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
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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 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
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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 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
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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 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
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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 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
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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 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
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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 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
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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 August 1

Comet Olbers over Kunetice Castle
Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Hor+ílek / Institute of Physics in Opava

Explanation: A visitor to the inner solar system every 70 years or so
Comet 13P/Olbers reached its most recent perihelion, or closest
approach to the Sun, on June 30 2024. Now on a return voyage to the
distant Oort cloud the Halley-type comet is recorded here sweeping
through northern summer night skies over historic Kunetice Castle,
Czech Republic. Along with a broad dust tail, and brighter coma, this
comet's long ion tail buffeted by storms and winds from the Sun, is
revealed in the composite of tracked exposures for comet and sky, and
fixed exposures for foreground landscape recorded on July 28. The comet
is about 16 light-minutes beyond the castle and seen against faint
background stars below the northern constellation Ursa Major. The
hilltop castle dates to the 15th century, while Heinrich Olbers
discovered the comet in 1815. Captured here low in northwestern skies
just after sunset Comet Olbers, for now, offers skywatchers on planet
Earth rewarding telescopic and binocular views. Comet 13P/Olbers next
perihelion passage will be in 2094.

Tomorrow's picture: martian chronicles
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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 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
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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 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
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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 August 2

Mars Passing By
Image Credit & Copyright: Tunc Tezel (TWAN)

Explanation: As Mars wanders through Earth's night, it passes about 5
degrees south of the Pleiades star cluster in this composite
astrophoto. The skyview was constructed from a series of images
captured over a run of 16 consecutive clear nights beginning on July
12. Mars' march across the field of view begins at the far right, the
planet's ruddy hue. showing a nice contrast with the blue Pleiades
stars. Moving much faster across the sky against the distant stars, the
fourth planet from the Sun easily passes seventh planet Uranus, also
moving across this field of view. Red planet Mars and the ice giant
world were in close conjunction, about 1/2 degree apart, on July 16.
Continuing its rapid eastward trek, Mars has now left the sister stars
and outer planet behind though, passing north of red giant star
Aldebaran. Mars will come within about 1/3 degree of Jupiter in planet
Earth's sky on August 14.

Tomorrow's picture: road trip
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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 August 3

Glory and Fog Bow
Image and Video Credit & Copyright: Cem +ûzkeser and Yasin -#lcebay

Explanation: On a road trip up Mount Uluda-f in Bursa province, Turkey
these motorcyclists found themselves above low clouds and fog in late
June. With the bright Sun directly behind them, the view down the side
of the great mountain revealed a beautiful, atmospheric glory and fog
bow. Known to some as the heiligenschein or the Specter of the Brocken,
a glory can also sometimes be seen from airplanes or even high
buildings. It often appears to be a dark giant surrounded by a bright
halo. Of course the dark giant is just the shadow of the observer (90MB
video) cast opposite the Sun. The clouds and fog are composed of very
small water droplets, smaller than rain drops, that refract and reflect
sunlight to create the glory's colorful halo and this more extensive
fog bow.

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

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

2024 August 4

Gaia: Here Comes the Sun
Credit: Galaxy Illustration: N. Risinger (skysurvey.org);
Star Data: Gaia Mission, ESA, A. S. Sell+¬s (U. Heidelberg) et al.

Explanation: What would it look like to return home from outside our
galaxy? Although designed to answer greater questions, data from ESA's
robotic Gaia mission is helping to provide a uniquely modern
perspective on humanity's place in the universe. Gaia orbits the Sun
near the Earth and resolves stars' positions so precisely that it can
determine a slight shift from its changing vantage point over the
course of a year, a shift that is proportionately smaller for more
distant stars -- and so determines distance. In the first sequence of
the video, an illustration of the Milky Way is shown that soon resolves
into a three-dimensional visualization of Gaia star data. A few notable
stars are labelled with their common names, while others stars are
labelled with numbers from a Gaia catalog. Eventually, the viewer
arrives in our stellar neighborhood where many stars were tracked by
Gaia, and soon at our home star Sol, the Sun. At the video's end, the
reflective glow of Sol's third planet becomes visible: Earth.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
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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 August 5
A starry sky is seen above a structure with an iconic dome. A person in
shadow stands at the entrance. Sloping down in the sky is the central
band of our Milky Way Galaxy. Just below the Milky Way is the streak of
a bright meteor. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Milky Way Over Tunisia
Image Credit & Copyright: Makrem Larnaout

Explanation: That's no moon. On the ground, that's the Lars Homestead
in Tunisia. And that's not just any galaxy. That's the central band of
our own Milky Way galaxy. Last, that's not just any meteor. It is a
bright fireball likely from last year's Perseids meteor shower. The
featured image composite combines consecutive exposures taken by the
same camera from the same location. This year's Perseids peak during
the coming weekend is expected to show the most meteors after the first
quarter moon sets, near midnight. To best experience a meteor shower,
you should have clear and dark skies, a comfortable seat, and patience.

Tomorrow's picture: wow cloud
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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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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 August 6
A large storm cloud is pictured hovering over a flat landscape with
telephone poles. The background sky is blue. The cloud appears orange
at the bottom, yellow at the top, white in the middle, with dark gray
overtones all around. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Storm Cloud Over Texas
Image Credit & Copyright: Laura Rowe (Used with permission)

Explanation: What makes this storm cloud so colorful? First, the cloud
itself is composed of millions of tiny droplets of water and ice. Its
bottom is almost completely flat -- but this isn't unusual. Bottom
flatness in clouds is generally caused by air temperature dropping as
you go up, and that above a specific height, water-saturated air
condenses out water droplets. The shape of the cloud middle is caused
by a water-droplet-laden column of air being blown upward. Most
unusual, though, are the orange and yellow colors. Both colors are
caused by the cloud's water drops reflecting sunlight. The orange color
in the cloud's middle and bottom sections are reflections of a nearly
red sunset. In contrast, the yellow color of the cloud's top results
from reflection of light from a not-yet-setting Sun, where some -- but
less -- blue light is being scattered away. Appearing to float above
the plains in Texas, the featured impressive image of a dynamic
cumulonimbus cloud was captured in 2021 while investigating a tornado.

Tomorrow's picture: galaxy three
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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 August 7
A starry sky is seen through a rectangular rock opening. Three rocky
peaks appear toward the right, while other peaks appear toward the
left. Rising above the right peaks is the central band of our Milky Way
Galaxy. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Milky Way Behind Three Merlons
Image Credit & Copyright: Donato Lioce; Text: Natalia Lewandowska (SUNY
Oswego)

Explanation: To some, they look like battlements, here protecting us
against the center of the Milky Way. The Three Merlons, also called the
Three Peaks of Lavaredo, stand tall today because they are made of
dense dolomite rock which has better resisted erosion than surrounding
softer rock. They formed about 250 million years ago and so are
comparable in age with one of the great extinctions of life on Earth. A
leading hypothesis is that this great extinction was triggered by an
asteroid about 10-km across, larger in size than Mount Everest,
impacting the Earth. Humans have gazed up at the stars in the Milky Way
and beyond for centuries, making these battlefield-like formations,
based in the Sexten Dolomites, a popular place for current and ancient
astronomers.

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.

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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 August 8

Periodic Comet Swift-Tuttle
Image Credit & Copyright: Gerald Rhemann

Explanation: A Halley-type comet with an orbital period of about 133
years, Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle is recognized as the parent of the
annual Perseid Meteor Shower. The comet's last visit to the inner Solar
System was in 1992. Then, it did not become easily visible to the naked
eye, but it did become bright enough to see from most locations with
binoculars and small telescopes. This stunning color image of
Swift-Tuttle's greenish coma, long ion tail and dust tail was recorded
using film on November 24, 1992. That was about 16 days after the large
periodic comet's closest approach to Earth. Comet Swift-Tuttle is
expected to next make an impressive appearance in night skies in 2126.
Meanwhile, dusty cometary debris left along the orbit of Swift-Tuttle
will continue to be swept up creating planet Earth's best-known July
and August meteor shower.

Tomorrow's picture: perseids in space
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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 August 9

A Perseid Below
Image Credit: Ron Garan, ISS Expedition 28 Crew, NASA

Explanation: Denizens of planet Earth typically watch meteor showers by
looking up. But this remarkable view, captured on August 13, 2011 by
astronaut Ron Garan, caught a Perseid meteor by looking down. From
Garan's perspective on board the International Space Station orbiting
at an altitude of about 380 kilometers, the Perseid meteors streak
below, swept up dust from comet Swift-Tuttle. The vaporizing comet dust
grains are traveling at about 60 kilometers per second through the
denser atmosphere around 100 kilometers above Earth's surface. In this
case, the foreshortened meteor flash is near frame center, below the
curving limb of the Earth and a layer of greenish airglow, just below
bright star Arcturus. Want to look up at a meteor shower? You're in
luck, as the 2024 Perseid meteor shower is active now and predicted to
peak near August 12. With interfering bright moonlight absent, this
year you'll likely see many Perseid meteors under clear, dark skies
after midnight.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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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 August 10

The Light, Dark, and Dusty Trifid
Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Edelmaier and Gabriele Gegenbauer

Explanation: Messier 20, popularly known as the Trifid Nebula, 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. The reddish
emission region, roughly separated into three parts by obscuring dust
lanes, is what lends the Trifid its popular name. The cosmic cloud
complex is over 40 light-years across and would cover the area of a
full moon on planet Earth's sky. But the Trifid Nebula is too faint to
be seen by the unaided eye. Over 75 hours of image data captured under
dark night skies was used to create this stunning telescopic view.

Watch: The Perseid Meteor Shower
Tomorrow's picture: animation 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 August 12
A night sky filled with stars and the band of our Milky Way galaxy is
shown also filled with many streaks. The short streaks are all
coordinated and together indicate a flow from the top of the image to
the bottom. In the foreground at the bottom of the frame is Stonehenge.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Perseid Meteors over Stonehenge
Image Credit & Copyright: Josh Dury

Explanation: What's happening in the sky above Stonehenge? A meteor
shower: specifically, the Perseid meteor shower. A few nights ago,
after the sky darkened, many images of meteors from this year's
Perseids were captured separately and merged into a single frame.
Although the meteors all traveled on straight paths, these paths appear
slightly curved by the wide-angle lens of the capturing camera. The
meteor streaks can all be traced back to a single point on the sky
called the radiant, here just off the top of the frame in the
constellation of Perseus. The same camera took a deep image of the
background sky that brought up the central band of our Milky Way galaxy
running nearly vertical through the image center. The featured image
was taken from Wiltshire, England, being careful to include, at the
bottom, the famous astronomical monument of Stonehenge. Although the
Perseids peaked last night, some Perseid meteors should still be
visible for a few more nights.

Tomorrow's picture: big sky jet
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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 August 13
The edge of the Earth is seen from space at night. The curving horizon
is tinted green but a red and blue jet rises from left. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Giant Jet from the International Space Station
Image Credit: NASA, Expedition 71 Crew, JSC, ESRS, Matthew Dominick;
Processing: Simeon Schmau+f

Explanation: What's that on the horizon? When circling the Earth on the
International Space Station early last month, astronaut Matthew
Dominick saw an unusual type of lightning just beyond the Earth's edge:
a gigantic jet. The powerful jet appears on the left of the featured
image in red and blue. Giant jet lightning has only been known about
for the past 23 years. The atmospheric jets are associated with
thunderstorms and extend upwards towards Earth's ionosphere. The lower
part of the frame shows the Earth at night, with Earth's thin
atmosphere tinted green from airglow. City lights are visible,
sometimes resolved, but usually creating diffuse white glows in
intervening clouds. The top of the frame reveals distant stars in the
dark night sky. The nature of gigantic jets and their possible
association with other types of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) such
as blue jets and red sprites remains an active topic of research.

Growing Gallery: Perseid Meteor Shower 2024 and Aurorae
Tomorrow's picture: star factory
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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 August 14
A night sky filled with stars is colored partly purple by an aurora.
Also visible are several streaks which are meteors in this image
composite. In the foreground is a field and lone tree. Part of the tree
slants at the nearly the same angle of the meteor streaks. Please see
the explanation for more detailed information.

Meteors and Aurora over Germany
Image Credit & Copyright: Chantal Anders

Explanation: This was an unusual night. For one thing, the night sky of
August 11 and 12, earlier this week, occurred near the peak of the
annual Perseid Meteor Shower. Therefore, meteors streaked across the
dark night as small bits cast off from Comet Swift-Tuttle came crashing
into the Earth's atmosphere. Even more unusually, for central Germany
at least, the night sky glowed purple. The red-blue hue was due to
aurora caused by an explosion of particles from the Sun a few days
before. This auroral storm was so intense that it was seen as far south
as Texas and Italy, in Earth's northern hemisphere. The featured image
composite was built from 7 exposures taken over 26 minutes from Ense,
Germany. The Perseids occur predictably every August, but auroras
visible this far south are more unusual and less predictable.

Gallery: Perseid Meteor Shower 2024 and Aurorae
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 August 15

Late Night Vallentuna
Image Credit & Copyright: P-M Hed+¬n (Clear Skies, TWAN)

Explanation: Bright Mars and even brighter Jupiter are in close
conjunction just above the pine trees in this post-midnight skyscape
from Vallentuna, Sweden. Taken on August 12 during a geomagnetic storm,
the snapshot records the glow of aurora borealis or northern lights,
beaming from the left side of the frame. Of course on that date Perseid
meteors rained through planet Earth's skies, grains of dust from the
shower's parent, periodic comet Swift-Tuttle. The meteor streak at the
upper right is a Perseid plowing through the atmosphere at about 60
kilometers per second. Also well-known in in Earth's night sky, the
bright Pleides star cluster shines below the Perseid meteor streak. In
Greek myth, the Pleiades were seven daughters of the astronomical titan
Atlas and sea-nymph Pleione. The Pleiades and their parents' names are
given to the cluster's nine brightest stars.

Gallery: Perseid Meteor Shower 2024 and Aurorae
Tomorrow's picture: meteor borealis
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 August 16

Meteor Borealis
Image Credit & Copyright: Jason Dain

Explanation: A single exposure made with a camera pointed almost due
north on August 12 recorded this bright Perseid meteor in the night sky
west of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The meteor's incandescent trace
is fleeting. It appears to cross the stars of the Big Dipper, famous
northern asterism and celestial kitchen utensil, while shimmering
curtains of aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, dance
in the night. Doubling the wow factor for night skywatchers near the
peak of this year's Perseid meteor shower auroral activity on planet
Earth was enhanced by geomagnetic storms. The intense space weather was
triggered by flares from an active Sun.

Gallery: Perseid Meteor Shower 2024 and Aurorae
Tomorrow's picture: meteor borealis
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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 August 17

Sky Full of Arcs
Image Credit & Copyright: Rory Gannaway

Explanation: On August 11 a Rocket Lab Electron rocket launched from a
rotating planet. With a small satellite on board its mission was dubbed
A Sky Full of SARs
(Synthetic Aperture Radar satellites), departing for low Earth orbit
from Mahia Peninsula on New Zealand's north island. The fiery trace of
the Electron's graceful launch arc is toward the east in this southern
sea and skyscape, a composite of 50 consecutive frames taken over 2.5
hours. Fixed to a tripod, the camera was pointing directly at the South
Celestial Pole, the extension of planet Earth's axis of rotation in to
space. But no bright star marks that location in the southern
hemisphere's night sky. Still, the South Celestial Pole is easy to
spot. It lies at the center of the concentric star trail arcs that fill
the skyward field of view.

Gallery: Perseid Meteor Shower 2024 and Aurorae
Tomorrow's picture: sunny day
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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 August 18

A Solar Prominence Eruption from SDO
Image Credit: NASA/Goddard/SDO AIA Team

Explanation: One of the most spectacular solar sights is an erupting
prominence. In 2011, NASA's Sun-orbiting Solar Dynamic Observatory
spacecraft imaged an impressively large prominence erupting from the
surface. The dramatic explosion was captured in ultraviolet light in
the featured time lapse video covering 90 minutes, where a new frame
was taken every 24 seconds. The scale of the prominence is huge -- the
entire Earth would easily fit under the flowing curtain of hot gas. A
solar prominence is channeled and sometimes held above the Sun's
surface by the Sun's magnetic field. 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 a continuing topic of research. Our Sun
is again near solar maximum and so very active, featuring numerous
erupting prominences and CMEs, one of which resulted in picturesque
auroras just over the past week.

Tomorrow's picture: star cocoon
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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 August 19
A red emission nebula is shown against a busy starfield with many dark
dust filaments near the nebula's center. Near the bottom of the image
is a smaller blue reflection nebula. Please see the explanation for
more detailed information.

IC 5146: The Cocoon Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Luis Romero Ventura

Explanation: Inside the Cocoon Nebula is a newly developing cluster of
stars. Cataloged as IC 5146, the beautiful nebula is nearly 15
light-years wide. Soaring high in northern summer night skies, it's
located some 4,000 light years away toward the constellation of the
Swan (Cygnus). Like other star forming regions, it stands out in red,
glowing, hydrogen gas excited by young, hot stars, and dust-reflected
starlight at the edge of an otherwise invisible molecular cloud. In
fact, the bright star found near the center of this nebula is likely
only a few hundred thousand years old, powering the nebular glow as it
clears out a cavity in the molecular cloud's star forming dust and gas.
A 48-hour long integration resulted in this exceptionally deep color
view tracing tantalizing features within and surrounding the dusty
stellar nursery.

Tomorrow's picture: high energy 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 August 20
A large and orange-tinted moon is pictured rising beyond the pillars of
an ancient structure. The foreground is dark and the night sky behind
the Moon appear blue. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Supermoon Beyond the Temple of Poseidon
Image Credit: Alexandros Maragos

Explanation: A supermoon occurred yesterday. And tonight's moon should
also look impressive. Supermoons appear slightly larger and brighter
than most full moons because they reach their full phase when slightly
nearer to the Earth -- closer than 90 percent of all full moons. This
supermoon was also a blue moon given the definition that it is the
third of four full moons occurring during a single season. Blue moons
are not usually blue, and a different definition holds that a blue moon
is the second full moon that occurs during a single month. The featured
image captured the blue supermoon right near its peak size yesterday as
it was rising beyond the Temple of Poseidon in Greece. This supermoon
is particularly unusual in that it is the first of four successive
supermoons, the next three occurring in September, October, and
November.

Tomorrow's picture: high energy 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 August 21
A blue oval is shown with a red and yellow horizontal band running
across the middle. Red and yellow spots also appear distributed inside
the oval. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Fermi's 12-year All-Sky Gamma-ray Map
Image Credit: NASA, DOE, Fermi LAT Collaboration; Text: Barb Mattson
(U. Maryland, NASA's GSFC)

Explanation: Forget X-ray vision CÇö imagine what you could see with
gamma-ray vision! The featured all-sky map shows what the universe
looks like to NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Fermi sees light
with energies about a billion times what the human eye can see, and the
map combines 12 years of Fermi observations. The colors represent the
brightness of the gamma-ray sources, with brighter sources appearing
lighter in color. The prominent stripe across the middle is the central
plane of our Milky Way galaxy. Most of the red and yellow dots
scattered above and below the Milky WayCÇÖs plane are very distant
galaxies, while most of those within the plane are nearby pulsars. The
blue background that fills the image is the diffuse glow of gamma-rays
from distant sources that are too dim to be detected individually. Some
gamma-ray sources remain unidentified and topics of research CÇö
currently no one knows what they are.

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 August 22

The Dark Tower in Scorpius
Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby

Explanation: In silhouette against a crowded star field along the tail
of the arachnological constellation Scorpius, this dusty cosmic cloud
evokes for some the image of an ominous dark tower. In fact, monstrous
clumps of dust and molecular gas collapsing to form stars may well lurk
within the dark nebula, a structure that spans almost 40 light-years
across this gorgeous telescopic portrait. A cometary globule, the
swept-back cloud is shaped by intense ultraviolet radiation from the OB
association of very hot stars in NGC 6231, off the upper right corner
of the scene. That energetic ultraviolet light also powers the
globule's bordering reddish glow of hydrogen gas. Hot stars embedded in
the dust can be seen as bluish reflection nebulae. This dark tower and
associated nebulae are about 5,000 light-years away.

Growing Gallery: Moon Eclipses Saturn in August 2024
Tomorrow's picture: a dark pulsar
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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written by a professional astronomer.

2024 August 23

Supernova Remnant CTA 1
Image Credit & Copyright: Thomas Lelu

Explanation: There is a quiet pulsar at the heart of CTA 1. The
supernova remnant was discovered as a source of emission at radio
wavelengths by astronomers in 1960 and since identified as the result
of the death explosion of a massive star. But no radio pulses were
detected from the expected pulsar, the rotating neutron star remnant of
the massive star's collapsed core. Seen about 10,000 years after the
initial supernova explosion, the interstellar debris cloud is faint at
optical wavelengths. CTA 1's visible wavelength emission from still
expanding shock fronts is revealed in this deep telescopic image, a
frame that spans about 2 degrees across a starfield in the northern
constellation of Cepheus. While no pulsar has since been found at radio
wavelengths, in 2008 the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected
pulsed emission from CTA 1, identifying the supernova remnant's
rotating neutron star. The source has been recognized as the first in a
growing class of pulsars that are quiet at radio wavelengths but pulse
in high-energy gamma-rays.

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 August 24

South Pacific Shadowset
Image Credit & Copyright: Jin Wang

Explanation: The full Moon and Earth's shadow set together in this
island skyscape. The alluring scene was captured Tuesday morning,
August 20, from Fiji, South Pacific Ocean, planet Earth. For early
morning risers shadowset in the western sky is a daily apparition.
Still, the grey-blue shadow is often overlooked in favor of a brighter
eastern horizon. Extending through the dense atmosphere, Earth's
setting shadow is bounded above by a pinkish glow or anti-twilight
arch. Known as the Belt of Venus, the arch's lovely color is due to
backscattering of reddened light from the opposite horizon's rising
Sun. Of course, the setting Moon's light is reddened by the long
sight-line through the atmosphere. But on that date the full Moon could
be called a seasonal Blue Moon, the third full Moon in a season with
four full Moons. And even though the full Moon is always impressive
near the horizon, August's full Moon is considered by some the first of
four consecutive full Supermoons in 2024.

Tomorrow's picture: fresh tiger stripes
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 August 25
A light-colored spherical body is shown mostly illuminated against a
dark background. Many craters are visible. Unusual blue stripes meander
on the surface. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Fresh Tiger Stripes on Saturn's Enceladus
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, JPL, SSI, Cassini Imaging Team

Explanation: Do underground oceans vent through canyons on Saturn's
moon Enceladus? Long features dubbed tiger stripes are known to be
spewing ice from the moon's icy interior into space, creating a cloud
of fine ice particles over the moon's South Pole and creating Saturn's
mysterious E-ring. Evidence for this has come from the robot Cassini
spacecraft that orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017. Pictured here, a high
resolution image of Enceladus is shown from a close flyby. The unusual
surface features dubbed tiger stripes are visible in false-color blue.
Why Enceladus is active remains a mystery, as the neighboring moon
Mimas, approximately the same size, appears quite dead. An analysis of
ejected ice grains has yielded evidence that complex organic molecules
exist inside Enceladus. These large carbon-rich molecules bolster --
but do not prove -- that oceans under Enceladus' surface could contain
life.

Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: sky wows
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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 August 26

Perseid Meteors Over Inner Mongolia
Video Credit: Jeff Dai (TWAN); Music: Ibaotu catalog number 771024
(Used with permission)

Explanation: Did you see it? One of the more common questions during a
meteor shower occurs because the time it takes for a meteor to flash is
similar to the time it takes for a head to turn. Possibly, though, the
glory of seeing bright meteors shoot across the sky -- while knowing
that they were once small pebbles on another world -- might make it all
worthwhile, even if your observing partner(s) can't always share in
your experience. The featured video is composed of short clips taken in
Inner Mongolia, China during the 2023 Perseid Meteor Shower. Several
bright meteors were captured while live-reaction audio was being
recorded -- just as the meteors flashed. This year's 2024 Perseids also
produced many beautiful meteors. Another good meteor shower to watch
for is the Geminids which peak yearly in mid-December, this year with
relatively little competing glow from a nearly new Moon.

Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?
(post 1995)
Tomorrow's picture: half 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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2024 August 27
A picture of the edge of the Earth's familiar Moon takes up the right
part of the frame, while a partial image of Saturn is visible just
behind it on the left. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Moon Eclipses Saturn
Image Credit & Copyright: Pau Montplet Sanz

Explanation: What if Saturn disappeared? Sometimes, it does. It doesn't
really go away, though, it just disappears from view when our Moon
moves in front. Such a Saturnian eclipse, more formally called an
occultation, was visible along a long swath of Earth -- from Peru,
across the Atlantic Ocean, to Italy -- only a few days ago. The
featured color image is a digital fusion of the clearest images
captured during the event and rebalanced for color and relative
brightness between the relatively dim Saturn and the comparatively
bright Moon. Saturn and the comparative bright Moon. The exposures were
all taken from Breda, Catalonia, Spain, just before occultation.
Eclipses of Saturn by our Moon will occur each month for the rest of
this year. Each time, though, the fleeting event will be visible only
to those with clear skies -- and the right location on Earth.

Gallery: Moon Eclipses Saturn in August 2024
Tomorrow's picture: hole flower
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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 August 28
A picture of a starfield with red emission nebulae is shown. Toward the
right is a point of light that is Cygnus X-1, a nearby black hole.
Above the black hole is a blue-shaded bow shock wave in the surrounding
gas. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Tulip Nebula and Black Hole Cygnus X-1
Image Credit & Copyright: Anirudh Shastry

Explanation: When can you see a black hole, a tulip, and a swan all at
once? At night -- if the timing is right, and if your telescope is
pointed in the right direction. The complex and beautiful Tulip Nebula
blossoms about 8,000 light-years away toward the constellation of
Cygnus the Swan. Ultraviolet radiation from young energetic stars at
the edge of the Cygnus OB3 association, including O star HDE 227018,
ionizes the atoms and powers the emission from the Tulip Nebula.
Stewart Sharpless cataloged this nearly 70 light-years across reddish
glowing cloud of interstellar gas and dust in 1959, as Sh2-101. Also in
the featured field of view is the black hole Cygnus X-1, which to be a
microquasar because it is one of strongest X-ray sources in planet
Earth's sky. Blasted by powerful jets from a lurking black hole, its
fainter bluish curved shock front is only faintly visible beyond the
cosmic Tulip's petals, near the right side of the frame.

Back to School? Learn Science with NASA
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 August 29

Star Factory Messier 17
Image Credit & Copyright: Gaetan Maxant

Explanation: A nearby star factory known as Messier 17 lies some 5,500
light-years away in the nebula-rich constellation Sagittarius. At that
distance, this 1.5 degree wide field-of-view would span about 150
light-years. In the sharp color composite image faint details of the
region's gas and dust clouds are highlighted with narrowband image data
against a backdrop of central Milky Way stars. The stellar winds and
energetic radiation from hot, massive stars already formed from M17's
stock of cosmic gas and dust have slowly carved away at the remaining
interstellar material, producing the nebula's cavernous appearance and
the undulating shapes within. A popular stop on telescopic tours of the
cosmos, M17 is also known as the Omega or the Swan Nebula.

Tomorrow's picture: southern moonscape
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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written by a professional astronomer.

2024 August 30

Southern Moonscape
Image Credit & Copyright: Lorand Fenyes

Explanation: The Moon's south pole is toward the top left of this
detailed telescopic moonscape. Captured on August 23, it looks across
the rugged southern lunar highlands. The view's foreshortened
perspective heightens the impression of a dense field of craters and
makes the craters themselves appear more oval shaped close to the lunar
limb. Prominent near center is 114 kilometer diameter crater Moretus.
Moretus is young for a large lunar crater and features terraced inner
walls and a 2.1 kilometer high, central peak, similar in appearance to
the more northerly young crater Tycho. Mountains visible along the
lunar limb at the top can rise about 6 kilometers or so above the
surrounding terrain. Close to the lunar south pole, permanently
shadowed crater floors with expected reservoirs of water-ice have made
the rugged south polar region of the Moon a popular target for
exploration.

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

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

2024 August 31

IFN and the NGC 7771 Group
Image Credit & Copyright: Steve Mandel and Bob Fera

Explanation: Galaxies of the NGC 7771 Group are featured in this
intriguing skyscape. Some 200 million light-years distant toward the
constellation Pegasus, NGC 7771 is the large, edge-on spiral near
center, about 75,000 light-years across, with two smaller galaxies
below it. Large spiral NGC 7769 is seen face-on to the right. Galaxies
of the NGC 7771 group are interacting, making repeated close passages
that will ultimately result in galaxy-galaxy mergers on a cosmic
timescale. The interactions can be traced by distortions in the shape
of the galaxies themselves and faint streams of stars created by their
mutual gravitational tides. But a clear view of this galaxy group is
difficult to come by as the deep image also reveals extensive clouds of
foreground dust sweeping across the field of view. The dim, dusty
galactic cirrus clouds are known as Integrated Flux Nebulae. The faint
IFN reflect starlight from our own Milky Way Galaxy and lie only a few
hundred light-years above the galactic plane.

Tomorrow's picture: moon dressing
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 September 1
The featured image shows a crescent Moon over a city and volcano with a
flat cloud running through the center that makes the Moon look a bit
like the planet Saturn. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

The Moon Dressed Like Saturn
Image Credit & Copyright: Francisco Sojuel

Explanation: Why does Saturn appear so big? It doesn't -- what is
pictured are foreground clouds on Earth crossing in front of the Moon.
The Moon shows a slight crescent phase with most of its surface visible
by reflected Earthlight, known as Da Vinci glow. The Sun directly
illuminates the brightly lit lunar crescent from the bottom, which
means that the Sun must be below the horizon and so the image was taken
before sunrise. This double take-inducing picture was captured on 2019
December 24, two days before the Moon slid in front of the Sun to
create a solar eclipse. In the foreground, lights from small Guatemalan
towns are visible behind the huge volcano Pacaya.

Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?
(post 1995)
Tomorrow's picture: Sun hoverer
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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 September 2
The featured image shows the surface of the Sun with a flowing texture
in red light. Above the Sun's surface an unusual triangular prominence
hovers. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

A Triangular Prominence Hovers Over the Sun
Image Credit & Copyright: Andrea Vanoni

Explanation: Why is there a triangle hovering over the Sun? Although
the shape is unusual, the type of structure is not: it is part of an
evolving solar prominence. Looping magnetic fields on the Sun channel
the flow of energetic particles, sometimes holding glowing gaseous
structures aloft for months. A prominence glows brightly because it
contains particularly hot, dense, or opaque solar plasma. The
surprising triangular structure occurred last week. Larger than our
Earth, the iconic prominence was imaged by several solar photographers
and documented by NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory to form and
violently dissipate in about a day. The featured image was captured in
a color of red light emitted strongly by hydrogen. Below, solar fibrils
carpet the Sun's chromosphere, while the background sky is so faint in
comparison that no stars are visible. Our Sun's surface has been quite
active this year.

Tomorrow's picture: Moon sisters
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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 September 3
The featured image shows an orange sky with clouds across the bottom
and several bright stars near the top center. Just at the top of the
cloud deck on the left is a half-lit Moon. Please see the explanation
for more detailed information.

Quarter Moon and Sister Stars
Image Credit & Copyright: Alan Dyer, TWAN

Explanation: Nine days ago, two quite different sky icons were imaged
rising together. Specifically, Earth's Moon shared the eastern sky with
the sister stars of the Pleiades cluster, as viewed from Alberta,
Canada. Astronomical images of the well-known Pleiades often show the
star cluster's alluring blue reflection nebulas, but here they are
washed-out by the orange moonrise sky. The half-lit Moon, known as a
quarter moon, is overexposed, although the outline of the dim lunar
night side can be seen by illuminating earthshine, light first
reflected from the Earth. The featured image is a composite of eight
successive exposures with brightnesses adjusted to match what the human
eye would see. The Moon passes nearly -- or directly -- in front of the
Pleaides once a month.

Tomorrow's picture: cosmic bat signal
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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 September 4
The featured image shows a starfield with a two- colored nebula in the
center. The nebula is colored mostly red and blue. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

NGC 6995: The Bat Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Taivalmaa

Explanation: Can you see the bat? It haunts this cosmic close-up of the
eastern Veil Nebula. The Veil Nebula itself is a large supernova
remnant, the expanding debris cloud from the death explosion of a
massive star. While the Veil is roughly circular in shape and covers
nearly 3 degrees on the sky toward the constellation of the Swan
(Cygnus), NGC 6995, known informally as the Bat Nebula, spans only 1/2
degree, about the apparent size of the Moon. That translates to 12
light-years at the Veil's estimated distance, a reassuring 1,400
light-years from planet Earth. In the composite of image data recorded
through narrow band filters, emission from hydrogen atoms in the
remnant is shown in red with strong emission from oxygen atoms shown in
hues of blue. Of course, in the western part of the Veil lies another
seasonal apparition: the Witch's Broom Nebula.

Teachers & Students: Ideas for using APOD in the classroom
Tomorrow's picture: friendly spiral
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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 September 5

NGC 247 and Friends
Image Credit & Copyright: Acquisition - Eric Benson, Processing -
Dietmar Hager

Explanation: About 70,000 light-years across, NGC 247 is a spiral
galaxy smaller than our Milky Way. Measured to be only 11 million
light-years distant it is nearby though. Tilted nearly edge-on as seen
from our perspective, it dominates this telescopic field of view toward
the southern constellation Cetus. The pronounced void on one side of
the galaxy's disk recalls for some its popular name, the Needle's Eye
galaxy. Many background galaxies are visible in this sharp galaxy
portrait, including the remarkable string of four galaxies just below
and left of NGC 247 known as Burbidge's Chain. Burbidge's Chain
galaxies are about 300 million light-years distant. NGC 247 itself is
part of the Sculptor Group of galaxies along with shiny spiral NGC 253.

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 September 6

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

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

Tomorrow's picture: terrorizing Mars
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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 September 7

Small Moon Deimos
Image Credit: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA

Explanation: Mars has two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos, named for the
figures in Greek mythology Fear and Panic. Detailed surface views of
smaller moon Deimos are shown in both these panels. The images were
taken in 2009, by the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter spacecraft, NASA's long-lived interplanetary internet
satellite. The outermost of the two Martian moons, Deimos is one of the
smallest known moons in the Solar System, measuring only about 15
kilometers across. Both Martian moons were discovered in 1877 by Asaph
Hall, an American astronomer working at the US Naval Observatory in
Washington D.C. But their existence was postulated around 1610 by
Johannes Kepler, the astronomer who derived the laws of planetary
motion. In this case, Kepler's prediction was not based on scientific
principles, but his writings and ideas were so influential that the two
Martian moons are discussed in works of fiction such as Jonathan
Swift's Gulliver's Travels, written in 1726, over 150 years before
their discovery.

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

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2024 September 8
The featured image shows a spiral galaxy and a smaller oval galaxy in a
dark starfield. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

M31: The Andromeda Galaxy
Image Credit: Subaru (NAOJ), Hubble (NASA/ESA), Mayall (NSF);
Processing & Copyright: R. Gendler & R. Croman

Explanation: The most distant object easily visible to the unaided eye
is M31, the great Andromeda Galaxy. Even at some two and a half million
light-years distant, this immense spiral galaxy -- spanning over
200,000 light years -- is visible, although as a faint, nebulous cloud
in the constellation Andromeda. A bright yellow nucleus, dark winding
dust lanes, and expansive spiral arms dotted with blue star clusters
and red nebulae, are recorded in this stunning telescopic image which
combines data from orbiting Hubble with ground-based images from Subaru
and Mayall. In only about 5 billion years, the Andromeda galaxy may be
even easier to see -- as it will likely span the entire night sky --
just before it merges with, or passes right by, our Milky Way Galaxy.

Teachers & Students: Ideas for using APOD in the classroom
Tomorrow's picture: dark moon, red planet
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 September 9
A panoramic view of the surface of Mars. Several landforms are visible
including craters and volcanos. A small dark moon is superposed in
front of part of the surface. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Mars: Moon, Craters, and Volcanos
Image Credit: ESA, DLR, FU Berlin, Mars Express; Processing & CC BY 2.0
License: Andrea Luck; h/t: Phil Plait

Explanation: If you could fly over Mars, what might you see? The
featured image shows exactly this in the form of a Mars Express vista
captured over a particularly interesting region on Mars in July. The
picture's most famous feature is Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in
the Solar System, visible on the upper right. Another large Martian
volcano is visible on the right horizon: Pavonis Mons. Several circular
impact craters can be seen on the surface of the aptly named red
planet. Impressively, this image was timed to capture the dark and
doomed Martian moon Phobos, visible just left of center. The surface
feature on the lower left, known as Orcus Patera, is unusual for its
large size and oblong shape, and mysterious because the processes that
created it still remain unknown. ESA's robotic Mars Express spacecraft
was launched in 2003 and, among many notable science discoveries,
bolstered evidence that Mars was once home to large bodies of water.

Tomorrow's picture: golden space horse
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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 September 10
The featured image a starfield that glows gold. On the left is the dark
horsehead nebula, while on the right is the blue-glowing Orion Nebula.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Horsehead and Orion Nebulas
Image Credit & Copyright: Antoine & Dalia Grelin

Explanation: The dark Horsehead Nebula and the glowing Orion Nebula are
contrasting cosmic vistas. Adrift 1,500 light-years away in one of the
night sky's most recognizable constellations, they appear in opposite
corners of the above stunning mosaic. The familiar Horsehead nebula
appears as a dark cloud, a small silhouette notched against the long
glow of hydrogen -- here shown in gold -- at the lower left. Alnitak is
the easternmost star in Orion's belt and is seen as the brightest star
just below and to the left of the Horsehead. To the left of Alnitak is
the Flame Nebula, with clouds of bright emission and dramatic dark dust
lanes. The magnificent emission region, the Orion Nebula (aka M42),
lies at the upper right. Immediately to its left is a prominent
reflection nebula sometimes called the Running Man. Pervasive tendrils
of glowing hydrogen gas are easily traced throughout the region.

Astrophysicists: Browse 3,500+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code
Library
Tomorrow's picture: river meets sky
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 September 11
A starry sky is shown with the busy central band of our Milky Way
Galaxy showing diagonally from the upper left. Mountains are on the
horizon, with trees and a stream running up from the foreground. Please
see the explanation for more detailed information.

A Night Sky over the Tatra Mountains
Image Credit: Marcin Rosadzi+äski; Text: Natalia Lewandowska (SUNY
Oswego)

Explanation: A natural border between Slovakia and Poland is the Tatra
Mountains. A prominent destination for astrophotographers, the Tatras
are the highest mountain range in the Carpathians. In the featured
image taken in May, one can see the center of our Milky Way galaxy with
two of its famous stellar nurseries, the Lagoon and Omega Nebula, just
over the top of the Tatras. Stellar nurseries are full of ionized
hydrogen, a fundamental component for the formation of Earth-abundant
water. As a fundamental ingredient in all known forms of life, water is
a crucial element in the Universe. Such water can be seen in the
foreground in the form of the Bialka River.

Portal Universe: Random APOD Generator
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 September 12

Young Star Cluster NGC 1333
Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, A. Scholz, K. Muzic, A. Langeveld,
R. Jayawardhana

Explanation: This spectacular mosaic of images from the James Webb
Space Telescope peers into the heart of young star cluster NGC 1333. A
mere 1,000 light-years distant toward the heroic constellation Perseus,
the nearby star cluster lies at the edge of the large Perseus molecular
cloud. Part of Webb's deep exploration of the region to identify low
mass brown dwarf stars and free floating planets, the space telescope's
combined field of view spans nearly 2 light-years across the dusty
cluster's turbulent stellar nursery. In fact, NGC 1333 is known to
harbor stars less than a million years old, though most are hidden from
optical telescopes by the pervasive stardust. The chaotic environment
may be similar to one in which our own Sun formed over 4.5 billion
years ago.

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

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
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2024 September 13

Aurora Australis and the International Space Station
Image Credit: NASA, ISS Expedition 71

Explanation: This snapshot from the International Space Station was
taken on August 11 while orbiting about 430 kilometers above the Indian
Ocean, Southern Hemisphere, planet Earth. The spectacular view looks
south and east, down toward the planet's horizon and through red and
green curtains of aurora australis. The auroral glow is caused by
emission from excited oxygen atoms in the extremely rarefied upper
atmosphere still present at the level of the orbiting outpost. Green
emission from atomic oxygen dominates this scene at altitudes of 100 to
250 kilometers, while red emission from atomic oxygen can extend as
high as 500 kilometers altitude. Beyond the glow of these southern
lights, this view from low Earth orbit reveals the starry sky from a
southern hemisphere perspective. Stars in Orion's belt and the Orion
Nebula are near the Earth's limb just left of center. Sirius, alpha
star of Canis Major and brightest star in planet Earth's night is above
center along the right edge of the southern orbital skyscape.

Looking Up: International Observe the Moon Night
Tomorrow's picture: If the Moon could smile
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 September 14

The Moona Lisa
Image Credit & Copyright: Gianni Sarcone and Marcella Giulia Pace

Explanation: Only natural colors of the Moon in planet Earth's sky
appear in this creative visual presentation. Arranged as pixels in a
framed image, the lunar disks were photographed at different times.
Their varying hues are ultimately due to reflected sunlight affected by
changing atmospheric conditions and the alignment geometry of Moon,
Earth, and Sun. Here, the darkest lunar disks are the colors of
earthshine. A description of earthshine, in terms of sunlight reflected
by Earth's oceans illuminating the Moon's dark surface, was written
over 500 years ago by Leonardo da Vinci. But stand farther back from
your screen or just shift your gaze to the smaller versions of the
image. You might also see one of da Vinci's most famous works of art.

Tonight: International Observe the Moon Night
Tomorrow's picture: lunar pronouns
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 September 15
Earth's Moon is shown just beyond a rocky hill. The Moon is near full
phase. On the hill the silhouette of a person looking through a
telescope can be seen. A rollover darkens part of the Moon that looks
to some like a human face. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Find the Man in the Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Dani Caxete

Explanation: Have you ever seen the Man in the Moon? This common
question plays on the ability of humans to see pareidolia -- imagining
familiar icons where they don't actually exist. The textured surface of
Earth's full Moon is home to numerous identifications of iconic
objects, not only in modern western culture but in world folklore
throughout history. Examples, typically dependent on the Moon's
perceived orientation, include the Woman in the Moon and the Rabbit in
the Moon. One facial outline commonly identified as the Man in the Moon
starts by imagining the two dark circular areas -- lunar maria -- here
just above the Moon's center, to be the eyes. Surprisingly, there
actually is a man in this Moon image -- a close look will reveal a real
person -- with a telescope -- silhouetted against the Moon. This
well-planned image was taken in 2016 in Cadalso de los Vidrios in
Madrid, Spain.

Observe the Moon Night: NASA Coverage
Tomorrow's picture: near Mercury
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 September 16
The cratered surface of a large body is shown: Mercury. The largest
feature visible is a large impact crater with two rings, near the image
center. Arms from the BepiColumbo spacecraft that took the image are
seen extending into the image from the top and the right. Please see
the explanation for more detailed information.

Mercury's Vivaldi Crater from BepiColombo
Image Credit: ESA, JAXA, BepiColombo, MTM

Explanation: Why does this large crater on Mercury have two rings and a
smooth floor? No one is sure. The unusual feature called Vivaldi Crater
spans 215 kilometers and was imaged again in great detail by ESA's and
JAXA's robotic BepiColombo spacecraft on a flyby earlier this month. A
large circular feature on a rocky planet or moon is usually caused by
either an impact by a small asteroid or a comet fragment, or a volcanic
eruption. In the case of Vivaldi, it is possible that both occurred --
a heavy strike that caused a smooth internal lava flow. Double-ringed
craters are rare, and the cause of the inner rings remains a topic of
research. The speed-slowing gravity-assisted flyby of Mercury by
BepiColombo was in preparation for the spacecraft entering orbit around
the Solar System's innermost planet in 2026.

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

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

2024 September 17
A starfield is shown with a a bright orange nebula in the center. The
nebula is filamentary and takes up much of the bottom and middle of the
frame. The top is most dark with some bright stars. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Melotte 15 in the Heart Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Richard McInnis

Explanation: Cosmic clouds form fantastic shapes in the central regions
of emission nebula IC 1805. The clouds are sculpted by stellar winds
and radiation from massive hot stars in the nebula's newborn star
cluster, Melotte 15. About 1.5 million years young, the cluster stars
are scattered in this colorful skyscape, along with dark dust clouds in
silhouette against glowing atomic gas. A composite of narrowband and
broadband telescopic images, the view spans about 15 light-years and
includes emission from ionized hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen atoms
mapped to green, red, and blue hues in the popular Hubble Palette.
Wider field images reveal that IC 1805's simpler, overall outline
suggests its popular name - the Heart Nebula. IC 1805 is located about
7,500 light years away toward the boastful constellation Cassiopeia.

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

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

2024 September 18
A starfield is shown with a long blue-glowing nebula taking up much of
the frame. The nebula appears, to some, similar to a fish or a mermaid.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

The Mermaid Nebula Supernova Remnant
Image Credit & Copyright: Neil Corke; Text: Natalia Lewandowska (SUNY
Oswego)

Explanation: New stars are born from the remnants of dead stars. The
gaseous remnant of the gravitational collapse and subsequent death of a
very massive star in our Milky Way created the G296.5+10.0 supernova
remnant, of which the featured Mermaid Nebula is part. Also known as
the Betta Fish Nebula, the Mermaid Nebula makes up part of an unusual
subclass of supernova remnants that are two-sided and nearly circular.
Originally discovered in X-rays, the filamentary nebula is a frequently
studied source also in radio and gamma-ray light. The blue color
visible here originates from doubly ionized oxygen (OIII), while the
deep red is emitted by hydrogen gas. The nebula's mermaid-like shape
has proven to be useful for measurements of the interstellar magnetic
field.

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 September 19

The Dark Seahorse of Cepheus
Image Credit & Copyright: Davide Broise

Explanation: Spanning light-years, this suggestive shape known as the
Seahorse Nebula floats in silhouette against a rich, luminous
background of stars. Seen toward the royal northern constellation of
Cepheus, the dusty, dark nebula is part of a Milky Way molecular cloud
some 1,200 light-years distant. It is also listed as Barnard 150
(B150), one of 182 dark markings of the sky cataloged in the early 20th
century by astronomer E. E. Barnard. Packs of low mass stars are
forming within, but their collapsing cores are only visible at long
infrared wavelengths. Still, the colorful Milky Way stars of Cepheus
add to this stunning galactic skyscape.

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

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

2024 September 20

A Hazy Harvest Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Hor+ílek / Institute of Physics in Opava

Explanation: For northern hemisphere dwellers, September's Full Moon
was the Harvest Moon. On September 17/18 the sunlit lunar nearside
passed into shadow, just grazing Earth's umbra, the planet's dark,
central shadow cone, in a partial lunar eclipse. Over the two and half
hours before dawn a camera fixed to a tripod was used to record this
series of exposures as the eclipsed Harvest Moon set behind Spi+í Castle
in the hazy morning sky over eastern Slovakia. Famed in festival,
story, and song, Harvest Moon is just the traditional name of the full
moon nearest the autumnal equinox. According to lore the name is a
fitting one. Despite the diminishing daylight hours as the growing
season drew to a close, farmers could harvest crops by the light of a
full moon shining on from dusk to dawn. This September's Harvest Moon
was also known to some as a supermoon, a term becoming a traditional
name for a full moon near perigee.

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

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

2024 September 21

Sunrise Shadows in the Sky
Image Credit & Copyright: Emili Vilamala

Explanation: The defining astronomical moment of this September's
equinox is at 12:44 UTC on September 22, when the Sun crosses the
celestial equator moving south in its yearly journey through planet
Earth's sky. That marks the beginning of fall for our fair planet in
the northern hemisphere and spring in the southern hemisphere, when day
and night are nearly equal around the globe. Of course, if you
celebrate the astronomical change of seasons by watching a sunrise you
can also look for crepuscular rays. Outlined by shadows cast by clouds,
crepuscular rays can have a dramatic appearance in the twilight sky
during any sunrise (or sunset). Due to perspective, the parallel cloud
shadows will seem to point back to the rising Sun and a place due east
on your horizon on the equinox date. But in this spectacular sunrise
skyscape captured in early June, the parallel shadows and crepuscular
rays appear to converge toward an eastern horizon's more northerly
sunrise. The well-composed photo places the rising Sun just behind the
bell tower of a church in the town of Vic, province of Barcelona,
Catalonia, Spain.

Tomorrow's picture: Equinox in the City
__________________________________________________________________

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 September 22
A picture of the Sun setting at the end of a long city street is shown.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Chicagohenge: Equinox in an Aligned City
Image Credit & Copyright: Anthony Artese

Explanation: Chicago, in a way, is like a modern Stonehenge. The way is
east to west, and the time is today. Today, and every equinox, the Sun
will set exactly to the west, everywhere on Earth. Therefore, today in
Chicago, the Sun will set directly down the long equatorially-aligned
grid of streets and buildings, an event dubbed #chicagohenge. Featured
here is a Chicago Henge picture taken during the equinox in
mid-September of 2017 looking along part of Upper Wacker Drive. Many
cities, though, have streets or other features that are well-aligned to
Earth's spin axis. Therefore, quite possibly, your favorite street may
also run east - west. Tonight at sunset, with a quick glance, you can
actually find out.

Tomorrow's picture: comet approaches
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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 September 23
A picture shows a starfield with three prominent objects. A blue spiral
galaxy is on the lower left and another blue spiral is just left of
center. Toward the upper right is a light-colored comet with a tail
fading toward in the image bottom. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Approaches
Image Credit & Copyright: Brian Valente & Greg Stein

Explanation: What will happen as this already bright comet approaches?
Optimistic predictions have Comet C/2023 A3 (TsuchinshanCÇôATLAS) briefly
becoming easily visible to the unaided eye -- although the future
brightness of comets are notoriously hard to predict, and this comet
may even break up in warming sunlight. What is certain is that the
comet is now unexpectedly bright and is on track to pass its closest to
the Sun (0.39 AU) later this week and closest to the Earth (0.47 AU)
early next month. The featured image was taken in late May as Comet
TsuchinshanCÇôATLAS, discovered only last year, passed nearly in front of
two distant galaxies. The comet can now be found with binoculars in the
early morning sky rising just before the Sun, while over the next few
weeks it will brighten as it moves to the early evening sky.

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

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 September 24
A brown dusty nebula is shown in front of a star field. The nebula
looks to some like a baboon, with red emission stemming from the mouth
and blue reflection from the eyes. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

NGC 6727: The Rampaging Baboon Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Alpha Zhang & Ting Yu

Explanation: This dusty region is forming stars. Part of a sprawling
molecular cloud complex that resembles, to some, a rampaging baboon,
the region is a relatively close by 500 light-years away toward the
constellation Corona Australis. That's about one third the distance of
the more famous stellar nursery known as the Orion Nebula. Mixed with
bright nebulosities, the brown dust clouds effectively block light from
more distant background stars in the Milky Way and obscure from view
embedded stars still in the process of formation. The eyes of the dust
creature in the featured image are actually blue reflection nebulas
cataloged as NGC 6726, 6727, 6729, and IC 4812, while the red mouth
glows with light emitted by hydrogen gas. Just to the upper left of the
baboon's head is NGC 6723, a whole globular cluster of stars nearly
30,000 light years in the distance.

Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: comet sunrise
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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 September 25
A sunrise sky is shown over water and trees. The horizon is orange and
the top of the image is deep blue. On the far right vertical bands are
shown becoming progressively darker. In each band a comet appears, with
the comet appearing increasingly near the top of the image on lighter
bands. The main part of the image on the left is the lightest. Please
see the explanation for more detailed information.

Comet A3 Through an Australian Sunrise
Image Credit & Copyright: Lucy Yunxi Hu

Explanation: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is now visible in the early
morning sky. Diving into the inner Solar System at an odd angle, this
large dirty iceberg will pass its closest to the Sun -- between the
orbits of Mercury and Venus -- in just two days. Long camera exposures
are now capturing C/2023 A3 (TsuchinshanCÇôATLAS), sometimes abbreviated
as just A3, and its dust tail before and during sunrise. The featured
image composite was taken four days ago and captured the comet as it
rose above Lake George, NSW, Australia. Vertical bands further left are
images of the comet as the rising Sun made the predawn sky increasingly
bright and colorful. Just how bright the comet will become over the
next month is currently unknown as it involves how much gas and dust
the comet's nucleus will expel. Optimistic skywatchers are hoping for a
great show where TsuchinshanCÇôATLAS creates dust and ion tails visible
across Earth's sky and becomes known as the Great Comet of 2024.

Survey: Color Blindness and Astronomical Images
Growing Gallery: Comet Tsuchinsan-ATLAS in 2024
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 September 26

The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules
Image Credit & Copyright: Jan Beckmann, Julian Zoller, Lukas Eisert,
Wolfgang Hummel

Explanation: In 1716, English astronomer Edmond Halley noted, "This is
but a little Patch, but it shows itself to the naked Eye, when the Sky
is serene and the Moon absent." Of course, M13 is now less modestly
recognized as the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, one of the
brightest globular star clusters in the northern sky. Sharp telescopic
views like this one reveal the spectacular cluster's hundreds of
thousands of stars. At a distance of 25,000 light-years, the cluster
stars crowd into a region 150 light-years in diameter. Approaching the
cluster core, upwards of 100 stars could be contained in a cube just 3
light-years on a side. For comparison, the closest star to the Sun is
over 4 light-years away. The deep, wide-field image also reveals
distant background galaxies including NGC 6207 at the upper left, and
faint, foreground Milky Way dust clouds known to some as integrated
flux nebulae.

Tomorrow's picture: in the local universe
__________________________________________________________________

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

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

2024 September 27

Stellar Streams in the Local Universe
Image Credit: David Martinez Delgado et al.

Explanation: The twenty galaxies arrayed in these panels are part of an
ambitious astronomical survey of tidal stellar streams. Each panel
presents a composite view; a deep, inverted image taken from publicly
available imaging surveys of a field that surrounds a nearby massive
galaxy image. The inverted images reveal faint cosmic structures, star
streams hundreds of thousands of light-years across, that result from
the gravitational disruption and eventual merger of satellite galaxies
in the local universe. Such surveys of mergers and gravitational tidal
interactions between massive galaxies and their dwarf satellites are
crucial guides for current models of galaxy formation and cosmology. Of
course, the detection of stellar streams in the neighboring Andromeda
Galaxy and our own Milky Way also offers spectacular evidence for
ongoing satellite galaxy disruption within our more local galaxy group.

Tomorrow's picture: eclipse at sunset
__________________________________________________________________

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

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

2024 September 28

Rocket Eclipse at Sunset
Image Credit & Copyright: Ben Cooper (Launch Photography)

Explanation: Shockwaves ripple across the glare as a launch eclipses
the setting Sun in this exciting close-up. Captured on September 17,
the roaring Falcon 9 rocket carried European Galileo L13 navigation
satellites to medium Earth orbit after a lift-off from Cape Canaveral
on Florida's space coast. The Falcon 9 booster returned safely to Earth
about 8.5 minutes later, notching the 22nd launch and landing for the
reusable workhorse launch vehicle. But where did it land? Just Read the
Instructions.

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

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

2024 September 29
A famous Pleiades star cluster is shown but showing numerous parallel
and curved filaments in different colors. The image is in several
colors of infrared light. A rollover image shows the cluster in visible
light with its familiar blue light. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Seven Dusty Sisters
Image Credit: WISE, IRSA, NASA; Processing & Copyright : Francesco
Antonucci

Explanation: Is this really the famous Pleiades star cluster? Known for
its iconic blue stars, the Pleiades is shown here in infrared light
where the surrounding dust outshines the stars. Here, three infrared
colors have been mapped into visual colors (R=24, G=12, B=4.6 microns).
The base images were taken by NASA's orbiting Wide Field Infrared
Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft. Cataloged as M45 and nicknamed the
Seven Sisters, the Pleiades star cluster is by chance situated in a
passing dust cloud. The light and winds from the massive Pleiades stars
preferentially repel smaller dust particles, causing the dust to become
stratified into filaments, as seen. The featured image spans about 20
light years at the distance of the Pleiades, which lies about 450 light
years distant toward the constellation of the Bull (Taurus).

Tomorrow's picture: comet above clouds
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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 September 30
A picture shows clouds across the bottom and a dark night sky across
the top. In the middle is a band of orange sky. City lights are visible
on the right through gaps in the clouds. In the center of the upper sky
is a comet with its tail pointing toward the upper right. Please see
the explanation for more detailed information.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS over Mexico
Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Korona

Explanation: The new comet has passed its closest to the Sun and is now
moving closer to the Earth. C/2023 A3 (TsuchinshanCÇôATLAS) is currently
moving out from inside the orbit of Venus and on track to pass its
nearest to the Earth in about two weeks. Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS,
pronounced "Choo-cheen-shahn At-less,", is near naked-eye visibility
and easily picked up by long-exposure cameras. The comet can also now
be found by observers in Earth's northern hemisphere as well as the
south. The featured image was captured just a few days ago above
Zacatecas, Mexico. Because clouds were obscuring much of the pre-dawn
sky, the astrophotographer released a drone to take pictures from
higher up, several of which were later merged to enhance the comet's
visibility. Although the future brightness of comets is hard to
predict, there is increasing hope that Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will
further brighten as it enters the early evening sky.

Growing Gallery: Comet Tsuchinsan-ATLAS in 2024
Tomorrow's picture: black hole jet
__________________________________________________________________

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 October 1

Porphyrion: The Longest Known Black Hole Jets
Animation Credit: Science Communication Lab for Martijn Oei et al.,
Caltech

Explanation: How far can black hole jets extend? A new record was found
just recently with the discovery of a 23-million light-year long jet
pair from a black hole active billions of years ago. Dubbed Porphyrion
for a mythological Greek giant, the impressive jets were created by a
type of black hole that does not usually create long jets -- one that
is busy creating radiation from infalling gas. The featured animated
video depicts what it might look like to circle around this powerful
black hole system. Porphyrion is shown as a fast stream of energetic
particles, and the bright areas are where these particles are impacting
surrounding gas. The discovery was made using data from the Keck and
Mayall (DESI) optical observatories as well as LOFAR and the Giant
Metrewave Radio Telescope. The existence of these jets demonstrates
that black holes can affect not only their home galaxies but far out
into the surrounding universe.

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

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 October 2
An unusual looking galaxy is shown with a light bar running nearly
vertical and blue stars and red nebulas around the edges. Please see
the explanation for more detailed information.

The Large Magellanic Cloud Galaxy
Image Credit & Copyright: Ireneusz Nowak; Text: Natalia Lewandowska
(SUNY Oswego)

Explanation: It is the largest satellite galaxy of our home Milky Way
Galaxy. If you live in the south, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is
quite noticeable, spanning about 10 degrees across the night sky, which
is 20 times larger than the full moon towards the southern
constellation of the dolphinfish (Dorado). Being only about 160,000
light years away, many details of the LMC's structure can be seen, such
as its central bar and its single spiral arm. The LMC harbors numerous
stellar nurseries where new stars are being born, which appear in pink
in the featured image. It is home to the Tarantula Nebula, the
currently most active star forming region in the entire Local Group, a
small collection of nearby galaxies dominated by the massive Andromeda
and Milky Way galaxies. Studies of the LMC and the Small Magellanic
Cloud (SMC) by Henrietta Swan Leavitt led to the discovery of the
period-luminosity relationship of Cepheid variable stars that are used
to measure distances across the nearby universe.

Survey: Color Blindness and Astronomical Images
Tomorrow's picture: open space
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 October 3

Eclipse at Sunrise
Image Credit & Copyright: Wang Letian (Eyes at Night)

Explanation: The second solar eclipse of 2024 began in the Pacific. On
October 2nd the Moon's shadow swept from west to east, with an annular
eclipse visible along a narrow antumbral shadow path tracking mostly
over ocean, crossing land near the southern tip of South America, and
ending in the southern Atlantic. The dramatic total annular eclipse
phase is known to some as a ring of fire. Still, a partial eclipse of
the Sun was experienced over a wide region. Captured at one of its
earliest moments, October's eclipsed Sun is seen just above the clouds
near sunrise in this snapshot. The partially eclipsed solar disk is
close to the maximum eclipse as seen from Mauna Kea Observatory Visitor
Center, Island of Hawaii, planet Earth.

Tomorrow's picture: comet at moonrise
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 October 4

Comet at Moonrise
Image Credit & Copyright: Gabriel Zaparolli

Explanation: Comet C/2023 A3 (TsuchinshanCÇôATLAS) is growing brighter in
planet Earth's sky. Fondly known as comet A3, this new visitor to the
inner Solar System is traveling from the distant Oort cloud. The comet
reached perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun, on September 27
and will reach perigee, its closest to our fair planet, on October 12,
by then becoming an evening sky apparition. But comet A3 was an early
morning riser on September 30 when this image was made. Its bright coma
and already long tail share a pre-dawn skyscape from Praia Grande,
Santa Catarina in southern Brazil with the waning crescent Moon just
peeking above the eastern horizon. While the behaviour of comets is
notoriously unpredictable, TsuchinshanCÇôATLAS could become a comet
visually rivaling C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE). Comet NEOWISE wowed skygazers in
the summer of 2020.

Growing Gallery: Comet Tsuchinsan-ATLAS in 2024
Tomorrow's picture: not a comet
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 October 5

M27: Not a Comet
Image Credit & Copyright: Francesco Sferlazza, Franco Sgueglia

Explanation: While hunting for comets in the skies above 18th century
France, astronomer Charles Messier diligently kept a list of the things
encountered during his telescopic expeditions that were definitely not
comets. This is number 27 on his now famous not-a-comet list. In fact,
21st century astronomers would identify it as a planetary nebula, but
it's not a planet either, even though it may appear round and
planet-like in a small telescope. Messier 27 (M27) is an excellent
example of a gaseous emission nebula created as a sun-like star runs
out of nuclear fuel in its core. The nebula forms as the star's outer
layers are expelled into space, with a visible glow generated by atoms
excited by the dying star's intense but invisible ultraviolet light.
Known by the popular name of the Dumbbell Nebula, the beautifully
symmetric interstellar gas cloud is over 2.5 light-years across and
about 1,200 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula. This
impressive color image highlights details within the well-studied
central region and fainter, seldom imaged features in the nebula's
outer halo.

Tomorrow's picture: a comet's tale
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 October 6
A starry sky is pictured just after sunset. The silhouette of plants
and a distant landscape covers the bottom of the picture. Spanning most
of the frame is a comet with an amazingly long and complex tail. Please
see the explanation for more detailed information.

The Magnificent Tail of Comet McNaught
Image Credit & Copyright: Robert H. McNaught

Explanation: Comet McNaught, the Great Comet of 2007, grew a
spectacularly long and filamentary tail. The magnificent tail spread
across the sky and was visible for several days to Southern Hemisphere
observers just after sunset. The amazing ion tail showed its greatest
extent on long-duration, wide-angle camera exposures. During some
times, just the tail itself was visible just above the horizon for many
northern observers as well. Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught), estimated to
have attained a peak brightness of magnitude -5 (minus five), was
caught by the comet's discoverer in the featured image just after
sunset in January 2007 from Siding Spring Observatory in Australia.
Comet McNaught, the brightest comet in decades, then faded as it moved
further into southern skies and away from the Sun and Earth. Over the
next month, Comet TsuchinshanCÇôATLAS, a candidate for the Great Comet of
2024, should display its most spectacular tails visible from the Earth.

Tomorrow's picture: eclipsed sunrise
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 October 7
A starry sky is pictured with a long bright streak running diagonally
from the lower left to the upper right. The lower left part of the sky
sky orange sprinkled with a few dark clouds. Please see the explanation
for more detailed information.

The Long Tails Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS
Image Credit & Copyright: Jose Santiva+#ez Mueras

Explanation: A bright comet is moving into the evening skies. C/2023 A3
(TsuchinshanCÇôATLAS) has brightened and even though it is now easily
visible to the unaided eye, it is so near to the Sun that it is still
difficult to see. Pictured, Comet TsuchinshanCÇôATLAS was captured just
before sunrise from an Andes Mountain in Peru. Braving cold weather,
this unusually high perch gave the astrophotographer such a low eastern
horizon that the comet was obvious in the pre-dawn sky. Visible in the
featured image is not only an impressively long dust tail extending
over many degrees, but an impressively long and blue ion tail, too.
This month, as the comet moves out from the Sun and passes the Earth,
evening observers should be able to see the huge dirty ice ball toward
the west just after sunset.

Growing Gallery: Comet Tsuchinsan-ATLAS in 2024
Tomorrow's picture: circular sunspot
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 October 8
A person stands looking over a lake. High in a partly cloudy sky is the
Sun. A close look at the Sun will show that there is a dark spot in the
center -- the Moon during an annular eclipse. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Annular Eclipse over Patagonia
Image Credit & Copyright: Alexis Trigo

Explanation: Can you find the Sun? OK, but can you explain why thereCÇÖs
a big dark spot in the center? The spot is the Moon, and the impressive
alignment shown, where the Moon lines up inside the Sun, is called an
annular solar eclipse. Such an eclipse occurred just last week and was
visible from a thin swath mostly in Earth's southern hemisphere. The
featured image was captured from Patagonia, Chile. When the Moon is
significantly closer to the Earth and it aligns with the Sun, a total
solar eclipse is then visible from parts of the Earth. Annular eclipses
are slightly more common than total eclipses, but as the Moon moves
slowly away from the Earth, before a billion more years, the Moon's
orbit will no longer bring it close enough for a total solar eclipse to
be seen from anywhere on Earth.

Gallery: Annular Eclipse of October 2024
Tomorrow's picture: galaxy's center
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 October 9
A spiral galaxy with blue spiral arms and a bright center is shown. The
galaxy is surrounded by foreground stars and two smaller galaxies. In
the galaxy's center are dark brown dust and red emission filaments.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

M106: A Spiral Galaxy with a Strange Center
Image Credit & Copyright: Ali Al Obaidly

Explanation: What's happening at the center of spiral galaxy M106? A
swirling disk of stars and gas, M106's appearance is dominated by blue
spiral arms and red dust lanes near the nucleus, as shown in the
featured image taken from the Kuwaiti desert. The core of M106 glows
brightly in radio waves and X-rays where twin jets have been found
running the length of the galaxy. An unusual central glow makes M106
one of the closest examples of the Seyfert class of galaxies, where
vast amounts of glowing gas are thought to be falling into a central
massive black hole. M106, also designated NGC 4258, is a relatively
close 23.5 million light years away, spans 60 thousand light years
across, and can be seen with a small telescope towards the
constellation of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici).

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 October 10

Five Bright Comets from SOHO
Image Compilation Credit: Tunc Tezel (TWAN)

Explanation: Five bright comets are compared in these panels, recorded
by a coronograph on board the long-lived, sun-staring SOHO spacecraft.
Arranged chronologically all are recognizable by their tails streaming
away from the Sun at the center of each field of view, where a direct
view of the overwhelmingly bright Sun is blocked by the coronagraph's
occulting disk. Each comet was memorable for earthbound skygazers,
starting at top left with Comet McNaught, the 21st century's brightest
comet (so far). C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-Atlas, approaching its perihelion
with the active Sun at bottom center, has most recently grabbed the
attention of comet watchers around the globe. By the end of October
2024, the blank 6th panel may be filled with bright sungrazer comet
C/2024 S1 Atlas. ... or not.

Tomorrow's picture: ring of fire island
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 October 11

Ring of Fire over Easter Island
Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas
Observatory, TWAN)

Explanation: The second solar eclipse of 2024 began in the Pacific. On
October 2nd the Moon's shadow swept from west to east, with an annular
eclipse visible along a narrow antumbral shadow path tracking mostly
over ocean, making its only major landfall near the southern tip of
South America, and then ending in the southern Atlantic. The dramatic
total annular eclipse phase is known to some as a ring of fire. Also
tracking across islands in the southern Pacific, the Moon's antumbral
shadow grazed Easter Island allowing denizens to follow all phases of
the annular eclipse. Framed by palm tree leaves this clear island view
is a stack of two images, one taken with and one taken without a solar
filter near the moment of the maximum annular phase. The New Moon's
silhouette appears just off center, though still engulfed by the bright
disk of the active Sun.

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

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2024 October 12

Northern Lights, West Virginia
Image Credit & Copyright: Jonathan Eggleston

Explanation: A gravel country lane gently winds through this colorful
rural night skyscape. Captured from Monroe County in southern West
Virginia on the evening of October 10, the starry sky above is a
familiar sight. Shimmering curtains of aurora borealis or northern
lights definitely do not make regular appearances here, though.
Surprisingly vivid auroral displays were present on that night at very
low latitudes around the globe, far from their usual northern and
southern high latitude realms. The extensive auroral activity was
evidence of a severe geomagnetic storm triggered by the impact of a
coronal mass ejection (CME)
, an immense magnetized cloud of energetic plasma. The CME was launched
toward Earth from the active Sun following a powerful X-class solar
flare.

Growing Gallery: Global aurora during October 10/11, 2024
Tomorrow's picture: aurora in motion
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2024 October 13

Aurora Timelapse Over Italian Alps
Video Credit & Copyright: Cristian Bigontina

Explanation: Did you see last night's aurora? This question was
relevant around much of the world a few days ago because a powerful
auroral storm became visible unusually far from the Earth's poles. The
cause was a giant X-class solar flare on Tuesday that launched
energetic electrons and protons into the Solar System, connecting to
the Earth via our planet's magnetic field. A red glow of these
particles striking oxygen atoms high in Earth's atmosphere pervades the
frame, while vertical streaks dance. The featured video shows a
one-hour timelapse as seen from Cortina d'Ampezzo over Alps Mountain
peaks in northern Italy. Stars from our Milky Way Galaxy dot the
background while streaks from airplanes and satellites punctuate the
foreground. The high recent activity of our Sun is likely to continue
to produce picturesque auroras over Earth during the next year or so.

Gallery: Global aurora during October 10/11, 2024
Tomorrow's picture: comet tails
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2024 October 14
The Lincoln Memorial monument in Washington, DC, USA is pictured from
afar. Behind the monument is a sunset-colored pink sky. In the sky, on
the upper left, is a white streak that is a comet. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Over the Lincoln Memorial
Credit & Copyright: Brennan Gilmore

Explanation: Go outside at sunset tonight and see a comet! C/2023 A3
(TsuchinshanCÇôATLAS) has become visible in the early evening sky in
northern locations to the unaided eye. To see the comet, look west
through a sky with a low horizon. If the sky is clear and dark enough,
you will not even need binoculars -- the faint tail of the comet should
be visible just above the horizon for about an hour. Pictured, Comet
Tsuchinshan-ATLAS was captured two nights ago over the Lincoln Memorial
monument in Washington, DC, USA. With each passing day at sunset, the
comet and its changing tail should be higher and higher in the sky,
although exactly how bright and how long its tails will be can only be
guessed.

Growing Gallery: Comet Tsuchinsan-ATLAS in 2024
Tomorrow's picture: comet video
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 October 15

Animation: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Tails Prediction
Credit & Copyright: Nico Lefaudeux

Explanation: How bright and strange will the tails of Comet
Tsuchinshan-ATLAS become? The comet has brightened dramatically over
the few weeks as it passed its closest to the Sun and, just three days
ago, passed its closest to the Earth. C/2023 A3 (TsuchinshanCÇôATLAS)
became of the brightest comets of the past century over the past few
days, but was unfortunately hard to see because it was so nearly
superposed on the Sun. As the comet appears to move away from the Sun,
it is becoming a remarkable sight -- but may soon begin to fade. The
featured animated video shows how the comet's tails have developed, as
viewed from Earth, and gives one prediction about how they might
further develop. As shown in the video, heavier parts of the dust tail
that trails the comet have begun to appear to point in nearly the
opposite direction from lighter parts of the dust tail as well as the
comet's ion tail, the blue tail that is pushed directly out from the
Sun by the solar wind.

Growing Gallery: Comet Tsuchinsan-ATLAS in 2024
Tomorrow's picture: aurora sky
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 October 16
A night sky is shown that appears mostly red due to pervasive aurora.
In the foreground is covered by watery grasslands. Clouds are visible
above the horizon. Thin green aurora are visible toward the top of the
frame. In the background one can find the Moon, the LMC, SMC, Venus, a
meteor, and the band of our Milky Way galaxy. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Colorful Aurora over New Zealand
Image Credit & Copyright: Tristian McDonald

Explanation: Sometimes the night sky is full of surprises. Take the sky
over Lindis Pass, South Island, New Zealand one-night last week.
Instead of a typically calm night sky filled with constant stars, a
busy and dynamic night sky appeared. Suddenly visible were pervasive
red aurora, green picket-fence aurora, a red SAR arc, a STEVE, a
meteor, and the Moon. These outshone the center of our Milky Way Galaxy
and both of its two satellite galaxies: the LMC and SMC. All of these
were captured together on 28 exposures in five minutes, from which this
panorama was composed. Auroras lit up many skies last week, as a
Coronal Mass Ejection from the Sun unleashed a burst of particles
toward our Earth that created colorful skies over latitudes usually too
far from the Earth's poles to see them. More generally, night skies
this month have other surprises, showing not only auroras -- but
comets.

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

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2024 October 17

The Clipper and the Comet
Image Credit & Copyright: Ben Cooper (Launch Photography)

Explanation: NASA's Europa Clipper is now headed toward an ocean world
beyond Earth. The large spacecraft is tucked into the payload fairing
atop the Falcon Heavy rocket in this photo, taken at Kennedy Space
Center the day before the mission's successful October 14 launch.
Europa Clipper's interplanetary voyage will first take it to Mars, then
back to Earth, and then on to Jupiter on gravity assist trajectories
that will allow it to enter orbit around Jupiter in April 2030. Once
orbiting Jupiter, the spacecraft will fly past Europa 49 times,
exploring a Jovian moon with a global subsurface ocean that may have
conditions to support life. Posing in the background next to the
floodlit rocket is Comet Tsuchinsan-ATLAS, about a day after the
comet's closest approach to Earth. A current darling of evening skies,
the naked-eye comet is a vistor from the distant Oort cloud

Growing Gallery: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in 2024
Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 October 18

Most of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS
Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Block

Explanation: On October 14 it was hard to capture a full view of Comet
C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. Taken after the comet's closest approach
to our fair planet, this evening skyview almost does though. With two
telephoto frames combined, the image stretches about 26 degrees across
the sky from top to bottom, looking west from Gates Pass, Tucson,
Arizona. Comet watchers that night could even identify globular star
cluster M5 and the faint apparition of periodic comet 13P Olbers near
the long the path of Tsuchinshan-ATLAS's whitish dust tail above the
bright comet's coma. Due to perspective as the Earth is crossing the
comet's orbital plane, Tsuchinshan-ATLAS also has a pronounced
antitail. The antitail is composed of dust previously released and
fanning out away from the Sun along the comet's orbit, visible as a
needle-like extension below the bright coma toward the rugged western
horizon.

Growing Gallery: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in 2024
Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 October 19

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Flys Away
Image Credit & Copyright: Xingyang Cai

Explanation: These six panels follow daily apparitions of comet C/2023
A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS as it moved away from our fair planet during the
past week. The images were taken with the same camera and lens at the
indicated dates and locations from California, planet Earth. At far
right on October 12 the visitor from the distant Oort cloud was near
its closest approach, some 70 million kilometers (about 4
light-minutes) away. Its bright coma and long dust tail were close on
the sky to the setting Sun but still easy to spot against a bright
western horizon. Over the following days, the outbound comet steadily
climbs above the ecliptic and north into the darker western evening
sky, but begins to fade from view. Crossing the Earth's orbital plane
around October 14, Tsuchinshan-ATLAS exhibits a noticeable antitail
extended toward the western horizon. Higher in the evening sky at
sunset by October 17 (far left) the comet has faded and reached a
distance of around 77 million kilometers from planet Earth. Hopefully
you enjoyed some of Tsuchinshan-ATLAS's bid to become the best comet of
2024. This comet's initial orbital period estimates were a mere 80,000
years, but in fact it may never return to the inner Solar System.

Growing Gallery: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in 2024
Tomorrow's picture: a simulated universe
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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 October 20
A complicated web of dark filaments is seen against a light background.
When many filmaments intersect, an orange spot is seen. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Dark Matter in a Simulated Universe
Illustration Credit & Copyright: Tom Abel & Ralf Kaehler (KIPAC, SLAC),
AMNH

Explanation: Is our universe haunted? It might look that way on this
dark matter map. The gravity of unseen dark matter is the leading
explanation for why galaxies rotate so fast, why galaxies orbit
clusters so fast, why gravitational lenses so strongly deflect light,
and why visible matter is distributed as it is both in the local
universe and on the cosmic microwave background. The featured image
from the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium Space
Show Dark Universe highlights one example of how pervasive dark matter
might haunt our universe. In this frame from a detailed computer
simulation, complex filaments of dark matter, shown in black, are
strewn about the universe like spider webs, while the relatively rare
clumps of familiar baryonic matter are colored orange. These
simulations are good statistical matches to astronomical observations.
In what is perhaps a scarier turn of events, dark matter -- although
quite strange and in an unknown form -- is no longer thought to be the
strangest source of gravity in the universe. That honor now falls to
dark energy, a more uniform source of repulsive gravity that seems to
now dominate the expansion of the entire universe.

Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: anti-comet
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 October 21
A starfield is shown with a bright comet. The main tail of the comet
points diagonally to the upper left, while a thin anti-tail points to
the lower right. Mountain peaks are visible at the bottom in the
foreground. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS over California
Credit & Copyright: Brian Fulda

Explanation: The tails of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS were a sight to
behold. Pictured, C/2023 A3 (TsuchinshanCÇôATLAS) was captured near peak
impressiveness last week over the Eastern Sierra Mountains in
California, USA. The comet not only showed a bright tail, but a
distinct anti-tail pointing in nearly the opposite direction. The
globular star cluster M5 can be seen on the right, far in the distance.
As it approached, it was unclear if this crumbling iceberg would
disintegrate completely as it warmed in the bright sunlight. In
reality, the comet survived to become brighter than any star in the
night (magnitude -4.9), but unfortunately was then so nearly in front
of the Sun that it was hard for many casual observers to locate.
Whether Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas becomes known as the Great Comet of
2024 now depends, in part, on how impressive incoming comet C/2024 S1
(ATLAS) becomes over the next two weeks.

Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?
(post 1995)
Tomorrow's picture: star pillars
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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 October 22
Three large interstellar dust pillars are shown against a starfield and
a multicolored glowing background. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

M16: Pillars of Star Creation
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Processing: Diego Pisano

Explanation: These dark pillars may look destructive, but they are
creating stars. This pillar-capturing picture of the Eagle Nebula
combines visible light exposures taken with the Hubble Space Telescope
with infrared images taken with the James Webb Space Telescope to
highlight evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs) emerging from pillars of
molecular hydrogen gas and dust. The giant pillars are light years in
length and are so dense that interior gas contracts gravitationally to
form stars. At each pillar's end, the intense radiation of bright young
stars causes low density material to boil away, leaving stellar
nurseries of dense EGGs exposed. The Eagle Nebula, associated with the
open star cluster M16, lies about 7000 light years away.

Jigsaw Challenge: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day
Tomorrow's picture: rocket catch
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 October 23

Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster!

Credit & Copyright: SpaceX

Explanation: What if a rocket could return to its launch tower -- and
be caught? This happened for the first time 10 days ago, after a SpaceX
Starship rocket blasted off from its pad in Boca Chica, Texas, USA.
Starship then split, as planned, with its upper stage landing in the
Pacific Ocean. The big difference was the lower stage, Super Heavy
Booster 12, was caught by its launch tower about 7 minutes later.
Catching a rocket for reuse is a new and innovative way to help reduce
the cost of rocket flight by making rockets more easily reusable.
Starship rockets may be used by NASA in the future to send spacecraft
to Earth orbit, the Moon, and even other planets.

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 October 24

NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Patrick Winkler

Explanation: A mere seven hundred light years from Earth toward the
constellation Aquarius, a star is dying. The once sun-like star's last
few thousand years have produced the Helix Nebula. Also known as NGC
7293, the cosmic Helix is a well studied and nearby example of a
Planetary Nebula, typical of this final phase of stellar evolution.
Combining narrow band data from emission lines of hydrogen atoms in red
and oxygen atoms in blue-green hues, this deep image shows tantalizing
details of the Helix, including its bright inner region about 3
light-years across. The white dot at the Helix's center is this
Planetary Nebula's hot, dying central star. A simple looking nebula at
first glance, the Helix is now understood to have a surprisingly
complex geometry.

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 October 25

Globular Star Cluster NGC 6752
Image Credit & Copyright: Massimo Di Fusco, Aygen Erkaslan

Explanation: Some 13,000 light-years away toward the southern
constellation Pavo, the globular star cluster NGC 6752 roams the halo
of our Milky Way galaxy. Over 10 billion years old, NGC 6752 follows
clusters Omega Centauri, 47 Tucanae, and Messier 22 as the fourth
brightest globular in planet Earth's night sky. It holds over 100
thousand stars in a sphere about 100 light-years in diameter.
Telescopic explorations of NGC 6752 have found that a remarkable
fraction of the stars near the cluster's core, are multiple star
systems. They also reveal the presence of blue straggle stars, stars
which appear to be too young and massive to exist in a cluster whose
stars are all expected to be at least twice as old as the Sun. The blue
stragglers are thought to be formed by star mergers and collisions in
the dense stellar environment at the cluster's core. This sharp color
composite also features the cluster's ancient red giant stars in
yellowish hues. (Note: The bright, spiky blue star about 8 o'clock from
the cluster center is a foreground star along the line-of-sight to NGC
6752)

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in 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 October 26

Phantoms in Cassiopeia
Image Credit & Copyright: Christophe Vergnes, Herv+¬ Laur

Explanation: These brightly outlined flowing shapes look ghostly on a
cosmic scale. A telescopic view toward the constellation Cassiopeia,
the colorful skyscape features the swept-back, comet-shaped clouds IC
59 (left) and IC 63. About 600 light-years distant, the clouds aren't
actually ghosts. They are slowly disappearing though, under the
influence of energetic radiation from hot, luminous star gamma Cas.
Gamma Cas is physically located only 3 to 4 light-years from the
nebulae and lies just above the right edge of the frame. Slightly
closer to gamma Cas, IC 63 is dominated by red H-alpha light emitted as
hydrogen atoms ionized by the hot star's ultraviolet radiation
recombine with electrons. Farther from the star, IC 59 shows less
H-alpha emission but more of the characteristic blue tint of dust
reflected star light. The field of view spans over 1 degree or 10
light-years at the estimated distance of the interstellar apparitions.

Tomorrow's picture: bats in 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 October 27
A starfield is shown with a large brown dust nebula in the center. The
nebula appears, to some, to be shaped like a bat. One of the stars in
the dust nebula even appears to be the eye of the bat. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

LDN 43: The Cosmic Bat Nebula
Credit & Copyright: Mark Hanson and Mike Selby; Text: Michelle Thaller
(NASA's GSFC)

Explanation: What is the most spook-tacular nebula in the galaxy? One
contender is LDN 43, which bears an astonishing resemblance to a vast
cosmic bat flying amongst the stars on a dark Halloween night. Located
about 1400 light years away in the constellation Ophiuchus, this
molecular cloud is dense enough to block light not only from background
stars, but from wisps of gas lit up by the nearby reflection nebula LBN
7. Far from being a harbinger of death, this 12-light year-long
filament of gas and dust is actually a stellar nursery. Glowing with
eerie light, the bat is lit up from inside by dense gaseous knots that
have just formed young stars.

Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?
(post 1995)
Tomorrow's picture: amazing STEVE
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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 October 28
A night sky is shown with a bright red band running overhead. Above the
red band is a diffuse red glow. A path through a grassy filed is in the
foreground with a path going out toward the horizon. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

STEVE: A Glowing River over France
Credit & Copyright: Louis LEROUX-G+ëR+ë

Explanation: Sometimes a river of hot gas flows over your head. In this
case the river created a Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement
(STEVE) that glowed bright red, white, and pink. Details of how STEVEs
work remain a topic of research, but recent evidence holds that their
glow results from a fast-moving river of hot ions flowing over a
hundred kilometers up in the Earth's atmosphere: the ionosphere. The
more expansive dull red glow might be related to the flowing STEVE, but
alternatively might be a Stable Auroral Red (SAR) arc, a more general
heat-related glow. The featured picture, taken earlier this month in
C++te d'Opale, France, is a wide-angle digital composite made as the
STEVE arc formed nearly overhead. Although the apparition lasted only a
few minutes, this was long enough for the quick-thinking
astrophotographer to get in the picture -- can you find him?

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

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

2024 October 29
A starfield is shown featuring many stars in the center and many
pillars of interstellar dust around the edges pointing toward the
center. The main image is in infrared light, and a rollover image from
Hubble shows the same scene in visible light. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

NGC 602: Stars Versus Pillars from Webb
Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, P. Zeidler, E. Sabbi, A. Nota, M. Zamani
(ESA/Webb)

Explanation: The stars are destroying the pillars. More specifically,
some of the newly formed stars in the image center are emitting light
so energetic that is evaporating the gas and dust in the surrounding
pillars. Simultaneously, the pillars themselves are still trying to
form new stars. The whole setting is the star cluster NGC 602, and this
new vista was taken by the Webb Space Telescope in multiple infrared
colors. In comparison, a roll-over image shows the same star cluster in
visible light, taken previously by the Hubble Space Telescope. NGC 602
is located near the perimeter of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a
small satellite galaxy of our Milky Way galaxy. At the estimated
distance of the SMC, the featured picture spans about 200 light-years.
A tantalizing assortment of background galaxies are also visible --
mostly around the edges -- that are at least hundreds of millions of
light-years beyond.

Tomorrow's picture: head 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 October 30
A starfield is shown with a big light bubble in the center. A bright
star is toward the upper right in the translucent bubble. To some, the
bubble may resemble a skull. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

NGC 7635: The Bubble Nebula
Credit & Copyright: Chad Leader

Explanation: What created this huge space bubble? Blown by the wind
from a star, this tantalizing, head-like apparition is cataloged as NGC
7635, but known simply as the Bubble Nebula. The featured striking view
utilizes a long exposure to reveal the intricate details of this cosmic
bubble and its environment. Although it looks delicate, the 10
light-year diameter bubble offers evidence of violent processes at
work. Seen here above and right of the Bubble's center, a bright hot
star is embedded in the nebula's reflecting dust. A fierce stellar wind
and intense radiation from the star, which likely has a mass 10 to 20
times that of the Sun, has blasted out the structure of glowing gas
against denser material in a surrounding molecular cloud. The
intriguing Bubble Nebula lies a mere 11,000 light-years away toward the
boastful constellation Cassiopeia.

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

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 October 31

Rigel and the Witch Head Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Simone Curzi

Explanation: By starlight, this eerie visage shines in the dark with a
crooked profile evoking its popular name, the Witch Head Nebula. In
fact, this entrancing telescopic portrait gives the impression that a
witch has fixed her gaze on Orion's bright supergiant star Rigel. More
formally known as IC 2118, the Witch Head Nebula spans about 50
light-years and is composed of interstellar dust grains reflecting
Rigel's starlight. The color of the Witch Head Nebula is caused not
only by Rigel's intense blue light, but because the dust grains scatter
blue light more efficiently than red. The same physical process causes
Earth's daytime sky to appear blue, although the scatterers in Earth's
atmosphere are molecules of nitrogen and oxygen. Rigel and this dusty
cosmic crone are about 800 light-years away. You may still see a few
witches in your neighborhood tonight though, so have a safe and Happy
Halloween!

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in 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 November 1

Spiral Galaxy NGC 6744
Image Credit & Copyright: John Hayes

Explanation: Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 6744 is nearly 175,000
light-years across, larger than our own Milky Way. It lies some 30
million light-years distant in the southern constellation Pavo but
appears as only a faint smudge in the eyepiece of a small telescope. We
see the disk of the nearby island universe tilted towards our line of
sight in this remarkably deep and detailed galaxy portrait, a
telescopic image that spans an area about the angular size of a full
moon. In it, the giant galaxy's elongated yellowish core is dominated
by the light from old, cool stars. Beyond the core, grand spiral arms
are filled with young blue star clusters and speckled with pinkish star
forming regions. An extended arm sweeps past smaller satellite galaxy
NGC 6744A at the upper left. NGC 6744's galactic companion is
reminiscent of the Milky Way's satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic
Cloud.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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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 November 2

Saturn at Night
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Space Science Institute, Mindaugas
Macijauskas

Explanation: Saturn is bright in Earth's night skies. Telescopic views
of the outer gas giant planet and its beautiful rings often make it a
star at star parties. But this stunning view of Saturn's rings and
night side just isn't possible from telescopes in the vicinity of
planet Earth. Peering out from the inner Solar System they can only
bring Saturn's day side into view. In fact, this image of Saturn's
slender sunlit crescent with night's shadow cast across its broad and
complex ring system was captured by the Cassini spacecraft. A robot
spacecraft from planet Earth, Cassini called Saturn orbit home for 13
years before it was directed to dive into the atmosphere of the gas
giant on September 15, 2017. This magnificent mosaic is composed of
frames recorded by Cassini's wide-angle camera only two days before its
grand final plunge. Saturn's night will not be seen again until another
spaceship from Earth calls.

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

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

2024 November 3
Swirling clouds on the planet Jupiter are pictured, mostly in white,
tan, and light blue. A dark spot appears in the center surrounded by
swirling white and blue clouds. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Jupiter Abyss
Image Credit: NASA, Juno, SwRI, MSSS; Processing & License: Gerald
Eichst+ñdt & Sean Doran

Explanation: What's that black spot on Jupiter? No one is sure. During
one pass of NASA's Juno over Jupiter, the robotic spacecraft imaged an
usually dark cloud feature informally dubbed the Abyss. Surrounding
cloud patterns show the Abyss to be at the center of a vortex. Since
dark features on Jupiter's atmosphere tend to run deeper than light
features, the Abyss may really be the deep hole that it appears -- but
without more evidence that remains conjecture. The Abyss is surrounded
by a complex of meandering clouds and other swirling storm systems,
some of which are topped by light colored, high-altitude clouds. The
featured image was captured in 2019 while Juno passed only about 15,000
kilometers above Jupiter's cloud tops. The next close pass of Juno near
Jupiter will be in about three weeks.

Tomorrow's picture: orion the great
__________________________________________________________________

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 November 4
A starfield is shown with a nebula glowing in red, purple, and blue.
Dark brown gas is also seen on the lower left. A small cluster of stars
appears in the center. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

M42: The Great Nebula in Orion
Credit & Copyright: F+¬nyes L+|r+índ

Explanation: The Great Nebula in Orion, an immense, nearby starbirth
region, is probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulas. Here,
glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense
interstellar molecular cloud only 1500 light-years away. In the
featured deep image in assigned colors highlighted by emission in
oxygen and hydrogen, wisps and sheets of dust and gas are particularly
evident. The Great Nebula in Orion can be found with the unaided eye
near the easily identifiable belt of three stars in the popular
constellation Orion. In addition to housing a bright open cluster of
stars known as the Trapezium, the Orion Nebula contains many stellar
nurseries. These nurseries contain much hydrogen gas, hot young stars,
proplyds, and stellar jets spewing material at high speeds. Also known
as M42, the Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located in
the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as the Sun.

Tomorrow's picture: galaxy watchers
__________________________________________________________________

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 November 5
A grassy hill appears in the foreground with tall statues of human
heads embeddd. High overhead the central band of the Milky Way galaxy
crosses horizontally. Above the Milky Way is a dark sky filled with
stars. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Milky Way over Easter Island
Credit & Copyright: Josh Dury

Explanation: Why were the statues on Easter Island built? No one is
sure. What is sure is that over 900 large stone statues called moais
exist there. The Rapa Nui (Easter Island) moais stand, on average, over
twice as tall as a person and have over 200 times as much mass. It is
thought that the unusual statues were created about 600 years ago in
the images of local leaders of a vibrant and ancient civilization. Rapa
Nui has been declared by UNESCO to a World Heritage Site. Pictured
here, some of the stone giants were imaged last month under the central
band of our Milky Way galaxy. Previously unknown moais are still being
discovered.

Alternative Multi-APOD Front Page: MyUniverseHub.com
Tomorrow's picture: comet mountain
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 November 6
A town is shown in the foreground surrounded by tall mountains with
even taller mountains in the distance. Above them all is a bright white
streak that is a comet with both a tail and an anti-tail. High above
are stars in the night sky. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas over the Dolomites
Credit & Copyright: Alessandra Masi

Explanation: Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas is now headed back to the outer
Solar System. The massive dusty snowball put on quite a show during its
trip near the Sun, resulting in many impressive pictures from planet
Earth during October. The featured image was taken in mid-October and
shows a defining visual feature of the comet -- its impressive
anti-tail. The image captures Comet C/2023 A3 (TsuchinshanCÇôATLAS) with
impressively long dust and ion tails pointing up and away from the Sun,
while the strong anti-tail -- composed of more massive dust particles
-- trails the comet and points down and (nearly) toward the
recently-set Sun. In the foreground is village of Tai di Cadore, Italy,
with the tremendous Dolomite Mountains in the background. Another
comet, C/2024 S1 (ATLAS), once a candidate to rival Comet
Tsuchinshan-Atlas in brightness, broke up last week during its close
approach to our Sun.

Growing Gallery: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in 2024
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 November 7

Shell Galaxies in Pisces
Image Credit & Copyright: George Williams

Explanation: This spectacular intergalactic skyscape features Arp 227,
a curious system of galaxies from the 1966 Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies.
Some 100 million light-years distant within the boundaries of the
constellation Pisces, Arp 227 consists of the two galaxies prominent
above and left of center, the shell galaxy NGC 474 and its blue,
spiral-armed neighbor NGC 470. The readily apparent shells and star
streams of NGC 474 are likely tidal features originating from the
accretion of another smaller galaxy during close gravitational
encounters that began over a billion years ago. The large galaxy on the
bottom righthand side of the deep image, NGC 467, appears to be
surrounded by faint shells and streams too, evidence of another merging
galaxy system. Intriguing background galaxies are scattered around the
field that also includes spiky foreground stars. Of course, those stars
lie well within our own Milky Way Galaxy. The telescopic field of view
spans 25 arc minutes or just under 1/2 degree on the sky.

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 November 8

Helping Hand in Cassiopeia
Image Credit & Copyright: Francesco Radici

Explanation: Drifting near the plane of our Milky Way galaxy these
dusty molecular clouds seem to extend a helping hand on a cosmic scale.
Part of a local complex of star-forming interstellar clouds they
include LDN 1358, 1357, and 1355 from American astronomer Beverly
Lynds' 1962 Catalog of Dark Nebulae. Presenting a challenging target
for astro-imagers, the obscuring dark nebulae are nearly 3,000
light-years away, toward rich starfields in the northern constellation
Cassiopeia. At that distance, this deep, telescopic field of view would
span about 80 light-years.

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

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2024 November 9

Neptune at Night
Image Credit & Copyright: Voyager 2, NASA

Explanation: Ice giant Neptune is faint in Earth's night sky. Some 30
times farther from the Sun than our fair planet, telescopes are needed
to catch a glimpse of the dim and distant world. This dramatic view of
Neptune's night just isn't possible for telescopes in the vicinity of
planet Earth though. Peering out from the inner Solar System they can
only bring Neptune's day side into view. In fact this night side image
with Neptune's slender crescent next to the crescent of its large moon
Triton was captured by Voyager 2. Launched from planet Earth in 1977
the Voyager 2 spacecraft made a close fly by of the Solar System's
outermost planet in 1989, looking back on Neptune as the robotic
spacecraft continued its voyage to interstellar space.

Tomorrow's picture: Valles Marineris
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 November 10
A picture of Mars is shown as a large orange globe. Across the center
of the planet a long canyon is visible. Please see the explanation for
more detailed information.

Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars
Image Credit: NASA, USGS, Viking Project

Explanation: The largest canyon in the Solar System cuts a wide swath
across the face of Mars. Named Valles Marineris, the grand valley
extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as 600 kilometers
across, and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep. By comparison, the
Earth's Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA is 800 kilometers long, 30
kilometers across, and 1.8 kilometers deep. The origin of the Valles
Marineris remains unknown, although a leading hypothesis holds that it
started as a crack billions of years ago as the planet cooled. Several
geologic processes have been identified in the canyon. The featured
mosaic was created from over 100 images of Mars taken by Viking
Orbiters in the 1970s.

Tomorrow's picture: comet tails
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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 November 11
A starfield is shown that includes a bright comet. A bright tail points
to the upper right but has an unusual dark streak in it. A thin
anti-tail points toward the lower left. Please see the explanation for
more detailed information.

The Unusual Tails of Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas
Image Credit & Copyright: Bray Falls

Explanation: What created an unusual dark streak in Comet
Tsuchinshan-Atlas's tail? Some images of the bright comet during
mid-October not only caught its impressively long tail and its thin
anti-tail, but a rather unexpected feature: a dark streak in the long
tail. The reason for the dark streak is currently unclear and a topic
of some debate. Possible reasons include a plume of dark dust,
different parts of the bright tail being unusually superposed, and a
shadow of a dense part of the coma on smaller dust particles. The
streak is visible in the featured image taken on October 14 from Texas,
USA. To help future analyses, if you have taken a good image of the
comet that clearly shows this dark streak, please send it in to APOD.
Comet TsuchinshanCÇôATLAS has now faded considerably and is returning to
the outer Solar System.

Gallery: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in 2024
Tomorrow's picture: cosmic crescent
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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 November 12
A starfield is shown with a unusual textured nebula in the center
colored in brown with blue trimmings. Diffuse red nebula appear around
the edges. In the center is an opaque brown object. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

NGC 6888: The Crescent Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Team ARO

Explanation: How was the Crescent Nebula created? Looking like an
emerging space cocoon, the Crescent Nebula, visible in the center of
the featured image, was created by the brightest star in its center. A
leading progenitor hypothesis has the Crescent Nebula beginning to form
about 250,000 years ago. At that time, the massive central star had
evolved to become a Wolf-Rayet star (WR 136), shedding its outer
envelope in a strong stellar wind, ejecting the equivalent of our Sun's
mass every 10,000 years. This wind impacted surrounding gas left over
from a previous phase, compacting it into a series of complex shells,
and lighting it up. The Crescent Nebula, also known as NGC 6888, lies
about 4,700 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus. Star WR
136 will probably undergo a supernova explosion sometime in the next
million years.

Jigsaw Challenge: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day
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 November 13

Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1365 from Webb
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Janice Lee (NOIRLab) - Processing: Alyssa
Pagan (STScI)

Explanation: A mere 56 million light-years distant toward the southern
constellation Fornax, NGC 1365 is an enormous barred spiral galaxy
about 200,000 light-years in diameter. That's twice the size of our own
barred spiral Milky Way. This sharp image from the James Webb Space
Telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) reveals stunning details of
this magnificent spiral in infrared light. Webb's field of view
stretches about 60,000 light-years across NGC 1365, exploring the
galaxy's core and bright newborn star clusters. The intricate network
of dusty filaments and bubbles is created by young stars along spiral
arms winding from the galaxy's central bar. Astronomers suspect the
gravity field of NGC 1365's bar plays a crucial role in the galaxy's
evolution, funneling gas and dust into a star-forming maelstrom and
ultimately feeding material into the active galaxy's central,
supermassive black hole.

Tomorrow's picture: the light, the dark, and the dusty
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 November 14

IC 348 and Barnard 3
Image Credit & Copyright: Ashraf Abu Sara

Explanation: A great nebulous region near bright star omicron Persei
offers this study in cosmic contrasts. Captured in the telescopic frame
the colorful complex of dust, gas, and stars spans about 3 degrees on
the sky along the edge of the Perseus molecular cloud some 1000
light-years away. Surrounded by a bluish halo of dust reflected
starlight, omicron Persei itself is just left of center. Immediately
below it lies the intriguing young star cluster IC 348 recently
explored by the James Webb Space Telescope. In silhouette against the
diffuse reddish glow of hydrogen gas, dark and obscuring interstellar
dust cloud Barnard 3 is at upper right. Of course the cosmic dust also
tends to hide newly formed stars and young stellar objects or
protostars from prying optical telescopes. At the Perseus molecular
cloud's estimated distance, this field of view would span about 50
light-years.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in 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 November 15

Apollo 12 and Surveyor 3
Image Credit: NASA, Apollo 12, Alan Bean - Stereo Image Copyright:
Kevin Frank

Explanation: Put on your red/blue glasses and gaze across the western
Ocean of Storms on the surface of the Moon. The 3D anaglyph features
Apollo 12 astronaut Pete Conrad visiting the Surveyor 3 spacecraft in
November of 1969. Surveyor 3 had landed at the site on the inside slope
of a small crater about 2 1/2 years earlier in April of 1967. Visible
on the horizon beyond the far crater wall, Apollo 12's Lunar Module
Intrepid touched down less than 200 meters (650 feet) away, easy
moonwalking distance from the robotic Surveyor spacecraft. This stereo
image was carefully created from two separate pictures (AS12-48-7133,
AS12-48-7134) captured on the lunar surface. They depict the scene from
only slightly different viewpoints, approximating the separation
between human eyes.

Tomorrow's picture: Pluto at Night
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 November 16

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

Explanation: The night side of Pluto spans this shadowy scene. In the
stunning spacebased perspective the Sun is 4.9 billion kilometers
(almost 4.5 light-hours) behind the dim and distant world. It was
captured by far flung New Horizons in July of 2015 when the spacecraft
was at a range of some 21,000 kilometers from Pluto, about 19 minutes
after its closest approach. A denizen of the Kuiper Belt in dramatic
silhouette, the image also reveals Pluto's tenuous, surprisingly
complex layers of hazy atmosphere. Near the top of the frame the
crescent twilight landscape includes southern areas of nitrogen ice
plains now formally known as Sputnik Planitia and rugged mountains of
water-ice in the Norgay Montes.

Tomorrow's picture: windblown
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2024 November 17
A starfield is dominated by light brown dust. In the middle is a
parabolic gas cloud opening toward the lower right. A bright star is
near the center at the apex of the parabolic gas cloud. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

LDN 1471: A Windblown Star Cavity
Image Credit: Hubble, NASA, ESA; Processing & License: Judy Schmidt

Explanation: What is the cause of this unusual parabolic structure?
This illuminated cavity, known as LDN 1471, was created by a newly
forming star, seen as the bright source at the peak of the parabola.
This protostar is experiencing a stellar outflow which is then
interacting with the surrounding material in the Perseus Molecular
Cloud, causing it to brighten. We see only one side of the cavity --
the other side is hidden by dark dust. The parabolic shape is caused by
the widening of the stellar-wind blown cavity over time. Two additional
structures can also be seen either side of the protostar; these are
known as Herbig-Haro objects, again caused by the interaction of the
outflow with the surrounding material. What causes the striations on
the cavity walls, though, remains unknown. The featured image was taken
by NASA and ESACÇÖs Hubble Space Telescope after an original detection by
the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: Bok Man
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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 November 18
A blue glowing gas background shows numerous bright stars in the
foreground. A dark red dust nebula is also visible toward the image
center. Around the edges, dark dust clouds are also visible, sometime
colored tan and other times dark brown. Please see the explanation for
more detailed information.

Stars and Dust in the Pacman Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Malcolm Loro

Explanation: Stars can create huge and intricate dust sculptures from
the dense and dark molecular clouds from which they are born. The tools
the stars use to carve their detailed works are high energy light and
fast stellar winds. The heat they generate evaporates the dark
molecular dust as well as causing ambient hydrogen gas to disperse and
glow. Pictured here, a new open cluster of stars designated IC 1590 is
nearing completion around the intricate interstellar dust structures in
the emission nebula NGC 281, dubbed the Pac-man Nebula because of its
overall shape. The dust cloud just above center is classified as a Bok
Globule as it may gravitationally collapse and form a star -- or stars.
The Pacman Nebula lies about 10,000 light years away toward the
constellation of Cassiopeia.

Tomorrow's picture: pointing clouds
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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 November 19
A series of white parallel clouds are seen going off into the distance
in a background blue sky. In the foreground is a hill with two domes at
the top. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Undulatus Clouds over Las Campanas Observatory
Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas
Observatory, TWAN); h/t: Alice Allen

Explanation: What's happening with these clouds? While it may seem that
these long and thin clouds are pointing toward the top of a hill, and
that maybe a world-famous observatory is located there, only part of
that is true. In terms of clouds, the formation is a chance
superposition of impressively periodic undulating air currents in
Earth's lower atmosphere. Undulatus, a type of Asperitas cloud, form at
the peaks where the air is cool enough to cause the condensation of
opaque water droplets. The wide-angle nature of the panorama creates
the illusion that the clouds converge over the hill. In terms of land,
there really is a world-famous observatory at the top of that peak: the
Carnegie Science's Las Campanas Observatory in the Atacama Desert of
Chile. The two telescope domes visible are the 6.5-meter Magellan
Telescopes. The featured coincidental vista was a surprise but was
captured by the phone of a quick-thinking photographer in late
September.

Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?
(post 1995)
Tomorrow's picture: flight day 6
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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 November 20

Earthset from Orion
Image Credit: NASA, Artemis 1

Explanation: Eight billion people are about to disappear in this
snapshot from space taken on 2022 November 21. On the sixth day of the
Artemis I mission, their home world is setting behind the Moon's bright
edge as viewed by an external camera on the outbound Orion spacecraft.
Orion was headed for a powered flyby that took it to within 130
kilometers of the lunar surface. Velocity gained in the flyby maneuver
was used to reach a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. That
orbit is considered distant because it's another 92,000 kilometers
beyond the Moon, and retrograde because the spacecraft orbited in the
opposite direction of the Moon's orbit around planet Earth. Orion
entered its distant retrograde orbit on November 25. Swinging around
the Moon, Orion reached a maximum distance (just over 400,000
kilometers) from Earth on November 28, exceeding a record set by Apollo
13 for most distant spacecraft designed for human space exploration.
The Artemis II mission, carrying 4 astronauts around the moon and back
again, is scheduled to launch no earlier than September 2025.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in 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
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2024 November 21

The Elephant's Trunk in Cepheus
Image Credit: Image Credit & Copyright: Giorgio Ferrari

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

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

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2024 November 22

The Medusa Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Bruno Rota Sargi

Explanation: Braided and serpentine filaments of glowing gas suggest
this nebula's popular name, The Medusa Nebula. Also known as Abell 21,
this Medusa is an old planetary nebula some 1,500 light-years away in
the constellation Gemini. Like its mythological namesake, the nebula is
associated with a dramatic transformation. The planetary nebula phase
represents a final stage in the evolution of low mass stars like the
sun as they transform themselves from red giants to hot white dwarf
stars and in the process shrug off their outer layers. Ultraviolet
radiation from the hot star powers the nebular glow. The Medusa's
transforming star is the faint one near the center of the overall
bright crescent shape. In this deep telescopic view, fainter filaments
clearly extend below and to the left. The Medusa Nebula is estimated to
be over 4 light-years across.

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

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

2024 November 23

Interplanetary Earth
Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA & NASA / JHU
Applied Physics Lab / Carnegie Inst. Washington

Explanation: In an interplanetary first, on July 19, 2013 Earth was
photographed on the same day from two other worlds of the Solar System,
innermost planet Mercury and ringed gas giant Saturn. Pictured on the
left, Earth is the pale blue dot just below the rings of Saturn, as
captured by the robotic Cassini spacecraft then orbiting the outermost
gas giant. On that same day people across planet Earth snapped many of
their own pictures of Saturn. On the right, the Earth-Moon system is
seen against the dark background of space as captured by the sunward
MESSENGER spacecraft, then in Mercury orbit. MESSENGER took its image
as part of a search for small natural satellites of Mercury, moons that
would be expected to be quite dim. In the MESSENGER image, the brighter
Earth and Moon are both overexposed and shine brightly with reflected
sunlight. Destined not to return to their home world, both Cassini and
MESSENGER have since retired from their missions of Solar System
exploration.

Tomorrow's picture: interstellar journey
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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 November 24

Journey to the Center of the Galaxy
Video Credit: ESO/MPE/Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org)/VISTA/J.
Emerson/Digitized Sky Survey 2

Explanation: What lies at the center of our galaxy? In Jules Verne's
science fiction classic, A Journey to the Center of the Earth,
Professor Liedenbrock and his fellow explorers encounter many strange
and exciting wonders. Astronomers already know of some of the bizarre
objects that exist at our Galactic Center, including vast cosmic dust
clouds, bright star clusters, swirling rings of gas, and even a
supermassive black hole. Much of the Galactic Center is shielded from
our view in visible light by the intervening dust and gas, but it can
be explored using other forms of electromagnetic radiation. The
featured video is actually a digital zoom into the Milky Way's center
which starts by utilizing visible light images from the Digitized Sky
Survey. As the movie proceeds, the light shown shifts to
dust-penetrating infrared and highlights gas clouds that were recently
discovered in 2013 to be falling toward the central black hole.

Tomorrow's picture: dark horse
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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 November 25
The top half glows red, while the bottom half is filled with dark dust.
Protruding into the red is a dark dust lane that resembles a horse's
head. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

The Horsehead Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Alex Lin (Chilescope)

Explanation: One of the most identifiable nebulas in the sky, the
Horsehead Nebula in Orion, is part of a large, dark, molecular cloud.
Also known as Barnard 33, the unusual shape was first discovered on a
photographic plate in the late 1800s. The red glow originates from
hydrogen gas predominantly behind the nebula, ionized by the nearby
bright star Sigma Orionis. The darkness of the Horsehead is caused
mostly by thick dust, although the lower part of the Horsehead's neck
casts a shadow to the left. Streams of gas leaving the nebula are
funneled by a strong magnetic field. Bright spots in the Horsehead
Nebula's base are young stars just in the process of forming. Light
takes about 1,500 years to reach us from the Horsehead Nebula. The
featured image was taken from the Chilescope Observatory in the
mountains of Chile.

Tomorrow's picture: meteor races comet
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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 November 26
The top panel shows a flat ring with a bright center in blue, even
though it was taken in near infrared light. The bottom panel shows the
same galaxy in visible light and shows a brighter and more expansive
center against which the flat ring appears dark. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

The Sombrero Galaxy from Webb and Hubble
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Hubble Heritage Project (STScI,
AURA)

Explanation: This floating ring is the size of a galaxy. In fact, it is
a galaxy -- or at least part of one: the photogenic Sombrero Galaxy is
one of the largest galaxies in the nearby Virgo Cluster of Galaxies.
The dark band of dust that obscures the mid-section of the Sombrero
Galaxy in visible light (bottom panel) actually glows brightly in
infrared light (top panel). The featured image shows the infrared glow
in false blue, recorded recently by the space-based James Webb Space
Telescope (JWST) and released yesterday, pictured above an archival
image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in visible light. The
Sombrero Galaxy, also known as M104, spans about 50,000 light years and
lies 28 million light years away. M104 can be seen with a small
telescope in the direction of the constellation Virgo.

Tomorrow's picture: meteor races comet
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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 November 27
A star-filled sky has two streaks in the foreground. A green and red
streak toward the lower left was created by an ablating meteor, while
the blue and white streak on the upper right is the coma and tail of a
comet. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

The Meteor and the Comet
Image Credit & Copyright: Wang Hao; Processing: Song Wentao

Explanation: How different are these two streaks? The streak on the
upper right is Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas showing an impressive dust tail.
The comet is a large and dirty iceberg that entered the inner Solar
System and is shedding gas and dust as it is warmed by the Sun's light.
The streak on the lower left is a meteor showing an impressive
evaporation trail. The meteor is a small and cold rock that entered the
Earth's atmosphere and is shedding gas and dust as it is warmed by
molecular collisions. The meteor was likely once part of a comet or
asteroid -- perhaps later composing part of its tail. The meteor was
gone in a flash and was only caught by coincidence during a series of
exposures documenting the comet's long tail. The featured image was
captured just over a month ago from Sichuan Province in China.

Gallery: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in 2024
Tomorrow's picture: open 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 November 28

NGC 206 and the Star Clouds of Andromeda
Image Credit & Copyright: Roberto Marinoni

Explanation: The large stellar association cataloged as NGC 206 is
nestled within the dusty arms of the neighboring Andromeda galaxy along
with the galaxy's pinkish star-forming regions. Also known as M31, the
spiral galaxy is a mere 2.5 million light-years away. NGC 206 is found
at the center of this sharp and detailed close-up of the southwestern
extent of Andromeda's disk. The bright, blue stars of NGC 206 indicate
its youth. In fact, its youngest massive stars are less than 10 million
years old. Much larger than the open or galactic clusters of young
stars in the disk of our Milky Way galaxy, NGC 206 spans about 4,000
light-years. That's comparable in size to the giant stellar nurseries
NGC 604 in nearby spiral M33 and the Tarantula Nebula in the Large
Magellanic Cloud.

Tomorrow's picture: star cluster of the Milky Way
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
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& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 November 29

Messier 4
Image Credit & Copyright: Steve Crouch

Explanation: Messier 4 can be found west of bright red-giant star
Antares, alpha star of the constellation Scorpius. M4 itself is only
just visible from dark sky locations, even though the globular cluster
of 100,000 stars or so is a mere 5,500 light-years away. Still, its
proximity to prying telescopic eyes makes it a prime target for
astronomical explorations. Recent studies have included Hubble
observations of M4's pulsating cepheid variable stars, cooling white
dwarf stars, and ancient, pulsar orbiting exoplanet PSR B1620-26 b.
This sharp image was captured with a small telescope on planet Earth.
At M4's estimated distance it spans about 50 light-years across the
core of the globular star cluster.

Tomorrow's picture: the climb
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
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& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 November 30

Winter and Summer on a Little Planet
Image Credit & Copyright: Camille Niel

Explanation: Winter and summer appear to come on a single night to this
stunning little planet. It's planet Earth of course. The digitally
mapped, nadir centered panorama covers 360x180 degrees and is composed
of frames recorded during January and July from the Col du Galibier in
the French Alps. Stars and nebulae of the northern winter (bottom) and
summer Milky Way form the complete arcs traversing the rugged, curved
horizon. Cars driving along on the road during a summer night
illuminate the 2,642 meter high mountain pass, but snow makes access
difficult during winter months except by serious ski touring. Cycling
fans will recognize the Col du Galibier as one of the most famous
climbs in planet Earth's Tour de France.

Tomorrow's picture: everyone's latte is ready
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 December 1
There is no obvious picture. There is just a background with a single
color. This color, a type of off-white or beige, is called cosmic
latte. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Cosmic Latte: The Average Color of the Universe
Image Color Credit: Karl Glazebrook & Ivan Baldry (JHU)

Explanation: What color is the universe? More precisely, if the entire
sky were smeared out, what color would the final mix be? This whimsical
question came up when trying to determine what stars are commonplace in
nearby galaxies. The answer, depicted here, is a conditionally
perceived shade of beige. In computer parlance: #FFF8E7. To determine
this, astronomers computationally averaged the light emitted by one of
the larger samples of galaxies analyzed: the 200,000 galaxies of the
2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey. The resulting cosmic spectrum has some
emission in all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, but a single
perceived composite color. This color has become much less blue over
the past 10 billion years, indicating that redder stars are becoming
more prevalent. In a contest to better name the color, notable entries
included skyvory, univeige, and the winner: cosmic latte.

Tomorrow's picture: galaxy of stars
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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,
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 December 2
A classic spiral galaxy is shown with blue spiral arms. The center is
yellow-red. Many star clusters are easily visible. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

NGC 300: A Galaxy of Stars
Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Stern

Explanation: This galaxy is unusual for how many stars it seems that
you can see. Stars are so abundantly evident in this deep exposure of
the spiral galaxy NGC 300 because so many of these stars are bright
blue and grouped into resolvable bright star clusters. Additionally,
NGC 300 is so clear because it is one of the closest spiral galaxies to
Earth, as light takes only about 6 million years to get here. Of
course, galaxies are composed of many more faint stars than bright, and
even more of a galaxy's mass is attributed to unseen dark matter. NGC
300 spans nearly the same amount of sky as the full moon and is visible
with a small telescope toward the southern constellation of the
Sculptor. The featured image was captured in October from Rio Hurtado,
Chile and is a composite of over 20 hours of exposure.

Tomorrow's picture: red planet blues
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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,
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 December 3
Ice clouds are seen over the surface of Mars on the upper right. Toward
the lower left is a bright spot in the sky which is likely the Sun
setting through Martian dust. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Ice Clouds over a Red Planet
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Kevin M. Gill; Processing: Rogelio
Bernal Andreo

Explanation: If you could stand on Mars -- what might you see? You
might look out over a vast orange landscape covered with rocks under a
dusty orange sky, with a blue-tinted Sun setting over the horizon, and
odd-shaped water clouds hovering high overhead. This was just the view
captured last March by NASA's rolling explorer, Perseverance. The
orange coloring is caused by rusted iron in the Martian dirt, some of
which is small enough to be swept up by winds into the atmosphere. The
blue tint near the setting Sun is caused by blue light being
preferentially scattered out from the Sun by the floating dust. The
light-colored clouds on the right are likely composed of water-ice and
appear high in the Martian atmosphere. The shapes of some of these
clouds are unusual for Earth and remain a topic of research.

Tomorrow's picture: driveway sunspots
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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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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 December 4

Driveway Analemma
Video Credit & Copyright: Nick Wright

Explanation: Does the Sun return to the same spot on the sky every
day? No. A more visual answer is an analemma, a composite of sky
images taken at the same time and from the same place over a year. At
completion, you can see that the Sun makes a figure 8 on the sky. The
featured unusual analemma does not, however, picture the Sun directly:
it was created by looking in the opposite direction. All that was
required was noting where the shadow of an edge of a house was in the
driveway every clear day at the same time. Starting in March in Falcon,
Colorado, USA, the photographer methodically marked the shadow's 1 pm
location. In one frame you can even see the photographer himself.
Although this analemma will be completed in 2025, you can start drawing
your own driveway analemma -- using no fancy equipment -- as soon as
today.

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)