. The brighter jet seen on the right is
approaching and close to our line of sight. Opposite, the shock created
by the otherwise unseen receding jet lights up a fainter arc of
material. Inset at bottom right, the historic black hole image is shown
in context at the center of giant galaxy, between the relativistic
jets. Completely unresolved in the Spitzer image, the supermassive
black hole surrounded by infalling material is the source of enormous
energy driving the relativistic jets from the center of active galaxy
M87. The Event Horizon Telescope image of M87 has been enhanced to
reveal a sharper view of the famous supermassive black hole.

It's inescapable: Black Hole Week at NASA!
Tomorrow's picture: pixels in spacetime
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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.

2024 May 10

Simulation: Two Black Holes Merge
Simulation Credit: Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes Project

Explanation: Relax and watch two black holes merge. Inspired by the
first direct detection of gravitational waves in 2015, this simulation
plays in slow motion but would take about one third of a second if run
in real time. Set on a cosmic stage, the black holes are posed in front
of stars, gas, and dust. Their extreme gravity lenses the light from
behind them into Einstein rings as they spiral closer and finally merge
into one. The otherwise invisible gravitational waves generated as the
massive objects rapidly coalesce cause the visible image to ripple and
slosh both inside and outside the Einstein rings even after the black
holes have merged. Dubbed GW150914, the gravitational waves detected by
LIGO are consistent with the merger of 36 and 31 solar mass black holes
at a distance of 1.3 billion light-years. The final, single black hole
has 63 times the mass of the Sun, with the remaining 3 solar masses
converted into energy radiated in gravitational waves.

Today's Event Horizon: It's Black Hole Week at NASA!
Tomorrow's picture: What's 42-5?
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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.

2024 May 11
The Sun is shown in black and white showing dark sunspots on the far
right. The large sunspot group is expanded in an inset image at the
bottom left. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

AR 3664: Giant Sunspot Group
Image Credit & Copyright: Franco Fantasia & Guiseppe Conzo (Gruppo
Astrofili Palidoro)

Explanation: Right now, one of the largest sunspot groups in recent
history is crossing the Sun. Active Region 3664 is not only big -- it's
violent, throwing off clouds of particles into the Solar System. Some
of these CMEs are already impacting the Earth, and others might follow.
At the extreme, these solar storms could cause some Earth-orbiting
satellites to malfunction, the Earth's atmosphere to slightly distort,
and electrical power grids to surge. When impacting Earth's upper
atmosphere, these particles can produce beautiful auroras, with some
auroras already being reported unusually far south. Pictured here,
AR3664 and its dark sunspots were captured yesterday in visible light
from Rome, Italy. The AR3664 sunspot group is so large that it is
visible just with glasses designed to view last month's total solar
eclipse. This weekend, skygazing enthusiasts will be keenly watching
the night skies all over the globe for bright and unusual auroras.

Gallery: Active Region 6443 on the Sun
Tomorrow's picture: active sky
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 May 12
Red and purple aurora appear over a field in Poland. A tree is seen to
the right, and a person stands in the distance holding a glowing phone.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Red Aurora over Poland
Image Credit & Copyright: Mariusz Durlej

Explanation: Northern lights don't usually reach this far south.
Magnetic chaos in the Sun's huge Active Region 3664, however, produced
a surface explosion that sent a burst of electrons, protons, and more
massive, charged nuclei into the Solar System. A few days later, that
coronal mass ejection (CME) impacted the Earth and triggered auroras
that are being reported unusually far from our planet's north and south
poles. The free sky show might not be over -- the sunspot rich AR3664
has ejected even more CMEs that might also impact the Earth tonight or
tomorrow. That active region is now near the Sun's edge, though, and
will soon be rotating away from the Earth. Pictured, a red and rayed
aurora was captured in a single 6-second exposure from Racib+|rz, Poland
early last night. The photographer's friend, seeing an aurora for the
first time, is visible in the distance also taking images of the
beautifully colorful nighttime sky.

Gallery: Global Aurora from Solar Active Region 6443
Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 May 13
A distant Sun is seen over water and between foreground trees. On the
lower part of the Sun is the gigantic active region AR 3664 visible by
its dark sunspots. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

AR 3664 on a Setting Sun
Image Credit & Copyright: Marco Meniero

Explanation: It was larger than the Earth. It was so big you could
actually see it on the Sun's surface without magnification. It
contained powerful and tangled magnetic fields as well as numerous dark
sunspots. Labelled AR 3664, it developed into one of the most energetic
areas seen on the Sun in recent years, unleashing a series of
explosions that led to a surge of energetic particles striking the
Earth, which created beautiful auroras. And might continue. Although
active regions on the Sun like AR 3664 can be quite dangerous, this
region's Coronal Mass Ejections have not done, as yet, much damage to
Earth-orbiting satellites or Earth-surface electrical grids. Pictured,
the enormous active region was captured on the setting Sun a few days
ago from Civitavecchia, Rome, Italy. The composite image includes a
very short exposure taken of just the Sun's surface, but mimics what
was actually visible. Finally, AR 3664 is now rotating away from the
Earth, although the region may survive long enough to come around
again.

Gallery: Earth Aurora from Solar Active Region 6443
Tomorrow's picture: What is 42 - 5?
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 May 14

The 37 Cluster
Image Credit & Copyright: Sergio Eguivar

Explanation: For the mostly harmless denizens of planet Earth, the
brighter stars of open cluster NGC 2169 seem to form a cosmic 37. Did
you expect 42? From our perspective, the improbable numerical asterism
appears solely by chance. It lies at an estimated distance of 3,300
light-years toward the constellation Orion. As far as galactic or open
star clusters go, NGC 2169 is a small one, spanning about 7
light-years. Formed at the same time from the same cloud of dust and
gas, the stars of NGC 2169 are only about 11 million years old. Such
clusters are expected to disperse over time as they encounter other
stars, interstellar clouds, and experience gravitational tides while
hitchhiking through the galaxy. Over four billion years ago, our own
Sun was likely formed in a similar open cluster of stars.

Gallery: Earth Aurora from Solar Active Region 3664
Tomorrow's picture: green space arch
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 May 15
Part of the Sun is pictured, oriented as the right edge. The surface is
textured like a carpet. Over the edge a long multi-pronged prominence
stands out. Behind the Sun is the darkness of space. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

AR 3664 at the Sun's Edge
Image Credit & Copyright: Sebastian Voltmer

Explanation: What did the monster active region that created the recent
auroras look like when at the Sun's edge? There, AR 3664 better showed
its 3D structure. Pictured, a large multi-pronged solar prominence was
captured extending from chaotic sunspot region AR 3664 out into space,
just one example of the particle clouds ejected from this violent solar
region. The Earth could easily fit under this long-extended prominence.
The featured image was captured two days ago from this constantly
changing region. Yesterday, the strongest solar flare in years was
expelled (not shown), a blast classified in the upper X-class.
Ultraviolet light from that flare quickly hit the Earth's atmosphere
and caused shortwave radio blackouts across both North and South
America. Although now rotated to be facing slightly away from the
Earth, particles from AR 3664 and subsequent coronal mass ejections
(CMEs) might still follow curved magnetic field lines across the inner
Solar System and create more Earthly auroras.

Gallery: Earth Aurora from Solar Active Region 6443
Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 May 16

Aurora Georgia
Image Credit & Copyright: Wright Dobbs

Explanation: A familiar sight from Georgia, USA, the Moon sets near the
western horizon in this rural night skyscape. Captured on May 10 before
local midnight, the image overexposes the Moon's bright waning crescent
at left in the frame. A long irrigation rig stretches across farmland
about 15 miles north of the city of Bainbridge. Shimmering curtains of
aurora shine across the starry sky, definitely an unfamiliar sight for
southern Georgia nights. Last weekend, extreme geomagnetic storms
triggered by the recent intense activity from solar active region AR
3664 brought epic displays of aurora, usually seen closer to the poles,
to southern Georgia and even lower latitudes on planet Earth. As solar
activity ramps up, more storms are possible.

AuroraSaurus: Report your aurora observations
Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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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.

2024 May 17

Aurora Banks Peninsula
Image Credit & Copyright: Kavan Chay

Explanation: This well-composed composite panoramic view looks due
south from Banks Peninsula near Christchurch on New Zealand's South
Island. The base of a tower-like rocky sea stack is awash in the
foreground, with stars of the Southern Cross at the top of the frame
and planet Earth's south celestial pole near center. Still, captured on
May 11, vibrant aurora australis dominate the starry southern sea and
skyscape. The shimmering southern lights were part of extensive auroral
displays that entertained skywatchers in northern and southern
hemispheres around planet Earth, caused by intense geomagnetic storms.
The extreme spaceweather was triggered by the impact of coronal mass
ejections launched from powerful solar active region AR 3664.

AuroraSaurus: Report your aurora observations
Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility 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.

2024 May 18

North Celestial Aurora
Image Credit & Copyright: Chirag Upreti

Explanation: Graceful star trail arcs reflect planet Earth's daily
rotation in this colorful night skyscape. To create the timelapse
composite, on May 12 consecutive exposures were recorded with a camera
fixed to a tripod on the shores of the Ashokan Reservoir, in the
Catskills region of New York, USA. North star Polaris is near the
center of the star trail arcs. The broad trail of a waxing crescent
Moon is on the left, casting a strong reflection across the reservoir
waters. With intense solar activity driving recent geomagnetic storms,
the colorful aurora borealis or northern lights, rare to the region,
shine under Polaris and the north celestial pole.

AuroraSaurus: Report your aurora observations
Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 May 19

Jupiter Diving
Animated Video Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SwRI, MSSS, Gerald Eichstadt,
Justin Cowart

Explanation: Take this simulated plunge and dive into the upper
atmosphere of Jupiter, the Solar System's ruling gas giant. The awesome
animation is based on image data from JunoCam, and the microwave
radiometer on board the Jupiter-orbiting Juno spacecraft. Your view
will start about 3,000 kilometers above the southern Jovian cloud tops,
and you can track your progress on the display at the left. As altitude
decreases, temperature increases while you dive deeper at the location
of Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot. In fact, Juno data indicates the
Great Red Spot, the Solar System's largest storm system, penetrates
some 300 kilometers into the giant planet's atmosphere. For comparison,
the deepest point for planet Earth's oceans is just under 11 kilometers
down. Don't worry though, you'll fly back out again.

Dive into the Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: aurora amazing
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 May 20
A large purple transparent dome appears to cover much of a starry sky.
A person stands in a field looking toward the unusual spectacle. Please
see the explanation for more detailed information.

Aurora Dome Sky
Image Credit & Copyright: Xuecheng Liu & Yuxuan Liu

Explanation: It seemed like night, but part of the sky glowed purple.
It was the now famous night of May 10, 2024, when people over much of
the world reported beautiful aurora-filled skies. The featured image
was captured this night during early morning hours from Arlington,
Wisconsin, USA. The panorama is a composite of several 6-second
exposures covering two thirds of the visible sky, with north in the
center, and processed to heighten the colors and remove electrical
wires. The photographer (in the foreground) reported that the aurora
appeared to flow from a point overhead but illuminated the sky only
toward the north. The aurora's energetic particles originated from CMEs
ejected from our Sun over sunspot AR 6443 a few days before. This large
active region rotated to the far side of the Sun last week, but may
well survive to rotate back toward the Earth next week.

Tomorrow's picture: hungry cloud
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, 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.

2024 May 21
The featured image shows a distant galaxy on the left next to a gas
cloud on the right. An opening in the gas cloud is on the same side as
the galaxy. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

CG4: The Globule and the Galaxy
Image Credit: CTIO, NOIRLab, DOE, NSF, AURA; Processing: T. A. Rector
(U. Alaska Anchorage/NSFCÇÖs NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NSFCÇÖs
NOIRLab)

Explanation: Can a gas cloud eat a galaxy? It's not even close. The
"claw" of this odd looking "creature" in the featured photo is a gas
cloud known as a cometary globule. This globule, however, has ruptured.
Cometary globules are typically characterized by dusty heads and
elongated tails. These features cause cometary globules to have visual
similarities to comets, but in reality they are very much different.
Globules are frequently the birthplaces of stars, and many show very
young stars in their heads. The reason for the rupture in the head of
this object is not yet known. The galaxy to the left of the globule is
huge, very far in the distance, and only placed near CG4 by chance
superposition.

Tomorrow's picture: green sky arc
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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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.

2024 May 22
A big green arc is seen arching across the night sky. The arc fades
away above into a green haze, while no green glow is seen below the
arc. A dark sky filled with stars and constellations fills the
background. Snow and distant trees line the foreground. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Green Aurora over Sweden
Image Credit & Copyright: G++ran Strand

Explanation: It was bright and green and stretched across the sky. This
striking aurora display was captured in 2016 just outside of +ûstersund,
Sweden. Six photographic fields were merged to create the featured
panorama spanning almost 180 degrees. Particularly striking aspects of
this aurora include its sweeping arc-like shape and its stark
definition. Lake Storsj++n is seen in the foreground, while several
familiar constellations and the star Polaris are visible through the
aurora, far in the background. Coincidently, the aurora appears to
avoid the Moon visible on the lower left. The aurora appeared a day
after a large hole opened in the Sun's corona, allowing particularly
energetic particles to flow out into the Solar System. The green color
of the aurora is caused by oxygen atoms recombining with ambient
electrons high in the Earth's atmosphere.

Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?
(post 1995)
Tomorrow's picture: galaxies unraveled
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& 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.

2024 May 23

Unraveling NGC 3169
Image Credit & Copyright: Christophe Vergnes, Aziz Kaeouach

Explanation: Spiral galaxy NGC 3169 looks to be unraveling like a ball
of cosmic yarn. It lies some 70 million light-years away, south of
bright star Regulus toward the faint constellation Sextans. Wound up
spiral arms are pulled out into sweeping tidal tails as NGC 3169 (left)
and neighboring NGC 3166 interact gravitationally. Eventually the
galaxies will merge into one, a common fate even for bright galaxies in
the local universe. Drawn out stellar arcs and plumes are clear
indications of the ongoing gravitational interactions across the deep
and colorful galaxy group photo. The telescopic frame spans about 20
arc minutes or about 400,000 light-years at the group's estimated
distance, and includes smaller, bluish NGC 3165 to the right. NGC 3169
is also known to shine across the spectrum from radio to X-rays,
harboring an active galactic nucleus that is the site of a supermassive
black hole.

Tomorrow's picture: Chamaeleon Cloud
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 May 24
A star field filled with complex dark dust and bright purple nebulas is
shown. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

M78 from the Euclid Space Telescope
Image Credit & License: ESA, Euclid, Euclid Consortium, NASA;
Processing: J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi

Explanation: Star formation can be messy. To help find out just how
messy, ESA's new Sun-orbiting Euclid telescope recently captured the
most detailed image ever of the bright star forming region M78. Near
the image center, M78 lies at a distance of only about 1,300
light-years away and has a main glowing core that spans about 5
light-years. The featured image was taken in both visible and infrared
light. The purple tint in M78's center is caused by dark dust
preferentially reflecting the blue light of hot, young stars. Complex
dust lanes and filaments can be traced through this gorgeous and
revealing skyscape. On the upper left is associated star forming region
NGC 2071, while a third region of star formation is visible on the
lower right. These nebulas are all part of the vast Orion Molecular
Cloud Complex which can be found with even a small telescope just north
of Orion's belt.

More Euclid Sky Candy: Recent images released from Euclid
Tomorrow's picture: Earth's big mystery crater
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 May 25

Manicouagan Impact Crater from Space
Image Credit: NASA, International Space Station Expedition 59

Explanation: Orbiting 400 kilometers above Quebec, Canada, planet
Earth, the International Space Station Expedition 59 crew captured this
snapshot of the broad St. Lawrence River and curiously circular Lake
Manicouagan on April 11. Right of center, the ring-shaped lake is a
modern reservoir within the eroded remnant of an ancient 100 kilometer
diameter impact crater. The ancient crater is very conspicuous from
orbit, a visible reminder that Earth is vulnerable to rocks from space.
Over 200 million years old, the Manicouagan crater was likely caused by
the impact of a rocky body about 5 kilometers in diameter. Currently,
there is no known asteroid with a significant probability of impacting
Earth in the next century. Each month, NASACÇÖs Planetary Defense
Coordination Office releases an update featuring the most recent
figures on near-Earth object close approaches, and other facts about
comets and asteroids that could pose a potential impact hazard with
Earth.

Tomorrow's picture: explosion on the Sun
__________________________________________________________________

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

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written by a professional astronomer.

2024 May 26
A large filament on the upper left is seen lifting away from the Sun,
pictured on the lower right. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

A Solar Filament Erupts
Image Credit: NASA's GSFC, SDO AIA Team

Explanation: What's happened to our Sun? Nothing very unusual -- it
just threw a filament. Toward the middle of 2012, a long standing solar
filament suddenly erupted into space, producing an energetic coronal
mass ejection (CME). The filament had been held up for days by the
Sun's ever changing magnetic field and the timing of the eruption was
unexpected. Watched closely by the Sun-orbiting Solar Dynamics
Observatory, the resulting explosion shot electrons and ions into the
Solar System, some of which arrived at Earth three days later and
impacted Earth's magnetosphere, causing visible auroras. Loops of
plasma surrounding the active region can be seen above the erupting
filament in the featured ultraviolet image. Our Sun is nearing the most
active time in its 11-year cycle, creating many coronal holes that
allow for the ejection of charged particles into space. As before,
these charged particles can create auroras.

Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?
(post 1995)
Tomorrow's picture: Chamaeleon Sky
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

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

Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 May 27

Chamaeleon I Molecular Cloud
Image Credit & Copyright: Amiel Contuliano

Explanation: Dark markings and bright nebulae in this telescopic
southern sky view are telltale signs of young stars and active star
formation. They lie a mere 650 light-years away, at the boundary of the
local bubble and the Chamaeleon molecular cloud complex. Regions with
young stars identified as dusty reflection nebulae from the 1946
Cederblad catalog include the C-shaped Ced 110 just above and right of
center, and bluish Ced 111 below it. Also a standout in the frame, the
orange tinted V-shape of the Chamaeleon Infrared Nebula (Cha IRN) was
carved by material streaming from a newly formed low-mass star. The
well-composed image spans 1.5 degrees. That's about 17 light-years at
the estimated distance of the nearby Chamaeleon I molecular cloud.

Tomorrow's picture: stairway to
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 May 28

Solar X Flare as Famous Active Region Returns
Video Credit: NASA, Solar Dynamics Observatory

Explanation: It's back. The famous active region on the Sun that
created auroras visible around the Earth earlier this month has
survived its rotation around the far side of the Sun -- and returned.
Yesterday, as it was beginning to reappear on the Earth-facing side,
the region formerly labeled AR 3664 threw another major solar flare,
again in the highest-energy X-class range. The featured video shows the
emerging active region on the lower left, as it was captured by NASA's
Earth-orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory yesterday in ultraviolet
light. The video is a time-lapse of the entire Sun rotating over 24
hours. Watch the lower-left region carefully at about the 2-second mark
to see the powerful flare burst out. The energetic particles from that
flare and associated CME are not expected to directly impact the Earth
and trigger impressive auroras, but scientists will keep a close watch
on this unusually active region over the next two weeks, as it faces
the Earth, to see what develops.

Tomorrow's picture: stairway to CǪ
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-7
* 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.

2024 May 29
A star filled sky shows the arch of the central band of our Milky Way
galaxy across the top of the image. In the foreground is a rocky
landscape with a hill ahead and a pathway that leads to stairs up that
hill. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Stairway to the Milky Way
Image Credit & Copyright: Marcin Rosadzi+äski

Explanation: What happens if you ascend this stairway to the Milky Way?
Before answering that, let's understand the beautiful sky you will see.
Most eye-catching is the grand arch of the Milky Way Galaxy, the band
that is the central disk of our galaxy which is straight but distorted
by the wide-angle nature of this composite image. Many stars well in
front of the Milk Way will be visible, with the bright white star just
below the stellar arch being Altair, and the bright blue star above it
being Vega. The air glows green on the left, just above the yellow
cloud deck. The featured image was taken last month on Portugal's
Madeira Island in the North Atlantic Ocean. Oh, and what happens after
you reach the top of these stairs and admire the amazing sky is, quite
probably, that you then descend down the stairs on the other side.

Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?
(post 1995)
Tomorrow's picture: tower moon
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 May 30
The famous Eiffel Tower in Paris, France is pictured on the left lit up
in gold at night. A blue laser shines out from the top. Clouds dot the
background sky. The Moon is also visible through the clouds, but is
circled by colorful rings: a lunar corona. Please see the explanation
for more detailed information.

A Lunar Corona over Paris
Image Credit & Copyright: Valter Binotto

Explanation: Why does a cloudy moon sometimes appear colorful? The
effect, called a lunar corona, is created by the quantum mechanical
diffraction of light around individual, similarly-sized water droplets
in an intervening but mostly-transparent cloud. Since light of
different colors has different wavelengths, each color diffracts
differently. Lunar coronae are one of the few quantum mechanical color
effects that can be easily seen with the unaided eye. Solar coronae are
also sometimes evident. The featured image was taken last month from
Paris, France. The blue beacon emanating from the Eiffel Tower did not
affect the colorful lunar corona.

Portal Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: nebulous realm
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 May 31

The Nebulous Realm of WR 134
Image Credit & Copyright: Xin Long

Explanation: Made with narrowband filters, this cosmic snapshot covers
a field of view over twice as wide as the full Moon within the
boundaries of the constellation Cygnus. It highlights the bright edge
of a ring-like nebula traced by the glow of ionized hydrogen and oxygen
gas. Embedded in the region's expanse of interstellar clouds, the
complex, glowing arcs are sections of shells of material swept up by
the wind from Wolf-Rayet star WR 134, brightest star near the center of
the frame. Distance estimates put WR 134 about 6,000 light-years away,
making the frame over 100 light-years across. Shedding their outer
envelopes in powerful stellar winds, massive Wolf-Rayet stars have
burned through their nuclear fuel at a prodigious rate and end this
final phase of massive star evolution in a spectacular supernova
explosion. The stellar winds and final supernova enrich the
interstellar material with heavy elements to be incorporated in future
generations of stars.

Tomorrow's picture: stereo moon
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 June 1

Stereo Helene
Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, ISS, JPL, ESA, NASA; Stereo Image
by Roberto Beltramini

Explanation: Get out your red/blue glasses and float next to Helene,
small, icy moon of Saturn. Appropriately named, Helene is a Trojan
moon, so called because it orbits at a Lagrange point. A Lagrange point
is a gravitationally stable position near two massive bodies, in this
case Saturn and larger moon Dione. In fact, irregularly shaped ( about
36 by 32 by 30 kilometers) Helene orbits at Dione's leading Lagrange
point while brotherly ice moon Polydeuces follows at Dione's trailing
Lagrange point. The sharp stereo anaglyph was constructed from two
Cassini images captured during a close flyby in 2011. It shows part of
the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Helene mottled with craters and
gully-like features.

Tomorrow's picture: both sides of Earth's Moon
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 June 2

Rotating Moon from LRO
Video Credit: NASA, LRO, Arizona State U.

Explanation: No one, presently, sees the Moon rotate like this. That's
because the Earth's moon is tidally locked to the Earth, showing us
only one side. Given modern digital technology, however, combined with
many detailed images returned by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
(LRO), a high resolution virtual Moon rotation movie has been composed.
The featured time-lapse video starts with the standard Earth view of
the Moon. Quickly, though, Mare Orientale, a large crater with a dark
center that is difficult to see from the Earth, rotates into view just
below the equator. From an entire lunar month condensed into 24
seconds, the video clearly shows that the Earth side of the Moon
contains an abundance of dark lunar maria, while the lunar far side is
dominated by bright lunar highlands. Currently, over 32 new missions to
the Moon are under active development from multiple countries and
companies, including NASA's Artemis program which aims to land people
on the Moon again within the next few years.

Tomorrow's picture: island universe
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, 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.

2024 June 3

NGC 2403 in Camelopardalis
Image Credit & Copyright: (Team F.A.C.T.) Lilian Lbt - Cyrille Malo -
Maxime Martin - Cl+¬ment Daniel - Paul Grasset - Louis Leroux-G+¬r+¬

Explanation: Magnificent island universe NGC 2403 stands within the
boundaries of the long-necked constellation Camelopardalis. Some 10
million light-years distant and about 50,000 light-years across, the
spiral galaxy also seems to have more than its fair share of giant star
forming HII regions, marked by the telltale reddish glow of atomic
hydrogen gas. The giant HII regions are energized by clusters of hot,
massive stars that explode as bright supernovae at the end of their
short and furious lives. A member of the M81 group of galaxies, NGC
2403 closely resembles a galaxy in our own local galaxy group with an
abundance of star forming regions, M33, the Triangulum Galaxy. Spiky in
appearance, bright stars in this portrait of NGC 2403 are in the
foreground, within our own Milky Way. Also in the foreground of the
deep, wide-field, telescopic image are the Milky Way's dim and dusty
interstellar clouds also known as galactic cirrus or integrated flux
nebulae. But faint features that seem to extend from NGC 2403 itself
are likely tidal stellar streams drawn out by gravitational
interactions with neighboring galaxies.

Tomorrow's picture: tail tales
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 June 4
A dark star filled sky is shown with the wisps extending the length of
the image. The wisps are the two tails of Comet 12P. A particularly
bright star is visible near the bottom of the frame. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Comet Pons-Brooks Develops Opposing Tails
Image Credit & Copyright: Rolando Ligustri & Lukas Demetz

Explanation: Why does Comet Pons-Brooks now have tails pointing in
opposite directions? The most spectacular tail is the blue-glowing ion
tail that is visible flowing down the image. The ion tail is pushed
directly out from the Sun by the solar wind. On the upper right is the
glowing central coma of Comet 12P/PonsCÇôBrooks. Fanning out from the
coma, mostly to the left, is the comet's dust tail. Pushed out and
slowed down by the pressure of sunlight, the dust tail tends to trail
the comet along its orbit and, from some viewing angles, can appear
opposite to the ion tail. The distant, bright star Alpha Leporis is
seen at the bottom of the featured image captured last week from
Namibia. Two days ago, the comet passed its closest to the Earth and is
now best visible from southern skies as it dims and glides back to the
outer Solar System.

Tomorrow's picture: mystery martian
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, 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.

2024 June 5
A red landscape filled with rocks is shown. A hilltop is visible in the
distance. A shadow is visible on the landscape. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Shadow of a Martian Robot
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS, ASU, NeV-T, Perseverance Rover;
Processing & Copyright: Neville Thompson, Gigapan Zoom

Explanation: What if you saw your shadow on Mars and it wasn't human?
Then you might be the Perseverance rover exploring Mars. Perseverance
has been examining the Red Planet since 2021, finding evidence of its
complex history of volcanism and ancient flowing water, and sending
breathtaking images across the inner Solar System. Pictured here in
February of 2024, Perseverance looks opposite the Sun and across
Neretva Vallis in Jezero Crater, with a local hill visible at the top
of the frame. The distinctively non-human shadow of the car-sized rover
is visible below center, superposed on scattered rocks. Perseverance,
now working without its flying companion Ingenuity, continues to search
Mars for signs of ancient life.

Tomorrow's picture: galaxy on edge
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 June 6

NGC 4565: Galaxy on Edge
Image Credit & Copyright: L+|r+índ F+¬nyes

Explanation: Magnificent spiral galaxy NGC 4565 is viewed edge-on from
planet Earth. Also known as the Needle Galaxy for its narrow profile,
bright NGC 4565 is a stop on many telescopic tours of the northern sky,
in the faint but well-groomed constellation Coma Berenices. This sharp,
colorful image reveals the galaxy's boxy, bulging central core cut by
obscuring dust lanes that lace NGC 4565's thin galactic plane. NGC 4565
itself lies about 40 million light-years distant and spans some 100,000
light-years. Easily spotted with small telescopes, sky enthusiasts
consider NGC 4565 to be a prominent celestial masterpiece Messier
missed.

Tomorrow's picture: sky dolphin
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
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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.

2024 June 7

SH2-308: The Dolphin Head Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Prabhu Kutti

Explanation: Blown by fast winds from a hot, massive star, this cosmic
bubble is huge. Cataloged as Sharpless 2-308 it lies some 5,000
light-years away toward the well-trained constellation Canis Major and
covers slightly more of the sky than a Full Moon. That corresponds to a
diameter of 60 light-years at its estimated distance. The massive star
that created the bubble, a Wolf-Rayet star, is the bright one near the
center of the nebula. Wolf-Rayet stars have over 20 times the mass of
the Sun and are thought to be in a brief, pre-supernova phase of
massive star evolution. Fast winds from this Wolf-Rayet star create the
bubble-shaped nebula as they sweep up slower moving material from an
earlier phase of evolution. The windblown nebula has an age of about
70,000 years. Relatively faint emission captured by narrowband filters
in the deep image is dominated by the glow of ionized oxygen atoms
mapped to a blue hue. Presenting a mostly harmless outline, SH2-308 is
also known as The Dolphin-head Nebula.

Tomorrow's picture: pandora's galaxies
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility Notices
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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.

2024 June 8

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 recorded by 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. It lies 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, their lensed images 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: what's that?
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 June 9
An illustration is shown which is a decision tree for identifying a
light that might be seen in the sky. The background is gray, and the
text is black in red-lined boxes. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

How to Identify that Light in the Sky
Illustration Credit & Copyright: HK (The League of Lost Causes)

Explanation: What is that light in the sky? The answer to one of
humanity's more common questions may emerge from a few quick
observations. For example -- is it moving or blinking? If so, and if
you live near a city, the answer is typically an airplane, since planes
are so numerous and so few stars and satellites are bright enough to be
seen over the glare of artificial city lights. If not, and if you live
far from a city, that bright light is likely a planet such as Venus or
Mars -- the former of which is constrained to appear near the horizon
just before dawn or after dusk. Sometimes the low apparent motion of a
distant airplane near the horizon makes it hard to tell from a bright
planet, but even this can usually be discerned by the plane's motion
over a few minutes. Still unsure? The featured chart gives a
sometimes-humorous but mostly-accurate assessment. Dedicated sky
enthusiasts will likely note -- and are encouraged to provide -- polite
corrections.

Chart translations: Italian, German, Latvian, Persian, Polish, Spanish,
and Turkish
Tomorrow's picture: big lion
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, 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.

2024 June 10
A starfield is shown with a large colorful emission nebula in the
center. The outline of this emission nebula has a resemblance to a
lion. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Sh2-132: The Lion Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Imran Badr; Text: Natalia Lewandowska (SUNY
Oswego)

Explanation: Is the Lion Nebula the real ruler of the constellation
Cepheus? This powerful feline appearing nebula is powered by two
massive stars, each with a mass over 20 times greater than our Sun.
Formed from shells of ionized gas that have expanded, the nebula's
energetic matter not only glows, but is dense enough to contract
gravitationally and form stars. The angular size of the Lion Nebula,
officially named Sh2-132, is slightly greater than that of the full
moon. The gaseous iconic region resides about 10,000 light years away
in a constellation named after the King of Aethopia in Greek mythology.

Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?
(post 1995)
Tomorrow's picture: star clouds
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 June 11
Colorful nebula and stars fill the wide images. The yellow star Antares
is visible on the left and blue reflection nebula surround a central
nebula and the nebula on the right surrounding the Rho Ophiuchi star
system. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Colorful Stars and Clouds near Rho Ophiuchi
Image Credit & Copyright: Craig Stocks

Explanation: Why is the sky near Antares and Rho Ophiuchi so colorful,
yet dusty? The colors result from a mixture of objects and processes.
Fine dust -- illuminated by starlight -- produces blue reflection
nebulae. Gaseous clouds whose atoms are excited by ultraviolet
starlight produce reddish emission nebulae. Backlit dust clouds block
starlight and so appear dark. Antares, a red supergiant and one of the
brighter stars in the night sky, lights up the yellow-red clouds on the
upper right of the featured image. The Rho Ophiuchi star system lies at
the center of the blue reflection nebula on the left, while a different
reflection nebula, IC 4605, lies just below and right of the image
center. These star clouds are even more colorful than humans can see,
emitting light across the electromagnetic spectrum.

Open Science: Browse 3,400+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code
Library
Tomorrow's picture: unexpected sky
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-7
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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.

2024 June 12
Purple striped aurora cover a star filled sky. Mountain peaks are
visible on the sides, as well as a futuristic looking building on the
right side. City lights are visible in the valley down below. Please
see the explanation for more detailed information.

Aurora over Karkonosze Mountains
Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Koszela

Explanation: It was the first time ever. At least, the first time this
photographer had ever seen aurora from his home mountains. And what a
spectacular aurora it was. The Karkonosze Mountains in Poland are
usually too far south to see any auroras. But on the amazing night of
May 10 - 11, purple and green colors lit up much of the night sky, a
surprising spectacle that also appeared over many mid-latitude
locations around the Earth. The featured image is a composite of six
vertical exposures taken during the auroral peak. The futuristic
buildings on the right are part of a meteorological observatory located
on the highest peak of the Karkonosze Mountains. The purple color is
primarily due to Sun-triggered, high-energy electrons impacting
nitrogen molecules in Earth's atmosphere. Our Sun is reaching its
maximum surface activity over the next two years, and although many
more auroras are predicted, most will occur over regions closer to the
Earth's poles.

Tomorrow's picture: star swirl
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 June 13

Messier 66 Close Up
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble
Collaboration.
Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin and Robert Gendler

Explanation: Big, beautiful spiral galaxy Messier 66 lies a mere 35
million light-years away. The gorgeous island universe is about 100
thousand light-years across, similar in size to the Milky Way. This
Hubble Space Telescope close-up view spans a region about 30,000
light-years wide around the galactic core. It shows the galaxy's disk
dramatically inclined to our line-of-sight. Surrounding its bright
core, the likely home of a supermassive black hole, obscuring dust
lanes and young, blue star clusters sweep along spiral arms dotted with
the tell-tale glow of pinkish star forming regions. Messier 66, also
known as NGC 3627, is the brightest of the three galaxies in the
gravitationally interacting Leo Triplet.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn 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.

2024 June 14

RCW 85
Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Pugh

Explanation: From the 1960 astronomical catalog of Rodgers, Campbell
and Whiteoak, emission region RCW 85 shines in southern night skies
between bright stars Alpha and Beta Centauri. About 5,000 light years
distant, the hazy interstellar cloud of glowing hydrogen gas and dust
is faint. But detailed structures along well-defined rims within RCW 85
are traced in this cosmic skyscape composed of 28 hours of narrow and
broadband exposures. Suggestive of dramatic shapes in other stellar
nurseries where natal clouds of gas and dust are sculpted by energetic
winds and radiation from newborn stars, the tantalizing nebula has been
called the Devil's Tower. This telescopic frame would span around 100
light-years at the estimated distance of RCW 85.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-7
* 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.

2024 June 15

Prominences and Filaments on the Active Sun
Image Credit & Copyright: Steen S+.ndergaard

Explanation: This colorized and sharpened image of the Sun is composed
of frames recording emission from hydrogen atoms in the solar
chromosphere on May 15. Approaching the maximum of solar cycle 25, a
multitude of active regions and twisting, snake-like solar filaments
are seen to sprawl across the surface of the active Sun. Suspend in the
active regions' strong magnetic fields, the filaments of plasma lofted
above the Sun's edge appear as bright solar prominences. The large
prominences seen near 4 o'clock, and just before 9 o'clock around the
solar limb are post flare loops from two powerful X-class solar flares
that both occurred on that day. In fact, the 4 o'clock prominence is
associated with the monster active region AR 3664 just rotating off the
Sun's edge.

Tomorrow's picture: How to destroy a star.
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
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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.

2024 June 16

Animation: Black Hole Destroys Star
Video Illustration Credit: DESY, Science Communication Lab

Explanation: What happens if a star gets too close to a black hole? The
black hole can rip it apart -- but how? It's not the high gravitational
attraction itself that's the problem -- it's the difference in
gravitational pull across the star that creates the destruction. In the
featured animated video illustrating this disintegration, you first see
a star approaching the black hole. Increasing in orbital speed, the
star's outer atmosphere is ripped away during closest approach. Much of
the star's atmosphere disperses into deep space, but some continues to
orbit the black hole and forms an accretion disk. The animation then
takes you into the accretion disk while looking toward the black hole.
Including the strange visual effects of gravitational lensing, you can
even see the far side of the disk. Finally, you look along one of the
jets being expelled along the spin axis. Theoretical models indicate
that these jets not only expel energetic gas, but also create energetic
neutrinos -- one of which may have been seen recently on Earth.

Almost Hyperspace: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: big squid
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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.

2024 June 17
A starfield has a red nebula covering much of the frame but in the
center, extending nearly vertically, is a blue nebula that appears
shaped, to some, like a squid. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Ou4: The Giant Squid Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Alex Linde

Explanation: Squids on Earth aren't this big. This mysterious
squid-like cosmic cloud spans nearly three full moons on planet Earth's
sky. Discovered in 2011 by French astro-imager Nicolas Outters, the
Squid Nebula's bipolar shape is distinguished here by the telltale blue
emission from doubly ionized oxygen atoms. Though apparently surrounded
by the reddish hydrogen emission region Sh2-129, the true distance and
nature of the Squid Nebula have been difficult to determine. Still, one
investigation suggests Ou4 really does lie within Sh2-129 some 2,300
light-years away. Consistent with that scenario, the cosmic squid would
represent a spectacular outflow of material driven by a triple system
of hot, massive stars, cataloged as HR8119, seen near the center of the
nebula. If so, this truly giant squid nebula would physically be over
50 light-years across.

Tomorrow's picture: thunder jets
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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.

2024 June 18
A landscape showing a night sky over distant mountains is shown. Lakes
dot the foreground in front of the mountains. Extending from above the
mountains into the night sky are six bright jets. The jets are violet
at the bottom but red at the top. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Gigantic Jets over Himalayan Mountains
Image Credit & Copyright: Li Xuanhua

Explanation: Yes, but can your thunderstorm do this? Pictured here are
gigantic jets shooting up from a thunderstorm last week toward the
Himalayan Mountains in China and Bhutan. The composite image captured
four long jets that occurred only minutes apart. Gigantic jets,
documented only in this century, are a type of lightning discharge that
occurs between some thunderstorms and the Earth's ionosphere high above
them. They are an unusual type of lightning that is much different from
regular cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning. The bottoms of
gigantic jets appear similar to a cloud-to-above strike called blue
jets, while the tops appear similar to upper-atmosphere red sprites.
Although the mechanism and trigger that cause gigantic jets remains a
topic of research, it is clear that the jets reduce charge imbalance
between different parts of Earth's atmosphere. A good way to look for
gigantic jets is to watch a powerful but distant thunderstorm from a
clear location.

Tomorrow's picture: dragon fight
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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.

2024 June 19
Gas and dust are shown in a deep starfield. The gas glows blue and red,
while the dark dust is connected in filaments across the image. To
some, the filaments appear to have the shape of two dragons fighting.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

NGC 6188: Dragons of Ara
Image Credit & Copyright: Carlos Taylor

Explanation: Do dragons fight on the altar of the sky? Although it
might appear that way, these dragons are illusions made of thin gas and
dust. The emission nebula NGC 6188, home to the glowing clouds, is
found about 4,000 light years away near the edge of a large molecular
cloud, unseen at visible wavelengths, in the southern constellation Ara
(the Altar). Massive, young stars of the embedded Ara OB1 association
were formed in that region only a few million years ago, sculpting the
dark shapes and powering the nebular glow with stellar winds and
intense ultraviolet radiation. The recent star formation itself was
likely triggered by winds and supernova explosions from previous
generations of massive stars, that swept up and compressed the
molecular gas. This impressively detailed image spans over 2 degrees
(four full Moons), corresponding to over 150 light years at the
estimated distance of NGC 6188.

Tomorrow's picture: open solstice
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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.

2024 June 20

Sandy and the Moon Halo
Image Credit & Copyright: Marcella Giulia Pace

Explanation: Last April's Full Moon shines through high clouds near the
horizon, casting shadows in this garden-at-night skyscape. Along with
canine sentinel Sandy watching the garden gate, the wide-angle snapshot
also captured the bright Moon's 22 degree ice halo. But June's bright
Full Moon will cast shadows too. This month, the Moon's exact full
phase occurs at 01:08 UTC June 22. That's a mere 28 hours or so after
today's June solstice (at 20:51 UTC June 20), the moment when the Sun
reaches its maximum northern declination. Known to some as a Strawberry
Moon, June's Full Moon is at its southernmost declination, and of
course will create its own 22 degree halos in hazy night skies.

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
written by a professional astronomer.

2024 June 21

Hubble's NGC 1546
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, David Thilker (JHU)

Explanation: Returning to science operations on June 14, the Hubble
Space Telescope used its new pointing mode to capture this sharp image
of spiral galaxy NGC 1546. A member of the Dorado galaxy group, the
island universe lies a mere 50 million light-years away. The galactic
disk of NGC 1546 is tilted to our line-of-sight, with the yellowish
light of the old stars and bluish regions of newly formed stars shining
through the galaxy's dust lanes. More distant background galaxies are
scattered throughout this Hubble view. Launched in 1990, Hubble has
been exploring the cosmos for more than three decades, recently
celebrating its 34th anniversary.

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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written by a professional astronomer.

2024 June 22

Lynds Dark Nebula 1251
Image Credit & Copyright: Long Xin

Explanation: Stars are forming in Lynds Dark Nebula (LDN) 1251. About
1,000 light-years away and drifting above the plane of our Milky Way
galaxy, LDN 1251 is also less appetizingly known as "The Rotten Fish
Nebula." The dusty molecular cloud is part of a complex of dark nebulae
mapped toward the Cepheus flare region. Across the spectrum,
astronomical explorations of the obscuring interstellar clouds reveal
energetic shocks and outflows associated with newborn stars, including
the telltale reddish glow from scattered Herbig-Haro objects hiding in
the image. Distant background galaxies also lurk in the scene, almost
buried behind the dusty expanse. This alluring view spans over four
full moons on the sky, or 35 light-years at the estimated distance of
LDN 1251.

Tomorrow's picture: colors of Saturn
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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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2024 June 23
Saturn is shown taking up most of the frame. Most of the planet appears
a banded gold. A thin line that is the rings appears dark brown and
runs diagonally from the lower left. The upper part has dark bands
which are shadows and behind the shadows the color of Saturn's
atmosphere appears blue. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

The Colors of Saturn from Cassini
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, JPL, ISS, Cassini Imaging Team; Processing &
License: Judy Schmidt

Explanation: What creates Saturn's colors? The featured picture of
Saturn only slightly exaggerates what a human would see if hovering
close to the giant ringed world. The image was taken in 2005 by the
robot Cassini spacecraft that orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017. Here
Saturn's majestic rings appear directly only as a curved line,
appearing brown, in part from its infrared glow. The rings best show
their complex structure in the dark shadows they create across the
upper part of the planet. The northern hemisphere of Saturn can appear
partly blue for the same reason that Earth's skies can appear blue --
molecules in the cloudless portions of both planet's atmospheres are
better at scattering blue light than red. When looking deep into
Saturn's clouds, however, the natural gold hue of Saturn's clouds
becomes dominant. It is not known why southern Saturn does not show the
same blue hue -- one hypothesis holds that clouds are higher there. It
is also not known why some of Saturn's clouds are colored gold.

Tomorrow's picture: farthest galaxy
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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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2024 June 24
A dark field is shown filled with smudges that are distant galaxies.
One smudge is expanded in an inset box. This box shows a reddish
elongated object. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

JADES-GS-z14-0: A New Farthest Object
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, B. Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), B.
Johnson (CfA), S. Tacchella (Cambridge), P. Cargile (CfA)

Explanation: What if we could see back to the beginning of the
universe? We could see galaxies forming. But what did galaxies look
like back then? These questions took a step forward recently with the
release of the analysis of a James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) image
that included the most distant object yet discovered. Most galaxies
formed at about 3 billion years after the Big Bang, but some formed
earlier. Pictured in the inset box is JADES-GS-z14-0, a faint smudge of
a galaxy that formed only 300 million years after the universe started.
In technical terms, this galaxy lies at the record redshift of z=14.32,
and so existed when the universe was only one fiftieth of the its
present age. Practically all of the objects in the featured photograph
are galaxies.

Tomorrow's picture: space thingy
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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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2024 June 25
A busy starfield is shown which an elongated brown nebula running
diagonally from the lower left to the upper right. A bright blue star
and a star cluster appear above the nebula. Please see the explanation
for more detailed information.

The Dark Doodad Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Pugh & Rocco Sung

Explanation: What is that strange brown ribbon on the sky? When
observing the star cluster NGC 4372, observers frequently take note of
an unusual dark streak nearby running about three degrees in length.
The streak, actually a long molecular cloud, has become known as the
Dark Doodad Nebula. (Doodad is slang for a thingy or a
whatchamacallit.) Pictured here, the Dark Doodad Nebula sweeps across
the center of a rich and colorful starfield. Its dark color comes from
a high concentration of interstellar dust that preferentially scatters
visible light. The globular star cluster NGC 4372 is visible as the
fuzzy white spot on the far left, while the bright blue star gamma
Muscae is seen to the cluster's upper right. The Dark Doodad Nebula can
be found with strong binoculars toward the southern constellation of
the Fly (Musca).

Tomorrow's picture: sky show
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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.

2024 June 26

Timelapse: Aurora, SAR, and the Milky Way
Video Credit & Copyright: Jeff Dai (TWAN); Music (License): Suite
bergamasque by Claude Debussy

Explanation: What's happening in the sky this unusual night? Most
striking in the featured 4.5-hour 360-degree panoramic video, perhaps,
is the pink and purple aurora. That's because this night, encompassing
May 11, was famous for its auroral skies around the world. As the night
progresses, auroral bands shimmer, the central band of our Milky Way
Galaxy rises, and stars shift as the Earth rotates beneath them.
Captured here simultaneously is a rare red band running above the
aurora: a SAR arc, seen to change only slightly. The flashing below the
horizon is caused by passing cars, while the moving spots in the sky
are satellites and airplanes. The featured video was captured from
Xinjiang, China with four separate cameras.

Tomorrow's picture: protostellar outflows
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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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2024 June 27

Protostellar Outflows in Serpens
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pontoppidan (NASA-JPL), Joel
Green (STScI)

Explanation: Jets of material blasting from newborn stars, are captured
in this James Webb Space Telescope close-up of the Serpens Nebula. The
powerful protostellar outflows are bipolar, twin jets spewing in
opposite directions. Their directions are perpendicular to accretion
disks formed around the spinning, collapsing stellar infants. In the
NIRcam image, the reddish color represents emission from molecular
hydrogen and carbon monoxide produced as the jets collide with the
surrounding gas and dust. The sharp image shows for the first time that
individual outflows detected in the Serpens Nebula are generally
aligned along the same direction. That result was expected, but has
only now come into clear view with Webb's detailed exploration of the
active young star-forming region. Brighter foreground stars exhibit
Webb's characteristic diffraction spikes. At the Serpens Nebula's
estimated distance of 1,300 light-years, this cosmic close-up frame is
about 1 light-year across.

Tomorrow's picture: Olber's comet
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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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2024 June 28

Comet 13P/Olbers
Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett`

Explanation: Not a paradox, Comet 13P/Olbers is returning to the inner
Solar System after 68 years. The periodic, Halley-type comet will reach
its next perihelion or closest approach to the Sun on June 30 and has
become a target for binocular viewing low in planet Earth's northern
hemisphere night skies. But this sharp telescopic image of 13P is
composed of stacked exposures made on the night of June 25. It easily
reveals shifting details in the bright comet's torn and tattered ion
tail buffeted by the wind from an active Sun, along with a broad,
fanned-out dust tail and slightly greenish coma. The frame spans over
two degrees across a background of faint stars toward the constellation
Lynx.

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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2024 June 29

A Solstice Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Tunc Tezel (TWAN)

Explanation: Rising opposite the setting Sun, June's Full Moon occurred
within about 28 hours of the solstice. The Moon stays close to the
Sun's path along the ecliptic plane and so while the solstice Sun
climbed high in daytime skies, June's Full Moon remained low that night
as seen from northern latitudes. In fact, the Full Moon hugs the
horizon in this June 21 rooftop night sky view from Bursa, Turkey,
constructed from exposures made every 10 minutes between moonrise and
moonset. In 2024 the Moon also reached a major lunar standstill, an
extreme in the monthly north-south range of moonrise and moonset caused
by the precession of the Moon's orbit over an 18.6 year cycle. As a
result, this June solstice Full Moon was at its southernmost moonrise
and moonset along the horizon.

Tomorrow's picture: Earthrise
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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.

2024 June 30

Earthrise: A Video Reconstruction
Video Credit: NASA, SVS, Apollo 8 Crew;
Lead Animator: Ernie Wright; (USRA); Music: C Major Prelude by Johann
Sebastian Bach

Explanation: About 12 seconds into this video, something unusual
happens. The Earth begins to rise. Never seen by humans before, the
rise of the Earth over the limb of the Moon occurred about 55.5 years
ago and surprised and amazed the crew of Apollo 8. The crew immediately
scrambled to take still images of the stunning vista caused by Apollo
8's orbit around the Moon. The featured video is a modern
reconstruction of the event as it would have looked were it recorded
with a modern movie camera. The colorful orb of our Earth stood out as
a familiar icon rising above a distant and unfamiliar moonscape, the
whole scene the conceptual reverse of a more familiar moonrise as seen
from Earth. To many, the scene also spoke about the unity of humanity:
that big blue marble -- that's us -- we all live there. The two-minute
video is not time-lapse -- this is the real speed of the Earth rising
through the windows of Apollo 8. Seven months and three missions later,
Apollo 11 astronauts would not only circle Earth's moon, but land on
it.

NASA Administrator Remembers Earthrise Photographer William Anders
Tomorrow's picture: time spiral
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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.

2024 July 1
An illustrated spiral is shown depicting many significant events that
have occurred since the big bang. The big bang is at the center, and a
city built by humans is at the spiral's end. Please see the explanation
for more detailed information.

Time Spiral
Illustration Credit: Pablo Carlos Budassi via Wikipedia

Explanation: What's happened since the universe started? The time
spiral shown here features a few notable highlights. At the spiral's
center is the Big Bang, the place where time, as we know it, began
about 13.8 billion years ago. Within a few billion years atoms formed,
then stars formed from atoms, galaxies formed from stars and gas, our
Sun formed, soon followed by our Earth, about 4.6 billion years ago.
Life on Earth begins about 3.8 billion years ago, followed by cells,
then photosynthesis within a billion years. About 1.7 billion years
ago, multicellular life on Earth began to flourish. Fish began to swim
about 500 million years ago, and mammals because walking on land about
200 million years ago. Humans first appeared only about 6 million years
ago, and made the first cities only about 10,000 years ago. The time
spiral illustrated stops there, but human spaceflight might be added,
which started only 75 years ago, and useful artificial intelligence
began to take hold within only the past few years.

Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: oyster stars
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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.

2024 July 2
A star cluster is shown in and around a gas cloud that looks like an
oyster. The rollover image shows the same cluster not only in visible
light, but X-ray and infrared too. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

NGC 602: Oyster Star Cluster
Image Credit: X-ray: Chandra: NASA/CXC/Univ.Potsdam/L.Oskinova et al;
Optical: Hubble: NASA/STScI; Infrared: Spitzer: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Explanation: The clouds may look like an oyster, and the stars like
pearls, but look beyond. Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic
Cloud, a satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years distant, lies
this 5 million year old star cluster NGC 602. Surrounded by its birth
shell of gas and dust, star cluster NGC 602 is featured in this
stunning Hubble image, augmented in a rollover by images in the X-ray
by the Chandra Observatory and in the infrared by Spitzer Telescope.
Fantastic ridges and swept back gas strongly suggest that energetic
radiation and shock waves from NGC 602's massive young stars have
eroded the dusty material and triggered a progression of star formation
moving away from the star cluster's center. At the estimated distance
of the Small Magellanic Cloud, the featured picture spans about 200
light-years, but a tantalizing assortment of background galaxies are
also visible in this sharp view. The background galaxies are hundreds
of millions of light-years -- or more -- beyond NGC 602.

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

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

2024 July 3

M83: Star Streams and a Thousand Rubies
Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Sidonio

Explanation: Big, bright, and beautiful, spiral galaxy M83 lies a mere
twelve million light-years away, near the southeastern tip of the very
long constellation Hydra. About 40,000 light-years across, M83 is known
as the Southern Pinwheel for its pronounced spiral arms. But the wealth
of reddish star forming regions found near the edges of the arms' thick
dust lanes, also suggest another popular moniker for M83, the
Thousand-Ruby Galaxy. This new deep telescopic digital image also
records the bright galaxy's faint, extended halo. Arcing toward the
bottom of the cosmic frame lies a stellar tidal stream, debris drawn
from massive M83 by the gravitational disruption of a smaller, merging
satellite galaxy. Astronomers David Malin and Brian Hadley found the
elusive star stream in the mid 1990s by enhancing photographic plates.

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
written by a professional astronomer.

2024 July 4

A Beautiful Trifid
Image Credit & Copyright: Jes+|s Carmona Guill+¬n

Explanation: The beautiful Trifid Nebula is a cosmic study in
contrasts. Also known as M20, it lies about 5,000 light-years away
toward the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. A star forming region
in the plane of our galaxy, the Trifid does illustrate three different
types of astronomical nebulae; red emission nebulae dominated by light
from hydrogen atoms, blue reflection nebulae produced by dust
reflecting starlight, and dark nebulae where dense dust clouds appear
in silhouette. But the red emission region, roughly separated into
three parts by obscuring dust lanes, is what lends the Trifid its
popular name. Pillars and jets sculpted by newborn stars, above and
right of the emission nebula's center, appear in famous Hubble Space
Telescope close-up images of the region. The Trifid Nebula is about 40
light-years across. Too faint to be seen by the unaided eye, it almost
covers the area of a full moon on planet Earth's sky.

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

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2024 July 5

Mount Etna Milky Way
Image Credit & Copyright: Gianni Tumino

Explanation: A glow from the summit of Mount Etna, famous active
stratovolcano of planet Earth, stands out along the horizon in this
mountain and night skyscape. Bands of diffuse light from congeries of
innumerable stars along the Milky Way galaxy stretch across the sky
above. In silhouette, the Milky Way's massive dust clouds are clumped
along the galactic plane. But also familiar to northern skygazers are
bright stars Deneb, Vega, and Altair, the Summer Triangle straddling
dark nebulae and luminous star clouds poised over the volcanic peak.
The deep combined exposures also reveal the light of active star
forming regions along the Milky Way, echoing Etna's ruddy hue in the
northern hemisphere summer's night.

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

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2024 July 6

NGC 7789: Caroline's Rose
Image Credit & Copyright: Massimo Di Fusco

Explanation: Found among the rich starfields of the Milky Way, star
cluster NGC 7789 lies about 8,000 light-years away toward the
constellation Cassiopeia. A late 18th century deep sky discovery of
astronomer Caroline Lucretia Herschel, the cluster is also known as
Caroline's Rose. Its visual appearance in small telescopes, created by
the cluster's complex of stars and voids, is suggestive of nested rose
petals. Now estimated to be 1.6 billion years young, the galactic or
open cluster of stars also shows its age. All the stars in the cluster
were likely born at the same time, but the brighter and more massive
ones have more rapidly exhausted the hydrogen fuel in their cores.
These have evolved from main sequence stars like the Sun into the many
red giant stars shown with a yellowish cast in this color composite.
Using measured color and brightness, astronomers can model the mass and
hence the age of the cluster stars just starting to "turn off" the main
sequence and become red giants. Over 50 light-years across, Caroline's
Rose spans about half a degree (the angular size of the Moon) near the
center of the sharp telescopic image.

Tomorrow's picture: cloudy skies
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 July 7
A landscape shows the sky above, shallow water in front, and hills to
the right. The sunset sky is filled with beautifully multicolored
clouds. These clouds are clearly reflected by the calm water in front.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Iridescent Clouds over Sweden
Image Credit: Goran Strand

Explanation: Why are these clouds multi-colored? A relatively rare
phenomenon in clouds known as iridescence can bring up unusual colors
vividly -- or even a whole spectrum of colors simultaneously. These
polar stratospheric clouds also, known as nacreous and mother-of-pearl
clouds, are formed of small water droplets of nearly uniform size. When
the Sun is in the right position and, typically, hidden from direct
view, these thin clouds can be seen significantly diffracting sunlight
in a nearly coherent manner, with different colors being deflected by
different amounts. Therefore, different colors will come to the
observer from slightly different directions. Many clouds start with
uniform regions that could show iridescence but quickly become too
thick, too mixed, or too angularly far from the Sun to exhibit striking
colors. The featured image and an accompanying video were taken late in
2019 over Ostersund, Sweden.

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

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2024 July 8
A graphic illustrates hundreds of possible exoplanets, with blue
drawings of planets in the middle, red on the right, and tan on the
left. Some exoplanets are drawn with rings. Please see the explanation
for more detailed information.

Exoplanet Zoo: Other Stars
Illustration Credit & Copyright: Martin Vargic, Halcyon Maps

Explanation: Do other stars have planets like our Sun? Surely they do,
and evidence includes slight star wobbles created by the gravity of
orbiting exoplanets and slight star dimmings caused by orbiting planets
moving in front. In all, there have now been over 5,500 exoplanets
discovered, including thousands by NASA's space-based Kepler and TESS
missions, and over 100 by ESO's ground-based HARPS instrument. Featured
here is an illustrated guess as to what some of these exoplanets might
look like. Neptune-type planets occupy the middle and are colored blue
because of blue-scattering atmospheric methane they might contain. On
the sides of the illustration, Jupiter-type planets are shown, colored
tan and red from the scatterings of atmospheric gases that likely
include small amounts of carbon. Interspersed are many Earth-type rocky
planets of many colors. As more exoplanets are discovered and
investigated, humanity is developing a better understanding of how
common Earth-like planets are, and how common life might be in the
universe.

Tomorrow's picture: highest clouds
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 July 9
A dawn sky is shown that is black at the top and brown near the
horizon. Wispy clouds converge on the right turning from a white to a
blue hue. Near the apex of this convergence is a crescent moon. Please
see the explanation for more detailed information.

Noctilucent Clouds over Florida
Credit & Copyright: Pascal Fouquet

Explanation: These clouds are doubly unusual. First, they are rare
noctilucent clouds, meaning that they are visible at night -- but only
just before sunrise or just after sunset. Second, the source of these
noctilucent clouds is actually known. In this rare case, the source of
the sunlight-reflecting ice-crystals in the upper atmosphere can be
traced back to the launch of a nearby SpaceX rocket about 30 minutes
earlier. Known more formally as polar mesospheric clouds, the vertex of
these icy wisps happens to converge just in front of a rising crescent
Moon. The featured image -- and accompanying video -- were captured
over Orlando, Florida, USA about a week ago. The bright spot to the
right of the Moon is the planet Jupiter, while the dotted lights above
the horizon on the right are from an airplane.

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

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2024 July 10

A Sagittarius Triplet
Image Credit & Copyright: Andy Ermolli

Explanation: These three bright nebulae are often featured on
telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius and the crowded
starfields of the central Milky Way. In fact, 18th century cosmic
tourist Charles Messier cataloged two of them; M8, the large nebula
above center, and colorful M20 below and left in the frame. The third
emission region includes NGC 6559, right of M8 and separated from the
larger nebula by a dark dust lane. All three are stellar nurseries
about five thousand light-years or so distant. Over a hundred
light-years across the expansive M8 is also known as the Lagoon Nebula.
M20's popular moniker is the Trifid. Glowing hydrogen gas creates the
dominant red color of the emission nebulae. But for striking contrast,
blue hues in the Trifid are due to dust reflected starlight. The broad
interstellar skyscape spans almost 4 degrees or 8 full moons on the
sky.

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

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2024 July 11

Globular Cluster Omega Centauri
Image Credit & Copyright: Juergen Stein

Explanation: Globular star cluster Omega Centauri packs about 10
million stars much older than the Sun into a volume some 150
light-years in diameter. Also known as NGC 5139, at a distance of
15,000 light-years it's the largest and brightest of 200 or so known
globular clusters that roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Though
most star clusters consist of stars with the same age and composition,
the enigmatic Omega Cen exhibits the presence of different stellar
populations with a spread of ages and chemical abundances. In fact,
Omega Cen may be the remnant core of a small galaxy merging with the
Milky Way. With a yellowish hue, Omega Centauri's red giant stars are
easy to pick out in this sharp telescopic view. A two-decade-long
exploration of the dense star cluster with the Hubble Space Telescope
has revealed evidence for a massive black hole near the center of Omega
Centauri.

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

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2024 July 12

Jones-Emberson 1
Image Credit & Copyright: Team OURANOS,
(Jean-Baptiste Auroux, Jean Claude Mario, Mathieu Guinot & Matthieu
Tequi)

Explanation: Planetary nebula Jones-Emberson 1 is the death shroud of a
dying Sun-like star. It lies some 1,600 light-years from Earth toward
the sharp-eyed constellation Lynx. About 4 light-years across, the
expanding remnant of the dying star's atmosphere was shrugged off into
interstellar space, as the star's central supply of hydrogen and then
helium for fusion was depleted after billions of years. Visible near
the center of the planetary nebula is what remains of the stellar core,
a blue-hot white dwarf star. Also known as PK 164 +31.1, the nebula is
faint and very difficult to glimpse at a telescope's eyepiece. But this
deep image combining over 12 hours of exposure time does show it off in
exceptional detail. Stars within our own Milky Way galaxy as well as
background galaxies across the universe are scattered through the clear
field of view. Ephemeral on the cosmic stage, Jones-Emberson 1 will
fade away over the next few thousand years. Its hot, central white
dwarf star will take billions of years to cool.

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

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2024 July 13

Solar System Family Portrait
Image Credit: Voyager Project, NASA

Explanation: In 1990, cruising four billion miles from the Sun, the
Voyager 1 spacecraft looked back to make this first ever Solar System
family portrait. The complete portrait is a 60 frame mosaic made from a
vantage point 32 degrees above the ecliptic plane. In it, Voyager's
wide-angle camera frames sweep through the inner Solar System at the
left, linking up with ice giant Neptune, the Solar System's outermost
planet, at the far right. Positions for Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, and Neptune are indicated by letters, while the Sun is the
bright spot near the center of the circle of frames. The inset frames
for each of the planets are from Voyager's narrow-field camera. Unseen
in the portrait are Mercury, too close to the Sun to be detected, and
Mars, unfortunately hidden by sunlight scattered in the camera's
optical system. Closer to the Sun than Neptune at the time, small,
faint Pluto's position was not covered. In 2024 Voyager 1, NASACÇÖs
longest-running and most-distant spacecraft, is some 15 billion miles
away, operating in interstellar space.

Tomorrow's picture: galaxy vs grain of sand
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 July 14
A distant spiral galaxy is seen in the image center. A multi-colored
streak runs diagonally across the image from the upper left to the
lower right. Parts of this streak have gas near it. The background is
dark field filled with stars. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Meteor Misses Galaxy
Credit & Copyright: Aman Chokshi

Explanation: The galaxy was never in danger. For one thing, the
Triangulum galaxy (M33), pictured, is much bigger than the tiny grain
of rock at the head of the meteor. For another, the galaxy is much
farther away -- in this instance 3 million light years as opposed to
only about 0.0003 light seconds. Even so, the meteor's path took it
angularly below the galaxy. Also the wind high in Earth's atmosphere
blew the meteor's glowing evaporative molecule train away from the
galaxy, in angular projection. Still, the astrophotographer was quite
lucky to capture both a meteor and a galaxy in a single exposure --
which was subsequently added to two other images of M33 to bring up the
spiral galaxy's colors. At the end, the meteor was gone in a second,
but the galaxy will last billions of years.

Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?
(post 1995)
Tomorrow's picture: galaxy unwound
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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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2024 July 15
A spiral galaxy is shown on the upper left with a really long tail of
stars and blue-glowing gas trailing to the lower left. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

The Tadpole Galaxy from Hubble
Image Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, ESA, NASA; Processing:
Harshwardhan Pathak

Explanation: Why does this galaxy have such a long tail? In this
stunning vista, based on image data from the Hubble Legacy Archive,
distant galaxies form a dramatic backdrop for disrupted spiral galaxy
Arp 188, the Tadpole Galaxy. The cosmic tadpole is a mere 420 million
light-years distant toward the northern constellation of the Dragon
(Draco). Its eye-catching tail is about 280 thousand light-years long
and features massive, bright blue star clusters. One story goes that a
more compact intruder galaxy crossed in front of Arp 188 - from right
to left in this view - and was slung around behind the Tadpole by their
gravitational attraction. During the close encounter, tidal forces drew
out the spiral galaxy's stars, gas, and dust forming the spectacular
tail. The intruder galaxy itself, estimated to lie about 300 thousand
light-years behind the Tadpole, can be seen through foreground spiral
arms at the upper right. Following its terrestrial namesake, the
Tadpole Galaxy will likely lose its tail as it grows older, the tail's
star clusters forming smaller satellites of the large spiral galaxy.

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Tomorrow's picture: interstellar mountains
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 July 16
A starfield is shown featuring many pillars of interstellar gas and
dust, mostly in the center. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Cometary Globules
Image Credit & Copyright: Mark Hanson & Martin Pugh, Observatorio El
Sauce

Explanation: What are these unusual interstellar structures?
Bright-rimmed, flowing shapes gather near the center of this rich
starfield toward the borders of the nautical southern constellations
Pupis and Vela. Composed of interstellar gas and dust, the grouping of
light-year sized cometary globules is about 1300 light-years distant.
Energetic ultraviolet light from nearby hot stars has molded the
globules and ionized their bright rims. The globules also stream away
from the Vela supernova remnant which may have influenced their
swept-back shapes. Within them, cores of cold gas and dust are likely
collapsing to form low mass stars, whose formation will ultimately
cause the globules to disperse. In fact, cometary globule CG 30 (on the
upper left) sports a small reddish glow near its head, a telltale sign
of energetic jets from a star in the early stages of formation.

Tomorrow's picture: volcanic sky
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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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2024 July 17

Villarrica Volcano Against the Sky
Video Credit & Copyright: Gabriel Mu+#oz; Text: Natalia Lewandowska
(SUNY Oswego)

Explanation: When Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, swings his
blacksmith's hammer, the sky is lit on fire. A recent eruption of
Chile's Villarrica volcano shows the delicate interplay between this
fire -- actually glowing steam and ash from melted rock -- and the
light from distant stars in our Milky Way galaxy and the Magellanic
Clouds galaxies. In the featured timelapse video, the Earth rotates
under the stars as Villarrica erupts. With about 1350 volcanoes, our
planet Earth rivals Jupiter's moon Io as the most geologically active
place in the Solar System. While both have magnificent beauty, the
reasons for the existence of volcanoes on both worlds are different.
Earth's volcanoes typically occur between slowly shifting outer shell
plates, while Io's volcanoes are caused by gravitational flexing
resulting from Jupiter's tidal gravitational pull.

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

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2024 July 18

Messier 24: Sagittarius Star Cloud
Image Credit & Copyright: Christopher Freeburn

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 are left
of center in this gorgeous starscape. Covering over 6 degrees or the
width of 12 full moons in the constellation Sagittarius, the telescopic
field of view includes dark markings B92 and B93 near the center of
M24, along with other clouds of dust and glowing nebulae toward the
center of the Milky Way.

Tomorrow's picture: festival of planets
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 July 19

Anticrepuscular Rays at the Planet Festival
Image Credit & Copyright: Pavel Gabzdyl

Explanation: For some, these subtle bands of light and shadow stretched
across the sky as the Sun set on July 11. Known as anticrepuscular
rays, the bands are formed as a large cloud bank near the western
horizon cast long shadows through the atmosphere at sunset. Due to the
camera's perspective, the bands of light and shadow seem to converge
toward the eastern (opposite) horizon at a point seen just above a 14th
century hilltop castle near Brno, Czech Republic. In the foreground,
denizens of planet Earth are enjoying the region's annual Planet
Festival in the park below the Brno Observatory and Planetarium. And
while crepuscular and anticrepuscular rays are a relatively common
atmospheric phenomenon, this festival's 10 meter diameter inflatable
spheres representing bodies of the Solar System are less often seen on
planet Earth.

Tomorrow's picture: panorama on another world
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 July 20

Apollo 11 Landing Panorama
Image Credit: Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11, NASA

Explanation: Have you seen a panorama from another world lately?
Assembled from high-resolution scans of the original film frames, this
one sweeps across the magnificent desolation of the Apollo 11 landing
site on the Moon's Sea of Tranquility. The images were taken 55 years
ago by Neil Armstrong looking out his window on the Eagle Lunar Module
shortly after the July 20, 1969 landing. The frame at the far left
(AS11-37-5449) is the first picture taken by a person on another world.
Thruster nozzles can be seen in the foreground on the left (toward the
south), while at the right (west), the shadow of the Eagle is visible.
For scale, the large, shallow crater on the right has a diameter of
about 12 meters. Frames taken from the Lunar Module windows about an
hour and a half after landing, before walking on the lunar surface,
were intended to document the landing site in case an early departure
was necessary.

Tomorrow's picture: hoodoo
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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.

2024 July 21
The band of the Milky Way runs across a night sky filled with stars.
Colorful clouds are on the right horizon. A strange rock structure
appears in the image center with a base and an extended arm that seems
to point to the colorful horizon. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

King of Wings Hoodoo under the Milky Way
Image Credit & Copyright: Wayne Pinkston (LightCrafter Photography)

Explanation: This rock structure is not only surreal -- it's real.
Perhaps the reason it's not more famous is that it is smaller than one
might guess: the capstone rock overhangs only a few meters. Even so,
the King of Wings outcrop, located in New Mexico, USA, is a fascinating
example of an unusual type of rock structure called a hoodoo. Hoodoos
may form when a layer of hard rock overlays a layer of eroding softer
rock. Figuring out the details of incorporating this hoodoo into a
night-sky photoshoot took over a year. Besides waiting for a suitably
picturesque night behind a sky with few clouds, the foreground had to
be artificially lit just right relative to the natural glow of the
background. After much planning and waiting, the final shot, featured
here, was taken in May 2016. Mimicking the horizontal bar, the
background sky features the band of our Milky Way Galaxy stretching
overhead.

Tomorrow's picture: find the galaxy
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& 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.

2024 July 22
The featured image shows a dark nebula complex involving thick dust
appearing brown and making a big

Chamaeleon Dark Nebulas
Image Credit & Copyright: Chang Lee

Explanation: Sometimes the dark dust of interstellar space has an
angular elegance. Such is the case toward the far-south constellation
of Chamaeleon. Normally too faint to see, dark dust is best known for
blocking visible light from stars and galaxies behind it. In this
36.6-hour exposure, however, the dust is seen mostly in light of its
own, with its strong red and near-infrared colors creating a brown hue.
Contrastingly blue, the bright star Beta Chamaeleontis is visible on
the upper right, with the dust that surrounds it preferentially
reflecting blue light from its primarily blue-white color. All of the
pictured stars and dust occur in our own Milky Way Galaxy with one
notable exception: the white spot just below Beta Chamaeleontis is the
galaxy IC 3104 which lies far in the distance. Interstellar dust is
mostly created in the cool atmospheres of giant stars and dispersed
into space by stellar light, stellar winds, and stellar explosions such
as supernovas.

Tomorrow's picture: Chandra Crab (25)
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-7
* 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.

2024 July 23
A multi-colored nebula is shown that is the expanding remnant of an
exploded star. The central white and purple colors show X-ray light,
while the outer red and blue colors show visible light. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

The Crab Nebula from Visible to X-Ray
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, ASI, Hubble, Chandra, IXPE

Explanation: What powers the Crab Nebula? A city-sized magnetized
neutron star spinning around 30 times a second. Known as the Crab
Pulsar, it is the bright spot in the center of the gaseous swirl at the
nebula's core. About 10 light-years across, the spectacular picture of
the Crab Nebula (M1) frames a swirling central disk and complex
filaments of surrounding and expanding glowing gas. The picture
combines visible light from the Hubble Space Telescope in red and blue
with X-ray light from the Chandra X-ray Observatory shown in white, and
diffuse X-ray emission detected by Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer
(IXPE) in diffuse purple. The central pulsar powers the Crab Nebula's
emission and expansion by slightly slowing its spin rate, which drives
out a wind of energetic electrons. The featured image released today,
the 25th Anniversary of the launch of NASA's flagship-class X-ray
Observatory: Chandra.

Many Discoveries: Chandra Celebrates 25th Anniversary
Tomorrow's picture: spikey moon
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-7
* 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.

2024 July 24
Earth's Moon is shown with the heights of surface features all greatly
exaggerated. Also, the colors of the Moon have been exaggerated so
areas of blue and red are more easily seen. Please see the explanation
for more detailed information.

Exaggerated Moon
Credit: Data: NASA, Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter; Image & Processing:
Ildar Ibatullin

Explanation: Our Moon doesn't really have craters this big. Earth's
Moon, Luna, also doesn't naturally show this spikey texture, and its
colors are more subtle. But this digital creation is based on reality.
The featured image is a digital composite of a good Moon image and
surface height data taken from NASA's Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter
(LOLA) mission -- and then exaggerated for educational understanding.
The digital enhancements, for example, accentuate lunar highlands and
show more clearly craters that illustrate the tremendous bombardment
our Moon has been through during its 4.6-billion-year history. The dark
areas, called maria, have fewer craters and were once seas of molten
lava. Additionally, the image colors, although based on the moon's real
composition, are changed and exaggerated. Here, a blue hue indicates a
region that is iron rich, while orange indicates a slight excess of
aluminum. Although the Moon has shown the same side to the Earth for
billions of years, modern technology is allowing humanity to learn much
more about it -- and how it affects the Earth.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-7
* 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.

2024 July 25

NGC 7023: The Iris Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Shepherd

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: pixels in space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-7
* 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.

2024 July 26

Facing NGC 6946
Image Credit & Copyright: Roberto Marinoni

Explanation: From our vantage point in the Milky Way Galaxy, we see NGC
6946 face-on. The big, beautiful spiral galaxy is located just 20
million light-years away, behind a veil of foreground dust and stars in
the high and far-off constellation Cepheus. In this sharp telescopic
portrait, from the core outward the galaxy's colors change from the
yellowish light of old stars in the center to young blue star clusters
and reddish star forming regions along the loose, fragmented spiral
arms. NGC 6946 is also bright in infrared light and rich in gas and
dust, exhibiting a high star birth and death rate. In fact, since the
early 20th century ten confirmed supernovae, the death explosions of
massive stars, were discovered in NGC 6946. Nearly 40,000 light-years
across, NGC 6946 is also known as the Fireworks Galaxy.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-7
* 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.

2024 July 27

Saturn at the Moon's Edge
Image Credit & Copyright: Chengcheng Xu

Explanation: Saturn now rises before midnight in planet Earth's sky. On
July 24, the naked-eye planet was in close conjunction, close on the
sky, to a waning gibbous Moon. But from some locations on planet Earth
the ringed gas giant was occulted, disappearing behind the Moon for
about an hour from skies over parts of Asia and Africa. Because the
Moon and bright planets wander through the sky near the ecliptic plane,
such occultation events are not uncommon, but they can be dramatic. In
this telescopic view from Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, Saturn is caught
moments before its disappearance behind the lunar disk. The snapshot
gives the illusion that Saturn hangs just above Glushko crater, a 43
kilometer diameter, young, ray crater near the Moon's western edge. Of
course, the Moon is 400 thousand kilometers away, compared to Saturn's
distance of 1.4 billion kilometers.

Tomorrow's picture: sundance
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-7
* 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.

2024 July 28

Sun Dance
Video Credit: NASA, SDO; Processing: Alan Watson via Helioviewer

Explanation: Sometimes, the surface of our Sun seems to dance. In the
middle of 2012, for example, NASA's Sun-orbiting Solar Dynamic
Observatory spacecraft imaged an impressive prominence that seemed to
perform a running dive roll like an acrobatic dancer. The dramatic
explosion was captured in ultraviolet light in the featured time-lapse
video covering about three hours. A looping magnetic field directed the
flow of hot plasma on the Sun. The scale of the dancing prominence is
huge -- the entire Earth would easily fit under the flowing arch of hot
gas. A quiescent prominence typically lasts about a month and may erupt
in a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), expelling hot gas into the Solar
System. The energy mechanism that creates a solar prominence is still a
topic of research. Like in 2012, this year the Sun's surface is again
quite active and features many filaments and prominences.

Tomorrow's picture: milky way mound
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-7
* 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.

2024 July 29
A starry sky is shown with the busy central band of our Milky Way
Galaxy showing rising diagonally from the lower right. In the
foreground are flat grasslands leading up to a huge orange rock mound
named Uluru. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Milky Way over Uluru
Image Credit & Copyright: Max Inwood

Explanation: What's happening above Uluru? A United Nations World
Heritage Site, Uluru is an extraordinary 350-meter high mountain in
central Australia that rises sharply from nearly flat surroundings.
Composed of sandstone, Uluru has slowly formed over the past 300
million years as softer rock eroded away. The Uluru region has been a
home to humans for over 22,000 years. Recorded last month, the starry
sky above Uluru includes the central band of our Milky Way galaxy,
complete with complex dark filaments of dust, bright red emission
nebulas, and billions of stars.

Tomorrow's picture: big penguin
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-7
* 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.

2024 July 30
Two large interacting galaxies are shown. The upper galaxy, has
significant internal structure and is curved over the lower galaxy
which is a featureless oval. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Arp 142: Interacting Galaxies from Webb
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Hubble Rollover Reprocessing &
Copyright: Raul Villaverde

Explanation: To some, it looks like a penguin. But to people who study
the universe, it is an interesting example of two big galaxies
interacting. Just a few hundred million years ago, the upper NGC 2936
was likely a normal spiral galaxy: spinning, creating stars, and
minding its own business. Then it got too close to the massive
elliptical galaxy NGC 2937, below, and took a dive. Together known as
Arp 142, they are featured in this new Webb infrared image, while a
visible light Hubble image appears in comparison. NGC 2936 is not only
being deflected, but distorted, by this close gravitational
interaction. When massive galaxies pass near each other, gas is
typically condensed from which new stars form. A young group of stars
appears as the nose of the penguin toward the right of the upper
galaxy, while in the center of the spiral, bright stars together appear
as an eye. Before a billion years, the two galaxies will likely merge
into one larger galaxy.

Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: unusual spots on Mars
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-7
* 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.

2024 July 31
Part of a large rock on Mars is shown being mostly orange. On the rock
are several irregular light-colored areas surrounded by a dark border.
The spots are only millimeters across but might carry big implications.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Leopard Spots on Martian Rocks
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS, Perseverance Rover

Explanation: What is creating these unusual spots? Light-colored spots
on Martian rocks, each surrounded by a dark border, were discovered
earlier this month by NASA's Perseverance Rover currently exploring
Mars. Dubbed leopard spots because of their seemingly similarity to
markings on famous Earth-bound predators, these curious patterns are
being studied with the possibility they were created by ancient Martian
life. The pictured spots measure only millimeters across and were
discovered on a larger rock named Cheyava Falls. The exciting but
unproven speculation is that long ago, microbes generated energy with
chemical reactions that turned rock from red to white while leaving a
dark ring, like some similarly appearing spots on Earth rocks. Although
other non-biological explanations may ultimately prevail, speculation
focusing on this potential biological origin is causing much intrigue.

New Mirror: APOD is now available from Brazil in Portuguese
Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-7
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)