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.

2025 July 25

Twelve Years of Kappa Cygnids
Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Hor+ílek, Josef Kujal, Tom+í+í Slovinsk+';
Acknowledgement: Mahdi Zamani

Explanation: Meteors from the Kappa Cygnid meteor shower are captured
in this time-lapse composite skyscape. The minor meteor shower, with a
radiant not far from its eponymous star Kappa Cygni, peaks in
mid-August, almost at the same time as the much better-known and
better-observed Perseid meteor shower. But, seen to have a peak rate of
only about 3 meteors per hour, Kappa Cygnids are vastly outnumbered by
the more popular, prolific Perseid shower's meteors that emanate from
the heroic constellation Perseus. To capture dozens of Kappa Cygnids,
this long term astro-imaging project compiled meteors in exposures
selected from over 51 August nights during the years 2012 through 2024.
Most of the exposures with identified Kappa Cygnid meteors were made in
August 2021, a high point of the shower's known 7-year activity cycle.
All twelve years worth of Kappa Cygnids are registered against a base
sea and night skyscape of the Milky Way above Elafonisi Beach, Crete,
Greece, also recorded in August of 2021.

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.

2025 July 26

Globular Cluster Omega Centauri
Image Credit & Copyright: Data acquisition - SkyFlux Team, Processing -
Leo Shatz

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

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

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

2025 July 27
A volcano is shown with its peak in the midst of purple clouds.
Lightning appears to come out of the top of the volcano in multiple
paths into the upper sky. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Lightning over the Volcano of Water
Image Credit: Sergio Mont+|far (Pinceladas Nocturnas)

Explanation: Have you ever watched a lightning storm in awe? You're not
alone. Details of what causes lightning are still being researched, but
it is known that inside some clouds, internal updrafts cause collisions
between ice and snow that slowly separate charges between cloud tops
and bottoms. The rapid electrical discharges that are lightning soon
result. Lightning usually takes a jagged course, rapidly heating a thin
column of air to about three times the surface temperature of the Sun.
The resulting shock wave starts supersonically and decays into the loud
sound known as thunder. On average, around the world, about 6,000
lightning bolts occur between clouds and the Earth every minute.
Pictured in July 2019 in a two-image composite, lightning stems from
communication antennas near the top of Volc+ín de Agua (Volcano of
Water) in Guatemala.

Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday? (post
1995)
Tomorrow's picture: asteroid explosion
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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.

2025 July 29
A nearly circular nebula with a blue core surrounded by small white
knots, an orange ring and expansive red strucures. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

A Helix Nebula Deep Field
Image Credit & Copyright: George Chatzifrantzis

Explanation: Is the Helix Nebula looking at you? No, not in any
biological sense, but it does look quite like an eye. The Helix Nebula
is so named because it also appears that you are looking down the axis
of a helix. In actuality, it is now understood to have a surprisingly
complex geometry, including radial filaments and extended outer loops.
The Helix Nebula (aka NGC 7293) is one of brightest and closest
examples of a planetary nebula, a gas cloud created at the end of the
life of a Sun-like star. The remnant central stellar core, destined to
become a white dwarf star, glows in light so energetic it causes the
previously expelled gas to fluoresce. The featured picture, taken in
red, green, and blue but highlighted by light emitted primarily by
hydrogen was created from 12 hours of exposure through a personal
telescope located in Greece. A close-up of the inner edge of the Helix
Nebula shows complex gas knots the origin of which are still being
researched.

Portal Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: loopy Sun
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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.

2025 July 30
Four images of the Sun's edge are shown. In each a loop of bright
material is captured above the Sun's surface. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Coronal Loops on the Sun
Image Credit & Copyright: Andrea Vanoni

Explanation: Our Sun frequently erupts in loops. Hot solar plasma jumps
off the Sun's surface into prominences, with the most common type of
prominence being a simple loop. The loop shape originates from the
Sun's magnetic field, which is traced by spiraling electrons and
protons. Many loops into the Sun's lower corona are large enough to
envelop the Earth and are stable enough to last days. They commonly
occur near active regions that also include dark sunspots. The featured
panel shows four loops, each of which was captured near the Sun's edge
during 2024 and 2025. The images were taken by a personal telescope in
Mantova, Italy and in a very specific color of light emitted primarily
by hydrogen. Some solar prominences suddenly break open and eject
particles into the Solar System, setting up a space weather sequence
that can affect the skies and wires of Earth.

Jigsaw Universe: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day
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.

2025 July 31

Supernova 2025rbs in NGC 7331
Image Credit: Ben Godson (University of Warwick)

Explanation: A long time ago in a galaxy 50 million light-years away, a
star exploded. Light from that supernova was first detected by
telescopes on planet Earth on July 14th though, and the extragalactic
transient is now known to astronomers as supernova 2025rbs. Presently
the brightest supernova in planet Earth's sky, 2025rbs is a Type Ia
supernova, likely caused by the thermonuclear detonation of a white
dwarf star that accreted material from a companion in a binary star
system. Type Ia supernovae are used as standard candles to establish
the distance scale of the universe. The host galaxy of 2025rbs is NGC
7331. Itself a bright spiral galaxy in the northern constellation
Pegasus, NGC 7331 is often touted as an analog to our own Milky Way.

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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A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2025 August 1

Small Dark Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Peter Bresseler

Explanation: A small, dark, nebula looks isolated near the center of
this telescopic close-up. The wedge-shaped cosmic cloudlet lies within
a relatively crowded region of space though. About 7,000 light-years
distant and filled with glowing gas and an embedded cluster of young
stars, the region is known as M16 or the Eagle Nebula. Hubble's iconic
images of the Eagle Nebula include the famous star-forming Pillars of
Creation, towering structures of interstellar gas and dust 4 to 5
light-years long. But this small dark nebula, known to some as a Bok
globule, is a fraction of a light-year across. The Bok globule stands
out in silhouette against the expansive background of M16's diffuse
glow. Found scattered within emission nebulae and star clusters, Bok
globules are small interstellar clouds of cold molecular gas and
obscuring dust that also form stars within their dense, collapsing
cores.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

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

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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.

2025 August 2

Fireflies, Meteors, and Milky Way
Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Korona

Explanation: Taken on July 29 and July 30, a registered and stacked
series of exposures creates this dreamlike view of a northern summer
night. Multiple firefly flashes streak across the foreground as the
luminous Milky Way arcs above the horizon in the Sierra de +ôrganos
national park of central Mexico, The collection of bright streaks
aligned across the sky toward the upper left in the timelapse image are
Delta Aquariid meteors
. Currently active, the annual Delta Aquarid meteor shower shares
August nights though, overlapping with the better-known Perseid meteor
shower. This year that makes post-midnight, mostly moonless skies in
early August very popular with late night skygazers. How can you tell a
Delta Aquariid from a Perseid meteor? The streaks of Perseid meteors
can be traced back to an apparent radiant in the constellation Perseus.
Delta Aquariids appear to emerge from the more southerly constellation
Aquarius, beyond the top left of this frame. Of course, the
bioluminescent flashes of fireflies are common too on these northern
summer nights. But how can you tell a firefly from a meteor? Just try
to catch one.

Tomorrow's picture: or ...
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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.

2025 August 3
A starscape is shown with the central band of the Milky Way Galaxy
running down the center. Just to the left of the Milky Way is a bright
meteor. In the three frame time-lapse image, the meteor explodes and
gas and dust drift away. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Milky Way and Exploding Meteor
Image Credit & Copyright: Andre van der Hoeven

Explanation: In about a week the Perseid Meteor Shower will reach its
maximum. Grains of icy rock will streak across the sky as they
evaporate during entry into Earth's atmosphere. These grains were shed
from Comet Swift-Tuttle. The Perseids result from the annual crossing
of the Earth through Comet Swift-Tuttle's orbit, and are typically the
most active meteor shower of the year. Although it is hard to predict
the level of activity in any meteor shower, in a clear dark sky an
observer might see a meteor a minute. This year's Perseids peak just a
few days after full moon, and so some faint meteors will be lost to the
lunar skyglow. Meteor showers in general are best seen from a relaxing
position, away from lights. Featured here is a meteor caught exploding
during the 2015 Perseids above Austria next to the central band of our
Milky Way Galaxy.

Tomorrow's picture: arcs unknown
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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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* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2025 August 4
The Andromeda Galaxy is shown just right of center, while some unusual
blue arcs appear to its left. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Blue Arcs Toward Andromeda
Image Credit & Copyright: Ogle et al.

Explanation: What are these gigantic blue arcs near the Andromeda
Galaxy (M31)? Discovered in 2022 by amateur astronomers, the faint arcs
-- dubbed SDSO 1 -- span nearly the same angular size as M31 itself. At
first, their origin was a mystery: are they actually near the Andromeda
Galaxy, or alternatively near to our Sun? Now, over 550 hours of
combined exposure and a collaboration between amateur and professional
astronomers has revealed strong evidence for their true nature: SDSO 1
is not intergalactic, but a new class of planetary nebula within our
galaxy. Dubbed a Ghost Planetary Nebula (GPN), SDSO 1 is the first
recognized member of a new subclass of faded planetary nebulas, along
with seven others also recently identified. Shown in blue are extremely
faint oxygen emission from the shock waves, while the surrounding red
is a hydrogen-emitting trail that indicates the GPN's age.

Tomorrow's picture: complex stellar jumble
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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.

2025 August 5
A starfield is shown dominated by a complex nebula shown with many red
filaments and with a light glow in a region near the center. Please see
the explanation for more detailed information.

NGC 6072: A Complex Planetary Nebula from Webb
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, JWST

Explanation: Why is this nebula so complex? The Webb Space Telescope
has imaged a nebula in great detail that is thought to have emerged
from a Sun-like star. NGC 6072 has been resolved into one of the more
unusual and complex examples of planetary nebula. The featured image is
in infrared light with the red color highlighting cool hydrogen gas.
Study of previous images of NGC 6072 indicated several likely outflows
and two disks inside the jumbled gas, while the new Webb image resolves
new features likely including one disk's edge protruding on the central
left. A leading origin hypothesis holds that the nebula's complexity is
caused or enhanced by multiple outbursts from a star in a multi-star
system near the center.

Tomorrow's picture: meteor galaxy
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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.

2025 August 6
A starfield has the Andromeda galaxy in the center. Streaking down from
the top is a green line with several bright segments -- a meteor
captured coincidently. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Meteor before Galaxy
Image Credit & Copyright: Fritz Helmut Hemmerich

Explanation: What's that green streak in front of the Andromeda galaxy?
A meteor. While photographing the Andromeda galaxy in 2016, near the
peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower, a small pebble from deep space
crossed right in front of our Milky Way Galaxy's far-distant companion.
The small meteor took only a fraction of a second to pass through this
10-degree field. The meteor flared several times while braking
violently upon entering Earth's atmosphere. The green color was
created, at least in part, by the meteor's gas glowing as it vaporized.
Although the exposure was timed to catch a Perseid meteor, the
orientation of the imaged streak seems a better match to a meteor from
the Southern Delta Aquariids, a meteor shower that peaked a few weeks
earlier. Not coincidentally, the Perseid Meteor Shower peaks next week,
although this year the meteors will have to outshine a sky brightened
by a nearly full moon.

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.

2025 August 7

The Double Cluster in Perseus
Image Credit & Copyright: Ron Brecher

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

Tomorrow's picture: Dawn of the Crab
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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.

2025 August 8

Dawn of the Crab
Image and Text Credit: Bradley E. Schaefer

Explanation: One of the all-time historic skyscapes occured in July
1054, when the Crab Supernova blazed into the dawn sky. Chinese court
astrologers first saw the Guest Star on the morning of 4 July 1054 next
to the star Tianguan (now cataloged as Zeta Tauri). The supernova
peaked in late July 1054 a bit brighter than Venus, and was visible in
the daytime for 23 days. The Guest Star was so bright that every
culture around the world inevitably discovered the supernova
independently, although only nine reports survive, including those from
China, Japan, and Constantinople. This iPhone picture is from Signal
Hill near Tucson on the morning of 26 July 2025, faithfully re-creates
the year 1054 Dawn of the Crab, showing the sky as seen by Hohokam
peoples. The planet Venus, as a stand-in for the supernova, is close to
the position of what is now the Crab Nebula supernova remnant. Step
outside on a summer dawn with bright Venus, and ask yourself "What
would you have thought in ancient times when suddenly seeing the Dawn
of the Crab?"

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

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

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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.

2025 August 9

Interstellar Interloper 3I/ATLAS from Hubble
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, David Jewitt (UCLA) et al. - Processing;
Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Explanation: Discovered on July 1 with the NASA-funded ATLAS (Asteroid
Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) survey telescope in Rio Hurtado,
Chile, 3I/ATLAS is so designated as the third known interstellar object
to pass through our Solar System. It follows 1I/+.Oumuamua in 2017 and
the comet 2I/Borisov in 2019. Also known as C/2025 N1, 3I/ATLAS is a
comet. A teardrop-shaped cloud of dust, ejected from its icy nucleus
warmed by increasing sunlight, is seen in this sharp image from the
Hubble Space Telescope captured on July 21. Background stars are
streaked in the exposure as Hubble tracked the fastest comet ever
recorded on its journey toward the inner solar system. An analysis of
the Hubble image indicates the solid nucleus, hidden from direct view,
is likely less that 5.6 kilometers in diameter. This comet's
interstellar origin is clear from its orbit, determined to be an
eccentric, highly hyperbolic orbit that does not loop back around the
Sun and will return 3I/ATLAS to interstellar space. Not a threat to
planet Earth, the inbound interstellar interloper is now within the
Jupiter's orbital distance of the Sun, while its closest approach to
the Sun will bring it just inside the orbital distance of Mars.

Tomorrow's picture: down the road
__________________________________________________________________

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

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

Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2025 August 10
A night sky is shown above a road going off into the distance. An
unusual area of brightened sky that does not block background stars
appears diagonally from the lower right across the sky. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Zodiacal Road
Image Credit & Copyright: Ruslan Merzlyakov (astrorms)

Explanation: What's that strange light down the road? Dust orbiting the
Sun. At certain times of the year, a band of sun-reflecting dust from
the inner Solar System appears prominently just after sunset -- or just
before sunrise -- and is called zodiacal light. Although the origin of
this dust is still being researched, a leading hypothesis holds that
zodiacal dust originates mostly from faint Jupiter-family comets and
slowly spirals into the Sun. Recent analysis of dust emitted by Comet
67P, visited by ESA's robotic Rosetta spacecraft, bolsters this
hypothesis. Pictured when climbing a road up to Teide National Park in
the Canary Islands of Spain, a bright triangle of zodiacal light
appeared in the distance soon after sunset. Captured on June 21, 2019,
the scene includes bright Regulus, the alpha star of the constellation
Leo, standing above center toward the left. The Beehive Star Cluster
(M44) can be spotted below center, closer to the horizon and also
immersed in the zodiacal glow.

Tomorrow's picture: near to the Sun
__________________________________________________________________

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.

2025 August 11

Closest Ever Images Near the Sun
Video Credit: NASA, JHUAPL, Naval Research Lab, Parker Solar Probe

Explanation: Everybody sees the Sun. Nobody's been there. Starting in
2018, though, NASA launched the robotic Parker Solar Probe (PSP) to
investigate regions near to the Sun for the first time. The featured
time-lapse video shows the view looking sideways from behind PSP's Sun
shield in December during the closest approach of any human-made
spacecraft to the Sun, looping down to only about five solar diameters
above the Sun's hot surface. The PSP's Wide Field Imager for Solar
Probe (WISPR) cameras took these images over seven hours, but they are
digitally compressed here into about 5 seconds. The solar corona,
including colliding coronal mass ejections (CMEs), is visible here in
unprecedented detail, with stars passing far in the background. The Sun
is not only Earth's dominant energy source, but its variable solar wind
also compresses Earth's atmosphere, triggers auroras, affects power
grids, and can even damage orbiting communication satellites.

Tomorrow's picture: sky flow
__________________________________________________________________

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

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

Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2025 August 12
A starfield is shown above a grassy field with hills on the horizon.
The band of our Milky Way Galaxy arches across toward the right. Many
streaks appear emanating out from a place on the Milky Way just above
the horizon. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Perseids from Perseus
Image Credit & Copyright: Marcin Rosadzi+äski

Explanation: Where are all of these meteors coming from? In terms of
direction on the sky, the pointed answer is the constellation of
Perseus. That is why the meteor shower that peaks tonight is known as
the Perseids -- the meteors all appear to come from a radiant toward
Perseus. In terms of parent body, though, the sand-sized debris that
makes up the Perseids meteors come from Comet Swift-Tuttle. The comet
follows a well-defined orbit around our Sun, and the part of the orbit
that approaches Earth is superposed in front of Perseus. Therefore,
when Earth crosses this orbit, the radiant point of falling debris
appears in Perseus. Featured here, a composite image taken over six
nights and containing over 100 meteors from 2024 August Perseids meteor
shower shows many bright meteors that streaked over the Bieszczady
Mountains in Poland. This year's Perseids, usually one of the best
meteor showers of the year, will compete with a bright moon that will
rise, for many locations, soon after sunset.

Tomorrow's picture: orion's stellar 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.

2025 August 13
A bright nebula occupies the center of the frame. The nebula is complex
but roughly tan in the center and red around the edges. In the center
are four bright blue stars. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Trapezium: In the Heart of Orion
Image Credit: Data: Hubble Legacy Archive, Processing: Robert Gendler

Explanation: What lies in the heart of Orion? Trapezium: four bright
stars, that can be found near the center of this sharp cosmic portrait.
Gathered within a region about 1.5 light-years in radius, these stars
dominate the core of the dense Orion Nebula Star Cluster. Ultraviolet
ionizing radiation from the Trapezium stars, mostly from the brightest
star Theta-1 Orionis C powers the complex star forming region's entire
visible glow. About three million years old, the Orion Nebula Cluster
was even more compact in its younger years and a dynamical study
indicates that runaway stellar collisions at an earlier age may have
formed a black hole with more than 100 times the mass of the Sun. The
presence of a black hole within the cluster could explain the observed
high velocities of the Trapezium stars. The Orion Nebula's distance of
some 1,500 light-years make it one of the closest candidate black holes
to Earth.

Tomorrow's picture: when the Sky is serene and the Moon absent
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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.

2025 August 14

M13: The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules
Image Credit & Copyright: R. Jay Gabany

Explanation: In 1716, English astronomer Edmond Halley noted, "This is
but a little Patch, but it shews 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 with our neighborhood of the
Milky Way, the closest star to the Sun is over 4 light-years away.
Early telescopic observers of the great globular cluster also noted a
curious convergence of three dark lanes with a spacing of about 120
degrees, seen here just below the cluster center. Known as the
propeller in M13, the shape is likely a chance optical effect of the
distribution of stars viewed from our perspective against the dense
cluster core.

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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2025 August 15

Moonlight, Planets, and Perseids
Image Credit & Copyright: Jeff Dai (TWAN)

Explanation: In the predawn sky on August 13, two planets were close.
And despite the glare of a waning gibbous Moon, bright Jupiter and even
brighter Venus were hard to miss. Their brilliant close conjunction is
posing above the eastern horizon in this early morning skyscape. The
scene was captured in a single exposure from a site near Gansu, China,
with light from both planets reflected in the still waters of a local
pond. Also seen against the moonlight were flashes from the annual
Perseid Meteor Shower, known for its bright, fast meteors. Near the
much anticipated peak of activity, the shower meteors briefly combined
with the two planets for a celestial spectacle even in moonlit skies.

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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2025 August 16

A Cool GIF of a 2025 Perseid
Image Credit & Copyright: Renaud & Olivier Coppe

Explanation: The camera battery died about 2am local time on August 12,
while shooting in the bright moonlit skies from a garden in Chastre,
Brabant Wallon, Belgium, planet Earth. But not before it captured the
frames used to compose this cool animated gif of a brilliant Perseid
meteor and a lingering visible trail known as a persistent train. The
Perseid meteor, a fast moving speck of dust from the tail of large
periodic Comet Swift-Tuttle, was heated to incandescence by ram
pressure and vaporized as it flashed through the upper atmosphere at 60
kilometers per second. Compared to the brief flash of the meteor, its
wraith-like trail really is persistent. A characteristic of bright
meteors, a smoke-like persistent train can often be followed for many
minutes wafting in the winds at altitudes of 60 to 90 kilometers.

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

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

2025 August 17
Trees and mountains line the bottom of a landscape image with blue sky
visible above. The sky is otherwise dominated by a large and unusual
cloud that is brown and gold and has many waves and structures. Please
see the explanation for more detailed information.

Asperitas Clouds Over New Zealand
Image Credit & Copyright: Witta Priester

Explanation: What kind of clouds are these? Although their cause is
presently unknown, such unusual atmospheric structures, as menacing as
they might seem, do not appear to be harbingers of meteorological doom.
Formally recognized as a distinct cloud type only last year, asperitas
clouds can be stunning in appearance, unusual in occurrence, and are
relatively unstudied. Whereas most low cloud decks are flat bottomed,
asperitas clouds appear to have significant vertical structure
underneath. Speculation therefore holds that asperitas clouds might be
related to lenticular clouds that form near mountains, or mammatus
clouds associated with thunderstorms, or perhaps a foehn -- a type of
dry downward wind that flows off mountains. Clouds from such a wind
called the Canterbury arch stream toward the east coast of New
Zealand's South Island. The featured image, taken above Hanmer Springs
in Canterbury, New Zealand in 2005, shows great detail partly because
sunlight illuminates the undulating clouds from the side.

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

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
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2025 August 18
A large spiral galaxy appears with stars in the foreground and smaller
galaxies far in the background. The picturesque spiral has dark dust
lanes between blue arms. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

NGC 1309: A Useful Spiral Galaxy
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing: L. Galbany, S. Jha, K.
Noll, A. Riess

Explanation: This galaxy is not only pretty -- it's useful. A gorgeous
spiral some 100 million light-years distant, NGC 1309 lies on the banks
of the constellation of the River (Eridanus). NGC 1309 spans about
30,000 light-years, making it about one third the size of our larger
Milky Way galaxy. Bluish clusters of young stars and dust lanes are
seen to trace out NGC 1309's spiral arms as they wind around an older
yellowish star population at its core. Not just another pretty face-on
spiral galaxy, observations of NGC 1309's two recent supernovas and
multiple Cepheid variable stars contribute to the calibration of the
expansion of the Universe. Still, after you get over this beautiful
galaxy's grand design, check out the array of more distant background
galaxies also recorded in this sharp image from the Hubble Space
Telescope.

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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2025 August 19

Giant Galaxies in Pavo
Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Block

Explanation: Over 500,000 light years across, NGC 6872 (bottom left) is
a truly enormous barred spiral galaxy. At least 5 times the size of our
own large Milky Way, NGC 6872 is the largest known spiral galaxy. About
200 million light-years distant toward the southern constellation Pavo,
the Peacock, the appearance of this giant galaxy's stretched out spiral
arms suggest the wings of a giant bird. So its popular moniker is the
Condor galaxy. Lined with massive young, bluish star clusters and
star-forming regions, the extended and distorted spiral arms are due to
NGC 6872's past gravitational interactions with the nearby smaller
galaxy IC 4970, visible here below the giant spiral galaxy's core.
Other members of the southern Pavo galaxy group are scattered through
this magnificent galaxy group portrait, with the dominant giant
elliptical galaxy, NGC 6876, above and right of the soaring Condor
galaxy.

Tomorrow's picture: meteor door
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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.

2025 August 20
A deep sky is shown with the band of our Milky Way Galaxy running from
the upper left to the lower right. The streaks or many curved meteors
are seen. In the foreground a beach is seen with an unusual rock
outcrop that has an opening. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Perseid Meteors from Durdle Door
Image Credit & Copyright: Josh Dury

Explanation: What are those curved arcs in the sky? Meteors --
specifically, meteors from this year's Perseid meteor shower. Over the
past few weeks, after the sky darkened, many images of Perseid meteors
were captured separately and merged into a single frame, taken earlier.
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 vertically through the featured image's center. The
limestone arch in the foreground in Dorset, England is known as Durdle
Door, a name thought to survive from a thousand years ago.

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
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2025 August 21

Mostly Perseids
Image Credit & Copyright: Klaus Pillwatsch

Explanation: In this predawn skyscape recorded during the early morning
hours of August 13, mostly Perseid meteors are raining down on planet
Earth. You can easily identify the Perseid meteor streaks. They're the
ones with trails that seem to converge on the annual meteor shower's
radiant, a spot in the heroic constellation Perseus, located off the
top of the frame. That's the direction in Earth's sky that looks along
the orbit of this meteor shower's parent, periodic Comet Swift-Tuttle.
Of course the scene is a composite, a combination of about 500 digital
exposures to capture meteors registered with a single base frame
exposure. But all exposures were taken during a period of around 2.5
hours from a wind farm near M++nchhof, Burgenland, Austria. Red lights
on the individual wind turbine towers dot the foreground. In their
spectacular close conjunction, bright planets Jupiter and Venus are
poised above the eastern horizon.

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
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2025 August 22

A Tale of Two Nebulae
Image Credit & Copyright: Kent Biggs

Explanation: This colorful telescopic view towards the musical northern
constellation Lyra reveals the faint outer halos and brighter central
ring-shaped region of M57, popularly known as the Ring Nebula. To
modern astronomers M57 is a well-known planetary nebula. With a central
ring about one light-year across, M57 is definitely not a planet
though, but the gaseous shroud of one of the Milky Way's dying sun-like
stars. Roughly the same apparent size as M57, the fainter and more
often overlooked barred spiral galaxy at the left is IC 1296. In fact,
over 100 years ago IC 1296 would have been known as a spiral nebula. By
chance the pair are in the same field of view, and while they appear to
have similar sizes they are actually very far apart. At a distance of a
mere 2,000 light-years M57 is well within our own Milky Way galaxy.
Extragalactic IC 1296 (aka PGC62532) is more like 200,000,000
light-years distant. That's about 100,000 times farther away than M57
but since they appear roughly similar in size, former spiral nebula IC
1296 must also be about 100,000 times larger than planetary nebula M57.
Look closely at the sharp 21st century astroimage to spot even more
distant background galaxies scattered through the frame.

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
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2025 August 23

Fishing for the Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Marco Bellelli

Explanation: How big is planet Earth's Moon? Compared to other moons of
the Solar System, it's number 5 on the largest to smallest ranked list,
following Jupiter's moon Ganymede, Saturn's moon Titan, and Jovian
moons Callisto and Io. Continuing the list, the Moon comes before
Jupiter's Europa and Neptune's Triton. It's also larger than dwarf
planets Pluto and Eris. With a diameter of 3,475 kilometers the Moon is
about 1/4 the size of Earth though, and that does make it the largest
moon when compared to the size of its parent Solar System planet. Of
course in this serene, twilight sea and skyscape, August's rising Full
Moon still appears small enough to be caught in the nets of an ancient
fishing rig. The telephoto snapshot was taken along the Italian Costa
dei Trabocchi, on the Adriatic Sea.

Tomorrow's picture: 30 times a second
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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.

2025 August 24
The featured image shows the center of the Crab Nebula in colors mapped
to Hubble, Chandra, and Spitzer space telescopes. The Crab pulsar
appears in the center surrounded by a spinning disk. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

The Spinning Pulsar of the Crab Nebula
Image Credit: NASA: X-ray: Chandra (CXC), Optical: Hubble (STScI),
Infrared: Spitzer (JPL-Caltech)

Explanation: At the core of the Crab Nebula lies a city-sized,
magnetized neutron star spinning 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 twelve light-years across, the spectacular picture
frames the glowing gas, cavities and swirling filaments near the Crab
Nebula's center. The featured picture combines visible light from the
Hubble Space Telescope in purple, X-ray light from the Chandra X-ray
Observatory in blue, and infrared light from the Spitzer Space
Telescope in red. Like a cosmic dynamo, the Crab pulsar powers the
emission from the nebula, driving a shock wave through surrounding
material and accelerating the spiraling electrons. With more mass than
the Sun and the density of an atomic nucleus,the spinning pulsar is the
collapsed core of a massive star that exploded. The outer parts of the
Crab Nebula are the expanding remnants of the star's component gases.
The supernova explosion was witnessed on planet Earth in the year 1054.

Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday? (after
1995)
Tomorrow's picture: stellar surprise
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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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2025 August 25
A starfield surrounds the bright blue stars of a star cluster: the
Pleiades star cluster. Nearly horizontally across the cluster is a
bright green streak, most likely a meteor. Please see the explanation
for more detailed information.

The Meteor and the Star Cluster
Image Credit & Copyright: Yousif Alqasimi & Essa Al Jasmi

Explanation: Sometimes even the sky surprises you. To see more stars
and faint nebulosity in the Pleiades star cluster (M45), long exposures
are made. Many times, less interesting items appear on the exposures
that were not intended -- but later edited out. These include stuck
pixels, cosmic ray hits, frames with bright clouds or Earth's Moon,
airplane trails, lens flares, faint satellite trails, and even insect
trails. Sometimes, though, something really interesting is caught by
chance. That was just the case a few weeks ago in al-Ula, Saudi Arabia
when a bright meteor streaked across during an hour-long exposure of
the Pleiades. Along with the famous bright blue stars, less famous and
less bright blue stars, and blue-reflecting dust surrounding the star
cluster, the fast rock fragment created a distinctive green glow,
likely due to vaporized metals.

Jigsaw Universe: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day
Tomorrow's picture: leaky star
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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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2025 August 27
A dark field has a series of light-colored elliptical rings in the
center. Between two of the rings is a yellow-colored spot. Please see
the explanation for more detailed information.

WISPIT 2b: Exoplanet Carves Gap in Birth Disk
Image Credit: ESO, VLT, SPHERE;
Processing & Copyright: ESO, Richelle van Capelleveen (Leiden Obs.) et
al.;
Text: Ogetay Kayali (MTU)

Explanation: That yellow spot -- what is it? It's a young planet
outside our Solar System. The featured image from the Very Large
Telescope in Chile surprisingly captures a distant scene much like our
own Solar System's birth, some 4.5 billion years ago. Although we can't
look into the past and see Earth's formation directly, telescopes let
us watch similar processes unfolding around distant stars. At the
center of this frame lies a young Sun-like star, hidden behind a
coronagraph that blocks its bright glare. Surrounding the star is a
bright, dusty protoplanetary disk -- the raw material of planets. Gaps
and concentric rings mark where a newborn world is gathering gas and
dust under its gravity, clearing the way as it orbits the star.
Although astronomers have imaged disk-embedded planets before, this is
the first-ever observation of an exoplanet actively carving a gap
within a disk -- the earliest direct glimpse of planetary sculpting in
action.

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

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

2025 August 28

Galaxies, Stars, and Dust
Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Eder

Explanation: This well-composed telescopic field of view covers over a
Full Moon on the sky toward the high-flying constellation Pegasus. Of
course the brighter stars show diffraction spikes, the commonly seen
effect of internal supports in reflecting telescopes, and lie well
within our own Milky Way galaxy. The faint but pervasive clouds of
interstellar dust ride above the galactic plane and dimly reflect the
Milky Way's starlight. Known as galactic cirrus or integrated flux
nebulae they are associated with the Milky Way's molecular clouds. In
fact, the diffuse cloud cataloged as MBM 54, less than a thousand
light-years distant, fills the scene. The galaxy seemingly tangled in
the dusty cloud is the striking spiral galaxy NGC 7497. It's some 60
million light-years away, though. Seen almost edge-on near the center
of the field, NGC 7497's own spiral arms and dust lanes echo the colors
of stars and dust in our own Milky Way.

Tomorrow's picture: a dark veil
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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.

2025 August 29

A Dark Veil in Ophiuchus
Image Credit & Copyright: Katelyn Beecroft

Explanation: The diffuse hydrogen-alpha glow of emission region Sh2-27
fills this cosmic scene. The field of view spans nearly 3 degrees
across the nebula-rich constellation Ophiuchus toward the central Milky
Way. A Dark Veil of wispy interstellar dust clouds draped across the
foreground is chiefly identified as LDN 234 and LDN 204 from the 1962
Catalog of Dark Nebulae by American astronomer Beverly Lynds. Sh2-27
itself is the large but faint HII region surrounding runaway O-type
star Zeta Ophiuchi. Along with the Zeta Oph HII region, LDN 234 and LDN
204 are likely 500 or so light-years away. At that distance, this
telescopic frame would be about 25 light-years wide.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

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.

2025 August 30

A Two Percent Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Marina Prol

Explanation: A young crescent moon can be hard to see. That's because
when the Moon shows its crescent phase (young or old) it can never be
far from the Sun in planet Earth's sky. But even though the sky is
still bright, a slender sunlit lunar crescent is clearly visible in
this early evening skyscape. The telephoto snapshot was captured on
August 24, with the Moon very near the western horizon at sunset. Seen
in a narrow crescent phase about 1.5 days old, the visible sunlit
portion is a mere two percent of the surface of the Moon's familiar
nearside. At the Canary Islands Space Centre, a steerable radio dish
for communication with spacecraft is tilted in the direction of the two
percent Moon. The sunset sky's pastel pinkish coloring is partly due to
fine sand and dust from the Sahara Desert blown by the prevailing
winds.

Tomorrow's picture: a planetary pillow
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 August 31
A starfield surrounds a bright nebula. The nebula is somewhat
rectangular like a pillow and is mostly white with brown filaments
inside and blue shells surrounding. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

NGC 7027: The Pillow Planetary Nebula
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing: Delio Tolivia Cadrecha

Explanation: What created this unusual planetary nebula? Dubbed the
Pillow Nebula and the Flying Carpet Nebula, NGC 7027 is one of the
smallest, brightest, and most unusually shaped planetary nebulas known.
Given its expansion rate, NGC 7027 first started expanding, as visible
from Earth, about 600 years ago. For much of its history, the planetary
nebula has been expelling shells, as seen in blue in the featured image
by the Hubble Space Telescope. In modern times, though, for reasons
unknown, it began ejecting gas and dust (seen in brown) in specific
directions that created a new pattern that seems to have four corners.
What lies at the nebula's center is unknown, with one hypothesis
holding it to be a close binary star system where one star sheds gas
onto an erratic disk orbiting the other star. NGC 7027, about 3,000
light years away, was first discovered in 1878 and can be seen with a
standard backyard telescope toward the constellation of the Swan
(Cygnus).

Tomorrow's picture: smashed moonball
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 September 1
A dark spherical body is shown that has many light craters. Please see
the explanation for more detailed information.

Callisto: Dirty Battered Iceball
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Voyager 2; Processing & License: Kevin
M. Gill;

Explanation: Its surface is the most densely cratered in the Solar
System -- but what's inside? Jupiter's moon Callisto is a battered ball
of dirty ice that is larger than the planet Mercury. It was visited by
NASA's Galileo spacecraft in the 1990s and 2000s, but the recently
reprocessed featured image is from a flyby of NASA's Voyager 2 in 1979.
The moon would appear darker if it weren't for the tapestry of
light-colored fractured surface ice created by eons of impacts. The
interior of Callisto is potentially even more interesting because
therein might lie an internal layer of liquid water. This potential
underground sea is a candidate to harbor life -- similar with sister
moons Europa and Ganymede. Callisto is slightly larger than Luna,
Earth's Moon, but because of its high ice content is slightly less
massive. ESA's JUICE and NASA's Europa Clipper missions are now headed
out to Jupiter to better investigate its largest moons.

Tomorrow's picture: flaming sky horse
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 September 2
A starfield is shown with bright and dark nebulae of different shapes
and colors. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

The Horsehead and Flame Nebulas
Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Stern

Explanation: The Horsehead Nebula is one of the most famous nebulae on
the sky. It is visible as the dark indentation to the orange emission
nebula at the far right of the featured picture. The horse-head feature
is dark because it is really an opaque dust cloud that lies in front of
the bright emission nebula. Like clouds in Earth's atmosphere, this
cosmic cloud has assumed a recognizable shape by chance. After many
thousands of years, the internal motions of the cloud will surely alter
its appearance. The emission nebula's orange color is caused by
electrons recombining with protons to form hydrogen atoms. Toward the
lower left of the image is the Flame Nebula, an orange-tinged nebula
that also contains intricate filaments of dark dust.

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

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2025 September 3
A nebula is shown that appears roughly the shape of Africa. The complex
radio image shows rings and jets. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Cir X-1: Jets in the Africa Nebula
Image Credit: J. English (U. Manitoba) & K. Gasealahwe (U. Cape Town),
SARAO, MeerKAT, ThunderKAT; Science: K. Gasealahwe, K. Savard (U.
Oxford) et al.; Text: J. English & K. Savard

Explanation: How soon do jets form when a supernova gives birth to a
neutron star? The Africa Nebula provides clues. This supernova remnant
surrounds Circinus X-1, an X-ray emitting neutron star and the
companion star it orbits. The image, from the ThunderKAT collaboration
on the MeerKAT radio telescope situated in South Africa, shows the
bright core-and-lobe structure of Cir X-1CÇÖs currently active jets
inside the nebula. A mere 4600 years old, Cir X-1 could be the "Little
Sister" of microquasar SS 433*. However, the newly discovered bubble
exiting from a ring-like hole in the upper right of the nebula, along
with a ring to the bottom left, demonstrate that other jets previously
existed. Computer simulations indicate those jets formed within 100
years of the explosion and lasted up to 1000 years. Surprisingly, to
create the observed bubble, the jets need to be more powerful than
young neutron stars were previously thought to produce.

Open Science: Browse 3,700+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code
Library
Tomorrow's picture: spiral on edge
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 September 4

NGC 4565: Galaxy on Edge
Image Credit & Copyright: Jos+¬ Rodrigues (IA, OFXB)

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

Tomorrow's picture: not a star
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 September 5

47 Tucanae: Globular Star Cluster
Image Credit & Copyright: Carlos Taylor

Explanation: Also known as NGC 104, 47 Tucanae is a jewel of the
southern sky. Not a star but a dense cluster of stars, it roams the
halo of our Milky Way Galaxy along with some 200 other globular star
clusters. The second brightest globular cluster (after Omega Centauri)
as seen from planet Earth, 47 Tuc lies about 13,000 light-years away.
It can be spotted with the naked eye close on the sky to the Small
Magellanic Cloud in the constellation of the Toucan. The dense cluster
is made up of hundreds of thousands of stars in a volume only about 120
light-years across. Red giant stars on the outskirts of the cluster are
easy to pick out as yellowish stars in this sharp telescopic portrait.
Tightly packed globular star cluster 47 Tuc is also home to a star with
the closest known orbit around a black hole.

Tomorrow's picture: sea and skyscape
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 September 6

Sardinia Sunset
Image Credit & Copyright: Lorenzo Busilacchi

Explanation: When the sun sets on September 7, the Full Moon will rise.
And on that date denizens around much of our fair planet, including
parts of Antarctica, Australia, Asia, Europe, and Africa can witness a
total lunar eclipse, with the Moon completely immersed in Earth's
shadow. As the bright Full Moon first enters Earth's shadow it will
darken, finally taking on a reddish hue during the total eclipse phase.
In fact, the color of the Moon during a total lunar eclipse is due to
reddened light from sunrises and sunsets around planet Earth. The
reddened sunlight is scattered by a dense atmosphere into the planet's
otherwise dark central shadow. When the sun set on August 22, this
telephoto snapshot of red skies, blue sea, and the Mangiabarche
Lighthouse was captured from Sant'Antioco, Sardinia, Italy.

Tomorrow's picture: all the water
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 September 7
An illustration of planet Earth is shown where the Earth is tan and has
no water shown on its surface. In the foreground are several small blue
spheres showing how much water is known to reside on our planet. Please
see the explanation for more detailed information.

All the Water on Planet Earth
Illustration Credit: Jack Cook, Adam Nieman, Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution; Data source: Igor Shiklomanov

Explanation: How much of planet Earth is made of water? Very little,
actually. Although oceans of water cover about 70 percent of Earth's
surface, these oceans are shallow compared to the Earth's radius. The
featured illustration shows what would happen if all of the water on or
near the surface of the Earth were bunched up into a ball. The radius
of this ball would be only about 700 kilometers, less than half the
radius of the Earth's Moon, but slightly larger than Saturn's moon Rhea
which, like many moons in our outer Solar System, is mostly water ice.
The next smallest ball depicts all of Earth's liquid fresh water, while
the tiniest ball shows the volume of all of Earth's fresh-water lakes
and rivers. How any of this water came to be on the Earth and whether
any significant amount is trapped far beneath Earth's surface remain
topics of research.

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

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2025 September 8
A starfield surrounds a nebula with a vertical brown bar across its
center. Gas and dust fan out from the bar making the nebula appear like
a colorful butterfly. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

IRAS 04302: Butterfly Disk Planet Formation
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Webb; Processing: M. Villenave et al.

Explanation: This butterfly can hatch planets. The nebula fanning out
from the star IRAS 04302+2247 may look like the wings of a butterfly,
while the vertical brown stripe down the center may look like the
butterfly's body -- but together they indicate an active planet-forming
system. The featured picture was captured recently in infrared light by
the Webb Space Telescope. Pictured, the vertical disk is thick with the
gas and dust from which planets form. The disk shades visible and
(most) infrared light from the central star, allowing a good view of
the surrounding dust that reflects out light. In the next few million
years, the dust disk will likely fragment into rings through the
gravity of newly hatched planets. And a billion years from now, the
remaining gas and dust will likely dissipate, leaving mainly the
planets -- like in our Solar System.

Explore the Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: up from Earth
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 September 9
An image of Earth from space shows an unusual multi-colored jet in the
middle of the frame. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Up from the Earth: Gigantic Jet Lightning
Image Credit: NASA, Expedition 73, Nicole Ayers

Explanation: What's that rising up from the Earth? When circling the
Earth on the International Space Station early in July, astronaut
Nicole Ayers saw an unusual type of lightning rising up from the Earth:
a gigantic jet. The powerful jet appears near the center of the
featured image in red, white, and blue. Giant jet lightning has only
been known about for the past 25 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 remain active topics of research.

Tomorrow's picture: big sky lizard
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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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2025 September 10
A starfield surrounds a large red nebula. The nebula has many flowing
waves and folds. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

The Great Lacerta Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Ian Moehring & Kevin Roylance

Explanation: It is one of the largest nebulas on the sky -- why isn't
it better known? Roughly the same angular size as the Andromeda Galaxy,
the Great Lacerta Nebula can be found toward the constellation of the
Lizard (Lacerta). The emission nebula is difficult to see with
wide-field binoculars because it is so faint, but also usually
difficult to see with a large telescope because it is so great in angle
-- spanning about three degrees. The depth, breadth, waves, and beauty
of the nebula -- cataloged as Sharpless 126 (Sh2-126) -- can best be
seen and appreciated with a long duration camera exposure. The featured
image is one such combined exposure -- in this case taken over three
nights in August through dark skies in Moses Lake, Washington, USA. The
hydrogen gas in the Great Lacerta Nebula glows red because it is
excited by light from the bright star 10 Lacertae, one of the bright
blue stars just to the left of the red-glowing nebula's center. Most of
the stars and nebula are about 1,200 light years distant.

Jigsaw Universe: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day
Tomorrow's picture: shadow play
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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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2025 September 11

The Umbra of Earth
Image Credit & Copyright: Wang Letian (Eyes at Night)

Explanation: The dark, inner shadow of planet Earth is called the
umbra. Shaped like a cone extending into space, it has a circular cross
section most easily seen during a lunar eclipse. And on the night of
September 7/8 the Full Moon passed near the center of Earth's umbral
cone, entertaining eclipse watchers around much of our fair planet,
including parts of Antarctica, Australia, Asia, Europe, and Africa.
Recorded from Zhangjiakou City, China, this timelapse composite image
uses successive pictures from the total lunar eclipse, progressing left
to right, to reveal the curved cross-section of the umbral shadow
sliding across the Moon. Sunlight scattered by the atmosphere into
Earth's umbra causes the lunar surface to appear reddened during
totality. But close to the umbra's edge, the limb of the eclipsed Moon
shows a distinct blue hue. The blue eclipsed moonlight originates as
rays of sunlight pass through layers high in the upper stratosphere,
colored by ozone that scatters red light and transmits blue. In the
total phase of this leisurely lunar eclipse, the Moon was completely
within the Earth's umbra for about 83 minutes.

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

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2025 September 12

Lunar Eclipse in Two Hemispheres
Image Credit & Copyright: North - Zhouyue Zhu, South - Lucy Yunxi Hu

Explanation: September's total lunar eclipse is tracked across night
skies from both the northern and southern hemispheres of planet Earth
in these two dramatic timelapse series. In the northern hemisphere
sequence (top panel) the MoonCÇÖs trail arcs from the upper left to the
lower right. It passes below bright planet Saturn, seen under mostly
clear skies from the international campus of Zhejiang University in
China at about 30 degrees north latitude. In contrast, the southern
hemisphere view from Lake Griffin, Canberra, Australia at 35 degrees
south latitude, records the MoonCÇÖs trail from the upper right to the
lower left. Multiple lightning flashes from thunderstorms near the
horizon appear reflected in the lake. Both sequences were photographed
with 16mm wide-angle lenses and both cover the entire eclipse, with the
darkened red Moon totally immersed in Earth's umbral shadow near
center. But the different orientations of the MoonCÇÖs path across the
sky reveal the perspective shifts caused by the views from northern vs.
southern latitudes.

Tomorrow's picture: one mile star trails
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 September 13

Star Trails over One-Mile Radio Telescope
Image Credit & Copyright: Joao Yordanov Serralheiro

Explanation: The steerable 60 foot diameter dish antenna of the
One-Mile Telescope at Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, Cambridge,
UK, is pointing skyward in this evocative night-skyscape. To capture
the dramatic scene, consecutive 30 second exposures were recorded over
a period of 90 minutes. Combined, the exposures reveal a background of
gracefully arcing star trails that reflect planet Earth's daily
rotation on its axis. The North Celestial Pole, the extension of
Earth's axis of rotation into space, points near Polaris, the North
Star. That's the bright star that creates the short trail near the
center of the concentric arcs. But the historic One-Mile Telescope
array also relied on planet Earth's rotation to operate. Exploring the
universe at radio wavelengths, it was the first radio telescope to use
Earth-rotation aperture synthesis. That technique uses the rotation of
the Earth to change the relative orientation of the telescope array and
celestial radio sources to create radio maps of the sky at a resolution
better than that of the human eye.

Tomorrow's picture: tilts and spins
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 September 14

Planets of the Solar System: Tilts and Spins
Video Credit: NASA, Animation: James O'Donoghue (U. Reading)

Explanation: How does your favorite planet spin? Does it spin rapidly
around a nearly vertical axis, or horizontally, or backwards? The
featured video animates NASA images of all eight planets in our Solar
System to show them spinning side-by-side for an easy comparison. In
the time-lapse video, a day on Earth -- one Earth rotation -- takes
just a few seconds. Jupiter rotates the fastest, while Venus spins not
only the slowest (can you see it?), but backwards. The inner rocky
planets across the top underwent dramatic spin-altering collisions
during the early days of the Solar System. Why planets spin and tilt as
they do remains a topic of research with much insight gained from
modern computer modeling and the recent discovery and analysis of
hundreds of exoplanets: planets orbiting other stars.

Tomorrow's picture: sun belch
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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.

2025 September 15

Earth During a Powerful Solar Storm
Video Credit: NASA's SVS, SWRC, CCMC, SWMF; T. Bridgeman et al.

Explanation: Can our Sun become dangerous? Yes, sometimes. Every few
years our Sun ejects a scary-large bubble of hot gas into the Solar
System. Every hundred years or so, when the timing, location, and
magnetic field connections are just right, such a Coronal Mass Ejection
(CME) will hit the Earth. When this happens, the Earth not only
experiences dramatic auroras, but its magnetic field gets quickly
pushed back and compressed, which causes electric grids to surge. Some
of these surges could be dangerous, affecting satellites and knocking
out power grids -- which can take months to fix. Just such a storm --
called the Carrington Event -- occurred in 1859 and caused telegraph
wires to spark. A similar CME passed near the Earth in 2012, and the
featured animated video shows a computer model of what might have
happened if it had been a direct hit. In this model, the Earth's
magnetopause becomes so compressed that it went inside the orbit of
geosynchronous communication satellites.

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

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2025 September 16
A starfield is seen above a horizon and an orange sunset. In the
starfield, near the horizon, is a comet with a green head and long
tail. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

New Comet SWAN25B over Mexico
Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Korona

Explanation: A newly discovered comet is already visible with
binoculars. The comet, C/2025 R2 (SWAN) and nicknamed SWAN25B, is
brightening significantly as it emerges from the Sun's direction and
might soon become visible on your smartphone -- if not your eyes.
Although the brightnesses of comets are notoriously hard to predict,
many comets appear brighter as they approach the Earth, with SWAN25B
reaching only a quarter of the Earth-Sun distance near October 19.
Nighttime skygazers will also be watching for a SWAN25B-spawned meteor
shower around October 5 when our Earth passes through the plane of the
comet's orbit. The unexpectedly bright comet was discovered by an
amateur astronomer in images of the SWAN instrument on NASA's SOHO
satellite. The comet is currently best observed in southern skies but
is slowly moving north. The featured image was captured at sunset three
days ago just above the western horizon in Zacatecas, Mexico.

Tomorrow's picture: sagittarius triplet
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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.

2025 September 17
A starfield surrounds a several large nebulas that appear mostly red
but also white and blue. Dark dust and blue filaments also populate the
frame. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Nebulas and Clusters in Sagittarius
Image Credit & Copyright: J. De Winter, C. Humbert, C. Robert & V.
Sabet; Text: Ogetay Kayali (MTU)

Explanation: Can you spot famous celestial objects in this image?
18th-century astronomer Charles Messier cataloged only two of them: the
bright Lagoon Nebula (M8) at the bottom, and the colorful Trifid Nebula
(M20) at the upper right. The one on the left that resembles a cat's
paw is NGC 6559, and it is much fainter than the other two. Even harder
to spot are the thin blue filaments on the left, from supernova remnant
(SNR G007.5-01.7). Their glow comes from small amounts of glowing
oxygen atoms that are so faint that it took over 17 hours of exposure
with just one blue color to bring up. Framing this scene of stellar
birth and death are two star clusters: the open cluster M21 just above
Trifid, and the globular cluster NGC 6544 at lower left.

Tomorrow's picture: NGC 6914
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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.

2025 September 18

Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN)
Image Credit & Copyright: Team Ciel Austral

Explanation: A new visitor from the outer Solar System, comet C/2025 R2
(SWAN) also known as SWAN25B was only discovered late last week, on
September 11. That's just day before the comet reached perihelion, its
closest approach to the Sun. First spotted by Vladimir Bezugly in
images from the SWAN instrument on the sun-staring SOHO spacecraft, the
comet was surprisingly bright but understandably difficult to see
against the Sun's glare. Still close to the Sun on the sky, the
greenish coma and tail of C/2025 R2 (SWAN) are captured in this
telescopic snapshot from September 17. Spica, alpha star of the
constellation Virgo, shines just beyond the upper left edge of the
frame while the comet is about 6.5 light-minutes from planet Earth.
Near the western horizon after sunset and slightly easier to see in
binoculars from the southern hemisphere, this comet SWAN will pass near
Zubenelgenubi, alpha star of Libra, on October 2. C/2025 R2 (SWAN) is
scheduled to make its closest approach to our fair planet around
October 20.

Tomorrow's picture: it's complicated
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 September 19

The NGC 6914 Complex
Image Credit & Copyright: Tommy Lease

Explanation: A study in contrasts, this colorful cosmic skyscape
features stars, dust, and glowing gas in the vicinity of NGC 6914. The
interstellar complex of nebulae lies some 6,000 light-years away,
toward the high-flying northern constellation Cygnus and the plane of
our Milky Way Galaxy. Obscuring interstellar dust clouds appear in
silhouette while reddish hydrogen emission nebulae, along with the
dusty blue reflection nebulae, fill the cosmic canvas. Ultraviolet
radiation from the massive, hot, young stars of the extensive Cygnus
OB2 association ionize the region's atomic hydrogen gas, producing the
characteristic red glow as protons and electrons recombine. Embedded
Cygnus OB2 stars also provide the blue starlight strongly reflected by
the dust clouds. The over one degree wide telescopic field of view
spans about 100 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 6914.

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

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2025 September 20

Gibbous vs Crescent
Image Credit & Copyright: Luca Bartek

Explanation: Early risers around planet Earth have enjoyed a shining
crescent Moon near brilliant Venus, close to the eastern horizon in
recent morning twilight skies. And yesterday, on September 19,
skygazers watching from some locations in Earth's northern hemisphere
were also able to witness Venus, in the inner planet's waxing gibbous
phase, pass behind the Moon's waning crescent. In fact, this telescopic
snapshot was taken moments before that occultation of gibbous Venus by
the crescent Moon began. The close-up view of the beautiful celestial
alignment records Venus approaching part of the Moon's sunlit edge in
clear daytime skies from the Swiss Alps. Tomorrow, the Sun will pass
behind a New Moon. But to witness that partial solar eclipse on
September 21, skygazers will need to watch from locations in planet
Earth's southern hemisphere.

Tomorrow's picture: equinox sunset
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 September 21
A city skyline is shown behind some hills and a river. The path of the
Sun is shown for several times during a year. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Equinox Sunset
Image Credit: Luca Vanzella

Explanation: Does the Sun set in the same direction every day? No, the
direction of sunset depends on the time of the year. Although the Sun
always sets approximately toward the west, on an equinox like today the
Sun sets directly toward the west. After tomorrow's September equinox,
the Sun will set increasingly toward the southwest, reaching its
maximum displacement at the December solstice. Before today's September
equinox, the Sun had set toward the northwest, reaching its maximum
displacement at the June solstice. The featured time-lapse image shows
seven bands of the Sun setting one day each month from 2019 December
through 2020 June. These image sequences were taken from Alberta,
Canada -- well north of the Earth's equator -- and feature the city of
Edmonton in the foreground. The middle band shows the Sun setting
during the last equinox -- in March. From this location, the Sun will
set along this same equinox band again tomorrow.

Tomorrow's picture: equinox on Saturn
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 September 22
The planet Saturn is pictured 6 times in a horizonal column, labelled
by years with 2020 at the top and 2025 at the bottom. As the years
progress, Saturn's ring appear less prominent. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Equinox at Saturn
Image Credit & Copyright: Imran Sultan

Explanation: On Saturn, the rings tell you the season. On Earth, today
marks an equinox, the time when the Earth's equator tilts directly
toward the Sun. Since Saturn's grand rings orbit along the planet's
equator, these rings appear most prominent -- from the direction of the
Sun -- when the spin axis of Saturn points toward the Sun. Conversely,
when Saturn's spin axis points to the side, an equinox occurs, and the
edge-on rings are hard to see from not only the Sun -- but Earth. In
the featured montage, images of Saturn between the years of 2020 and
2025 have been superposed to show the giant planet passing, with this
year's equinox, from summer in the north to summer in the south.
Yesterday, Saturn was coincidently about as close as it gets to planet
Earth, and so this month the ringed giant's orb is relatively bright
and visible throughout the night.

Tomorrow's picture: cathedral to massive stars
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 September 23
Stars dot the frame that has a blue background. Covering the lower part
of the image, and the far right, are brown and tan nebular structures.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

NGC 6357: Cathedral to Massive Stars
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, JWST; Processing: Alyssa Pagan
(STScI);
Rollover: NASA, ESA, HST, & J. M. Apell+íniz (IAA, Spain);
Acknowledgement: D. De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

Explanation: How massive can a normal star be? Estimates made from
distance, brightness and standard solar models had given one star in
the open cluster Pismis 24 over 200 times the mass of our Sun, making
it one of the most massive stars known. This star is the brightest
object located in the central cavity near the bottom center of the
featured image taken with the Webb Space Telescope in infrared light.
For comparison, a rollover image from the Hubble Space Telescope is
also featured in visible light. Close inspection of the images,
however, has shown that Pismis 24-1 derives its brilliant luminosity
not from a single star but from three at least. Component stars would
still remain near 100 solar masses, making them among the more massive
stars currently on record. Toward the bottom of the image, stars are
still forming in the associated emission nebula NGC 6357. Appearing
perhaps like a Gothic cathedral, energetic stars near the center appear
to be breaking out and illuminating a spectacular cocoon.

Teachers & Students: Ideas for Utilizing APOD in the Classroom
Tomorrow's picture: black hole bang
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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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2025 September 24
Artwork depicts a colorful version of two black holes nearing collision
from between the black holes. Swirling gas is depicted with wavey lined
depicting gravitational waves ringing and an artificial grid depicting
spacetime shown distorting. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

GW250114: Rotating Black Holes Collide
Illustration Credit: Aurore Simonnet (SSU/EdEon), LVK, URI; LIGO
Collaboration

Explanation: It was the strongest gravitational wave signal yet
measured -- what did it show? GW250114 was detected by both arms of the
Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) in
Washington and Louisiana USA earlier this year. Analysis showed that
the event was created when two black holes, each of mass around 33
times the mass of the Sun, coalesced into one larger black hole with a
mass of around 63 solar masses. Even though the event happened about a
billion light years away, the signal was so strong that the spin of all
black holes, as well as initial ringing of the final black hole, was
deduced with exceptional accuracy. Furthermore, it was confirmed better
than before, as previously predicted, that the total event horizon area
of the combined black hole was greater than those of the merging black
holes. Featured, an artist's illustration depicts an imaginative and
conceptual view from near one of the black holes before collision.

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

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written by a professional astronomer.

2025 September 25

Saturn Opposite the Sun
Image Credit & Copyright: Jin Wang

Explanation: This year Saturn was at opposition on September 21,
opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky. At its closest to Earth, Saturn
was also at its brightest of the year, rising as the Sun set and
shining above the horizon all night long among the fainter stars of the
constellation Pisces. In this snapshot from the Qinghai Lenghu
Observatory, Tibetan Plateau, southwestern China, the outer planet is
immersed in a faint, diffuse oval of light known as the gegenschein or
counter glow. The diffuse gegenschein is produced by sunlight
backscattered by interplanetary dust along the Solar System's ecliptic
plane, opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky. Like a giant eye, on
this dark night Saturn and gegenschein seem to stare down on the
observatory's telescope domes seen against a colorful background of
airglow along the horizon.

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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2025 September 26

A SWAN, an ATLAS, and Mars
Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Block

Explanation: A new visitor to the inner Solar System, comet C/2025 R2
(SWAN) sports a long ion tail extending diagonally across this almost 7
degree wide telescopic field of view recorded on September 21. A
fainter fellow comet also making its inner Solar System debut, C/2025
K1 (ATLAS), can be spotted above and left of SWAN's greenish coma, just
visible against the background sea of stars in the constellation Virgo.
Both new comets were only discovered in 2025 and are joined in this
celestial frame by ruddy planet Mars (bottom), a more familiar wanderer
in planet Earth's night skies. The comets may appear to be in a race,
nearly neck and neck in their voyage through the inner Solar System and
around the Sun. But this comet SWAN has already reached its perihelion
or closest approach to the Sun on September 12 and is now outbound
along its orbit. This comet ATLAS is still inbound though, and will
make its perihelion passage on October 8.

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
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2025 September 27

A Rocket in the Sun
Image Credit & Copyright: Pascal Fouquet

Explanation: On the morning of September 24 a rocket crosses the bright
solar disk in this long range telescopic snapshot captured from
Orlando, Florida. That's about 50 miles north of its Kennedy Space
Center launch site. This rocket carried three new space weather
missions to space. Signals have now been successfully acquired from all
three - NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, NASACÇÖs
Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, and the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Follow-On Lagrange 1
(SWFO-L1) - as they begin their journey to L1, an Earth-Sun lagrange
point. L1 is about 1.5 million kilometers in the sunward direction from
planet Earth. Appropriately, major space weather influencers, aka dark
sunspots in active regions across the Sun, are posing with the
transiting rocket. In fact, large active region AR4225 is just right of
the rocket's nose.

Tomorrow's picture: spots on the rocks
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 September 28
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 be a remnant
biosignature of ancient Martian life. 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
last year 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 biosignature
ring, like some similarly appearing spots on Earth rocks. Although
other non-biological explanations have not been ruled out, speculation
focusing on this potential biological origin is causing much intrigue.

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

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2025 September 29
A starfield is shown that has two short streaks running diagonally. At
closer inspection, they are two comets both with white-green heads and
white tails. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Two Camera Comets in One Sky
Image Credit & Copyright: Luc Perrot (TWAN)

Explanation: It may look like these comets are racing, but they are
not. Comets C/2025 K1 ATLAS (left) and C/2025 R2 SWAN (right) appeared
near each other by chance last week in the featured image taken from
France's Reunion Island in the southern Indian Ocean. Fainter Comet
ATLAS is approaching our Sun and will reach its closest approach in
early October when it is also expected to be its brightest -- although
still only likely visible with long exposures on a camera. The brighter
comet, nicknamed SWAN25B, is now headed away from our Sun, although its
closest approach to Earth is expected in mid-October, when optimistic
estimates have it becoming bright enough to see with the unaided eye.
Each comet has a greenish coma of expelled gas and an ion tail pointing
away from the Sun.

Growing Gallery: Comet SWAN25B
Tomorrow's picture: a third camera comet
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 September 30
A starfield is shown that has a bright comet. The comet shows a green
head on the lower left and an ion tail with significant structure
extending out to the upper right. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Comet Lemmon Brightens
Image Credit & Copyright: Victor Sabet & Julien De Winter

Explanation: Comet Lemmon is brightening and moving into morning
northern skies. Besides Comet SWAN25B and Comet ATLAS, Comet C/2025 A6
(Lemmon) is now the third comet currently visible with binoculars and
on long camera exposures. Comet Lemmon was discovered early this year
and is still headed into the inner Solar System. The comet will round
the Sun on November 8, but first it will pass its nearest to the Earth
-- at about half the Earth-Sun distance -- on October 21. Although the
brightnesses of comets are notoriously hard to predict, optimistic
estimates have Comet Lemmon then becoming visible to the unaided eye.
The comet should be best seen in predawn skies until mid-October, when
it also becomes visible in evening skies. The featured image showing
the comet's split and rapidly changing ion tail was taken in Texas, USA
late last week.

Growing Gallery: Comet Lemmon in 2025
Tomorrow's picture: mopping up
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 October 1
A starfield is shown that has a multi-filament nebula flowing across it
horizontally. The most prominent colors are red and blue. Please see
the explanation for more detailed information.

NGC 6960: The Witch's Broom Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Brian Meyers

Explanation: Ten thousand years ago, before the dawn of recorded human
history, a new light would suddenly have appeared in the night sky and
faded after a few weeks. Today we know this light was from a supernova,
or exploding star, and record the expanding debris cloud as the Veil
Nebula, a supernova remnant. This sharp telescopic view is centered on
a western segment of the Veil Nebula cataloged as NGC 6960 but less
formally known as the Witch's Broom Nebula. Blasted out in the
cataclysmic explosion, an interstellar shock wave plows through space
sweeping up and exciting interstellar material. Imaged with narrow band
filters, the glowing filaments are like long ripples in a sheet seen
almost edge on, remarkably well separated into atomic hydrogen (red)
and oxygen (blue-green) gas. The complete supernova remnant lies about
1400 light-years away towards the constellation Cygnus. This Witch's
Broom actually spans about 35 light-years. The bright star in the frame
is 52 Cygni, visible with the unaided eye from a dark location but
unrelated to the ancient supernova remnant.

Tomorrow's picture: the shadowy realm
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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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2025 November 17
A starfield is shown above a mountain peak. Just above the mountain and
extending up toward the upper right is a blue-tinted tail of a comet.
The comet's head is just to the left of the peak. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Comet Lemmon's Wandering Tail
Image Credit: Ignacio Fern+índez

Explanation: What has happened to Comet Lemmon's tail? The answer is
blowing in the wind CÇö the wind from the Sun in this case. This
continuous outflow of charged particles from the Sun has been quite
variable of late, as the Sun emits bursts of energy, CMEs, that push
out and deflect charged particles emitted by the comet itself. The
result is a blue hued ion tail for Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) that is not
only impressively intricate but takes some unusual turns. This
long-duration composite image taken from Alfacar, Spain last month
captured this inner Solar System ionic tumult. Comet Lemmon is now
fading as it heads out away from the Earth and Sun and back into the
outer Solar System.

Tomorrow's picture: radio milky way
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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.

2025 November 18

The Galactic Plane: Radio Versus Visible
Image Credit: Radio: S. Mantovanini & the GLEAM team; Visible: Axel
Mellinger (milkywaysky.com)

Explanation: What does the Milky Way look like in radio waves? To
better find out, GLEAM surveyed the central band of our galaxy in high
resolution radio light as imaged by the Murchison Widefield Array in
Australia. As the featured video slowly scrolls, radio light (71 - 231
MHz) is seen on the left and visible light -- from the same field -- on
the right. Differences are so great because most objects glow
differently in radio and visible light, and because visible light is
stopped by nearby interstellar dust. These differences are particularly
apparent in the direction toward the center of our galaxy, seen about a
third of the way through. Among the many features that appear in the
radio, bright red patches are usually supernova remnants of exploded
stars, while areas colored blue are stellar nurseries filled with
bright young stars.

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Tomorrow's picture: the big V
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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.

2025 November 19
The featured image shows a dark nebula complex involving thick dust
appearing brown and making a big

Chamaeleon Dark Nebulas
Image Credit & Copyright: Xinran Li & Houbo Zhao

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

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

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

2025 November 20

Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka
Image Credit & Copyright: Aygen Erkaslan

Explanation: Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka are the bright bluish stars
from east to west (upper right to lower left) along the diagonal in
this cosmic vista. Otherwise known as the Belt of Orion, these three
blue supergiant stars are hotter and much more massive than the Sun.
They lie from 700 to 2,000 light-years away, born of Orion's
well-studied interstellar clouds. In fact, clouds of gas and dust
adrift in this region have some surprisingly familiar shapes, including
the dark Horsehead Nebula and Flame Nebula near Alnitak at the upper
right. The famous Orion Nebula itself is off the right edge of this
colorful starfield. The telescopic frame spans almost 4 degrees on the
sky.

Tomorrow's picture: interstellar
__________________________________________________________________

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.

2025 November 21

3I/ATLAS: A View from Planet Earth
Image Credit & Copyright: Rolando Ligustri

Explanation: Now outbound after its perihelion or closest approach to
the Sun on October 29, Comet 3I/ATLAS is only the third known
interstellar object to pass through our fair Solar System. Its greenish
coma and faint tails are seen against a background of stars in the
constellation Virgo in this view from planet Earth, recorded with a
small telescope on November 14. But this interstellar interloper is the
subject of an on-going, unprecedented Solar System-wide observing
campaign involving spacecraft and space telescopes from Earth orbit to
the surface of Mars and beyond. And while the comet from another
star-system has recently grown brighter, you'll still need a telescope
if you want to see 3I/ATLAS from planet Earth. It's now above the
horizon in November morning skies and will make its closest approach to
Earth, a comfortable 270 million kilometers distant, around December
19.

Tomorrow's picture: Dione and Rhea Ring Transit
__________________________________________________________________

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.

2025 November 22

Dione and Rhea Ring Transit
Image Credit & Copyright: Christopher Go

Explanation: Seen to the left of Saturn's banded planetary disk, small
icy moons Dione and Rhea are caught passing in front of the gas giant's
extensive ring system in this sharp telescopic snapshot. The remarkable
image was recorded on November 20, when Saturn's rings were nearly
edge-on when viewed from planet Earth. In fact, every 13 to 16 years
the view from planet Earth aligns with Saturn's ring plane to produce a
series of ring plane crossings. During a ring plane crossing, the
interplanetary edge-on perspective makes the thin but otherwise bright
rings seem to disappear. By November 23rd Saturn's rings will have
reached a minimum angle for now, at their narrowest for viewing from
planet Earth, but then start to widen again. Of course, Dione and Rhea
orbit Saturn near the ring plane once every 2.7 and 4.5 days
respectively, while the next series of Saturn ring plane crossings as
seen from Earth will begin again in 2038.

Tomorrow's picture: everything, everywhere, all at once
__________________________________________________________________

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.

2025 November 23
A diagram is shown depicting various parts of the universe that are
observable. In the middle are the parts closest to Earth, and around
the far edges are parts furthest from Earth. Planets, galaxies, and the
CMB are illustrated. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

The Observable Universe
Illustration Credit & Licence: Wikipedia, Pablo Carlos Budassi

Explanation: How far can you see? Everything you can see, and
everything you could possibly see, right now, assuming your eyes could
detect all types of radiations around you -- is the observable
universe. In light, the farthest we can see comes from the cosmic
microwave background, a time 13.8 billion years ago when the universe
was opaque like thick fog. Some neutrinos and gravitational waves that
surround us come from even farther out, but humanity does not yet have
the technology to detect them. The featured image illustrates the
observable universe on an increasingly compact scale, with the Earth
and Sun at the center surrounded by our Solar System, nearby stars,
nearby galaxies, distant galaxies, filaments of early matter, and the
cosmic microwave background. Cosmologists typically assume that our
observable universe is just the nearby part of a greater entity known
as "the universe" where the same physics applies. However, there are
several lines of popular but speculative reasoning that assert that
even our universe is part of a greater multiverse where either
different physical constants occur, different physical laws apply,
higher dimensions operate, or slightly different-by-chance versions of
our standard universe exist.

Explore the Observable Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: stellar shell game
__________________________________________________________________

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.

2025 November 24
A starfield has a large and unusual red and orange nebula in the
middle. The nebula seems to contain not only swirls but also nearly
transparent shells. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Apep: Unusual Dust Shells from Webb
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, JWST; Science: Y. Han (Caltech),
R. White (Macquarie U.); Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI)

Explanation: What created this unusual space sculpture? Stars. This
unusual system of swirls and shells, known as Apep, was observed in
unprecedented detail by NASACÇÖs James Webb Space Telescope in infrared
light in 2024. Observations indicate that the unusual shape originates
from two massive Wolf-Rayet stars orbiting each other every 190 years
with each close passes causing a new shell of dust and gas to be
expelled. Holes in these shells are thought to be caused by a third
orbiting star. This stellar dust dance will likely continue for
hundreds of thousands of years, possibly ending only when one of the
massive stars runs out of internal nuclear fuel and explodes in a
supernova punctuated by a burst of gamma-rays.

Build your own star system: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day
Tomorrow's picture: picturesque comet
__________________________________________________________________

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.

2025 November 25
A night skyscape is shown over snowcapped mountains. On the left is the
band of the Milky Way Galaxy, while on the right is a bright comet with
two tails -- a white tail going up and trailing to the right and a
longer blue tail going up and trailing off to the left. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Comet Lemmon and the Milky Way
Image Credit & Copyright: Lin Zixuan (Tsinghua U.)

Explanation: What did Comet Lemmon look like when it was at its best?
One example is pictured here, featuring three celestial spectacles all
at different distances. The closest spectacle is the snowcapped Meili
Mountains, part of the Himalayas in China. The middle marvel is Comet
Lemmon near its picturesque best early this month, showing not only a
white dust tail trailing off to the right but its blue solar
wind-distorted ion tail trailing off to the left. Far in the distance
on the left is the magnificent central plane of our Milky Way Galaxy,
featuring dark dust, red nebula, and including billions of Sun-like
stars. Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) is already fading as it heads back into
the outer Solar System, while the Himalayan mountains will gradually
erode over the next billion years. The Milky Way Galaxy, though, will
live on -- forming new mountains and comets -- for many billions of
years into the future.

Tomorrow's picture: huge ball of stars
__________________________________________________________________

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.

2025 November 26
A starfield is shown with thin wisps of gray and red running through
it. In the center is an usual ball -- which is a globular cluster of
stars upon closer inspection. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Globular Cluster M15 Deep Field
Image Credit & Copyright: Alvaro Ibanez Perez

Explanation: Stars, like bees, swarm around the center of bright
globular cluster M15. The central ball of over 100,000 stars is a relic
from the early years of our Galaxy, and continues to orbit the Milky
Way's center. M15, one of about 150 globular clusters remaining, is
noted for being easily visible with only binoculars, having at its
center one of the densest concentrations of stars known, and containing
a high abundance of variable stars and pulsars. The featured image of
M15 was taken by combining very long exposures -- 122 hours in all --
and so brings up faint wisps of gas and dust in front of the giant ball
of stars. M15 lies about 35,000 light years away toward the
constellation of the Winged Horse (Pegasus).

Almost Hyperspace: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

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

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

2025 November 27

Portrait of NGC 1055
Image Credit & Copyright: John Hayes

Explanation: Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 1055 is a dominant member
of a small galaxy group a mere 60 million light-years away toward the
aquatically intimidating constellation Cetus. Seen edge-on, the island
universe spans over 100,000 light-years, a little larger than our own
Milky Way galaxy. The colorful, spiky stars decorating this cosmic
portrait of NGC 1055 are in the foreground, well within the Milky Way.
But telltale pinkish star forming regions and young blue star clusters
are scattered through winding dust lanes along the distant galaxy's
thin disk. With a smattering of even more distant background galaxies,
the deep image also reveals a boxy halo that extends far above and
below the central bulge and disk of NGC 1055. The halo itself is laced
with faint, narrow structures, and could represent the mixed and spread
out debris from a satellite galaxy disrupted by the larger spiral some
10 billion years ago.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
__________________________________________________________________

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

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

2025 November 28

NGC 6888: The Crescent Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Greg Bass

Explanation: NGC 6888, also known as the Crescent Nebula, is a about 25
light-years across, a cosmic bubble blown by winds from its central,
massive star. This deep telescopic image includes narrowband image
data, to isolate light from hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The oxygen atoms
produce the blue-green hue that seems to enshroud the nebula's detailed
folds and filaments. Visible within the nebula, NGC 6888's central star
is classified as a Wolf-Rayet star (WR 136). The star is shedding its
outer envelope in a strong stellar wind, ejecting the equivalent of the
Sun's mass every 10,000 years. In fact, the Crescent Nebula's complex
structures are likely the result of this strong wind interacting with
material ejected in an earlier phase. Burning fuel at a prodigious rate
and near the end of its stellar life, this star should ultimately go
out with a bang in a spectacular supernova explosion. Found in the
nebula rich constellation Cygnus, NGC 6888 is about 5,000 light-years
away.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

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.

2025 November 29

Moon Games
Image Credit & Copyright: Giorgia Hofer

Explanation: This is not a screen from a video game. Nestled below the
tree-line, the small mountain church does look like it might be hiding
from Moon though. In the well-composed telephoto snapshot, taken on
November 23, the church walls are partly reflecting light from
terrestrial flood lights. Of course, the Moon is reflecting light from
the Sun. At any given time the Sun illuminates fully half of the Moon's
surface, also known as the lunar dayside, but on that night only a
sliver of its sunlit surface was visible. About three days after New
Moon, the Moon was in a waxing crescent phase. The single exposure was
captured shortly after sunset in skies near Danta di Cadore, northern
Italy, planet Earth.

Tomorrow's picture: most distant landing
__________________________________________________________________

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.

2025 November 30
A strange orange landscape is shown. What appears to be light and dark
orange rocks are strewn about. The landscape appears roughly flat all
the way out to the orange sky and horizon. Please see the explanation
for more detailed information.

The Surface of Titan from Huygens
Image Credit: ESA, NASA, JPL, U. Arizona, Huygens Lander

Explanation: If you could stand on Titan -- what would you see? The
featured color view from Titan gazes across an unfamiliar and distant
landscape on Saturn's largest moon. The scene was recorded by ESA's
Huygens probe in 2005 after a 2.5-hour descent through a thick
atmosphere of nitrogen laced with methane. Bathed in an eerie orange
light at ground level, rocks strewn about the scene could well be
composed of water and hydrocarbons frozen solid at an inhospitable
temperature of negative 179 degrees C. The large light-toned rock below
and left of center is only about 15 centimeters across and lies 85
centimeters away. The saucer-shaped spacecraft is believed to have
penetrated about 15 centimeters into a place on Titan's surface that
had the consistency of wet sand or clay. Huygen's batteries enabled the
probe to take and transmit data for more than 90 minutes after landing.
Titan's bizarre chemical environment may bear similarities to planet
Earth's before life evolved.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

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

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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.

2025 December 1
A starfield is shown around a comet. The green coma of the comet is on
the lower left. A meandering blue-tinted tail goes off to the upper
right. A slight anti-tail is seen from the coma toward the lower left.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

3I ATLAS: Tails of an Interstellar Comet
Image Credit & Copyright: Victor Sabet & Julien De Winter

Explanation: How typical is our Solar System? Studying 3I/ATLAS, a
comet just passing through, is providing clues. Confirmed previous
interstellar visitors include an asteroid, a comet, a meteor, and a gas
wind dominated by hydrogen and helium. Comet 3I/ATLAS appears
relatively normal when compared to Solar System comets, therefore
providing more evidence that our Solar System is a somewhat typical
star system. For example, Comet 3I/ATLAS has a broadly similar chemical
composition and ejected dust. The featured image was captured last week
from Texas and shows a green coma, a wandering blue-tinted ion tail
likely deflected by our Sun's wind, and a slight anti-tail, all typical
cometary attributes. The comet, visible with a telescope, passed its
closest to the Sun in late October and will pass its closest to the
Earth in mid-December, after which it will return to interstellar space
and never return.

Explore the Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: active galaxy
__________________________________________________________________

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.

2025 December 2
A big beautiful sprawling spiral galaxy is shown. The galaxy has well
defined spiral arms with bright blue star clusters and dark red dust.
The center is a bright white. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

M77: Spiral Galaxy with an Active Center
Image Credit: Hubble, NASA, ESA, L. C. Ho, D. Thilker

Explanation: What's happening in the center of nearby spiral galaxy
M77? The face-on galaxy lies a mere 47 million light-years away toward
the constellation of the Sea Monster (Cetus). At that estimated
distance, this gorgeous island universe is about 100 thousand
light-years across. Also known as NGC 1068, its compact and very bright
core is well studied by astronomers exploring the mysteries of
supermassive black holes in active Seyfert galaxies. M77's active core
glows bright at x-ray, ultraviolet, visible, infrared, and radio
wavelengths. The featured sharp image of M77 was taken by the Hubble
Space Telescope. The image shows details of the spiral's winding spiral
arms as traced by obscuring red dust clouds and blue star clusters, all
circling the galaxy's bright white luminous center.

Free APOD Lecture in Phoenix: Wednesday, December 10 at 7 pm
Tomorrow's picture: black hole trip
__________________________________________________________________

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.

2025 December 3
The illustration shows a structured orange band stretching horizontally
across the imager. Connected in the middle is the Milky Way Galaxy
curving up to the top of the frame. A second image of the orange band
runs like a sine wave across the lower half of the frame, while a
second image of the Milky Way galaxy appears just above it. Please see
the explanation for more detailed information.

Visualization: Near a Black Hole and Disk
Illustration Credit: NASA's GSFC, J. Schnittman & B. Powell; Text:
Francis Reddy (U. Maryland, NASA's GSFC)

Explanation: What would it look like to plunge into a monster black
hole? This image from a supercomputer visualization shows the entire
sky as seen from a simulated camera plunging toward a
4-million-solar-mass black hole, similar to the one at the center of
our galaxy. The camera lies about 16 million kilometers from the black
holeCÇÖs event horizon and is moving inward at 62% the speed of light.
Thanks to gravityCÇÖs funhouse effects, the starry band of the Milky Way
appears both as a compact loop at the top of this view and as a
secondary image stretching across the bottom. Move the cursor over the
image for additional explanations. Visualizations like this allow
astronomers to explore black holes in ways not otherwise possible.

Tomorrow's picture: galaxy in the furnace
__________________________________________________________________

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

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2025 December 4

Galaxies in the Furnace
Image Credit & Copyright: Simone Curzi and the ShaRA Team

Explanation: An example of violence on a cosmic scale, enormous
elliptical galaxy NGC 1316 lies about 75 million light-years away
toward Fornax, the southern constellation of the Furnace. Investigating
the startling sight, astronomers suspect the giant galaxy of colliding
with smaller neighbor NGC 1317 seen just right of the large galaxy's
center, producing far flung star streams in loops and shells. Light
from their close encounter would have reached Earth some 100 million
years ago. In the sharp telescopic image, the central regions of NGC
1316 and NGC 1317 appear separated by over 100,000 light-years. Complex
dust lanes visible within also indicate that NGC 1316 is itself the
result of a merger of galaxies in the distant past. Found on the
outskirts of the Fornax galaxy cluster, NGC 1316 is known as Fornax A.
One of the visually brightest of the Fornax cluster galaxies it is one
of the strongest and largest celestial radio sources with radio
emission extending well beyond this one degree wide field-of-view.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
__________________________________________________________________

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

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

2025 December 5

The Bipolar Jets of KX Andromedae
Image Credit & Copyright: Tim Schaeffer and the Deep Sky Collective

Explanation: Blasting outward from variable star KX Andromedae, these
stunning bipolar jets are 19 light-years long. Recently discovered,
they are revealed in unprecedented detail in this deep telescopic image
centered on KX And and composed from over 692 hours of combined image
data. In fact, KX And is spectroscopically found to be an interacting
binary star system consisting of a bright, hot B-type star with a
swollen cool giant star as its co-orbiting, close companion. The
stellar material from the cool giant star is likely being transferred
to the hot B-type star through an accretion disk, with spectacular
symmetric jets driven outward perpendicular to the disk itself. The
known distance to KX And of 2,500 light-years, angular size of the
jets, and estimated inclination of the accretion disk lead to the size
estimate for each jet of an astonishing 19 light-years.

Free APOD Lecture in Phoenix: Wednesday, December 10 at 7 pm
Tomorrow's picture: remember where you parked
__________________________________________________________________

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

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-7
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2025 December 6

Apollo 17 at Shorty Crater
Apollo 17 Crew, NASA

Explanation: Fifty three years ago, in December of 1972, Apollo 17
astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent about 75 hours on
the Moon exploring the Taurus-Littrow valley, while colleague Ronald
Evans orbited overhead. This snapshot from another world was taken by
Cernan as he and Schmitt roamed the lunar valley's floor. The image
shows Schmitt next to the lunar rover parked at the southeast rim of
Shorty Crater. That location is near the spot where geologist Schmitt
discovered orange lunar soil. The Apollo 17 crew returned with 110
kilograms of rock and soil samples, more than was returned from any of
the other lunar landing sites. And for now, Cernan and Schmitt are the
last to walk on the Moon.

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

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written by a professional astronomer.

2025 December 9
A starfield is shown with a brown and gold tinted dust structures in
front of a glowing blue gas background. Please see the explanation for
more detailed information.

The Heart of the Soul Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Nicola Bugin

Explanation: This cosmic close-up looks deep inside the Soul Nebula.
The dark and brooding dust clouds outlined by bright ridges of glowing
gas are cataloged as IC 1871. About 25 light-years across, the
telescopic field of view spans only a small part of the much larger
Heart and Soul nebulae. At an estimated distance of 6,500 light-years,
the star-forming complex lies within the Perseus spiral arm of the
Milky Way, seen in planet Earth's skies toward the constellation of the
Queen of Aethiopia (Cassiopeia). An example of triggered star
formation, the dense star-forming clouds of IC 1871 are themselves
sculpted by the intense winds and radiation of the region's massive
young stars. This color image adopts a palette made popular in Hubble
images of star-forming regions.

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

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2025 December 10

The Horsehead Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: George Chatzifrantzis

Explanation: Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, this dusty
interstellar molecular cloud has by chance has assumed an immediately
recognizable shape. Fittingly known as The Horsehead Nebula, it lies
some 1,500 light-years distant, embedded in the vast Orion cloud
complex. About five light-years "tall," the dark cloud is cataloged as
Barnard 33, first identified on a photographic plate taken in the late
19th century. B33 is visible primarily because its obscuring dust is
silhouetted against the glow of emission nebula IC 434. Hubble space
telescope images from the early 21st century find young stars forming
within B33. Of course, the magnificent interstellar cloud will slowly
shift its apparent shape over the next few million years. But for now
the Horsehead Nebula is a rewarding though difficult object to view
with small telescopes from planet Earth.

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

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2025 December 11

Galaxies in the River
Image Credit & Copyright: Vikas Chander

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

Tomorrow's picture: fox fires
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 December 12

Northern Fox Fires
Image Credit & Copyright: Dennis Lehtonen

Explanation: In a Finnish myth, when an arctic fox runs so fast that
its bushy tail brushes the mountains, flaming sparks are cast into the
heavens creating the northern lights. In fact the Finnish word
"revontulet", a name for the aurora borealis or northern lights, can be
translated as fire fox. So that evocative myth took on a special
significance for the photographer of this northern night skyscape from
Finnish Lapland near Kilpisjarvi Lake. The snowy scene is illuminated
by moonlight. Saana, an iconic fell or mountain of Lapland, rises at
the right in the background. But as the beautiful nothern lights danced
overhead, the wild fire fox in the foreground enthusiastically ran
around the photographer and his equipment, making it difficult to
capture in this lucky single shot.

Tomorrow's picture: ocean of storms
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 December 13

Orion and the Ocean of Storms
Image Credit: NASA, Artemis 1

Explanation: On December 5, 2022, a camera on board the uncrewed Orion
spacecraft captured this view as Orion approached its return powered
flyby of the Moon. Beyond one of Orion's extended solar arrays lies
dark, smooth, terrain along the western edge of the Oceanus
Procellarum. Prominent on the lunar nearside Oceanus Procellarum, the
Ocean of Storms, is the largest of the Moon's lava-flooded maria. The
lunar terminator, the shadow line between lunar night and day, runs
along the left of this frame. The 41 kilometer diameter crater Marius
is top center, with ray crater Kepler peeking in at the edge, just
right of the solar array wing. Kepler's bright rays extend to the north
and west, reaching the dark-floored Marius. By December 11, 2022 the
Orion spacecraft had returned to its home world. The historic Artemis 1
mission ended with Orion's successful splashdown in planet Earth's
water-flooded Pacific Ocean.

Watch: The Geminid Meteor Shower
Tomorrow's picture: flyby Ganymede and Jupiter
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 December 14

Juno Flyby of Ganymede and Jupiter
Video Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SWRI, MSSS;
Animation: Koji Kuramura, Gerald Eichst+ñdt, Mike Stetson; Music:
Vangelis

Explanation: What would it be like to fly over the largest moon in the
Solar System? In 2021, the robotic Juno spacecraft flew past Jupiter's
huge moon Ganymede and took images that have been digitally constructed
into a detailed flyby. As the featured video begins, Juno swoops over
the two-toned surface of the 2,000-km wide moon, revealing an icy alien
landscape filled with grooves and craters. The grooves are likely
caused by shifting surface plates, while the craters are caused by
violent impacts. Continuing on in its orbit, Juno then performed its
34th close pass over Jupiter's clouds. The digitally-constructed video
shows numerous swirling clouds in the north, colorful planet-circling
zones and bands across the middle -- featuring several white-oval
clouds from the String of Pearls, and finally more swirling clouds in
the south.

Tomorrow's picture: andromeda sprite
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 December 15
A picturesque winter landscape is seen before a dark but busy sky. A
stream and a house are visible in the foreground, while snow-capped
mountains are seen on the far horizon. In the sky are many stars and
many streaks caused by meteors. Also some red gaseous nebulas are
visible in the sky. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Gemini Meteors over Snow Capped Mountains
Image Credit & Copyright: Tom+í+í Slovinsk+'

Explanation: Where are all of these meteors coming from? In terms of
direction on the sky, the pointed answer is the constellation of
Gemini. That is why the major meteor shower in December is known as the
Geminids -- because shower meteors all appear to come from a radiant
toward Gemini. Three dimensionally, however, sand-sized debris expelled
from the unusual asteroid 3200 Phaethon follows a well-defined orbit
about our Sun, and the part of the orbit that approaches Earth is
superposed in front of the constellation of Gemini. Therefore, when
Earth crosses this orbit, the radiant point of falling debris appears
in Gemini. Featured here is a composite of many images taken over the
past few days through dark skies from Slovakia and capturing the
snow-covered peaks of the Belianske Tatra mountains Numerous bright
meteor streaks from the Geminids meteor shower are visible. Orion is
visible above the horizon, while the bright star nearest the radiant is
Castor.

APOD Review: RJN's Night Sky Network Lecture
Tomorrow's picture: tree sprites
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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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2025 December 16
A dark landscape is back lit by a thunderstorm in the distance. A lone
tree is visible near the center. Above the tree are two sky icons: the
Andromeda Galaxy on the left and bright red sprites on the right.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Andromeda and Sprites over Australia
Image Credit & Copyright: JJ Rao

Explanation: WhatCÇÖs happening over that tree? Two very different
things. On the left is the Andromeda galaxy, an object that is older
than humanity and will last billions of years into the future.
Andromeda (M31) is similar in size and shape to our own Milky Way
Galaxy. On the right is a red sprite, a type of lightning that lasts a
fraction of a second and occurs above violent thunderstorms. Red
sprites were verified as real atmospheric phenomena only about 35 years
ago. The tree in the center is a boab, which may live for as long as a
thousand years. Boab trees grow naturally in Australia and Africa and
are known for being able to store large amounts of water: up to 100,000
liters. The featured image was captured last month near Derby in
Western Australia.

Tomorrow's picture: Soul Queen
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 December 17
A starfield surrounds the edges of a large nebula. The nebula, itself
full of stars, has a blue glowing interior and an orange periphery
dotted with dust pillars. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

W5: The Soul Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Jeffrey Horne

Explanation: Stars are forming in the Soul of the Queen of Aethopia.
More specifically, a large star forming region called the Soul Nebula
can be found in the direction of the constellation Cassiopeia, whom
Greek mythology credits as the vain wife of a King who long ago ruled
lands surrounding the upper Nile river. Also known as Westerhout 5
(W5), the Soul Nebula houses several open clusters of stars, ridges and
pillars darkened by cosmic dust, and huge evacuated bubbles formed by
the winds of young massive stars. Located about 6,500 light years away,
the Soul Nebula spans about 100 light years and is usually imaged next
to its celestial neighbor the Heart Nebula (IC 1805). The featured
image, taken from near Nashville, Tennessee, USA, is a composite of 234
hours of exposures made in different colors: red as emitted by hydrogen
gas, yellow as emitted by sulfur, and blue as emitted by oxygen.

Explore the Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: Jupiter and the Geminids
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 December 18

Jupiter and the Meteors from Gemini
Image Credit & Copyright: David Cruz

Explanation: Jupiter, the Solar System's ruling gas giant, is the
brightest celestial beacon at the center of this composite night
skyscape. The scene was constructed by selecting the 40 exposures
containing meteors from about 500 exposures made on the nights of
December 13 and 14, near peak activity for this year's annual Geminid
meteor shower. With each selected exposure registered in the night sky
above Alentejo, Portugal, planet Earth, it does look like the meteors
are streaming away from Jupiter. But the apparent radiant of the
Geminid meteors is actually closer to bright star Castor, in the
shower's eponymous constellation Gemini. In this frame that's just a
little above and left of the Solar System's most massive planet. Still,
the parent body of Geminid meteors is known to be rocky, near-Earth
asteroid 3200 Phaethon. And the orbit of Phaethon itself is influenced
by the gravitational attraction exerted by massive Jupiter, in concert
with planets of the inner Solar System.

Tomorrow's picture: cathedrals on the moon
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 December 19

Long Shadows of the Montes Caucasus
Image Credit & Copyright: Guy Bardon

Explanation: When the Moon is at its first quarter phase, the Sun rises
along the Montes Caucasus as seen from the lunar surface. The lunar
mountain range casts the magnificent, spire-like shadows in this
telescopic view from planet Earth, looking along the lunar terminator
or the boundary between lunar night and day. Named for Earth's own
Caucasus Mountains, the rugged lunar Montes Caucasus peaks, up to 6
kilometers high, are located between the smooth Mare Imbrium to the
west and Mare Serenitatis to the east. Still mostly in shadow in this
first quarter lunarscape, at the left (west) impact craters reflect the
light of the rising Sun along their outer, eastern crater walls.

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

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2025 December 20

A Solstice Sun Tattoo
Image Credit & Copyright: Marcella Pace

Explanation: The word solstice is from the Latin for Sun and to pause
or stand still. And in the days surrounding a solstice the Sun's annual
north-south drift in planet Earth's sky does slow down, pause, and then
reverse direction. So near the solstice the daily path of the Sun
through the sky really doesn't change much. In fact, near the December
solstice, the Sun's consistent, low arc through northern hemisphere
skies, along with low surface temperatures, has left a noticeable
imprint on this path to the mountain town of Peaio in northern Italy.
The morning frost on the road has melted away only where the sunlight
was able to reach the ground. But it remains in the areas persistently
shadowed by the fence, tattooing in frost an image of the fence on the
asphalt surface.

Tomorrow's picture: solstice on a tilted planet
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 December 21

Solstice on a Spinning Earth
Image Credit: Meteosat 9, NASA, Earth Observatory, Robert Simmon

Explanation: Can you tell that today is a solstice by the tilt of the
Earth? Yes. At a solstice, the Earth's terminator -- the dividing line
between night and day -- is tilted the most. The featured time-lapse
video demonstrates this by displaying an entire year on planet Earth in
twelve seconds. From geosynchronous orbit, the Meteosat 9 satellite
recorded infrared images of the Earth every day at the same local time.
The video started at the September 2010 equinox with the terminator
line being vertical: an equinox. As the Earth revolved around the Sun,
the terminator was seen to tilt in a way that provides less daily
sunlight to the northern hemisphere, causing winter in the north. At
the most tilt, winter solstice occurred in the north, and summer
solstice in the south. As the year progressed, the March 2011 equinox
arrived halfway through the video, followed by the terminator tilting
the other way, causing winter in the southern hemisphere -- and summer
in the north. The captured year ends again with the September equinox,
concluding another of the billions of trips the Earth has taken -- and
will take -- around the Sun.

APOD Review: RJN's Night Sky Network Lecture
Tomorrow's picture: strange lightning
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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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2025 December 22
The sun is setting across a field in a clear sky. In the field are the
famous stones of Stonehenge. The Sun peaks out from the center of the
stone array. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Sunset Solstice over Stonehenge
Image Credit & Copyright: English Heritage, Josh Dury

Explanation: Yesterday the Sun reached its southernmost point in planet
Earth's sky. Called a solstice, many cultures mark yesterday's date as
a change of seasons -- from autumn to winter in Earth's Northern
Hemisphere and from spring to summer in Earth's Southern Hemisphere.
The featured image was taken just before the longest night of the 2025
northern year at Stonehenge in United Kingdom. There, through stones
precisely placed 4,500 years ago, a 4.5 billion year old large glowing
orb is seen setting. Even given the precession of the Earth's
rotational axis over the millennia, the Sun continues to set over
Stonehenge in an astronomically significant way.

Tomorrow's picture: strange lightning
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 December 23
Trees on a hilltop are seen in a starry sky but with clouds on the far
horizon. A strange red circular band of light is seen in the sky. Near
this band's center, some bright jellyfish like structures are visible.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Red Sprites and Circular Elves Lightning over Italy
Image Credit & Copyright: Valter Binotto

Explanation: What's happening in the sky? Lightning. The most commonly
seen type of lightning involves flashes of bright white light between
clouds. Over the past 50 years, though, other types of
upper-atmospheric lightning have been confirmed, including tentacled
red sprites and ringed ELVES. Although both last only a small fraction
of a second, sprites are brighter and easier to photograph than their
more common electrical-discharge cousins. ELVES are rapidly expanding
rings that are thought to be created when an electromagnetic pulse
shoots upward from charged clouds and impacts the ionosphere, causing
nitrogen molecules to glow. Capturing either form of lightning takes
patience and experience -- capturing them both together, since they
usually occur separately, is rare. The featured image is a frame from a
video recorded from Possagno, Italy late last month above a distant
thunderstorm over the Adriatic Sea.

Tomorrow's picture: mystery dots
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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.

2025 December 24
A panel of six images shows a red dot in the center of each image. The
instrument that took the image is listed on each image, along with a z
number that is the cosmological redshift. Please see the explanation
for more detailed information.

Mystery: Little Red Dots in the Early Universe
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, JWST; Dale Kocevski (Colby
College)

Explanation: What are these little red dots (LRDs)? Nobody knows.
Discovered only last year, hundreds of LRDs have now been found by the
James Webb Space Telescope in the early universe. Although extremely
faint, LRDs are now frequently identified in deep observations made for
other purposes. A wide-ranging debate is raging about what LRDs may be
and what importance they may have. Possible origin hypotheses include
accreting supermassive black holes inside clouds of gas and dust,
bursts of star formation in young dust-reddened galaxies, and dark
matter powered gas clouds. The highlighted images show six nearly
featureless LRDs listed under the JWST program that found them, and z,
a distance indicator called cosmological redshift. Additionally,
searches are underway in our nearby universe to try to find whatever
previous LRDs might have become today.

Tomorrow's picture: Fox Fur, Unicorn, and Christmas Tree
__________________________________________________________________

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.

2025 December 25

Unicorn, Fox Fur and Christmas Tree
Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Kalika

Explanation: A star forming region cataloged as NGC 2264, this
beautiful but complex arrangement of interstellar gas and dust is about
2,700 light-years distant in the faint but fanciful constellation
Monoceros, the Unicorn. Seen toward the celestial equator and near the
plane of our Milky Way galaxy, the seasonal skyscape mixes reddish
emission nebulae excited by energetic light from newborn stars with
dark interstellar dust clouds. Where the otherwise obscuring dust
clouds lie close to the hot, young stars, they also reflect starlight,
forming blue reflection nebulae. In fact, bright variable star S
Monocerotis is immersed in a blue-tinted haze near center. Arrayed with
a simple triangular outline above S Monocerotis, the stars of NGC 2264
are popularly known as the Christmas Tree star cluster. Carved by
energetic starlight, the Cone Nebula sits upside down at the apex of
this cosmic Christmas tree while the dusty, convoluted pelt of glowing
gas and dust under the tree is called the Fox Fur Nebula. This rich
telescopic frame spans about 1.5 degrees or 3 full moons on the sky top
to bottom, covering nearly 80 light-years at the distance of NGC 2264.

Tomorrow's picture: extrasolar flyby
__________________________________________________________________

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
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2025 December 26

3I/ATLAS Flyby
Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett

Explanation: Attention grabbing interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS made its
not-so-close flyby of our fair planet on December 19 at a distance of
1.8 astronomical units. That's about 900 light-seconds. Still, this
deep exposure captures the comet from another star system as it gently
swept across a faint background of stars in the constellation Leo about
4 days earlier, on the night of December 15. Though faint, colors
emphasized in the image data, show off the comet's yellowish dust tail
and bluish ion tail along with a greenish tinged coma. And even while
scrutinized by arrays of telescopes and spacecraft from planet Earth,
3I ATLAS is headed out of the Solar System. It's presently moving
outward along a hyperbolic trajectory at about 64 kilometers per second
relative to the Sun, too fast to be bound the Sun's gravity.

Tomorrow's picture: Apollo's Moonship
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 December 27

Apollo 17's Moonship
Image Credit: Apollo 17, NASA, (Image Reprocessing: Andy Saunders)

Explanation: Awkward and angular looking, Apollo 17's lunar module
Challenger was designed for flight in the near vacuum of space.
Digitally enhanced and reprocessed, this picture taken from Apollo 17's
command module America shows Challenger's ascent stage in lunar orbit.
Small reaction control thrusters are at the sides of the moonship with
the bell of the ascent rocket engine underneath. The hatch that allowed
access to the lunar surface is seen at the front, with a round radar
antenna at the top. Mission commander Gene Cernan is clearly visible
through the triangular window. This spaceship performed gracefully,
landing on the Moon and returning the Apollo astronauts to the orbiting
command module in December of 1972. So where is Challenger now? While
its descent stage remains at the Apollo 17 landing site in the
Taurus-Littrow valley, the ascent stage pictured was intentionally
crashed nearby after being jettisoned from the command module prior to
the astronauts' return to planet Earth.

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

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2025 December 28
The ball of colorful stars is shown where the center is so dense with
stars it is hard to identify individual stars. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

NGC 1898: Globular Cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Explanation: Jewels don't shine this bright -- only stars do. And
almost every spot in this jewel-box of an image from the Hubble Space
Telescope is a star. Now, some stars are more red than our Sun, and
some more blue -- but all of them are much farther away. Although it
takes light about 8 minutes to reach Earth from the Sun, NGC 1898 is so
far away that it takes light about 160,000 years to get here. This huge
ball of stars, NGC 1898, is called a globular cluster and resides in
the central bar of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) -- a satellite
galaxy of our Milky Way Galaxy. The featured multi-colored image
includes light from the infrared to the ultraviolet and was taken to
help determine if the stars of NGC 1898 all formed at the same time or
at different times. There are increasing indications that most globular
clusters formed stars in stages, and that, in particular, stars from
NGC 1898 formed shortly after ancient encounters with the Small
Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and our Milky Way Galaxy.

Space Telescopes Live: Where are Hubble and Webb looking right now?
Tomorrow's picture: boom star
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 December 29
A dark starfield surrounds a colorful nebula filled with tangled
filaments. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

M1: The Crab Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Alan Chen

Explanation: This is the mess that is left when a star explodes. The
Crab Nebula, the result of a supernova seen in 1054 AD, is filled with
mysterious filaments. The filaments are not only tremendously complex
but appear to have less mass than expelled in the original supernova
and a higher speed than expected from a free explosion. The featured
image was taken by an amateur astronomer in Leesburg, Florida, USA over
three nights last month. It was captured in three primary colors but
with extra detail provided by specific emission by hydrogen gas. The
Crab Nebula spans about 10 light years. In the Nebula's very center
lies a pulsar: a neutron star as massive as the Sun but with only the
size of a small town. The Crab Pulsar rotates about 30 times each
second.

Explore the Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: artificial comet
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 December 30
A star filled sky shows bands of green and purple sky glow. In the
foreground is a grassy field with clouds on the horizon. Most
remarkably, a series of short streaks appear like a comet's tail up
from the horizon toward the upper left. Please see the explanation for
more detailed information.

An Artificial Comet
Image Credit & Copyright: Wang Chao

Explanation: Yes, but can your comet tail do this? No, and what you are
seeing is not the tail of a comet. The picture features a cleverly
overlayed time-lapse sequence of a group of satellites orbiting Earth
together in June. Specifically, these are Starlink communications
satellites in low Earth orbit reflecting back sunlight before sunrise
to Inner Mongolia, China. Although the satellites appear to the human
eye as points, the 20-second-long camera exposures caused them to
appear as short streaks. Currently there are over 9000 Starlinks in
orbit, with more being launched nearly every week. Other satellite
constellations are also being planned.

Explore the Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: celestial waterfall
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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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2025 December 31
A starfield filled with a diffuse red glow has an unusual nebula on the
lower left. The nebula has bright red filaments that curve down and
appear to be reminiscent of a waterfall on Earth. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

HH-222: The Waterfall Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby

Explanation: What created the Waterfall Nebula? The origin is still
being researched. The structure, officially designated Herbig-Haro 222,
appears in the region of NGC 1999 in the Great Orion Molecular Cloud
complex. The elongated gaseous stream stretches about ten light years
but appears similar to a long waterfall on Earth. Recent observations
indicate that HH-222 is likely a gigantic gaseous bow shock, similar to
a wave of water caused by a fast-moving ship. The origin of this shock
wave is thought to be a jet outflow from the multiple star system V380
Orionis off the lower left of the frame. Therefore, gas does not flow
along the waterfall, but rather the entire structure moves toward the
upper right. The Waterfall Nebula lies about 1,500 light years away
toward the constellation of Orion. The featured image was captured
earlier this month from El Sauce Observatory in Chile.

Jigsaw Nebula: 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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2026 January 1

Auroral Corona
Image Credit & Copyright: Roi Levi

Explanation: Cycle 25 solar maximum made 2025 a great year for aurora
borealis (or aurora australis) on planet Earth. And the high level of
solar activity should extend into 2026. So, while you're celebrating
the arrival of the new year, check out this spectacular auroral display
that erupted in starry night skies over Kirkjufell, Iceland. The
awesome auroral corona, energetic curtains of light streaming from
directly overhead, was witnessed during a strong geomagnetic storm
triggered by intense solar activity near the March 2025 equinox. This
northland and skyscape captures the evocative display in a 21 frame
panoramic mosaic.

Tomorrow's picture: solar sailing
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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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2026 January 2

NanoSail-D2
Image Credit & Copyright: Ralf Vandebergh

Explanation: In 2011, on January 20, NASA's NanoSail-D2 unfurled a very
thin and very reflective 10 square meter sail becoming the first solar
sail spacecraft in low Earth orbit. Often considered the stuff of
science fiction, sailing through space was suggested 400 years ago by
astronomer Johannes Kepler, who had observed comet tails blown by the
solar wind. But modern solar sail spacecraft designs, like NanoSail-D2,
Japan's interplanetary spacecraft IKAROS, or the Planetary Society's
Lightsail A, rely on the small but continuous pressure from sunlight
itself for thrust. Glinting in the sunlight as it circled planet Earth,
NanoSail-D2's solar sail was periodically bright and visible to the
eye. These remarkably detailed images were captured by manually
tracking the orbiting solar sail spacecraft with a small telescope.

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

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2026 January 3

Full Moonlight
Image Credit & Copyright: Zhengjie Wu and Jeff Dai (TWAN)

Explanation: The Full Moon is the brightest lunar phase, and tonight
you can stand in the light of the first Full Moon of 2026. In fact, the
Moon's full phase occurs on January 3 at 10:03 UTC, while only about 7
hours later planet Earth reaches its 2026 perihelion, the closest point
in its elliptical orbit around the Sun, at 17:16 UTC. January's Full
Moon was also not far from its own perigee, or closest approach to
planet Earth. For this lunation the Moon's perigee was on January 1 at
21:44 UTC. You can also spot planet Jupiter, near its brightest for
2026 and close on the sky to the Full Moon tonight. But while you're
out skygazing don't forget to look for rare, bright fireballs from the
Quadrantid meteor shower.

Tomorrow's picture: quasar x 4
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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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2026 January 5
A dark field surrounds a red nebula. The shape of the nebula appears
like the letter

The Red Rectangle Nebula from Hubble
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & License: Judy Schmidt

Explanation: How was the unusual Red Rectangle nebula created? At the
nebula's center is an aging binary star system that surely powers the
nebula but does not, as yet, explain its colors. The unusual shape of
the Red Rectangle is likely due to a thick dust torus which pinches the
otherwise spherical outflow into tip-touching cone shapes. Because we
view the torus edge-on, the boundary edges of the cone shapes seem to
form an X. The distinct rungs suggest the outflow occurs in fits and
starts. The unusual colors of the nebula are less well understood,
however, and speculation holds that they are partly provided by
hydrocarbon molecules that may actually be building blocks for organic
life. The Red Rectangle nebula lies about 2,300 light years away
towards the constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros). The nebula is
shown here in great detail as a reprocessed image from Hubble Space
Telescope. In a few million years, as one of the central stars becomes
further depleted of nuclear fuel, the Red Rectangle nebula will likely
bloom into a planetary nebula.

Tomorrow's picture: jupiter-sized mess
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2026 January 6
The planet Jupiter is shown from an unusual angle. Most prominent are a
miasma of jumbled and swirling clouds including many oval storms.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Jupiter's Clouds in High Definition from Juno
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Processing & License: Thomas
Thomopoulos

Explanation: How complex is Jupiter? NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter is
finding the Jovian giant to be more complicated than expected.
Jupiter's magnetic field has been discovered to be much different from
our Earth's simple dipole field, showing several poles embedded in a
complicated network more convoluted in the north than the south.
Further, Juno's radio measurements show that Jupiter's atmosphere shows
structure well below the upper cloud deck -- even hundreds of
kilometers deep. Jupiter's newfound complexity is evident also in
southern clouds, as shown in the texture and color enhanced featured
image taken last month. There, planet-circling zones and belts that
dominate near the equator decay into a complex miasma of
continent-sized storm swirls. Juno continues in its looping elliptical
orbit, swooping near the huge planet every month and exploring a
slightly different sector each time around.

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

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2026 January 7
A starfield surrounds a giant red nebula. The nebula has so many
winding filaments that it has been dubbed the Spaghetti Nebula. Please
see the explanation for more detailed information.

Simeis 147: The Spaghetti Nebula Supernova Remnant
Image Credit & Copyright: Saverio Ferretti

Explanation: Its popular nickname is the Spaghetti Nebula. Officially
cataloged as Simeis 147 and Sharpless 2-240, it is easy to get lost
following the looping and twisting filaments of this intricate
supernova remnant. Seen toward the boundary of the constellations of
the Bull (Taurus) and the Charioteer (Auriga), the impressive gas
structure covers nearly 3 degrees on the sky, equivalent to 6 full
moons. That's about 150 light-years at the stellar debris cloud's
estimated distance of 3,000 light-years. The supernova remnant has an
estimated age of about 40,000 years, meaning light from this powerful
stellar explosion first reached the Earth when woolly mammoths roamed
free. Besides the expanding remnant, this cosmic catastrophe left
behind a pulsar, a fast-spinning neutron star that is the remnant of
the original star's core. The featured image was captured last month
from Forca Canapine, Italy.

Portal Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: hidden galaxy in the giraffe
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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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2026 January 8

IC 342: Hidden Galaxy in Camelopardalis
Image Credit & Copyright: Gaetan Maxant

Explanation: Similar in size to large, bright spiral galaxies in our
neighborhood, IC 342 is a mere 10 million light-years distant toward
the long-necked, northern constellation Camelopardalis. A sprawling
island universe, IC 342 would otherwise be a prominent galaxy in our
night sky, but it is hidden from clear view and only glimpsed through
the veil of stars, gas and dust clouds along the plane of our own Milky
Way galaxy. Even though IC 342's light is dimmed and reddened by
intervening cosmic clouds, this sharp telescopic image traces the
galaxy's own obscuring dust, young star clusters, and glowing star
forming regions along spiral arms that wind far from the galaxy's core.
IC 342 has undergone a recent burst of star formation activity and is
close enough to have influenced the evolution of the local group of
galaxies and the Milky Way.

Tomorrow's picture: Sun dog vs. Earth dog
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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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2026 January 9

Ice Halos by Moonlight and Sunlight
Image Credit & Copyright: Antonella Cicala

Explanation: Both Moon and Sun create beautiful ice halos in planet
Earth's sky. In fact, the two brightest celestial beacons are each
surrounded by a complex of ice halos in these photos of the sky above
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc in France. The panels were recorded one night
(left) and the following day at the end of December 2025. Similar ice
halos appear in moonlight and sunlight because they are all formed
through the geometry of flat, hexagonal ice crystals. The ice crystals
reflect and refract light as they flutter in the cold atmosphere above
the mountain resort. In the pictures both Moon and Sun are surrounded
by a more commonly seen 22 degree circular halo. Bright and sometimes
colorful patches at the intersections of the 22 degree circular halos
with the indicated parselenic and parhelic arcs are also known as Moon
dogs and Sun dogs.

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

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2026 January 10

Jupiter with the Great Red Spot
Image Credit & Copyright: Christopher Go

Explanation: Jupiter reaches its 2026 opposition today, January 10.
That puts our Solar System's most massive planet opposite the Sun and
near its closest and brightest for viewing from planet Earth. In fact,
captured only 3 days ago this sharp telescopic snapshot reveals
excellent details of the ruling gas giant's swirling cloudtops, in
light zones and dark belts girdling the rapidly rotating outer planet.
Jupiter's famous, persistent anticyclonic vortex, known as the Great
Red Spot, is south of the equator at the lower right. But two smaller
red spots are also visible, one near the top in the northernmost zone,
and one close to Jupiter's south pole. And while Jupiter's Great Red
Spot is known to be shrinking, it's still about the size of the Earth
itself.

Tomorrow's picture: the broad brimmed galaxy
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2026 January 11
A red-tinged ring of dust is seen nearly on edge. In the ring's center
and extending around the frame, blue gas and stars are shown. Please
see the explanation for more detailed information.

M104: The Sombrero Galaxy in Infrared
Image Credit: NASA, JPL, Caltech, SSC, R. Kennicutt (Steward Obs.) et
al.,

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

Jigsaw Galaxy: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day
Tomorrow's picture: meteor drift
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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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2026 January 12
A view of mountains over clouds shows a starfield with a purple glow.
Prominent on the right is the trail of a bright meteor. To the left of
the meteor and connecting to the meteor is something unusual: a light
brown triangular puff. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Meteor Dust
Image Credit & Copyright: Xu Chen

Explanation: What's happening to this meteor? It is shedding its outer
layers as it passes through the Earth's atmosphere and heats up. The
sudden high temperatures not only cause the bright glow along the
dramatic streak but also melt and vaporize the meteor's component rock
and ice, creating dust. Wind in the atmosphere typically blows this
dust away over the next few seconds, leaving no visible trace after
only a few minutes. Much of this dust will eventually settle down to
the Earth. The featured image was captured in mid-December, coincident
with the Geminids meteor shower. On the upper left is Sirius, the
brightest star in the night sky, while in the foreground is
fog-engulfed Huangshan, the Yellow Mountains of eastern China.

Tomorrow's picture: launched from the Sun
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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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2026 January 13

A Solar Eruption from SDO
Video Credit: NASA, SDO, AIA, Helioviewer; Processing & Text: Ogetay
Kayali (MTU)

Explanation: What just leapt from the Sun? A towering structure of
solar plasma suddenly rose from the Sun's surface and unfurled into
space -- a structure so large that many Earths would easily fit within
it-- marking the onset of a dramatic Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). The
event was captured in striking detail in late 2024 by NASA's Solar
Dynamics Observatory (SDO), whose continuous monitoring improves space
weather forecasts and helps humanity better understand how solar
activity affects satellites, GPS, radio communications, and power grids
on Earth. The featured video blends three extreme-ultraviolet views
from SDOCÇÖs Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), revealing how plasma at
different temperatures surged upward as the eruption unfolded. Here,
red highlights cooler, denser material lifted from the SunCÇÖs lower
atmosphere, while yellow traces hotter, million-degree coronal loops
stretching outward as magnetic fields open. After the main outburst,
the SunCÇÖs magnetic fields quickly reorganize.

Tomorrow's picture: pool of whirl
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2026 January 14
A big spiral galaxy fills the frame, complete with blue spiral arms
dotted with red dust and nebulas. Above the spiral galaxy is another
more diffuse galaxy that has faint wisps extending in many directions.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy
Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Sleeman

Explanation: The Whirlpool Galaxy is a classic spiral galaxy. At only
30 million light years distant and fully 60 thousand light years
across, M51, also known as NGC 5194, is one of the brightest and most
picturesque galaxies on the sky. The featured deep image is a digital
combination of images taken in different colors over 58 hours with a
telescope from Lijiang, China. Anyone with a good pair of binoculars,
however, can see this Whirlpool toward the constellation of the Hunting
Dogs (Canes Venatici). M51 is a spiral galaxy of type Sc and is the
dominant member of a whole group of galaxies. Astronomers speculate
that M51's spiral structure is primarily due to its gravitational
interaction with the smaller galaxy just above it.

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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2026 January 15

Plato and the Lunar Alps
Image Credit & Copyright: Luigi Morrone

Explanation: The dark-floored, 95 kilometer wide crater Plato and
sunlit peaks of the lunar Alps (Montes Alpes) are highlighted in this
this sharp telescopic snapshot of the Moon's surface. While the Alps of
planet Earth were uplifted over millions of years as continental plates
slowly collided, the lunar Alps were likely formed by a sudden
collision that created the giant impact basin known as the Mare Imbrium
or Sea of Rains. The mare's generally smooth, lava-flooded floor is
seen below the bordering mountain range. The prominent straight feature
cutting through the mountains is the lunar Alpine Valley (Vallis
Alpes). Joining the Mare Imbrium and northern Mare Frigoris (Sea of
Cold) the valley extends toward the upper right, about 160 kilometers
long and up to 10 kilometers wide. Of course, the large, bright lunar
alpine mountain below and right of Plato crater is named Mont Blanc.
Lacking an atmosphere, not to mention snow, the lunar Alps are probably
not an ideal location for a winter vacation. Still, a 150 pound skier
would weigh a mere 25 pounds on the Moon.

Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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2026 January 16

NGC 7023: The Iris Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Justus Falk

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: light-weekend
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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2026 January 17

Apollo 14: A View from Antares
Image Credit: Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14, NASA; Mosaic - Eric M. Jones

Explanation: Apollo 14's Lunar Module Antares landed on the Moon on
February 5, 1971. Toward the end of the stay astronaut Ed Mitchell
snapped a series of photos of the lunar surface while looking out a
window, assembled into this detailed mosaic by Apollo Lunar Surface
Journal editor Eric Jones. The view looks across the Fra Mauro
highlands to the northwest of the landing site after the Apollo 14
astronauts had completed their second and final walk on the Moon.
Prominent in the foreground is their Modular Equipment Transporter, a
two-wheeled, rickshaw-like device used to carry tools and samples. Near
the horizon at top center is a 1.5 meter wide boulder dubbed Turtle
rock. In the shallow crater below Turtle rock is the long white handle
of a sampling instrument, thrown there javelin-style by Mitchell.
Mitchell's fellow moonwalker and first American in space, Alan Shepard,
also used a makeshift six iron to hit two golf balls. One of Shepard's
golf balls is just visible as a white spot below Mitchell's javelin.

Tomorrow's picture: infrared Jupiter
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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2026 January 18
The featured image shows Jupiter in infrared light as captured by the
James Webb Space Telescope. Visible in unusually dark colors are
Jupiter's clouds including the Great Red Spot, a ring, several moons,
and bright aurora. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Jupiter from the Webb Space Telescope
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; Processing: Ricardo
Hueso (UPV/EHU) & Judy Schmidt

Explanation: This infrared view of Jupiter by Webb is illuminating.
High-resolution infrared images of Jupiter from the James Webb Space
Telescope (Webb) reveal, for example, differences between high-floating
bright clouds -- including the Great Red Spot -- and low-lying dark
clouds. Also clearly visible in the featured Webb image are Jupiter's
dust ring, bright auroras at the poles, and Jupiter's moons Amalthea
and Adrastea. The footprint of large volcanic moon Io's magnetic
funneling of charged particles onto Jupiter is also visible in the
southern aurora. Some objects are so bright that light noticeably
diffracts around Webb's optics creating streaks. Webb, which orbits the
Sun near the Earth, has a mirror over six meters across making it the
largest astronomical telescope ever launched -- with over six times
more light-collecting area than Hubble.

Tomorrow's picture: interstellar garlic
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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2026 January 19
A colorful starfield surrounds a giant nearly-spherical nebula that has
texture and stripes like watermelon. The lower right of the nebula is
open making it appear like a medulla oblongata -- the stem that
connects to a brain. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

CTB 1: The Medulla Nebula
Image Credit: Pierre Konzelmann

Explanation: What powers this unusual nebula? CTB 1 is the expanding
gas shell that was left when a massive star toward the constellation of
Cassiopeia exploded about 10,000 years ago. The star likely detonated
when it ran out of elements, near its core, that could create
stabilizing pressure with nuclear fusion. The resulting supernova
remnant, nicknamed the Medulla Nebula for its brain-like shape, still
glows in visible light because of the heat generated by its collision
with confining interstellar gas. Why the nebula also glows in X-ray
light, though, remains a topic of research. One hypothesis holds that
an energetic pulsar was created and powers the nebula with a fast
outwardly moving wind. Following this lead, a pulsar was found in radio
waves that appears to have been expelled by the supernova explosion at
over 1000 kilometers per second. Although the Medulla Nebula appears as
large as a full moon, it is so faint that it took 84-hours of exposure
with a small telescope in Texas, USA, to create the featured image.

Tomorrow's picture: volcano world
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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2026 January 20
A big ball that is mostly yellow is shown. The ball has many circular
and irregular regions that are different colors, typically brown or
olive green. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Io in True Color
Image Credit: NASA, JPL, Galileo Project

Explanation: The strangest moon in the Solar System is bright yellow.
The featured picture, an attempt to show how Io would appear in the
"true colors" perceptible to the average human eye, was taken in 1999
July by the Galileo spacecraft that orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003.
Io's colors derive from sulfur and molten silicate rock. The unusual
surface of Io is kept very young by its system of active volcanoes. The
intense tidal gravity of Jupiter stretches Io and damps wobbles caused
by Jupiter's other Galilean moons. The resulting friction greatly heats
Io's interior, causing molten rock to explode through the surface. Io's
volcanoes are so active that they are effectively turning the whole
moon inside out. Some of Io's volcanic lava is so hot it glows in the
dark.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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2026 January 21

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
gravitational 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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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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2026 January 22

LDN 1622: Dark Nebula in Orion
Image Credit & Copyright: Chris Fellows

Explanation: The silhouette of an intriguing dark nebula inhabits this
cosmic scene. Lynds' Dark Nebula (LDN) 1622 appears against a faint
background of glowing hydrogen gas only visible in long telescopic
exposures of the region. In contrast, a brighter reflection nebula, vdB
62, is more easily seen just above the dusty dark nebula. LDN 1622 lies
near the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy, close on the sky to Barnard's
Loop, a large cloud surrounding the rich complex of emission nebulae
found in the Belt and Sword of Orion. With swept-back outlines, the
obscuring dust of LDN 1622 is thought to lie at a similar distance,
perhaps 1,500 light-years away. At that distance, this 3 degree wide
field of view would span about 100 light-years. Young stars do lie
hidden within the dark expanse and have been revealed in Spitzer Space
telescope infrared images. Still, the foreboding visual appearance of
LDN 1622 inspires its popular name, the Boogeyman Nebula.

Tomorrow's picture: the faint and mostly round
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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2026 January 23

Planetary Nebula Abell 7
Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Pugh

Explanation: Very faint planetary nebula Abell 7 is about 1,800
light-years distant. It lies just south of Orion in planet Earth's
skies toward the constellation Lepus, The Hare. Posing with scattered
Milky Way stars, its generally simple spherical shape about 8
light-years in diameter is revealed in this deep telescopic image. The
beautiful and complex shapes seen within the cosmic cloud are visually
enhanced by the use of long exposures and narrowband filters that
capture emission from hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Otherwise Abell 7
would be much too faint to be appreciated by eye. A planetary nebula
represents a very brief final phase in stellar evolution that our own
Sun will experience 5 billion years hence, as the nebula's central,
once sun-like star shrugs off its outer layers. Abell 7 itself is
estimated to be 20,000 years old. But its central star, seen here as a
fading white dwarf, is some 10 billion years old.

Tomorrow's picture: Earthset
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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2026 January 24

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. Swinging
around the Moon, Orion reached a maximum distance (just over 400,000
kilometers) from Earth on 2022 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 due to launch as early as February 6.

Tomorrow's picture: doomed moon
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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2026 January 25
A large irregularly shaped object is shown that is mostly brown and
shows many craters. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Phobos: Doomed Moon of Mars
Image Credit: NASA, LPL (U. Arizona), MRO, HiRISE

Explanation: This moon is doomed. Mars, the red planet named for the
Roman god of war, has two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos, whose names
are derived from the Greek for Fear and Panic. These Martian moons may
well be captured asteroids originating in the main asteroid belt
between Mars and Jupiter or perhaps from even more distant reaches of
our Solar System. The larger moon, Phobos, is indeed seen to be a
cratered, asteroid-like object in this stunning color image from the
robotic Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which can image objects as small
as 10 meters. But Phobos orbits so close to Mars - about 5,800
kilometers above the surface compared to 400,000 kilometers for our
Moon - that gravitational tidal forces are dragging it down. In perhaps
50 million years, Phobos is expected to disintegrate into a ring of
debris.

Tomorrow's picture: bubbling galaxy
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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