Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 December 17
A wide star field is shown with several nebulae as identified by the
rollover image. On the upper left is a large nebula named the Heart
Nebula. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Near to the Heart Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Jeff Horne & Drew Evans

Explanation: What excites the Heart Nebula? First, the large emission
nebula on the upper left, catalogued as IC 1805, looks somewhat like a
human heart. The nebula glows brightly in red light emitted by its most
prominent element, hydrogen, but this long-exposure image was also
blended with light emitted by sulfur (yellow) and oxygen (blue). In the
center of the Heart Nebula are young stars from the open star cluster
Melotte 15 that are eroding away several picturesque dust pillars with
their atom-exciting energetic light and winds. The Heart Nebula is
located about 7,500 light years away toward the constellation of
Cassiopeia. This wide field image shows much more, though, including
the Fishhead Nebula just below the Heart, a supernova remnant on the
lower left, and three planetary nebulas on the image right. Taken over
57 nights, this image is so deep, though, that it clearly shows fainter
long and complex filaments.

Tomorrow's picture: twisted galaxy
__________________________________________________________________

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

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

2024 December 18
A dark starfield has an unusual galaxy in the center. This galaxy has a
spindle-like shape showing two dust lanes -- one running vertically and
one running diagonally from the upper left. Please see the explanation
for more detailed information.

NGC 660: Polar Ring Galaxy
Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby

Explanation: What kind of strange galaxy is this? This rare structure
is known as a polar ring galaxy, and it seems to have two different
rings of stars. In this galaxy, NGC 660, one ring of bright stars, gas,
and dark dust appears nearly vertical, while another similar but
shorter ring runs diagonally from the upper left. How polar ring
galaxies obtain their striking appearance remains a topic of research,
but a leading theory holds that it is usually the result of two
galaxies with different central ring planes colliding. NGC 660 spans
about 50,000 light years and is located about 40 million light years
away toward the constellation of the Fish (Pisces). The featured image
was captured recently from Observatorio El Sauce in Chile.

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

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

2024 December 19

Messier 2
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, G. Piotto et al.

Explanation: After the Crab Nebula, this giant star cluster is the
second entry in 18th century astronomer Charles Messier's famous list
of things that are not comets. M2 is one of the largest globular star
clusters now known to roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Though
Messier originally described it as a nebula without stars, this
stunning Hubble image resolves stars across the cluster's central 40
light-years. Its population of stars numbers close to 150,000,
concentrated within a total diameter of around 175 light-years. About
55,000 light-years distant toward the constellation Aquarius, this
ancient denizen of the Milky Way, also known as NGC 7089, is 13 billion
years old. An extended stellar debris stream, a signature of past
gravitational tidal disruption, was recently found to be associated
with Messier 2.

Tomorrow's picture: the last full moon
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 December 20

The Long Night Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Giorgia Hofer and Dario Giannobile (Pictores
caeli)

Explanation: On the night of December 15, the Full Moon was bright.
Known to some as the Cold Moon or the Long Night Moon, it was the
closest Full Moon to the northern winter solstice and the last Full
Moon of 2024. This Full Moon was also at a major lunar standstill. A
major lunar standstill is an extreme in the monthly north-south range
of moonrise and moonset caused by the precession of the Moon's orbit
over an 18.6 year cycle. As a result, the full lunar phase was near the
Moon's northernmost moonrise (and moonset) along the horizon.
December's Full Moon is rising in this stacked image, a composite of
exposures recording the range of brightness visible to the eye on the
northern winter night. Along with a colorful lunar corona and aircraft
contrail this Long Night Moon shines in a cold sky above the rugged,
snowy peaks of the Italian Dolomites.

Tomorrow's picture: major solar standstill
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 December 21

A Year in Sunsets
Image Credit & Copyright: Wael Omar

Explanation: A year in sunsets, from April 2023 to March 2024, track
along the western horizon in these stacked panoramic views. The
well-planed sequence is constructed of images recorded near the 21st
day of the indicated month from the same location overlooking Cairo,
Egypt. But for any location on planet Earth the yearly extreme northern
(picture right) and southern limits of the setting Sun mark the
solstice days. The word solstice is from Latin for "Sun" and "stand
still". On the solstice date the seasonal drift of the Sun's daily path
through the sky appears to pause and reverse direction in its annual
celestial journey. Of course the Sun reaches a stand still on today's
date. The 21 December 2024 solstice at 09:21 UTC is the moment of the
Sun's southernmost declination, the start of astronomical winter in the
north and summer in the south.

Tomorrow's picture: just local fluff
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 December 22
An artist's illustration shows where our Sun resides relative to local
interstellar gas. The direction of motion of the Sun and local gas is
shown with arrows. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

The Local Fluff
Illustration Credit: NASA, SVS, Adler, U. Chicago, Wesleyan

Explanation: The stars are not alone. In the disk of our Milky Way
Galaxy, about 10 percent of visible matter is in the form of gas called
the interstellar medium (ISM). The ISM is not uniform and shows
patchiness even near our Sun. It can be quite difficult to detect the
local ISM because it is so tenuous and emits so little light. This
mostly hydrogen gas, however, absorbs some very specific colors that
can be detected in the light of the nearest stars. A working map of the
local ISM within 20 light-years, based on ongoing observations and
particle detections from the Earth-orbiting Interstellar Boundary
Exporer satellite (IBEX), is shown here. These observations indicate
that our Sun is moving through a Local Interstellar Cloud as this cloud
flows outwards from the Scorpius-Centaurus Association star forming
region. Our Sun may exit the Local Cloud, also called the Local Fluff,
during the next 10,000 years. Much remains unknown about the local ISM,
including details of its distribution, its origin, and how it affects
the Sun and the Earth. Unexpectedly, IBEX spacecraft measurements
indicate that the direction from which neutral interstellar particles
flow through our Solar System is changing.

APOD Year in Review: Night Sky Network Presentation for 2024
Tomorrow's picture: sky tree
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 December 23
A star filled night sky is shown with aurora visible in blue, purple
and green. The aurora could be perceived to be a spruce tree, or even a
Christmas tree. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Christmas Tree Aurora
Image Credit & Copyright: Jingyi Zhang

Explanation: It was December and the sky lit up like a Christmas tree.
Shimmering, the vivid green, blue, and purple auroral colors that
formed the tree-like apparition were caused by high atmospheric oxygen
and nitrogen reacting to a burst of incoming electrons. Collisions
caused the orbital electrons of atoms and molecules to jump into
excited energy states and emit visible light when returning to their
normal state. The featured image was captured in Dj+|pivogur, Iceland
during the last month of 2023. Our Sun is currently in its most
energetic phase of its 11-year cycle, with its high number of active
regions and sunspots likely to last into next year. Of course, the Sun
has been near solar maximum during this entire year, with its outbursts
sometimes resulting in spectacular Earthly auroras.

Image Processors: Take NASA's Astrophoto Challenge
Tomorrow's picture: star tree
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
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NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 December 24
A starfield filled with colorful gas and dark dust features a
cone-shaped nebula near the image top and nebular structure reminiscent
of the fur of a fox near the middle. A wide area of light emission
resembles the shape of a Christmas tree. Please see the explanation for
more detailed information.

Fox Fur, Cone, and Christmas Tree
Image Credit & Copyright: Tim White

Explanation: What do the following things have in common: a cone, the
fur of a fox, and a Christmas tree? Answer: they all occur in the
constellation of the Unicorn (Monoceros). Considered as a star forming
region and cataloged as NGC 2264, the complex jumble of cosmic gas and
dust is about 2,700 light-years distant and mixes reddish emission
nebulae excited by energetic light from newborn stars with dark
interstellar dust clouds. The featured image spans an angle larger than
a full moon, covering over 50 light-years at the distance of NGC 2264.
Its cast of cosmic characters includes the Fox Fur Nebula, whose
convoluted pelt lies just to the left of the image center, bright
variable star S Mon visible just to the right of the Fox Fur, and the
Cone Nebula near the image top. With the Cone Nebula at the peak, the
shape of the general glow of the region give it the nickname of the
Christmas Tree Cluster, where stars are tree ornaments.

Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: sky eye
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 December 25
A snow covered road goes up a hill to a sky filled with stars. Arcs and
halos in the sky ahead appear similar to a giant eye. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Diamond Dust Sky Eye
Image Credit & Copyright: Jaroslav Fous

Explanation: Why is there a huge eye in the sky? Diamond dust. That is
an informal term for small ice crystals that form in the air and
flitter to the ground. Because these crystals are geometrically shaped,
they can together reflect light from the Sun or Moon to your eyes in a
systematic way, causing huge halos and unusual arcs to appear. And
sometimes, together the result can seem like a giant eye looking right
back at you. In the featured image taken in the Ore Mountains of the
Czech Republic last week, a bright Moon rising through ice fog-filled
air resulted in many of these magnificent sky illusions to be visible
simultaneously. Besides Moon dogs, tangent arcs, halos, and a parhelic
circle, light pillars above distant lights are visible on the far left,
while Jupiter and Mars can be found just inside the bottom of the
22-degree halo.

Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?
(post 1995)
Tomorrow's picture: grand spiral galaxy
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 December 26

Grand Spiral NGC 5643
Image Credit: ESA / Hubble & NASA

Explanation: Viewed face-on, grand spiral galaxy NGC 5643 has a festive
appearance in this colorful cosmic portrait. Some 55 million
light-years distant, the galaxy extends for over 100,000 light-years,
seen within the boundaries of the southern constellation Lupus. Its
inner 40,000 light-years are shown in sharp detail in this composite of
Hubble Space Telescope image data. The galaxy's magnificent spiral arms
wind from a yellowish central region dominated by light from old stars,
while the spiral arms themselves are traced by dust lanes, young blue
stars and reddish star forming regions. The bright compact core of NGC
5643 is also known as a strong emitter of radio waves and X-rays. In
fact, NGC 5643 is one of the closest examples of the Seyfert class of
active galaxies, where vast amounts of dust and gas are thought to be
falling into a central massive black hole.

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

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 December 27

Planet Earth at Twilight
Image Credit: ISS Expedition 2 Crew, Gateway to Astronaut Photography
of Earth, NASA

Explanation: No sudden, sharp boundary marks the passage of day into
night in this gorgeous view of ocean and clouds over our fair planet
Earth. Instead, the shadow line or terminator is diffuse and shows the
gradual transition to darkness we experience as twilight. With the Sun
illuminating the scene from the right, the cloud tops reflect gently
reddened sunlight filtered through the dusty troposphere, the lowest
layer of the planet's nurturing atmosphere. A clear high altitude
layer, visible along the dayside's upper edge, scatters blue sunlight
and fades into the blackness of space. This picture was taken from the
International Space Station orbiting at an altitude of 211 nautical
miles. Of course from home, you can check out the Earth Now.

Tomorrow's picture: planet Earth at night
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
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& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 December 28

A December Winter Night
Image Credit & Copyright: W+éodzimierz Bubak

Explanation: Orion seems to come up sideways, climbing over a distant
mountain range in this deep skyscape. The wintry scene was captured
from southern Poland on the northern hemisphere's long solstice night.
Otherwise unseen nebulae hang in the sky, revealed by the camera
modified to record red hydrogen-alpha light. The nebulae lie near the
edge of the Orion molecular cloud and join the Hunter's familiar belt
stars and bright giants Betelgeuse and Rigel. Eye of Taurus the Bull,
yellowish Aldebaran anchors the V-shaped Hyades star cluster near top
center. Still, near opposition in planet Earth's sky, the Solar
System's ruling gas giant Jupiter is the brightest celestial beacon
above this horizon's snowy peaks.

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

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 December 29
A frozen lake is shown that appears quite blue. Many oval light-colored
bubbles are frozen into the ice, many times in columns. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Methane Bubbles Frozen in Lake Baikal
Image Credit & Copyright: Kristina Makeeva

Explanation: What are these bubbles frozen into Lake Baikal? Methane.
Lake Baikal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Russia, is the world's
largest (by volume), oldest, and deepest lake, containing over 20% of
the world's fresh water. The lake is also a vast storehouse of methane,
a greenhouse gas that, if released, could potentially increase the
amount of infrared light absorbed by Earth's atmosphere, and so
increase the average temperature of the entire planet. Fortunately, the
amount of methane currently bubbling out is not climatologically
important. It is not clear what would happen, though, were temperatures
to significantly increase in the region, or if the water level in Lake
Baikal were to drop. Pictured, bubbles of rising methane froze during
winter into the exceptionally clear ice covering the lake.

Jigsaw Challenge: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day
Tomorrow's picture: our sun's future
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
NASA Science Activation
& Michigan Tech. U.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 December 30
A starfield is shown with a frame dominated by a gaseous nebula. The
nebula, filled with structure, appears orange in the center but blue
around the edges. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

M27: The Dumbbell Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Christopher Stobie

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

APOD Year in Review: Night Sky Network Presentation for 2024
Tomorrow's picture: dark and twisted
__________________________________________________________________

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

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2024 December 31
A dark field shows an oblong orange glow with some dark and complex
dust lanes running through. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

The Twisted Disk of NGC 4753
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing: Alexander Reinartz

Explanation: What do you think this is? HereCÇÖs a clue: it's bigger than
a bread box. Much bigger. The answer is that pictured NGC 4753 is a
twisted disk galaxy, where unusual dark dust filaments provide clues
about its history. No one is sure what happened, but a leading model
holds that a relatively normal disk galaxy gravitationally ripped apart
a dusty satellite galaxy while its precession distorted the plane of
the accreted debris as it rotated. The cosmic collision is hypothesized
to have started about a billion years ago. NGC 4753 is seen from the
side, and possibly would look like a normal spiral galaxy from the top.
The bright orange halo is composed of many older stars that might trace
dark matter. The featured Hubble image was recently reprocessed to
highlight ultraviolet and red-light emissions.

APOD Year in Review: NASA Night Sky Network Presentation for 2024
Tomorrow's picture: nearby triple
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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 January 1
A star field is filled with red-glowing gas. Near the center is a
bright star system Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to our Sun.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Alpha Centauri: The Closest Star System
Image Credit & Copyright: Telescope Live, Heaven's Mirror Observatory;
Processing: Chris Cantrell

Explanation: The closest star system to the Sun is the Alpha Centauri
system. Of the three stars in the system, the dimmest -- called Proxima
Centauri -- is actually the nearest star. The bright stars Alpha
Centauri A and B form a close binary as they are separated by only 23
times the Earth- Sun distance - slightly greater than the distance
between Uranus and the Sun. The Alphasystem
is not visible in much of the northern hemisphere. Alpha Centauri A,
also known as Rigil Kentaurus, is the brightest star in the
constellation of Centaurus and is the fourth brightest star in the
night sky. Sirius is the brightest even though it is more than twice as
far away. By an exciting coincidence, Alpha Centauri A is the same type
of star as our Sun, and Proxima Centauri is now known to have a
potentially habitable exoplanet.

Tomorrow's picture: 2024 in the sun
__________________________________________________________________

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 January 2

Solar Analemma 2024
Image Credit & Copyright: Betul Turksoy

Explanation: Recorded during 2024, this year-spanning series of images
reveals a pattern in the seasonal drift of the Sun's daily motion
through planet Earth's sky. Known to some as an analemma, the
figure-eight curve was captured in exposures taken only at 1pm local
time on clear days from Kayseri, Turkiye. Of course the Sun's position
on the 2024 solstice dates was at the top and bottom of the curve. They
correspond to the astronomical beginning of summer and winter in the
north. The points along the curve half-way between the solstices, but
not the figure-eight curve crossing point, mark the 2024 equinoxes and
the start of spring and fall. Regional peaks and dormant volcano Mount
Erciyes lie along the southern horizon in the 2024 timelapse skyscape.

Tomorrow's picture: eclipse pair
__________________________________________________________________

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

--- 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 January 3

Eclipse Pair
Image Credit & Copyright: Josh Dury

Explanation: Eclipses tend to come in pairs. Twice a year, during an
eclipse season that lasts about 34 days, Sun, Moon, and Earth can
nearly align. Then the full and new phases of the Moon, separated by
just over 14 days, create a lunar and a solar eclipse. But only rarely
is the alignment at both new moon and full moon phases during a single
eclipse season close enough to produce a pair with both total (or a
total and an annular) lunar and solar eclipses. More often, partial
eclipses are part of any eclipse season. In fact, the last eclipse
season of 2024 produced this fortnight-separated eclipse pair: a
partial lunar eclipse on 18 September and an annular solar eclipse on 2
October. The time-lapse composite images were captured from Somerset,
UK (left) and Rapa Nui planet Earth. The 2025 eclipse seasons will see
a total lunar eclipse on 14 March paired with a partial solar eclipse
on 29 March, and a total lunar eclipse on 8 September followed by a
partial solar eclipse on 21 September.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
__________________________________________________________________

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 January 4

Welcome to Perihelion
Image Credit & Copyright: Peter Ward (Barden Ridge Observatory)

Explanation: Earth's orbit around the Sun is not a circle, it's an
ellipse. The point along its elliptical orbit where our fair planet is
closest to the Sun is called perihelion. This year perihelion is today,
January 4, at 13:28 UTC, with the Earth about 147 million kilometers
from the Sun. For comparison, at aphelion on last July 3 Earth was at
its farthest distance from the Sun, some 152 million kilometers away.
But distance from the Sun doesn't determine Earth's seasons. It's only
by coincidence that the beginning of southern summer (northern winter)
on the December solstice - when this H-alpha picture of the active Sun
was taken - is within 14 days of Earth's perihelion date. And it's only
by coincidence that Earth's perihelion date is within 11 days of the
historic perihelion of NASA's Parker Solar Probe. Launched in 2018, the
Parker Solar Probe flew within 6.2 million kilometers of the Sun's
surface on 2024 December 24, breaking its own record for closest
perihelion for a spacecraft from planet Earth.

Tomorrow's picture: rocket launch
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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 January 5

Rocket Launch as Seen from the International Space Station
Video Credit: ISAA, NASA, Expedition 57 Crew (ISS);
Processing: Riccardo Rossi (ISAA, AstronautiCAST); Music: Inspiring
Adventure Cinematic Background by Maryna

Explanation: Have you ever seen a rocket launch -- from space? A close
inspection of the featured time-lapse video will reveal a rocket rising
to Earth orbit as seen from the International Space Station (ISS). The
Russian Soyuz-FG rocket was launched in November 2018 from the Baikonur
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying a Progress MS-10 (also 71P) module
to bring needed supplies to the ISS. Highlights in the 90-second video
(condensing about 15-minutes) include city lights and clouds visible on
the Earth on the lower left, blue and gold bands of atmospheric airglow
running diagonally across the center, and distant stars on the upper
right that set behind the Earth. A lower stage can be seen falling back
to Earth as the robotic supply ship fires its thrusters and begins to
close on the ISS, a space laboratory that celebrated its 25th
anniversary in 2023. Astronauts who live aboard the Earth-orbiting ISS
conduct, among more practical duties, numerous science experiments that
expand human knowledge and enable future commercial industry in low
Earth orbit.

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

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written by a professional astronomer.

2025 January 6
Two spiral galaxies are pictured on the left and right. They galaxy on
the left is smaller. Both show red lanes of dust in their spiral arms.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Colliding Spiral Galaxies from Webb and Hubble
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Explanation: Billions of years from now, only one of these two galaxies
will remain. Until then, spiral galaxies NGC 2207 and IC 2163 will
slowly pull each other apart, creating tides of matter, sheets of
shocked gas, lanes of dark dust, bursts of star formation, and streams
of cast-away stars. The featured image in scientifically assigned
colors is a composite of Hubble exposures in visible light and Webb
exposures in infrared light. Astronomers predict that NGC 2207, the
larger galaxy on the right, will eventually incorporate IC 2163, the
smaller galaxy on the left. In the most recent encounter that about
peaked 40 million years ago, the smaller galaxy is swinging around
counter-clockwise and is now slightly behind the larger galaxy. The
space between stars is so vast that when galaxies collide, the stars in
them usually do not collide.

Jigsaw Challenge: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day
Tomorrow's picture: double red sky
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 January 7
A star field appears above a town at night. The left part of the sky
shows a pinkish-red glow that is an aurora, while the right part of the
sky shows a smoother and darker glow that is a SAR arc. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

A New Year's Aurora and SAR Arc
Image Credit & Copyright: Alessandra Masi

Explanation: It was a new year, and the sky was doubly red. The new
year meant that the Earth had returned to its usual place in its orbit
on January 1, a place a few days before its closest approach to the
Sun. The first of the two red skyglows, on the left, was a red aurora,
complete with vertical rays, caused by a blast from the Sun pushing
charged particles into Earth's atmosphere. The second red glow, most
prominent on the far right, was possibly a SAR arc caused by a river of
charged particles flowing across Earth's atmosphere. Although both
appear red, the slight color difference is likely due to the aurora
being emitted by both oxygen and nitrogen, whereas the higher SAR arc
was possibly emitted more purely by atmospheric oxygen. The featured
image was taken on January 1 from near Pieve di Cadore in Italy.

Portal Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: supernovas (plural)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 January 8
A star field appears that has several nebulas. Toward the upper left is
a angularly small supernova remnant colored blue, while dominating the
lower right is a large supernova remnant in both red and blue. Please
see the explanation for more detailed information.

Supernova Remnants Big and Small
Image Credit & Copyright: St+¬phane Vetter (Nuits sacr+¬es)

Explanation: What happens after a star explodes? A huge fireball of hot
gas shoots out in all directions. When this gas slams into the existing
interstellar medium, it heats up so much it glows. Two different
supernova remnants (SNRs) are visible in the featured image, taken at
the Ouka+»meden Observatory in Morocco. The blue soccer ball-looking
nebula toward the upper left is SNR G179.0+02.6, which appears to be
the smaller one. This supernova, about 11,000 light years distant,
detonated about 50,000 years ago. Although composed mostly of hydrogen
gas, the blue light is emitted by a trace amount of oxygen. The
seemingly larger SNR, dominating the lower right of the frame, is the
Spaghetti Nebula, cataloged as Simeis 147 and sh2-240. This supernova,
only about 3,000 light years away, exploded about 40,000 years ago.
Comparatively, even though they appear different sizes, both supernova
remnants are not only roughly the same age, but about the same size,
too.

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

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written by a professional astronomer.

2025 January 9

Peculiar Galaxies of Arp 273
Image Credit & Copyright: Dave Doctor

Explanation: The colorful, spiky stars are in the foreground of this
image taken with a small telescope on planet Earth. They lie well
within our own Milky Way Galaxy. But the two eye-catching galaxies in
the frame lie far beyond the Milky Way, at a distance of over 300
million light-years. The galaxies' twisted and distorted appearance is
due to mutual gravitational tides as the pair engage in close
encounters. Cataloged as Arp 273 (also as UGC 1810), these galaxies do
look peculiar, but interacting galaxies are now understood to be common
in the universe. Closer to home, the large spiral Andromeda Galaxy is
known to be some 2 million light-years away and inexorably approaching
the Milky Way. In fact the far away peculiar galaxies of Arp 273 may
offer an analog of the far future encounter of Andromeda and Milky Way.
Repeated galaxy encounters on a cosmic timescale ultimately result in a
merger into a single galaxy of stars. From our perspective, the bright
cores of the Arp 273 galaxies are separated by only a little over
100,000 light-years.

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

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2025 January 10

Young Stars, Dark Nebulae
Image Credit & Copyright: Long Xin

Explanation: An unassuming region in the constellation Taurus holds
these dark and dusty nebulae. Scattered through the scene, stars in
multiple star systems are forming within their natal Taurus molecular
cloud complex some 450 light-years away. Millions of years young and
still going through stellar adolescence, the stars are variable in
brightness and in the late phases of their gravitational collapse.
Known as T-Tauri class stars they tend to be faint and take on a
yellowish hue in the image. One of the brightest T-Tauri stars in
Taurus, V773 (aka HD283447) is near the center of the telescopic frame
that spans over 1 degree. Toward the top is the dense, dark marking on
the sky cataloged as Barnard 209.

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

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2025 January 11

An Evening Sky Full of Planets
Image Credit & Copyright: Dario Giannobile

Explanation: Only Mercury is missing from a Solar System parade of
planets in this early evening skyscape. Rising nearly opposite the Sun,
bright Mars is at the far left. The other naked-eye planets Jupiter,
Saturn, and Venus, can also be spotted, with the the position of
too-faint Uranus and Neptune marked near the arcing trace of the
ecliptic plane. On the far right and close to the western horizon after
sunset is a young crescent Moon whose surface is partly illuminated by
earthshine. In the foreground of the composite panorama captured on 2
January, planet Earth is represented by Mount Etna's lower Silvestri
Crater. Of course Earth's early evening skies are full of planets for
the entire month of January. On 13 January, a nearly Full Moon will
appear to pass in front of Mars for skywatchers in the continental U.S.
and Eastern Canada.

Tomorrow's picture: small moon, big crater
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 January 12
A cratered object is shown that shows on really large crater on its
right side. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Mimas: Small Moon with a Big Crater
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Space Science Institute, Cassini

Explanation: Whatever hit Mimas nearly destroyed it. What remains is
one of the largest impact craters on one of Saturn's smallest round
moons. Analysis indicates that a slightly larger impact would have
destroyed Mimas entirely. The huge crater, named Herschel after the
1789 discoverer of Mimas, Sir William Herschel, spans about 130
kilometers and is featured here. Mimas' low mass produces a surface
gravity just strong enough to create a spherical body but weak enough
to allow such relatively large surface features. Mimas is made of
mostly water ice with a smattering of rock - so it is accurately
described as a big dirty snowball. The featured image was taken during
the closest-ever flyby of the robot spacecraft Cassini past Mimas in
2010 while in orbit around Saturn.

Interactive: Take a trek across Mimas
January 14: Zoom APOD Lecture hosted by the Amateur Astronomers of
Association of New York
Tomorrow's picture: do north
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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 January 13
A morning sky is shown about a line of trees. In the sky is a faint
comet. The comet is shown in better detailed in an inset image on the
upper left. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Comet ATLAS Before Sunrise
Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Horalek / Institute of Physics in Opava

Explanation: Comet ATLAS is really bright now, but also really close to
the Sun. Outside the glow of the Sun, Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) would be
one of the more remarkable comet sights of recent years, reflecting
about as much sunlight to Earth as Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS did in
October, and now rivaling even planet Venus. But the giant snowball is
now so close to the Sun that it can only be seen through the light of
the early morning dawn or the early evening dusk. Today, Comet ATLAS is
at perihelion -- its closest ever to the Sun. Although the future
brightness of comets is notoriously hard to predict, there is hope that
Comet ATLAS will survive its close pass near the Sun and remain bright
enough to be seen with the unaided eye over the next few days -- and
possibly a good camera comet for weeks. The featured image was taken
early yesterday morning near Torna-'a, Slovakia.

Tomorrow: Zoom APOD Lecture hosted by the Amateur Astronomers of
Association of New York
Tomorrow's picture: do north
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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 January 14
A bright star is pictured in the center of field filled with glowing
gas and dust and other, more faint, stars. Please see the explanation
for more detailed information.

North Star: Polaris and Surrounding Dust
Image Credit & Copyright: Davide Coverta

Explanation: Why is Polaris called the North Star? First, Polaris is
the nearest bright star toward the north spin axis of the Earth.
Therefore, as the Earth turns, stars appear to revolve around Polaris,
but Polaris itself always stays in the same northerly direction --
making it the North Star. Since no bright star is near the south spin
axis of the Earth, there is currently no bright South Star. Thousands
of years ago, Earth's spin axis pointed in a slightly different
direction so that Vega was the North Star. Although Polaris is not the
brightest star on the sky, it is easily located because it is nearly
aligned with two stars in the cup of the Big Dipper. Polaris is near
the center of the five-degree wide featured image, a digital composite
of hundreds of exposures that brings out faint gas and dust of the
Integrated Flux Nebula (IFN) all over the frame. The surface of Cepheid
Polaris slowly pulsates, causing the famous star to change its
brightness by a few percent over the course of a few days.

Today: Zoom APOD Lecture hosted by the Amateur Astronomers of
Association of New York
Tomorrow's picture: north nebula
__________________________________________________________________

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 January 15
Earth's moon is shown in full phase. At the top of the frame, appearing
much smaller, is the more distant planet Mars. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Wolf Moon Engulfs Mars
Image Credit & Copyright: Imran Sultan

Explanation: Does the Moon ever engulf Mars? Yes, but only in the sense
that it moves in front, which happens on rare occasions. This happened
just yesterday, though, as seen from some locations in North America
and western Africa. This occultation was notable not only because the
Moon was a fully lit Wolf Moon, but because Mars was near its largest
and brightest, moving to opposition -- the closest to the Earth in its
orbit -- only tomorrow. The engulfing, more formally called an
occultation, typically lasting about an hour. The featured image was
taken from near Chicago, Illinois, USA just as Earth's largest
satellite was angularly moving away from the much more distant red
planet. Our Moon occasionally moves in front of all of the Solar
System's planets. Given the temporary alignment of orbital planes, the
next time our Moon eclipses Mars will be a relatively soon February 9.

Growing Gallery: Moon-Mars Occultation in January 2025
Tomorrow's picture: galactic pinwheel
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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 January 16

M83: The Southern Pinwheel
Image Credit: CTIO, NOIRLab, DOE, NSF, AURA;
Processing: T. A. Rector (U. Alaska Anchorage/NOIRLab), D. de Martin &
M. Zamani (NOIRLab)

Explanation: Beautiful and bright spiral galaxy M83 lies a some twelve
million light-years away, near the southeastern tip of the very long
constellation Hydra. Prominent spiral arms traced by dark dust lanes
and blue star clusters lend this galaxy its popular name, The Southern
Pinwheel. Still, reddish star forming regions that dot this cosmic
pinwheel's spiral arms have suggested another nickname, the
Thousand-Ruby Galaxy. A mere 40,000 light-years across, smaller than
the Milky Way, M83 is a member of a group of galaxies that includes
active galaxy Centaurus A. In fact, the core of M83 itself is bright at
x-ray energies, showing a high concentration of neutron stars and black
holes left from an intense burst of star formation. This sharp color
image also features spiky foreground Milky Way stars and distant
background galaxies. The image data was captured with the Dark Energy
Camera and Blanco 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American
Observatory.

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

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2025 January 17

Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; D. Milisavljevic (Purdue
University), T. Temim (Princeton University), I. De Looze (University
of Gent)

Explanation: Massive stars in our Milky Way Galaxy live spectacular
lives. Collapsing from vast cosmic clouds, their nuclear furnaces
ignite and create heavy elements in their cores. After only a few
million years for the most massive stars, the enriched material is
blasted back into interstellar space where star formation can begin
anew. The expanding debris cloud known as Cassiopeia A is an example of
this final phase of the stellar life cycle. Light from the supernova
explosion that created this remnant would have been first seen in
planet Earth's sky about 350 years ago, although it took that light
11,000 years to reach us. This sharp NIRCam image from the James Webb
Space Telescope shows the still hot filaments and knots in the
supernova remnant. The whitish, smoke-like outer shell of the expanding
blast wave is about 20 light-years across. A series of light echoes
from the massive star's cataclysmic explosion are also identified in
Webb's detailed images of the surrounding interstellar medium.

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

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2025 January 18

Full Moon, Full Mars
Image Credit & Copyright: David Bowman

Explanation: On January 13 a Full Moon and a Full Mars were close, both
bright and opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky. In fact Mars was
occulted, passing behind the Moon, when viewed from some locations in
North America and northwest Africa. As seen from Richmond, Virginia,
USA, this composite image sequence follows the evening lunar
occultation before, during, and after the much anticipated celestial
spectacle. The telescopic time series is constructed from an exposure
made every two minutes while tracking the Moon over the hours
encompassing the event. As a result, the Red Planet's trajectory seems
to follow a gently curved path due to the Moon's slightly different
rate of apparent motion. The next lunar occultation of bright planet
Mars will be on February 9 when the moon is in a waxing gibbous phase.
Lunar occultations are only ever visible from a fraction of the Earth's
surface, though. The February 9 occultation of Mars will be seen from
parts of Russia, China, eastern Canada, Greenland and other (mostly
northern) locations, but a close conjunction of a bright Moon with Mars
will be more widely visible from planet Earth.

Growing Gallery: Moon-Mars Occultation in January 2025
Tomorrow's picture: Touchdown!
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 January 19

Titan Touchdown: Huygens Descent Movie
Video Credit: ESA, NASA, JPL, U. Arizona, E. Karkoschka

Explanation: What would it look like to land on Saturn's moon Titan?
The European Space Agency's Huygens probe set down on the Solar
System's cloudiest moon in 2005, and a time-lapse video of its descent
images was created. Huygens separated from the robotic Cassini
spacecraft soon after it achieved orbit around Saturn in late 2004 and
began approaching Titan. For two hours after arriving, Huygens
plummeted toward Titan's surface, recording at first only the shrouded
moon's opaque atmosphere. The computerized truck-tire sized probe soon
deployed a parachute to slow its descent, pierced the thick clouds, and
began transmitting images of a strange surface far below never before
seen in visible light. Landing in a dried sea and surviving for 90
minutes, Huygen's returned unique images of a strange plain of dark
sandy soil strewn with smooth, bright, fist-sized rocks of ice.

Tomorrow's picture: high north
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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 January 20
A comet is seen near the top of the image. The comet has several tails
visible, some being white but others having different colors. Please
see the explanation for more detailed information.

Comet ATLAS Rounds the Sun
Image Credit: NASA, SOHO Spacecraft, LASCO C3; Processing: Rolando
Ligustri

Explanation: Why does Comet ATLAS have such colorful tails? Last week
Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) passed its closest to the Sun -- well inside
the orbit of Mercury -- and brightened dramatically. Unfortunately, the
comet was then so angularly near the Sun that it was very hard for
humans to see. But NASA's SOHO spacecraft saw it. Pictured is a SOHO
(LASCO C3) image of Comet ATLAS that is a composite of several
different color filters. Of the several tails visible, the central
white tails are likely made of dust and just reflecting back sunlight.
The red, blue, and green tails are likely ion tails with their colors
dominated by light emitted by specific gases that were ejected from the
comet and energized by the Sun. Currently, Comet ATLAS is showing long
tails in southern skies but fading as it moves out of the inner Solar
System.

Growing Gallery: Comet ATLAS (G3)
Tomorrow's picture: long tails
__________________________________________________________________

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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 January 21
The buildings of a city are seen past a dark waterway. Over the city
are some dark clouds and above that, blue sky. In the blue sky, partly
obscured by some of the clouds, is a comet with a very long tail,
running from the middle to the top of the frame. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Comet ATLAS over Bras+¡lia
Image Credit: Frederico Danin

Explanation: What's that in the sky? Above the city, above most clouds,
far in the distance: it's a comet. Pictured, the impressive tail of
Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) was imaged from Bras+¡lia, Brazil four days ago.
Last week the evolving comet rounded the Sun well inside the orbit of
planet Mercury, going so close there was early concern that it might
break up -- and recent evidence that it really did. At one point near
perihelion, Comet ATLAS was so bright that sightings were even reported
during the day -- over the bright sky near the Sun -- by careful
observers. Over the past few days, Comet ATLAS has developed a long
tail that has been partly visible with unaided eyes after sunset, most
notably in Earth's southern hemisphere.

Growing Gallery: Comet ATLAS (G3)
Tomorrow's picture: up north
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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 January 22
A star field is dominated by a red and blue glowing nebula. This nebula
appears, to some, to have the shape of North America and so is called
the North America Nebula. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

The North America Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Dimitris Valianos

Explanation: The North America nebula on the sky can do what the North
America continent on Earth cannot -- form stars. Specifically, in
analogy to the Earth-confined continent, the bright part that appears
as the east coast is actually a hot bed of gas, dust, and newly formed
stars known as the Cygnus Wall. The featured image shows the star
forming wall lit and eroded by bright young stars and partly hidden by
the dark dust they have created. The part of the North America nebula
(NGC 7000) shown spans about 50 light years and lies about 1,500 light
years away toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus).

Jigsaw Challenge: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day
Tomorrow's picture: little hat, big galaxy
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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 January 23

NGC 7814: Little Sombrero
Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby

Explanation: Point your telescope toward the high flying constellation
Pegasus and you can find this cosmic expanse of Milky Way stars and
distant galaxies. NGC 7814 is centered in the sharp field of view that
would almost be covered by a full moon. NGC 7814 is sometimes called
the Little Sombrero for its resemblance to the brighter more famous
M104, the Sombrero Galaxy. Both Sombrero and Little Sombrero are spiral
galaxies seen edge-on, and both have extensive halos and central bulges
cut by a thin disk with thinner dust lanes in silhouette. In fact, NGC
7814 is some 40 million light-years away and an estimated 60,000
light-years across. That actually makes the Little Sombrero about the
same physical size as its better known namesake, appearing smaller and
fainter only because it is farther away.

Tomorrow's picture: a tail and a telescope
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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 January 24

Comet G3 ATLAS: a Tail and a Telescope
Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas
Observatory, TWAN)

Explanation: Comet C/2024 G3 ATLAS has made a dramatic appearance in
planet Earth's skies. A visitor from the distant Oort Cloud, the comet
reached its perihelion on January 13. On January 19, the bright comet
was captured here from ESO Paranal Observatory in the Atacama desert in
Chile. Sporting spectacular sweeping dust tails, this comet ATLAS is
setting in the southern hemisphere twilight and was clearly visible to
the unaided eye. In the foreground is the closed shell of one of the
observatory's famous auxiliary telescopes. Still wowing southern
hemisphere observers, the comet's bright coma has become diffuse, its
icy nucleus apparently disintegrating following its close approach to
the Sun.

Growing Gallery: Comet ATLAS (G3)
Tomorrow's picture: stardust
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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 January 25

Stardust in the Perseus Molecular Cloud
Image Credit & Copyright: Jeff Schilling

Explanation: Clouds of stardust drift through this deep skyscape,
across the Perseus molecular cloud some 850 light-years away. Dusty
nebulae reflecting light from embedded young stars stand out in the
nearly 4 degree wide field of view. With a characteristic bluish color
reflection nebula NGC 1333 is prominent near center. Hints of
contrasting red emission from Herbig-Haro objects, the jets and shocked
glowing gas emanating from recently formed stars, are scattered across
the dusty expanse. While many stars are forming in the molecular cloud,
most are obscured at visible wavelengths by the pervasive dust. The
chaotic environment surrounding NGC 1333 may be similar to one in which
our own Sun formed over 4.5 billion years ago. At the estimated
distance of the Perseus molecular cloud, this cosmic scene would span
about 80 light-years.

Growing Gallery: Comet ATLAS (G3)
Tomorrow's picture: comet tails
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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 January 26
A dark sloping hill is seen at the bottom with a bright comet with many
tails visible above it, taking up most of the frame. The tails closest
to the slope are the most dim. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

The Many Tails of Comet G3 ATLAS
Image Credit & Copyright: Martin Ma+íek (FZU, Czech Academy of Sciences)
& Jakub Ku+Ö+ík

Explanation: Why does this comet have so many tails? C/2024 G3 (ATLAS)
has developed several long and intricate tails visible from Earth's
southern hemisphere over the past two weeks. Many observers reported
seeing the impressive comet without any optical aid above the western
horizon just after sunset. At least six different tails appear in the
featured image captured five days ago from the dark skies above Paranal
Observatory in Chile. One possible cause for the multiple tails is dust
and gas being expelled from the comet's rotating nucleus. The outward
push of the Sun's complex solar wind may also play a role. The huge
iceberg-like nucleus of Comet ATLAS appears to have broken up near its
closest approach to the Sun two weeks ago. Unfortunately, Comet ATLAS
and its tails are expected to fade significantly over the coming weeks.

Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?
(post 1995)
Tomorrow's picture: half dome stars
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2025 January 27
A cluster of bright blue stars is seen on the upper right while an
unusual dome-like mountain occupies most of the frame. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Pleiades over Half Dome
Image Credit & Copyright: Dheera Venkatraman

Explanation: Stars come in bunches. The most famous bunch of stars on
the sky is the Pleiades, a bright cluster that can be easily seen with
the unaided eye. The Pleiades lies only about 450 light years away,
formed about 100 million years ago, and will likely last about another
250 million years. Our Sun was likely born in a star cluster, but now,
being about 4.5 billion years old, its stellar birth companions have
long since dispersed. The Pleiades star cluster is pictured over Half
Dome, a famous rock structure in Yosemite National Park in California,
USA. The featured image is a composite of 28 foreground exposures and
174 images of the stellar background, all taken from the same location
and by the same camera on the same night in October 2019. After
calculating the timing of a future juxtaposition of the Pleiades and
Half Dome, the astrophotographer was unexpectedly rewarded by an
electrical blackout, making the background sky unusually dark.

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

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

2025 January 28
A foreground grass field is shown below a distant field of stars. On
the grass field are some trees. Dwarfing the trees, in the sky, is a
comet with a long tail. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Comet G3 ATLAS over Uruguay
Image Credit & Copyright: Mauricio Salazar

Explanation: Comets can be huge. When far from the Sun, a comet's size
usually refers to its hard nucleus of ice and rock, which typically
spans a few kilometers -- smaller than even a small moon. When nearing
the Sun, however, this nucleus can eject dust and gas and leave a thin
tail that can spread to an enormous length -- even greater than the
distance between the Earth and the Sun. Pictured, C/2024 G3 (ATLAS)
sports a tail of sunlight-reflecting dust and glowing gas that spans
several times the apparent size of a full moon, appearing even larger
on long duration camera images than to the unaided eye. The featured
image shows impressive Comet ATLAS over trees and a grass field in
Sierras de Mahoma, San Jose, Uruguay about a week ago. After being
prominent in the sunset skies of Earth's southern hemisphere, Comet G3
ATLAS is now fading as it moves away from the Sun, making its
impressive tails increasingly hard to see.

Gallery: Comet ATLAS (G3)
Tomorrow's picture: star circles
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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 January 29
A bright spot at the center is surrounded by many concentric rings. The
rings are nearly -- but not exactly -- circular in appearance. Please
see the explanation for more detailed information.

Dust Shells around WR 140 from Webb
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, E. Lieb (U. Denver), R. Lau (NSF
NOIRLab), J. Hoffman (U. Denver)

Explanation: What are those strange rings? Rich in dust, the rings are
likely 3D shells -- but how they were created remains a topic of
research. Where they were created is well known: in a binary star
system that lies about 6,000 light years away toward the constellation
of the Swan (Cygnus) -- a system dominated by the Wolf-Rayet star WR
140. Wolf-Rayet stars are massive, bright, and known for their
tumultuous winds. They are also known for creating and dispersing heavy
elements such as carbon, which is a building block of interstellar
dust. The other star in the binary is also bright and massive -- but
not as active. The two great stars joust in an oblong orbit as they
approach each other about every eight years. When at closest approach,
the X-ray emission from the system increases, as, apparently, does the
dust expelled into space -- creating another shell. The featured
infrared image by the Webb Space Telescope resolves greater details and
more dust shells than ever before. Images taken over consecutive years
show the shells moving outward.

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

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

2025 January 30

Hydrogen Clouds of M33
Image Credit & Copyright: Pea Mauro

Explanation: Gorgeous spiral galaxy Messier 33 seems to have more than
its fair share of glowing hydrogen gas. A prominent member of the local
group of galaxies, M33 is also known as the Triangulum Galaxy and lies
a mere 3 million light-years away. The galaxy's central 60,000
light-years or so are shown in this sharp galaxy portrait. The portrait
features M33's reddish ionized hydrogen clouds or HII regions.
Sprawling along loose spiral arms that wind toward the core, M33's
giant HII regions are some of the largest known stellar nurseries,
sites of the formation of short-lived but very massive stars. Intense
ultraviolet radiation from the luminous, massive stars ionizes the
surrounding hydrogen gas and ultimately produces the characteristic red
glow. In this image, broadband data were combined with narrowband data
recorded through a filter that transmits the light of the strongest
visible hydrogen and oxygen emission lines.

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

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2025 January 31

The Variable Nebula NGC 2261
Image Credit & Copyright: Tommy Lease (Denver Astronomical Society)

Explanation: The interstellar cloud of dust and gas captured in this
sharp telescopic snapshot is seen to change its appearance noticeably
over periods as short as a few weeks. Discovered over 200 years ago and
cataloged as NGC 2261, bright star R Monocerotis lies at the tip of the
fan-shaped nebula. About one light-year across and 2500 light-years
away, NGC 2261 was studied early last century by astronomer Edwin
Hubble and the mysterious cosmic cloud is now more famous as Hubble's
Variable Nebula. So what makes Hubble's nebula vary? NGC 2261 is
composed of a dusty reflection nebula fanning out from the star R
Monocerotis. The leading variability explanation holds that dense knots
of obscuring dust pass close to R Mon and cast moving shadows across
the dust clouds in the rest of Hubble's Variable Nebula.

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

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

2025 February 1

Nacreous Clouds over Sweden
Image Credit & Copyright: Vojan H++fer

Explanation: Vivid and lustrous, wafting iridescent waves of color wash
across this skyscape from northern Sweden. Known as nacreous clouds or
mother-of-pearl clouds, they are rare. But their unforgettable
appearance was captured in this snapshot on January 12 with the Sun
just below the local horizon. A type of polar stratospheric cloud, they
form when unusually cold temperatures in the usually cloudless lower
stratosphere form ice crystals. Still sunlit at altitudes of around 15
to 25 kilometers, the clouds diffract the sunlight even when the Sun
itself is hidden from direct view.

Tomorrow's picture: comet disintegrates
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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 February 2
A series of comet images is shown. On the far left the image shows
Comet G3 ATLAS with a bright central concentration at its head near the
bottom of the frame. By the far right, this central concentration is
nearly gone. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Comet G3 ATLAS Disintegrates
Image Credit: Lionel Majzik

Explanation: What's happening to Comet G3 ATLAS? After passing near the
Sun in mid-January, the head of the comet has become dimmer and dimmer.
By late January, Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) had become a headless wonder
-- even though it continued to show impressive tails after sunset in
the skies of Earth's Southern Hemisphere. Pictured are images of Comet
G3 ATLAS on successive January nights taken from R+¡o Hurtado, Chile.
Clearly, the comet's head is brighter and more centrally condensed on
the earlier days (left) than on later days (right). A key reason is
likely that the comet's nucleus of ice and rock, at the head's center,
has fragmented. Comet G3 ATLAS passed well inside the orbit of planet
Mercury when at its solar closest, a distance that where heat destroys
many comets. Some of comet G3 ATLAS' scattering remains will continue
to orbit the Sun.

Gallery: Comet G3 ATLAS
Tomorrow's picture: star-sized wind machine
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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 February 3
A starfield is shown with a large spherical nebula in the center. The
nebula shows a great deal of internal structure. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Wolf-Rayet Star 124: Stellar Wind Machine
Image Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, NASA, ESA; Processing & License:
Judy Schmidt

Explanation: Some stars explode in slow motion. Rare, massive
Wolf-Rayet stars are so tumultuous and hot that they are slowly
disintegrating right before our telescopes. Glowing gas globs each
typically over 30 times more massive than the Earth are being expelled
by violent stellar winds. Wolf-Rayet star WR 124, visible near the
featured image center and spanning six light years across, is thus
creating the surrounding nebula known as M1-67. Details of why this
star has been slowly blowing itself apart over the past 20,000 years
remains a topic of research. WR 124 lies 15,000 light-years away
towards the constellation of the Arrow (Sagitta). The fate of any given
Wolf-Rayet star likely depends on how massive it is, but many are
thought to end their lives with spectacular explosions such as
supernovas or gamma-ray bursts.

Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: anti-rainbow
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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 February 4
A rainbow is pictured over the sea between an island and land. A series
of light rays appears to connect the horizon to the rainbow. Please see
the explanation for more detailed information.

Anticrepuscular Rays: A Rainbow Fan over Spain
Image Credit & Copyright: Julene Eiguren

Explanation: Yes, but can your rainbow do this? Late in the day, the
Sun set as usual toward the west. However, on this day, the more
interesting display was 180 degrees around -- toward the east. There,
not only was a rainbow visible, but an impressive display of
anticrepuscular rays from the rainbow's center. In the featured image
from Lekeitio in northern Spain, the Sun is behind the camera. The
rainbow resulted from sunlight reflecting back from falling rain.
Anticrepuscular rays result from sunlight, blocked by some clouds,
going all the way around the sky, overhead, and appearing to converge
on the opposite horizon -- an optical illusion. Rainbows by themselves
can be exciting to see, and anticrepuscular rays a rare treat, but
capturing them both together is even more unusual -- and can look both
serene and surreal.

Jigsaw Challenge: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day
Tomorrow's picture: comet set
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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 February 4
A rainbow is pictured over the sea between an island and land. A series
of light rays appears to connect the horizon to the rainbow. Please see
the explanation for more detailed information.

Anticrepuscular Rays: A Rainbow Fan over Spain
Image Credit & Copyright: Julene Eiguren

Explanation: Yes, but can your rainbow do this? Late in the day, the
Sun set as usual toward the west. However, on this day, the more
interesting display was 180 degrees around -- toward the east. There,
not only was a rainbow visible, but an impressive display of
anticrepuscular rays from the rainbow's center. In the featured image
from Lekeitio in northern Spain, the Sun is behind the camera. The
rainbow resulted from sunlight reflecting back from falling rain.
Anticrepuscular rays result from sunlight, blocked by some clouds,
going all the way around the sky, overhead, and appearing to converge
on the opposite horizon -- an optical illusion. Rainbows by themselves
can be exciting to see, and anticrepuscular rays a rare treat, but
capturing them both together is even more unusual -- and can look both
serene and surreal.

Jigsaw Challenge: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day
Tomorrow's picture: comet set
__________________________________________________________________

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 February 5

Comet G3 ATLAS Setting over a Chilean Hill
Video Credit & Copyright: Gabriel Mu+#oz

Explanation: Where is Comet ATLAS going? In the featured time-lapse
video, the comet is not itself moving very much, but the Earth's
rotation makes it appear to be setting over a hill. The Comet C/2024 G3
(ATLAS) sequence was captured with an ordinary camera on January 22
from the Araucan+¡a Region in central Chile. Comet ATLAS has been an
impressive site in the evening skies of Earth's Southern Hemisphere
over the past few weeks, so bright and awe-inspiring that it may
eventually become known as the Great Comet of 2025. Unfortunately,
Comet G3 ATLAS is not going anywhere anymore because its central
nucleus broke up during its close pass to the Sun last month. Some of
the comet's scattered remains of rocks and ice will continue to orbit
the Sun, some in nearly the same outward section of the orbit that the
comet's nucleus would have taken.

Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

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 February 6

IC 2574: Coddington's Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Lorand Fenyes

Explanation: Grand spiral galaxies often seem to get all the glory,
flaunting their young, bright, blue star clusters in beautiful,
symmetric spiral arms. But small, irregular galaxies form stars too. In
fact dwarf galaxy IC 2574 shows clear evidence of intense star forming
activity in its telltale reddish regions of glowing hydrogen gas. Just
as in spiral galaxies, the turbulent star-forming regions in IC 2574
are churned by stellar winds and supernova explosions spewing material
into the galaxy's interstellar medium and triggering further star
formation. A mere 12 million light-years distant, IC 2574 is part of
the M81 group of galaxies, seen toward the northern constellation Ursa
Major. Also known as Coddington's Nebula, the lovely island universe is
about 50,000 light-years across, discovered by American astronomer
Edwin Coddington in 1898.

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

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 February 7

LEDA 1313424: The Bullseye Galaxy
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Imad Pasha (Yale), Pieter van Dokkum (Yale)

Explanation: The giant galaxy cataloged as LEDA 1313424 is about two
and a half times the size of our own Milky Way. Its remarkable
appearance in this recently released Hubble Space Telescope image
strongly suggests its nickname "The Bullseye Galaxy". Known as a
collisional ring galaxy it has nine rings confirmed by telescopic
observations, rippling from its center like waves from a pebble dropped
into a pond. Of course, the pebble dropped into the Bullseye galaxy was
a galaxy itself. Telescopic observations identify the blue dwarf galaxy
at center-left as the likely collider, passing through the giant
galaxy's center and forming concentric rings in the wake of their
gravitational interaction. The Bullseye Galaxy lies some 567 million
light-years away toward the constellation Pisces. At that distance,
this stunning Hubble image would span about 530,000 light-years.

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

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

2025 February 8

A Conjunction of Crescents
Image Credit & Copyright: Aldo S. Kleiman

Explanation: A waxing crescent Moon and a waning crescent Venus are
found at opposite corners of this twilight telephoto field of view. The
close conjunction of the two brightest celestial beacons in planet
Earth's western evening sky was captured on February 1 from Rosario,
Argentina. On that date, the slender crescent Moon was about 3 days
old. But the Moon's visible sunlit crescent will grow to a bright Full
Moon by February 14. Like the Moon, Venus cycles through phases as it
orbits the Sun. And while its visible sunlit crescent narrows, the
inner planet's apparent size increases as it gets closer to Earth. In a
Valentine from the Solar System, Venus, named for the Roman goddess of
Love, will also reach its peak brightness in planet Earth's evening
skies around February 14.

Tomorrow's picture: southern skyscape
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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 February 9
A flat landscape is shown at night that appears mostly brown. Numerous
unusual rock spires are seen rising from the group. Above, a full star
field is seen with the arch of our Milky Way Galaxy curving from left
to right. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Milky Way over the Australian Pinnacles
Image Credit & Copyright: Michael Goh

Explanation: What strange world is this? Earth. In the foreground of
the featured image are the Pinnacles, unusual rock spires in Nambung
National Park in Western Australia. Made of ancient sea shells
(limestone), how these human-sized picturesque spires formed remains
unknown. In the background, just past the end of the central Pinnacle,
is a bright crescent Moon. The eerie glow around the Moon is mostly
zodiacal light, sunlight reflected by dust grains orbiting between the
planets in the Solar System. Arching across the top is the central band
of our Milky Way Galaxy. Many famous stars and nebulas are also visible
in the background night sky. The featured 29-panel panorama was taken
and composed in 2015 September after detailed planning that involved
the Moon, the rock spires, and their corresponding shadows. Even so,
the strong zodiacal light was a pleasant surprise.

Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?
(post 1995)
Tomorrow's picture: glow bird
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2025 February 10
A snowy landscape sits below a star filled sky. Dominating the frame is
a large aurora in red, green, yellow, purple, white. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Auroral Hummingbird over Norway
Image Credit & Copyright: Mickael Coulon

Explanation: Is this the largest hummingbird ever? Although it may look
like a popular fluttering nectarivore, what is pictured is actually a
beautifully detailed and colorful aurora, complete with rays
reminiscent of feathers. This aurora was so bright that it was visible
to the unaided eye during blue hour -- just after sunset when the sky
appears a darkening blue. However, the aurora only looked like a
hummingbird through a sensitive camera able to pick up faint glows. As
reds typically occurring higher in the Earth's atmosphere than the
greens, the real 3D shape of this aurora would likely appear
unfamiliar. Auroras are created when an explosion on the Sun causes
high energy particles to flow into the Earth's atmosphere and excite
atoms and molecules of nitrogen and oxygen. The featured image was
captured about two weeks ago above Lyngseidt, Norway.

Tomorrow's picture: fly high
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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 February 11
A star field has a red diffuse glow on the right-hand side. Distinct
nebulas appear in the center and on the lower left. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

The Spider and the Fly
Image Credit & Copyright: Dave Boddington

Explanation: Will the spider ever catch the fly? Not if both are large
emission nebulas toward the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga).
The spider-shaped gas cloud in the image center is actually an emission
nebula labelled IC 417, while the smaller fly-shaped cloud on the left
is dubbed NGC 1931 and is both an emission nebula and a reflection
nebula. About 10,000 light-years distant, both nebulas harbor young
star clusters. For scale, the more compact NGC 1931 (Fly) is about 10
light-years across. The featured deep image, captured over 20 hours
during late January in Berkshire UK, also shows more diffuse and
red-glowing interstellar gas and dust.

Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: asteroid revolution
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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 February 12

Asteroid Bennu Holds the Building Blocks of Life
Video Credit: Data: NASA, SVS, U. Arizona, CSA, York U., MDA;
Visualizer: Kel Elkins (lead, SVS); Text: Ogetay Kayali (Michigan Tech
U.)

Explanation: What can a space rock tell us about life on Earth? NASA's
OSIRIS-REx spacecraft made a careful approach to the near-Earth
asteroid 101955 Bennu in October of 2020 to collect surface samples. In
September 2023, the robotic spaceship returned these samples to Earth.
A recent analysis has shown, surprisingly, that the samples contained
14 out of the 20 known amino acids that are the essential building
blocks of life. The presence of the amino acids re-introduces a big
question: Could life have originated in space? However, the protein
building blocks themselves held another surprise -- they contained an
even mixture of left-handed and right-handed amino acids -- in contrast
to our Earth which only has left-handed ones. This raises another big
question: Why does life on Earth have only left-handed amino acids?
Research on this is sure to continue.

Tomorrow's picture: interstellar dust clouds
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2025 February 13

Reflections on VdB 31
Image Credit & Copyright: Roberto Marinoni

Explanation: Riding high in the constellation of Auriga, beautiful,
blue VdB 31 is the 31st object in Sidney van den Bergh's 1966 catalog
of reflection nebulae. It shares this well-composed celestial still
life with dark, obscuring clouds B26, B27, and B28, recorded in Edward
E. Barnard's 1919 catalog of dark markings in the sky. All are these
nebulae are interstellar dust clouds. Barnard's dark nebulae block the
light from background stars. For VdB 31 the dust preferentially
reflects bluish starlight from embedded, hot, variable star AB Aurigae.
Exploring the environs of AB Aurigae with the Hubble Space Telescope
has revealed the several million year young star is itself surrounded
by a flattened dusty disk with evidence for the ongoing formation of a
planetary system. AB Aurigae is about 470 light-years away. At that
distance this cosmic canvas would span about eight light-years.

Tomorrow's picture: when roses are red
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2025 February 14

A Cosmic Rose: NGC 2237 in Monoceros
Image Credit & Copyright: Harry Karamitsos

Explanation: The Rosette Nebula, NGC 2237, is not the only cosmic cloud
of gas and dust to evoke the imagery of flowers, but it is probably the
most famous. At the edge of a large molecular cloud in Monoceros some
5,000 light years away, the petals of this cosmic rose are actually a
stellar nursery. The lovely, symmetric shape is sculpted by the winds
and radiation from its central cluster of hot young, O-type stars.
Stars in the energetic cluster, cataloged as NGC 2244, are only a few
million years young, while the central cavity in the Rosette Nebula, is
about 50 light-years in diameter. The nebula can be seen with a small
telescope toward the constellation of Monoceros, the Unicorn. This
natural appearing telescopic portrait of the Rosette Nebula was made
using broadband color filters, but sometimes roses aren't red.

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 February 15

Parhelia at Abisko
Image Credit & Copyright: Felipe Menzella

Explanation: Three suns seem to hug the horizon in this otherworldly
winterscape. But the evocative scene was captured during a February 3rd
snowmobile exploration of the mountainous region around Abisko National
Park, northern Sweden, planet Earth. The two bright spots on either
side of Earth's Sun are parhelia (singular parhelion), also known as
mock suns or sun dogs. The parhelia are caused by hexagonal ice
crystals suspended in the hazy atmosphere that reflect and refract
sunlight. Commonly seen in winter and at high latitudes, the bright
parhelia lie along the visible 22 degree ice halo of the Sun.

Tomorrow's picture: swooping jupiter
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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 February 16

Perijove 11: Passing Jupiter
Video Credit & License: NASA, Juno, SwRI, MSSS, Gerald Eichstadt;
Music: Moonlight Sonata (Ludwig van Beethoven)

Explanation: Here comes Jupiter. NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno is
continuing on its highly elongated orbits around our Solar System's
largest planet. The featured video is from perijove 11 in early 2018,
the eleventh time Juno passed near Jupiter since it arrived in
mid-2016. This time-lapse, color-enhanced movie covers about four hours
and morphs between 36 JunoCam images. The video begins with Jupiter
rising as Juno approaches from the north. As Juno reaches its closest
view -- from about 3,500 kilometers over Jupiter's cloud tops -- the
spacecraft captures the great planet in tremendous detail. Juno passes
light zones and dark belts of clouds that circle the planet, as well as
numerous swirling circular storms, many of which are larger than
hurricanes on Earth. After the perijove, Jupiter recedes into the
distance, then displaying the unusual clouds that appear over Jupiter's
south. To get desired science data, Juno swoops so close to Jupiter
that its instruments are exposed to very high levels of radiation.

Tomorrow's picture: big cloud
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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 February 17
Houses are seen on a street below the night sky. In the sky is a bright
light plume that looks like the outline of a giant fish. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

SpaceX Rocket Launch Plume over California
Image Credit & Copyright: Martin LaMontagne

Explanation: What's happened to the sky? Last Monday, the photogenic
launch plume from a SpaceX rocket launch created quite a spectacle over
parts of southern California and Arizona. Looking at times like a giant
space fish, the impressive rocket launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base
near Lompoc, California, was so bright because it was backlit by the
setting Sun. The Falcon 9 rocket successfully delivered to low Earth
orbit 23 Starlink communications satellites. The plume from the first
stage is seen on the right, while the soaring upper stage rocket is
seen at the apex of the plume toward the left. Venus appears at the top
of the frame, while a bright streetlight shines on the far right. The
featured image was captured toward the west after sunset from near
Phoenix, Arizona.

Tomorrow's picture: Thor birds
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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 February 18
A tall starscape appears to have two bright nebulas. The large one at
the top is colored mostly red and is known as the Seagull Nebula. The
small one near the bottom right is known as Thor's Helmet. Please see
the explanation for more detailed information.

Thor's Helmet versus the Seagull
Image Credit & Copyright: Nicolas Martino, Adrien Soto, Louis Leroux &
Yann Sainty

Explanation: Seen as a seagull and a duck, these nebulae are not the
only cosmic clouds to evoke images of flight. But both are winging
their way across this broad celestial landscape, spanning almost 7
degrees across planet Earth's night sky toward the constellation of the
Big Dog (Canis Major). The expansive Seagull (top center) is itself
composed of two major cataloged emission nebulas. Brighter NGC 2327
forms the head with the more diffuse IC 2177 as the wings and body.
Impressively, the Seagull's wingspan would correspond to about 250
light-years at the nebula's estimated distance of 3,800 light-years. At
the lower right, the Duck appears much more compact and would span only
about 50 light-years given its 15,000 light-year distance estimate.
Blown by energetic winds from an extremely massive, hot star near its
center, the Duck nebula is cataloged as NGC 2359. Of course, the Duck's
thick body and winged appendages also lend it the slightly more
dramatic popular moniker, Thor's Helmet.

Portal Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: star system forming
__________________________________________________________________

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

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

2025 February 19
A dark field has a single, colorful, blurry structure in its center.
Red-colored jets extend out from the center toward the top and bottom
of the frame. A dark disk covers the center. Blue outflows appear on
both sides of the horizontal disk. To the lower left, a larger blue
outflow extends. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

HH 30: A Star System with Planets Now Forming
Image Credit: James Webb Space Telescope, ESA, NASA & CSA, R. Tazaki et
al.

Explanation: How do stars and planets form? New clues have been found
in the protoplanetary system Herbig-Haro 30 by the James Webb Space
Telescope in concert with Hubble and the Earth-bound ALMA. The
observations show, among other things, that large dust grains are more
concentrated into a central disk where they can form planets. The
featured image from Webb shows many attributes of the active HH-30
system. Jets of particles are being expelled vertically, shown in red,
while a dark dust-rich disk is seen across the center, blocking the
light from the star or stars still forming there. Blue-reflecting dust
is seen in a parabolic arc above and below the central disk, although
why a tail appears on the lower left is currently unknown. Studying how
planets form in HH 30 can help astronomers better understand how
planets in our own Solar System once formed, including our Earth.

Tomorrow's picture: M87
__________________________________________________________________

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

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

2025 February 20

Messier 87
Image Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team

Explanation: Enormous elliptical galaxy Messier 87 is about 50 million
light-years away. Also known as NGC 4486, the giant galaxy holds
trillions of stars compared to the mere billions of stars in our large
spiral Milky Way. M87 reigns as the large central elliptical galaxy in
the Virgo galaxy cluster. An energetic jet from the giant galaxy's core
is seen to stretch outward for about 5,000 light-years in this sharp
optical and near-infrared view from the Hubble Space Telescope. In
fact, the cosmic blow torch is seen across the electromagnetic spectrum
from gamma-rays to radio wavelengths. Its ultimate power source is
M87's central, supermassive black hole. An image of this monster in the
middle of M87 has been captured by planet Earth's Event Horizon
Telescope.

Tomorrow's picture: our friendly neighbor
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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 February 21

Hubble's Andromeda Galaxy Mosaic
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Mission,
B. F. Williams (Univ Washington), Z. Chen (Univ Washington), L. C.
Johnson (Northwestern),
Processing; Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Explanation: The largest photomosaic ever assembled from Hubble Space
Telescope image data is a panoramic view of our neighboring spiral
Andromeda Galaxy. With 600 overlapping frames assembled from
observations made from July 2010 to December 2022, the full Hubble
Andromeda Galaxy mosaic spans almost six full moons across planet
Earth's sky. A cropped version shown above is nearly two full moons
across and partially covers Andromeda's core and inner spiral arms.
Also known as M31, the Andromeda Galaxy is 2.5 million light-years
away. That makes it the closest large spiral galaxy to our own Milky
Way. Our perspective on the spiral Milky Way is anchored to the view
from the location of the Sun, a star found within the Milky Way's
galactic disk. But Hubble's magnificent Andromeda mosaic offers an
expansive view of a large spiral galaxy from the outside looking in.
Hubble's comprehensive, detailed data set extending across the
Andromeda Galaxy will allow astronomers to make an unprecedented
holistic exploration of the mysteries of spiral galaxy structure and
evolution.

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

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

2025 February 22

Rima Hyginus
Image Credit & Copyright: Vincenzo Mirabella

Explanation: Rima Hyginus is a spectacular fissure, some 220 kilometers
long, found near the center of the lunar near side. Easy to spot in
telescopic views of the Moon, it stretches top left to bottom right
across this lunar closeup. The image was made with exaggerated colors
that reflect the mineral composition of the lunar soil. Hyginus crater
lies near the center of the narrow lunar surface groove. About 10
kilometers in diameter, the low-walled crater is a volcanic caldera,
one of the larger non-impact craters on the lunar surface. Dotted with
small pits formed by surface collapse, Hyginus rima itself was likely
created by stresses due to internal magma upwelling and collapse along
a long surface fault. The intriguing region was a candidate landing
site for the canceled Apollo 19 mission.

Tomorrow's picture: northern Saturn
__________________________________________________________________

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 February 23
The planet Saturn is seen very close up. The clouds are tinted beige
and tan, while parts of rings are seen at the top and bottom of the
image. At the north pole of Saturn at the top, a blue-tinted hexagon is
visible. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Saturn in Infrared from Cassini
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SSI; Processing: Maksim Kakitsev

Explanation: Saturn looks slightly different in infrared light. Bands
of clouds show great structure, including long stretching storms. Also
quite striking in infrared is the unusual hexagonal cloud pattern
surrounding Saturn's North Pole. Each side of the dark hexagon spans
roughly the width of our Earth. The hexagon's existence was not
predicted, and its origin and likely stability remain a topics of
research. Saturn's famous rings circle the planet and cast shadows
below the equator. The featured image was taken by the robotic Cassini
spacecraft in 2014 in several infrared colors. In 2017 September, the
Cassini mission was brought to a dramatic conclusion when the
spacecraft was directed to dive into the ringed giant.

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

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

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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 February 24
A slope of volcano is pictured with red glowing lava running down its
side. A dark starry sky is in the background. Up into the sky a red
column is visible. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Light Pillar over Erupting Etna
Image Credit & Copyright: Davide Cali+#

Explanation: Can a lava flow extend into the sky? No, but light from
the lava flow can. One effect is something quite unusual -- a volcanic
light pillar. More typically, light pillars are caused by sunlight and
so appear as a bright column that extends upward above a rising or
setting Sun. Alternatively, other light pillars -- some quite colorful
-- have been recorded above street and house lights. This light pillar,
though, was illuminated by the red light emitted by the glowing magma
of an erupting volcano. The volcano is Italy's Mount Etna, and the
featured image was captured with a single shot during an early morning
in mid-February. Freezing temperatures above the volcano's lava flow
created ice-crystals either in the air above the volcano or in
condensed water vapor expelled by Mount Etna. These ice crystals --
mostly flat toward the ground but fluttering -- then reflected away
light from the volcano's caldera.

Tomorrow's picture: stars between curtains
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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 February 25
A starscape is shown with red filaments running diagonally from the
lower left to the upper right. Many bright blue stars are visible
across the center of the frame. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

M41: The Little Beehive Star Cluster
Image Credit & Copyright: Xinran Li

Explanation: Why are there so many bright blue stars? Stars are usually
born in clusters, and the brightest and most massive of these stars
typically glow blue. Less-bright, non-blue stars like our Sun surely
also exist in this M41 star cluster but are harder to see. A few bright
orange-appearing red giant stars are visible. The red-light filaments
are emitted by diffuse hydrogen gas, a color that was specifically
filtered and enhanced in this image. In a hundred million years or so,
the bright blue stars will have exploded in supernovas and disappeared,
while the slightly different trajectories of the fainter stars will
cause this picturesque open cluster to disperse. Similarly, billions of
years ago, our own Sun was likely born into a star cluster like M41,
but it has long since drifted apart from its sister stars. The featured
image was captured over four hours with Chilescope T2 in Chile.

Tomorrow's picture: Einstein's ring
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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 February 26
A cluster of galaxies is shown with many galaxies around the cluster
center. A close look at this center shows that it is encompassed by a
narrow ring of light. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Einstein Ring Surrounds Nearby Galaxy Center
Image Credit & Copyright: ESA, NASA, Euclid Consortium; Processing:
J.-C. Cuillandre, G. Anselmi, T. Li

Explanation: Do you see the ring? If you look very closely at the
center of the featured galaxy NGC 6505, a ring becomes evident. It is
the gravity of NGC 6505, the nearby (z = 0.042) elliptical galaxy that
you can easily see, that is magnifying and distorting the image of a
distant galaxy into a complete circle. To create a complete Einstein
ring there must be perfect alignment of the nearby galaxy's center and
part of the background galaxy. Analysis of this ring and the multiple
images of the background galaxy help to determine the mass and fraction
of dark matter in NGC 6505's center, as well as uncover previously
unseen details in the distorted galaxy. The featured image was captured
by ESA's Earth-orbiting Euclid telescope in 2023 and released earlier
this month.

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 February 27

Open Star Clusters M35 and NGC 2158
Image Credit & Copyright: Evan Tsai, LATTE: Lulin-ASIAA Telescope

Explanation: Framed in this single, starry, telescopic field of view
are two open star clusters, M35 and NGC 2158. Located within the
boundaries of the constellation Gemini, they do appear to be side by
side. Its stars concentrated toward the upper right, M35 is relatively
nearby, though. M35 (also cataloged as NGC 2168) is a mere 2800
light-years distant, with 400 or so stars spread out over a volume
about 30 light-years across. Bright blue stars frequently distinguish
younger open clusters like M35, whose age is estimated at 150 million
years. At lower left, NGC 2158 is about four times more distant than
M35 and much more compact, shining with the more yellowish light of a
population of stars over 10 times older. In general, open star clusters
are found along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Loosely
gravitationally bound, their member stars tend to be dispersed over
billions of years as the open star clusters orbit the galactic center.

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

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 February 28

Athena to the Moon
Image Credit: Intuitive Machines

Explanation: Planet Earth hangs in the background of this space age
selfie. The snapshot was captured by the IM-2 Nova-C lander Athena,
just after stage separation following its February 26 launch to the
Moon. A tall robotic lander, Athena is scheduled to touch down on
Thursday, March 6, in Mons Mouton, a plateau near the MoonCÇÖs South
Pole. The intended landing site is in the central portion of one of the
Artemis 3 potential landing regions. Athena carries rovers and
experiments as part of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services
program, including a drill intended to explore beneath the lunar
surface in a search for evidence of frozen water. It also carries a
propulsive drone dubbed the Micro Nova Hopper. After release to the
lunar surface, the autonomous drone is intended to hop into a nearby
crater and send science data back to the lander.

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 March 1

Blue Ghost to the Moon
Image Credit: Firefly Aerospace

Explanation: With spacecraft thrusters at top center, the rugged
surface of the Moon lies below the Blue Ghost lander in this space age
video frame. The view of the lunar far side was captured by the Firefly
Aerospace lunar lander on February 24, following a maneuver to
circularize its orbit about 100 kilometers above the lunar surface. The
robotic lunar lander is scheduled to touch down tomorrow, Sunday, March
2, at 3:34am Eastern Time in the Mare Crisium impact basin on the lunar
near side. In support of the Artemis campaign, Blue Ghost is set to
deliver science and technology experiments to the Moon, part of NASA's
Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. Blue Ghost's mission on the
surface is planned to operate during the lunar daylight hours at the
landing site, about 14 Earth days.

Tomorrow's picture: light and sound
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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 March 2

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in Light and Sound
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Sonification: G. Salvesen; Data: M.
Rafelski et al.

Explanation: Have you heard about the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field? Either
way, you've likely not heard about it like this -- please run your
cursor over the featured image and listen! The Hubble Ultra-Deep Field
(HUDF) was created in 2003-2004 with the Hubble Space Telescope staring
for a long time toward near-empty space so that distant, faint galaxies
would become visible. One of the most famous images in astronomy, the
HUDF is featured here in a vibrant way -- with sonified distances.
Pointing to a galaxy will play a note that indicates its approximate
redshift. Because redshifts shift light toward the red end of the
spectrum of light, they are depicted here by a shift of tone toward the
low end of the spectrum of sound. The further the galaxy, the greater
its cosmological redshift (even if it appears blue), and the lower the
tone that will be played. The average galaxy in the HUDF is about 10.6
billion light years away and sounds like an F#. What's the most distant
galaxy you can find?

Tomorrow's picture: quadruple alignment
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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 March 3
A dark sky is shown above a bright desolate landscape. The landscape is
the Moon and large shadows appear, with one being the shadow of lunar
lander. A bright dot appears over the horizon that is distant planet
Earth. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Blue Ghost on the Moon
Image Credit: Firefly Aerospace

Explanation: There's a new lander on the Moon. Yesterday Firefly
Aerospace's Blue Ghost executed the first-ever successful commercial
lunar landing. During its planned 60-day mission, Blue Ghost will
deploy several NASA-commissioned scientific instruments, including
PlanetVac which captures lunar dust after creating a small whirlwind of
gas. Blue Ghost will also host the telescope LEXI that captures X-ray
images of the Earth's magnetosphere. LEXI data should enable a better
understanding of how Earth's magnetic field protects the Earth from the
Sun's wind and flares. Pictured, the shadow of the Blue Ghost lander is
visible on the cratered lunar surface, while the glowing orb of the
planet Earth hovers just over the horizon. Goals for future robotic
Blue Ghost landers include supporting lunar astronauts in NASA's
Artemis program, with Artemis III currently scheduled to land humans
back on the Moon in 2027.

Tomorrow's picture: quadruple alignment
__________________________________________________________________

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 March 4
A hazy night sky shows four lined up items. The closest two are lit-up
buildings on hills. Looming large in the background, in alignment, is a
gibbous Moon, distorted and reddened by the Earth's atmosphere. Across
the Moon's face is a streak that is an airplane. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

A Quadruple Alignment over Italy
Image Credit & Copyright: Valerio Minato

Explanation: Why does this Moon look so unusual? A key reason is its
vivid red color. The color is caused by the deflection of blue light by
Earth's atmosphere -- the same reason that the daytime sky appears
blue. The Moon also appears unusually distorted. Its strange
structuring is an optical effect arising from layers in the Earth's
atmosphere that refract light differently due to sudden differences in
temperature or pressure. A third reason the Moon looks so unusual is
that there is, by chance, an airplane flying in front. The featured
picturesque gibbous Moon was captured about two weeks ago above Turin,
Italy. Our familiar hovering sky orb was part of an unusual quadruple
alignment that included two historic ground structures: the Sacra di
San Michele on the near hill and Basilica of Superga just beyond.

Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your friend's
birthday? (post 1995)
Tomorrow's picture: star sisters
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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 March 5
The featured image shows a wide field with the red California Nebula on
the left, the blue Pleiades Star Cluster on the right, and much brown
interstellar dust in between. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Seven Sisters versus California
Image Credit & Copyright: Todd Anderson

Explanation: On the right, dressed in blue, is the Pleiades. Also known
as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades is one of the brightest and
most easily visible open clusters on the sky. The Pleiades contains
over 3,000 stars, is about 400 light years away, and only 13 light
years across. Surrounding the stars is a spectacular blue reflection
nebula made of fine dust. A common legend is that one of the brighter
stars faded since the cluster was named. On the left, shining in red,
is the California Nebula. Named for its shape, the California Nebula is
much dimmer and hence harder to see than the Pleiades. Also known as
NGC 1499, this mass of red glowing hydrogen gas is about 1,500 light
years away. Although about 25 full moons could fit between them, the
featured wide angle, deep field image composite has captured them both.
A careful inspection of the deep image will also reveal the star
forming region IC 348 and the molecular cloud LBN 777 (the Baby Eagle
Nebula).

Jump Around the Universe: 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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& 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 March 6

Starburst Galaxy Messier 94
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA

Explanation: Beautiful island universe Messier 94 lies a mere 15
million light-years distant in the northern constellation of the
hunting dogs, Canes Venatici. A popular target for earth-based
astronomers, the face-on spiral galaxy is about 30,000 light-years
across, with spiral arms sweeping through the outskirts of its broad
disk. But this Hubble Space Telescope field of view spans about 7,000
light-years or so across M94's central region. The sharp close-up
examines the galaxy's compact, bright nucleus and prominent inner dust
lanes, surrounded by a remarkable bluish ring of young, massive stars.
The massive stars in the ring appear to be less than about 10 million
years old, indicating the galaxy experienced a corresponding
well-defined era of rapid star formation. As a result, while the small,
bright nucleus is typical of the Seyfert class of active galaxies, M94
is also known as a starburst galaxy. Because M94 is relatively nearby,
astronomers can explore in detail reasons for the galaxy's burst of
star formation.

Today's Coverage: Moon Landing
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

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 March 7

Planetary Nebula Abell 7
Image Credit: Image Credit & Copyright: Vikas Chander

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. Surrounded by Milky Way
stars and near the line-of-sight to distant background galaxies its
generally simple spherical shape, about 8 light-years in diameter, is
revealed in this deep telescopic image. Within the cosmic cloud are
beautiful and complex structures though, enhanced by the use of long
exposures and narrowband filters that capture emission from hydrogen,
sulfur, 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: 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 March 8

Galaxies in Space
Image Credit & License: NASA, ISS Expedition 72, Don Petit

Explanation: The plane of our Milky Way galaxy extends beyond the limb
of planet Earth in this space age exposure captured by astronaut Don
Pettit. His camera, with low light and long duration settings, was
pointed out the window of a Dragon crew spacecraft docked with the
International Space Station on January 29. The orbital outpost was at
an altitude of about 400 kilometers above the Pacific Ocean at the
time. Motion blurs the Earth below, while the gorgeous view from low
Earth orbit includes the Milky Way's prominent satellite galaxies,
known as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, near the upper left in
the frame. Fans of southern skies can also spot the Southern Cross. The
four brightest stars of the famous southern constellation Crux are near
picture center, just beyond the edge of the bright horizon and shining
through Earth's orange tinted atmospheric glow.

Tomorrow's picture: Cyclones on Jupiter
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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 March 9
The image shows the north pole of Jupiter in red (infrared) light. Many
cyclonic swirls surround the pole. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Cyclones at Jupiter's North Pole
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SwRI, ASI, INAF, JIRAM

Explanation: Why are there so many cyclones around the north pole of
Jupiter? The topic is still being researched. NASA's robotic Juno
mission orbiting Jupiter took data in 2018 that was used to construct
this stunning view of the curious cyclones at Jupiter's north pole.
Measuring the thermal emission from Jovian cloud tops, the infrared
observations are not restricted to the hemisphere illuminated by
sunlight. They reveal eight cyclonic features that surround a cyclone
about 4,000 kilometers in diameter, just offset from the giant planet's
geographic north pole. Similar data show a cyclone at the Jovian south
pole with five circumpolar cyclones. The south pole cyclones are
slightly larger than their northern cousins. Oddly, data from the once
Saturn-orbiting Cassini mission has shown that Saturn's north and south
poles each have only a single cyclonic storm system.

Tomorrow's picture: california red
__________________________________________________________________

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 March 10
The starry image filled with a red glow features a red, yellow, and
blue colored nebula. The nebula has, roughly, the shape of the US state
of California. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

NGC 1499: The California Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Toni Fabiani Mendez

Explanation: Could Queen Calafia's mythical island exist in space?
Perhaps not, but by chance the outline of this molecular space cloud
echoes the outline of the state of California, USA. Our Sun has its
home within the Milky Way's Orion Arm, only about 1,000 light-years
from the California Nebula. Also known as NGC 1499, the classic
emission nebula is around 100 light-years long. On the featured image,
the most prominent glow of the California Nebula is the red light
characteristic of hydrogen atoms recombining with long lost electrons,
stripped away (ionized) by energetic starlight. The star most likely
providing the energetic starlight that ionizes much of the nebular gas
is the bright, hot, bluish Xi Persei just to the right of the nebula. A
regular target for astrophotographers, the California Nebula can be
spotted with a wide-field telescope under a dark sky toward the
constellation of Perseus, not far from the Pleiades.

Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: galaxy bar
__________________________________________________________________

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 March 11
A spiral galaxy is shown in great detail. Visible are blue star
clusters, red nebulas, and brown dust in a spiral pattern around the
image and galaxy center. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

NGC 1672: Barred Spiral Galaxy from Hubble
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, O. Fox, L. Jenkins, S. Van Dyk, A.
Filippenko, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team, D. de Martin (ESA/Hubble),
M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble)

Explanation: Many spiral galaxies have bars across their centers. Even
our own Milky Way Galaxy is thought to have a modest central bar.
Prominently barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672, featured here, was captured
in spectacular detail in an image taken by the orbiting Hubble Space
Telescope. Visible are dark filamentary dust lanes, young clusters of
bright blue stars, red emission nebulas of glowing hydrogen gas, a long
bright bar of stars across the center, and a bright active nucleus that
likely houses a supermassive black hole. Light takes about 60 million
years to reach us from NGC 1672, which spans about 75,000 light years
across. NGC 1672, which appears toward the constellation of the
Dolphinfish (Dorado), has been studied to find out how a spiral bar
contributes to star formation in a galaxy's central regions.

Tomorrow's picture: comet versus galaxy
__________________________________________________________________

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 March 12
A dark field is filled with stars and galaxies. A large spiral galaxy
appears on the upper left. Toward the right, there is a smaller fuzzy
patch that is a comet with a short tail. Please see the explanation for
more detailed information.

NGC 772: The Fiddlehead Galaxy
Image Credit & Copyright: Jean-Fran+ºois Bax & Serge Brunier, OCA/C2PU;
Text: Ogetay Kayali (Michigan Tech U.)

Explanation: Why does this galaxy look like a curly vegetable? The
Fiddlehead spiral galaxy likely gets its distorted spiral appearance
from a gravitational interaction with its close-by elliptical companion
NGC 770, seen just below. Cataloged as NGC 772 and Arp 78, the
Fiddlehead spans over 200,000 light years, is a nearby 100 million
light years beyond the stars of our Milky Way galaxy, and is visible
toward the constellation of the Ram (Aries). But in the featured image,
the Fiddlehead appears to have another companion -- one with a long and
fuzzy tail: Comet 43P/Wolf-Harrington. Though the comet appears to be
aimed straight at the massive galaxy, it is actually much closer to us,
residing only light minutes away -- well within our Solar System. The
comet will never reach the distant spiral galaxy, nor is it physically
related to it. By a fortunate trick of perspective, though, these two
cosmic wonders briefly share the same frame taken late last year from
Calern, France.

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 March 13

The Protostars within Lynds 483
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA,

Explanation: Two protostars are hidden in a single pixel near the
center of a striking hourglass-shaped nebula in this near-infrared
image from the James Webb Space Telescope. The actively forming star
system lies in a dusty molecular cloud cataloged as Lynds 483, some 650
light-years distant toward the constellation Serpens Cauda. Responsible
for the stunning bipolar outflows, the collapsing protostars have been
blasting out collimated energetic jets of material over tens of
thousands of years. Webb's high-resolution view shows the violence of
star-formation in dramatic detail as twisting shock fronts expand and
collide with slower, denser material. The premier close-up of the
star-forming region spans less than 1/2 a light-year within dark nebula
Lynds 483.

March 13/14: Total Lunar Eclipse Tomorrow's picture: Moon Pi
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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 March 14

Moon Pi and Mountain Shadow
Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Lopez (El Cielo de Canarias)

Explanation: What phase of the Moon is 3.14 radians from the Sun? The
Full Moon, of course. Even though the Moon might look full for several
days, the Moon is truly at its full phase when it is Pi radians (aka
180 degrees) from the Sun in ecliptic longitude. That's opposite the
Sun in planet Earth's sky. Rising as the Sun set on March 9, 2020, only
an hour or so after the moment of its full phase, this orange tinted
and slightly flattened Moon still looked full. It was photographed
opposite the setting Sun from Teide National Park on the Canary Island
of Tenerife. Also opposite the setting Sun, seen from near the Teide
volcano peak about 3,500 meters above sea level, is the mountain's
rising triangular shadow extending into Earth's dense atmosphere. Below
the distant ridge line on the left are the white telescope domes of
Teide Observatory. Today, March 14 2025, the moon is Pi radians from
the Sun at exactly 06:55 UTC. That's about three minutes before the
midpoint of the March Full Moon's total lunar eclipse.

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

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

2025 March 15

Tololo Totality
Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Hor+ílek/CTIO (Cerro Tololo Observatory)
/AURA/NSF/ NOIRLab

Explanation: On March 14 the Moon was Full. In an appropriate
celebration of Pi day, that put the Moon 3.14 radians (180 degrees) in
ecliptic longitude from the Sun in planet Earth's sky. As a bonus for
fans of Pi and the night sky, on that date the Moon also passed
directly through Earth's umbral shadow in a total lunar eclipse. In
clear skies, the colors of an eclipsed Moon can be vivid. Reflecting
the deeply reddened sunlight scattered into Earth's shadow, the
darkened lunar disk was recorded in this time series composite image
from Cerro Tololo Observatory, Chile. The lunar triptych captures the
start, middle, and end of the total eclipse phase that lasted about an
hour. A faint bluish tint seen just along the brighter lunar limb at
the shadow's edge is due to sunlight filtered through Earth's
stratospheric ozone layer.

Growing Gallery: Total Lunar Eclipse of 2025 March
Tomorrow's picture: Venusian silhouette
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 March 16
An image of the Sun in three colors of ultraviolet light showing the
transit circle of Venus and a deep coronal hole in dark blue. Please
see the explanation for more detailed information.

Venus and the Triply Ultraviolet Sun
Image Credit: NASA/SDO & the AIA, EVE, and HMI teams; Digital
Composition: Peter L. Dove

Explanation: This was a very unusual type of solar eclipse. Typically,
it is the Earth's Moon that eclipses the Sun. In 2012, though, the
planet Venus took a turn. Like a solar eclipse by the Moon, the phase
of Venus became a continually thinner crescent as Venus became
increasingly better aligned with the Sun. Eventually the alignment
became perfect and the phase of Venus dropped to zero. The dark spot of
Venus crossed our parent star. The situation could technically be
labeled a Venusian annular eclipse with an extraordinarily large ring
of fire. Pictured here during the occultation, the Sun was imaged in
three colors of ultraviolet light by the Earth-orbiting Solar Dynamics
Observatory, with the dark region toward the right corresponding to a
coronal hole. Hours later, as Venus continued in its orbit, a slight
crescent phase appeared again. The next Venusian transit across the Sun
will occur in 2117.

Tomorrow's picture: big hat
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 March 17
The image shows a starfield with an oval shaped red and light-blue
tinged nebula in the center Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Thor's Helmet
Image Credit & Copyright: Brian Hopkins (East Coast Astronomer)

Explanation: Thor not only has his own day (Thursday), but a helmet in
the heavens. Popularly called Thor's Helmet, NGC 2359 is a hat-shaped
cosmic cloud with wing-like appendages. Heroically sized even for a
Norse god, Thor's Helmet is about 30 light-years across. In fact, the
cosmic head-covering is more like an interstellar bubble, blown by a
fast wind from the bright, massive star near the bubble's center. Known
as a Wolf-Rayet star, the central star is an extremely hot giant
thought to be in a brief, pre-supernova stage of evolution. NGC 2359 is
located about 15,000 light-years away toward the constellation of the
Great Overdog. This sharp image is a mixed cocktail of data from
narrowband filters, capturing not only natural looking stars but
details of the nebula's filamentary structures. The star in the center
of Thor's Helmet is expected to explode in a spectacular supernova
sometime within the next few thousand years.

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

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2025 March 18
A dark brown cloud that appears similar to a shark is seen against a
background filled with stars and less prominent blue-shaded nebulas.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

LDN 1235: The Shark Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Timothy Martin

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

Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: open space
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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written by a professional astronomer.

2025 March 19

Blue Ghost's Diamond Ring
Image Credit: Firefly Aerospace

Explanation: On March 14 the Full Moon slid through Earth's dark umbral
shadow and denizens of planet Earth were treated to a total lunar
eclipse. Of course, from the Moon's near side that same astronomical
syzygy was seen as a solar eclipse. Operating in the Mare Crisium on
the lunar surface, the Blue Ghost lander captured this video frame of
Earth in silhouette around 3:30am CDT, just as the Sun was emerging
from behind the terrestrial disk. From Blue Ghost's lunar perspective
the beautiful diamond ring effect, familiar to earthbound solar eclipse
watchers, is striking. Since Earth appears about four times the
apparent size of the Sun from the lunar surface the inner solar corona,
the atmosphere of the Sun most easily seen from Earth during a total
solar eclipse, is hidden from view. Still, scattering in Earth's dense
atmosphere creates the glowing band of sunlight embracing our fair
planet.

Tomorrow's picture: welcome to the equinox
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 March 20

The Solar Eclipse Analemma Project
Image Credit & Copyright: Hunter Wells

Explanation: Recorded from 2024 March 10, to 2025 March 1, this
composited series of images reveals a pattern in the seasonal drift of
the Sun's daily motion through planet Earth's sky. Known to some as an
analemma, the figure-eight curve was captured in exposures taken on the
indicated dates only at 18:38 UTC from the exact same location south of
Stephenville, Texas. The Sun's position on the 2024 solstice dates of
June 20 and December 21 would be at the top and bottom of the curve and
correspond to the astronomical beginning of summer and winter in the
north. Points that lie along the curve half-way between the solstices
would mark the equinoxes. The 2024 equinox on September 22, and in 2025
the equinox on March 20 (today) are the start of northern fall and
spring. And since one of the exposures was made on 2024 April 8 from
the Stephenville location at 18:38:40 UTC, this analemma project also
reveals the solar corona in planet Earth's sky during a total solar
eclipse.

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

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
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2025 March 21

The Leo Trio
Image Credit & Copyright: Rabeea Alkuwari

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

Tomorrow's picture: one hand clapping
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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 March 22

SuperCam Target on Ma'az
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/CNRS

Explanation: What's the sound of one laser zapping? There's no need to
consult a Zen master to find out, just listen to the first acoustic
recording of laser shots on Mars. On Mars Rover Perseverance mission
sol 12 (March 2, 2021) the SuperCam instrument atop the rover's mast
zapped a rock dubbed Ma'az 30 times from a range of about 3.1 meters.
Its microphone recorded the soft staccato popping sounds of the rapid
series of SuperCam laser zaps. Shockwaves created in the thin Martian
atmosphere as bits of rock are vaporized by the laser shots make the
popping sounds, sounds that offer clues to the physical structure of
the target. This SuperCam close-up of the Ma'az target region is 6
centimeters (2.3 inches) across. Ma'az means Mars in the Navajo
language.

IFRAME:
https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/track
s/1004116528%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-Da5U96EOyre&color=%23ff55

Tomorrow's picture: once upon a beach
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 March 23
Rocks and brown sand occupy this horizontally compressed image of Mars.
At the top is a light colored peak. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Ancient Ogunquit Beach on Mars
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS, Curiosity Rover

Explanation: This was once a beach -- on ancient Mars. The featured
360-degree panorama, horizontally compressed, was taken in 2017 by the
robotic Curiosity rover that explored the red planet. Named Ogunquit
Beach after its terrestrial counterpart, evidence shows that at times
long ago the area was underwater, while at other times it was at the
edge of an ancient lake. The light peak in the central background is
the top of Mount Sharp, the central feature in Gale Crater where
Curiosity explored. Portions of the dark sands in the foreground were
scooped up for analysis. The light colored bedrock is composed of
sediment that likely settled at the bottom of the now-dried lakebed.
The featured panorama (interactive version here) was created from over
100 images and seemingly signed by the rover on the lower left.

Tomorrow's picture: moon goes dark
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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 March 24

A Total Lunar Eclipse Over Uruguay
Video Credit & Copyright: Mauricio Salazar

Explanation: If the full Moon suddenly faded, what would you see? The
answer was recorded in a dramatic time lapse video taken during the
total lunar eclipse last week from Uruguay. During a total lunar
eclipse, the Earth moves between the Moon and the Sun, causing the Moon
to fade dramatically. The Moon never gets completely dark, though,
since the Earth's atmosphere refracts some light. As the featured video
begins, the scene may appear to be daytime and sunlit, but actually it
is nighttime and lit by the glow of the full Moon. As the Moon becomes
eclipsed and fades, background stars become visible. Most
spectacularly, the sky surrounding the eclipsed moon suddenly appears
to be full of stars and highlighted by the busy plane of our Milky Way
Galaxy. Nearly two hours after the eclipse started, the Moon emerged
from the Earth's shadow and its bright full glare again dominated the
sky.

Tomorrow's picture: moon glows blue
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 March 25
A developing total lunar eclipse is shown in three frames. At the top
part of the uneclipsed Moon is visible with a distinctive blue band
separating it from the rest of the reddened Moon. The middle frame
shows a mostly reddened Moon with a the blue band just visible on the
upper right, while the lowest frame shows an entirely eclipsed moon all
in red. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

A Blue Banded Blood Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Zixiong Jin

Explanation: What causes a blue band to cross the Moon during a lunar
eclipse? The blue band is real but usually quite hard to see. The
featured HDR image of last week's lunar eclipse, however -- taken from
Norman, Oklahoma (USA) -- has been digitally processed to exaggerate
the colors. The gray color on the upper right of the top lunar image is
the Moon's natural color, directly illuminated by sunlight. The lower
parts of the Moon on all three images are not directly lit by the Sun
since it is being eclipsed -- it is in the Earth's shadow. It is
faintly lit, though, by sunlight that has passed deep through Earth's
atmosphere. This part of the Moon is red -- and called a blood Moon --
for the same reason that Earth's sunsets are red: because air scatters
away more blue light than red. The unusual purple-blue band visible on
the upper right of the top and middle images is different -- its color
is augmented by sunlight that has passed high through Earth's
atmosphere, where red light is better absorbed by ozone than blue.

Celestial Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?
(post 1995)
Tomorrow's picture: star factory
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 March 26
A starfield dominated by a large nebula is pictured. The center is blue
and the perimeter is red. Many dark dust pillars are visible. Please
see the explanation for more detailed information.

Star Formation in the Pacman Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright: Juan Montilla (AAE)

Explanation: You'd think the Pacman Nebula would be eating stars, but
actually it is forming them. Within the nebula, a cluster's young,
massive stars are powering the pervasive nebular glow. The eye-catching
shapes looming in the featured portrait of NGC 281 are sculpted dusty
columns and dense Bok globules seen in silhouette, eroded by intense,
energetic winds and radiation from the hot cluster stars. If they
survive long enough, the dusty structures could also be sites of future
star formation. Playfully called the Pacman Nebula because of its
overall shape, NGC 281 is about 10,000 light-years away in the
constellation Cassiopeia. This sharp composite image was made through
narrow-band filters in Spain in mid 2024. It combines emissions from
the nebula's hydrogen and oxygen atoms to synthesize red, green, and
blue colors. The scene spans well over 80 light-years at the estimated
distance of NGC 281.

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

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
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2025 March 27

Messier 81
Image Credit & Copyright: Lorand Fenyes

Explanation: One of the brightest galaxies in planet Earth's sky is
similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy: big, beautiful Messier 81.
Also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's galaxy for its 18th century
discoverer, this grand spiral can be found toward the northern
constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. The sharp, detailed
telescopic view reveals M81's bright yellow nucleus, blue spiral arms,
pinkish starforming regions, and sweeping cosmic dust lanes. But some
dust lanes actually run through the galactic disk (left of center),
contrary to other prominent spiral features. The errant dust lanes may
be the lingering result of a close encounter between M81 and the nearby
galaxy M82 lurking outside of this frame. Scrutiny of variable stars in
M81 has yielded a well-determined distance for an external galaxy --
11.8 million light-years.

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

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
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2025 March 28

Lunar Dust and Duct Tape
Image Credit: Apollo 17, NASA

Explanation: Why is the Moon so dusty? On Earth, rocks are weathered by
wind and water, creating soil and sand. On the Moon, eons of constant
micrometeorite bombardment have blasted away at the rocky surface
creating a layer of powdery lunar soil or regolith. For the Apollo
astronauts and their equipment, the pervasive, fine, gritty dust was
definitely a problem
. On the lunar surface in December 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Harrison
Schmitt and Eugene Cernan needed to repair one of their rover's fenders
in an effort to keep the rooster tails of dust away from themselves and
their gear. This picture reveals the wheel and fender of their dust
covered rover along with the ingenious application of spare maps,
clamps, and a grey strip of "duct tape".

Northern Hemisphere Alert : March 29 Partial Solar Eclipse Tomorrow's
picture: pixels in space
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
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2025 March 29

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

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

Tomorrow's picture: Ringed Jupiter
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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 March 30
A a cloudy sky appears with an overall pink - red hue. The Sun appears
partially eclipsed over a slanting hill. A person on the hill has their
arms raised and appears to be holding up the partially eclipsed Sun.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

A Partial Solar Eclipse over Iceland
Image Credit & Copyright: Wioleta Gorecka

Explanation: What if the Sun and Moon rose together? That happened
yesterday over some northern parts of planet Earth as a partial solar
eclipse occurred shortly after sunrise. Regions that experienced the
Moon blocking part of the Sun included northeastern parts of North
America and northwestern parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The
featured image was captured yesterday over the Gr+íbr+|k volcanic crater
in Iceland where much of the Sun became momentarily hidden behind the
Moon. The image was taken through a cloudy sky but so well planned that
the photographer's friend appeared to be pulling the Sun out from
behind the Moon. No part of the Earth experienced a total solar eclipse
this time. In the distant past, some of humanity was so surprised when
an eclipse occurred that ongoing battles suddenly stopped. Today,
eclipses are not a surprise and are predicted with an accuracy of
seconds.

Growing Gallery: Partial Solar Eclipse of 2025 March
Tomorrow's picture: inside out solar system
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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 March 31

Parker: The Solar System from Near the Sun
Video Credit: NASA, JHUAPL, Naval Research Lab, Parker Solar Probe;
h/t: Richard Petarius III;
Music: Russian Easter Festival Overture, Op. 36 by N. Rimsky-Korsakov;
Source: Musopen; Performance: Czech National Symphony Orchestra (via
Musopen); Music Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Explanation: If you watch long enough, a comet will appear. Before
then, you will see our Solar System from inside the orbit of Mercury as
recorded by NASA's Parker Solar Probe looping around the Sun. The video
captures coronal streamers into the solar wind, a small Coronal Mass
Ejection, and planets including, in order of appearance, Mercury,
Venus, Saturn, Earth, Mars, and Jupiter. Between the emergence of Earth
and Mars, Comet Tempel 1 appears with a distinctive tail. The
continuous fleeting streaks are high energy particles from the Sun
impacting Parker's sideways looking camera. The featured time-lapse
video was taken last year during Encounter 21, Parker's 21st close
approach to the Sun. Studying data and images from Parker are
delivering a better understanding of the dynamic Sun's effects on
Earth's space weather as well as humanity's power grids, spacecraft,
and space-faring astronauts.

Growing Gallery: Partial Solar Eclipse of 2025 March
Tomorrow's picture: yes, flocculent
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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 April 1

A Double Sunrise from a Partial Eclipse
Video Credit & Copyright: Jason Kurth; Music: House of the Rising Sun
(Sebastia McQueen via SoundCloud)

Explanation: Can the Sun appear to rise twice at the same time? This
was just the case a few days ago from Les Escoumins, Quebec, Canada as
our Solar System's bright central orb rose just as it was being
partially eclipsed by the Moon. The featured video shows this unusual
double-sunrise in real time and being reflected by the St. Lawrence
River. Soon after the initial two spots of light appear over distant
clouds, what appears to be bright horns become visible -- which are
really just parts of the Sun not being eclipsed. Soon, the entire
eclipsed Sun is visible above the horizon. In all, this broken sunrise
took less than two minutes during a partial eclipse that lasted many
times longer. Although the Moon circles the Earth once a month
(moon-th), it does not always eclipse the Sun because its tilted orbit
usually takes it above or below.

Gallery: Partial Solar Eclipse of 2025 March
Tomorrow's picture: jupiter red
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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written by a professional astronomer.

2025 April 2
The featured image shows Jupiter in infrared light as captured by the
James Webb Space Telescope. Visible are clouds, the Great Red Spot --
appearing light in color -- and a prominent ring around the giant
planet. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Jupiter and Ring in Infrared from Webb
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Processing & License: Judy Schmidt

Explanation: Why does Jupiter have rings? Jupiter's main ring was
discovered in 1979 by NASA's passing Voyager 1 spacecraft, but its
origin was then a mystery. Data from NASA's Galileo spacecraft that
orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003, however, confirmed the hypothesis
that this ring was created by meteoroid impacts on small nearby moons.
As a small meteoroid strikes tiny Metis, for example, it will bore into
the moon, vaporize, and explode dirt and dust off into a Jovian orbit.
The featured image of Jupiter in infrared light by the James Webb Space
Telescope shows not only Jupiter and its clouds, but this ring as well.
Jupiter's Great Red Spot (GRS) -- in comparatively light color on the
right, Jupiter's large moon Europa -- in the center of diffraction
spikes on the left, and Europa's shadow -- next to the GRS -- are also
visible. Several features in the image are not yet well understood,
including the seemingly separated cloud layer on Jupiter's right limb.

Celestial Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?
(post 1995)
Tomorrow's picture: open space
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2025 April 3

The Da Vinci Glow
Image Credit & Copyright: Giorgia Hofer

Explanation: A 26 hour old Moon poses behind the craggy outline of the
Italian Dolomites in this twilight mountain and skyscape. The one
second long exposure was captured near moonset on March 30. And while
only a a sliver of its sunlit surface is visible, most of the Moon's
disk can be seen by earthshine as light reflected from a bright planet
Earth illuminates the lunar nearside. Also known as the Moon's ashen
glow, a description of earthshine in terms of sunlight reflected by
Earth's oceans illuminating the Moon's dark surface was written over
500 years ago by Leonardo da Vinci. Of course earthshine is just the
most familiar example of planetshine, the faint illumination of the
dark portion of a moon by light reflected from its planet.

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

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

2025 April 4

Hickson 44 in Leo
Image Credit & Copyright: Jiang Wu

Explanation: Scanning the skies for galaxies, Canadian astronomer Paul
Hickson and colleagues identified some 100 compact groups of galaxies,
now appropriately called Hickson Compact Groups. The four prominent
galaxies seen in this intriguing telescopic skyscape are one such
group, Hickson 44. The galaxy group is about 100 million light-years
distant, far beyond the spiky foreground Milky Way stars, toward the
constellation Leo. The two spiral galaxies in the center of the image
are edge-on NGC 3190 with its distinctive, warped dust lanes, and
S-shaped NGC 3187. Along with the bright elliptical, NGC 3193 (above
and left) they are also known as Arp 316. The spiral toward the lower
right corner is NGC 3185, the 4th member of the Hickson group. Like
other galaxies in Hickson groups, these show signs of distortion and
enhanced star formation, evidence of a gravitational tug of war that
will eventually result in galaxy mergers on a cosmic timescale. The
merger process is now understood to be a normal part of the evolution
of galaxies, including our own Milky Way. For scale, NGC 3190 is about
75,000 light-years across at the estimated distance of Hickson 44.

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

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2025 April 5

The Gargoyles' Eclipse
Image Credit & Copyright: Bertrand Kulik

Explanation: In dramatic silhouette against a cloudy daytime sky over
Paris, France, gargoyles cast their monstrous gaze outward from the
west facade of Notre Dame Cathedral. Taken on March 29, this telephoto
snapshot also captures the dramatic silhouette of a New Moon against
the bright solar disk in a partial solar eclipse. Happening high in
Parisian skies, the partial eclipse was close to its maximum phase of
about 23 percent. Occurring near the end of the first eclipse season of
2025, this partial solar eclipse followed the total eclipse of the Full
Moon on March 13/14. The upcoming second eclipse season of 2025 will
see a total lunar eclipse on September 7/8 and partial solar eclipse on
September 21. The partial solar eclipse will be seen only from
locations in planet Earth's southern hemisphere.

Tomorrow's picture: moonquakes
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 April 6
An astronaut is seen standing on the Moon next to an instrument with
the lunar lander several meters in the distance. The dark of deep space
covers the top of the frame. Please see the explanation for more
detailed information.

Moonquakes Surprisingly Common
Image Credit: NASA, Apollo 11 Crew

Explanation: Why are there so many moonquakes? Analyses of seismometers
left on the moon during the Apollo moon landings reveal a surprising
number of moonquakes occurring within 100 kilometers of the surface. In
fact, 62 moonquakes were detected in data recorded between 1972 and
1977. Many of these moonquakes are not only strong enough to move
furniture in a lunar apartment, but the stiff rock of the moon
continues to vibrate for many minutes, significantly longer than the
softer rock earthquakes on Earth. The cause of the moonquakes remains
unknown, but a leading hypothesis include tidal gravity from -- and
relative heating by -- our Earth. Regardless of the source, future moon
dwellings need to be built to withstand the frequent shakings. Pictured
here, Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin stands beside a recently deployed
lunar seismometer, looking back toward the lunar landing module.

Explore Your Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: yes, flocculent
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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 April 7
A bright spiral galaxy fills the image with blue spiral arms laced with
red-brown dust. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

NGC 4414: A Flocculent Spiral Galaxy
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, O. Graur, S. W. Jha, A. Filippenko

Explanation: How much mass do flocculent spirals hide? The featured
image of flocculent spiral galaxy NGC 4414 was taken with the Hubble
Space Telescope to help answer this question. Flocculent spirals --
galaxies without well-defined spiral arms -- are a quite common form of
galaxy, and NGC 4414 is one of the closest. Stars and gas near the
visible edge of spiral galaxies orbit the center so fast that the
gravity from a large amount of unseen dark matter must be present to
hold them together. Understanding the matter and dark matter
distribution of NGC 4414 helps humanity calibrate the rest of the
galaxy and, by deduction, flocculent spirals in general. Further,
calibrating the distance to NGC 4414 helps humanity calibrate the
cosmological distance scale of the entire visible universe.

Tomorrow's picture: Moon sisters
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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 April 8
A dark night sky is shown with clouds on the left. Just above center in
blue is the Pleiades star cluster. Just below the Pleiades is a
crescent moon, but bright enough so that you can see not only the
brightly lit crescent but, more faintly, the rest of the Moon. Please
see the explanation for more detailed information.

Moon Visits Sister Stars
Image Credit: Cayetana Saiz

Explanation: Sometimes, the Moon visits the Pleiades. Technically, this
means that the orbit of our Moon takes it directly in front of the
famous Pleiades star cluster, which is far in the distance. The
technical term for the event is an occultation, and the Moon is famous
for its rare occultations of all planets and several well-known bright
stars. The Moon's tilted and precessing orbit makes its occultations of
the Seven Sisters star cluster bunchy, with the current epoch starting
in 2023 continuing monthly until 2029. After that, though, the next
occultation won't occur until 2042. Taken from Cantabria, Spain on
April 1, the featured image is a composite where previous exposures of
the Pleiades from the same camera and location were digitally added to
the last image to bring up the star cluster's iconic blue glow.

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

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

2025 April 9
A dark starfield is dominated by a red cone-like nebula with its base
on the bottom right and extending diagonally through the image. At the
peak of the cone toward the upper left is a background spiral galaxy.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

HH 49: Interstellar Jet from Webb
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, JWST

Explanation: What's at the tip of this interstellar jet? First let's
consider the jet: it is being expelled by a star system just forming
and is cataloged as Herbig-Haro 49 (HH 49). The star system expelling
this jet is not visible -- it is off to the lower right. The complex
conical structure featured in this infrared image by the James Webb
Space Telescope also includes another jet cataloged as HH 50. The fast
jet particles impact the surrounding interstellar gas and form shock
waves that glow prominently in infrared light -- shown here as
reddish-brown ridges. This JWST image also resolved the mystery of the
unusual object at HH 49's tip: it is a spiral galaxy far in the
distance. The blue center is therefore not one star but many, and the
surrounding circular rings are actually spiral arms.

Jump Around the Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: open space
__________________________________________________________________

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 April 10

38 Hours with the M81 Group
Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Yang K.

Explanation: From a garden on planet Earth, 38 hours of exposure with a
camera and small telescope produced this cosmic photo of the M81 galaxy
group. In fact, the group's dominant galaxy M81 is near the center of
the frame sporting grand spiral arms and a bright yellow core. Also
known as Bode's galaxy, M81 itself spans some 100,000 light-years. Near
the top is cigar-shaped irregular galaxy M82. The pair have been locked
in gravitational combat for a billion years. Gravity from each galaxy
has profoundly affected the other during a series of cosmic close
encounters. Their last go-round lasted about 100 million years and
likely raised density waves rippling around M81, resulting in massive
star forming regions arrayed along M81's spiral arms. M82 was left with
violent star forming regions too, and colliding gas clouds so energetic
that the galaxy glows in X-rays. In the next few billion years, their
continuing gravitational encounters will result in a merger, and a
single galaxy will remain. Another group member, NGC 3077 is below and
left of the large spiral M81. Far far away, about 12 million
light-years distant the M81 group galaxies are seen toward the northern
constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear). But in the closer foreground
the wide-field image is filled with integrated flux nebulae whose
faint, dusty interstellar clouds reflect starlight above the plane of
our own Milky Way galaxy.

Tomorrow's picture: a matinee
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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 April 11

The ISS Meets Venus
Image Credit & Copyright: A.J. Smadi

Explanation: Made with a telescope shaded from bright sunlight by an
umbrella, on April 5 a well-planned video captured a crescent Venus
shining in clear daytime skies from Shoreline, Washington, USA at
11:57AM Pacific Time. It also caught the International Space Station in
this single video frame. In close conjunction with the bright planet,
the faint outline of the orbital outpost seen at a range of about 400
kilometers appears to be similar in size to the slender planetary
crescent. Of course the ISS is much smaller than Venus. Now appearing
as planet Earth's brilliant morning star and climbing above the eastern
horizon in predawn skies, inner planet Venus was nearly 45 million
kilometers from Shoreline.

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

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

2025 April 12

Moon Near the Edge
Image Credit & Copyright: Jordi Coy

Explanation: Most of us watch the Moon at night. But the Moon spends
nearly as many daylight hours above our horizon, though in bright
daytime skies the lunar disk looks pale and can be a little harder to
see. Of course in daytime skies the Moon also appears to cycle through
its phases, shining by reflected sunlight as it orbits our fair planet.
For daytime moonwatchers, the Moon is probably easier to spot when the
visible sunlit portion of the lunar disk is large and waxing following
first quarter or waning approaching its third quarter phase. And though
it might look unusual, a daytime moon is often seen even in urban
skies. Captured here in a telephoto snapshot taken on March 12, a
waxing daytime Moon is aligned near the edge of a popular observation
deck that overlooks New York City's borough of Manahattan.

Tomorrow's picture: a hole in Mars
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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 April 13
A brown background is shown covered with a gray topping that has many
holes. On the upper right, there is a deep hole in the brown
background. In this hole is more gray topping. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

An Unusual Hole in Mars
Image Credit: NASA, MRO, HiRISE, JPL, U. Arizona

Explanation: What created this unusual hole in Mars? Actually, there
are numerous holes pictured in this Swiss cheese-like landscape, with
all-but-one of them showing a dusty, dark, Martian terrain beneath
evaporating, light, carbon dioxide ice. The most unusual hole is on the
upper right, spans about 100 meters, and seems to punch through to a
lower level. Why this hole exists and why it is surrounded by a
circular crater remains a topic of speculation, although a leading
hypothesis is that it was created by a meteor impact. Holes such as
this are of particular interest because they might be portals to lower
levels that extend into expansive underground caves. If so, these
naturally occurring tunnels are relatively protected from the harsh
surface of Mars, making them relatively good candidates to contain
Martian life. These pits are therefore also prime targets for possible
future spacecraft, robots, and even human interplanetary explorers.

Tomorrow's picture: radio center
__________________________________________________________________

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 April 14
The featured image shows the very center of our Milky Way Galaxy as
resolved by the MeerKAT array in radio light. Many supernova remnants
and unusual filaments are visible. At the upper right is an inset image
of a small region taken in infrared by JWST. Please see the explanation
for more detailed information.

The Galactic Center in Radio from MeerKAT
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, SARAO, S. Crowe (UVA), J. Bally
(CU), R. Fedriani (IAA-CSIC), I. Heywood (Oxford)

Explanation: What's happening at the center of our galaxy? It's hard to
tell with optical telescopes since visible light is blocked by
intervening interstellar dust. In other bands of light, though, such as
radio, the galactic center can be imaged and shows itself to be quite
an interesting and active place. The featured picture shows an image of
our Milky Way's center by the MeerKAT array of 64 radio dishes in South
Africa. Spanning four times the angular size of the Moon (2 degrees),
the image is impressively vast, deep, and detailed. Many known sources
are shown in clear detail, including many with a prefix of Sgr, since
the galactic center is in the direction of the constellation
Sagittarius. In our galaxy's center lies Sgr A, found here in the image
center, which houses the Milky Way's central supermassive black hole.
Other sources in the image are not as well understood, including the
Arc, just to the left of Sgr A, and numerous filamentary threads. The
inset image shows a small patch recently imaged in infrared light with
the James Webb Space Telescope to investigate the effects of magnetic
fields on star formation.

Open Science: Browse 3,600+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code
Library
Tomorrow's picture: star cylinder
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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 April 15
A starfield is dominated by a multi-colored figure 8 in the middle,
titled on a diagonal. The outsides of the nebula appear light colored,
while the inside shows complex structure tinted red and purple. Please
see the explanation for more detailed information.

Planetary Nebula NGC 1514 from Webb
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, M. E. Ressler (JPL) et al.; Processing:
Judy Schmidt

Explanation: What happens when a star runs out of nuclear fuel? For
stars like our Sun, the center condenses into a white dwarf while the
outer atmosphere is expelled into space to appear as a planetary
nebula. The expelled outer atmosphere of planetary nebula NGC 1514
appears to be a jumble of bubbles -- when seen in visible light. But
the view from the James Webb Space Telescope in infrared, as featured
here, confirms a different story: in this light the nebula shows a
distinct hourglass shape, which is interpreted as a cylinder seen along
a diagonal. If you look closely at the center of the nebula, you can
also see a bright central star that is part of a binary system. More
observations might better reveal how this nebula is evolving and how
the central stars are working together to produce the interesting
cylinder and bubbles observed.

Jump Around the Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: in a cat's eye
__________________________________________________________________

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 April 16
A dark starfield is dominated by a green nebula with intricate
filaments all around. At the center is a bright glow surrounding a
central star. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Halo of the Cat's Eye
Image Credit & Copyright: Taavi Niittee (T++rva Astronomy Club)

Explanation: What created the unusual halo around the Cat's Eye Nebula?
No one is sure. What is sure is that the Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is
one of the best known planetary nebulae on the sky. Although haunting
symmetries are seen in the bright central region, this image was taken
to feature its intricately structured outer halo, which spans over
three light-years across. Planetary nebulae have long been appreciated
as a final phase in the life of a Sun-like star. Only recently however,
have some planetaries been found to have expansive halos, likely formed
from material shrugged off during earlier puzzling episodes in the
star's evolution. While the planetary nebula phase is thought to last
for around 10,000 years, astronomers estimate the age of the outer
filamentary portions of the Cat's Eye Nebula's halo to be 50,000 to
90,000 years.

Tomorrow's picture: star cylinder
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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 April 17

Virgo Cluster Galaxies
Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Adibi

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

Tomorrow's picture: comet in northern spring
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2025 April 18

Comet C/2025 F2 SWAN
Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett

Explanation: In late March, the comet now designated C/2025 F2 SWAN was
found independently by citizen scientists Vladimir Bezugly, Michael
Mattiazzo, and Rob Matson while examining publicly available image data
from the Solar Wind ANisotropies (SWAN) camera on the sun-staring SOHO
spacecraft. Comet SWAN's coma, its greenish color a signature of
diatomic carbon molecules fluorescing in sunlight, is at lower left in
this telescopic image. SWAN's faint ion tail extends nearly two degrees
toward the upper right across the field of view. The interplanetary
scene was captured in clear but moonlit skies from June Lake,
California on April 14. Seen against background of stars toward the
constellation Andromeda, the comet was then some 10 light-minutes from
our fair planet. Now a target for binoculars and small telescopes in
northern hemisphere morning skies this comet SWAN is headed for a
perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun, on May 1. That will bring
this visitor from the distant Oort cloud almost as close to the Sun as
the orbit of inner planet Mercury.

Tomorrow's picture: interplanetary post-modernism
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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 April 19

Painting with Jupiter
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SwRI, MSSS; Processing: Rick Lundh

Explanation: In digital brush strokes, Jupiter's signature atmospheric
bands and vortices were used to form this interplanetary
post-impressionist work of art. The creative image from citizen
scientist Rick Lundh uses data from the Juno spacecraft's JunoCam. To
paint on the digital canvas, a JunoCam image with contrasting light and
dark tones was chosen for processing and an oil-painting software
filter applied. The image data was captured during perijove 10. That
was Juno's December 16, 2017 close encounter with the solar system's
ruling gas giant. At the time the spacecraft was cruising about 13,000
kilometers above northern Jovian cloud tops. Now in an extended
mission, Juno has explored Jupiter and its moons since entering orbit
around Jupiter in July of 2016.

Tomorrow's picture: sky hunter
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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 April 20
A complex nebula fills the frame that is brightly colored, with red
being prominent in the image center and blue being most prominent
elsewhere. Stars also dot the image. Please see the explanation for
more detailed information.

The Orion Nebula in Visible and Infrared
Image Credit & Copyright: Infrared: NASA, Spitzer Space Telescope;
Visible: Oliver Czernetz, Siding Spring Obs.

Explanation: The Great Nebula in Orion is a colorful place. Visible to
the unaided eye, it appears as a small fuzzy patch in the constellation
of Orion. Long exposure, multi-wavelength images like this, however,
show the Orion Nebula to be a busy neighborhood of young stars, hot
gas, and dark dust. This digital composite features not only three
colors of visible light but four colors of infrared light taken by
NASA's orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope as well. The power behind much
of the Orion Nebula (M42) is the Trapezium - four of the brightest
stars in the nebula. Many of the filamentary structures visible are
actually shock waves - fronts where fast moving material encounters
slow moving gas. The Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is
located about 1500 light years away in the same spiral arm of our
Galaxy as the Sun.

Tomorrow's picture: galaxy-sized telescope
__________________________________________________________________

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

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2025 April 21
What looks like a single spiral galaxy is shown with a white center
surrounded by inner blue arms and outer red arms. Please see the
explanation for more detailed information.

Galaxy Lenses Galaxy from Webb
Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, G. Mahler

Explanation: Is this one galaxy or two? Although it looks like one, the
answer is two. One path to this happening is when a small galaxy
collides with a larger galaxy and ends up in the center. But in the
featured image, something more rare is going on. Here, the central
light-colored elliptical galaxy is much closer than the blue and
red-colored spiral galaxy that surrounds it. This can happen when near
and far galaxies are exactly aligned, causing the gravity of the near
galaxy to pull the light from the far galaxy around it in an effect
called gravitational lensing. The featured galaxy double was taken by
the Webb Space Telescope and shows a complete Einstein ring, with great
detail visible for both galaxies. Galaxy lenses like this can reveal
new information about the mass distribution of the foreground lens and
the light distribution of the background source.

Tomorrow's picture: terminator moon
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
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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 April 22
A full Moon is shown but with a much more detailed surface than is
usually visible. Many craters, dark lunar mare, and light lunar
highlands are discernable. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

Terminator Moon: A Moonscape of Shadows
Image Credit & Copyright: Rich Addis

Explanation: What's different about this Moon? It's the terminators. In
the featured image, you can't directly see any terminator -- the line
that divides the light of day from the dark of night. That's because
the featured image is a digital composite of many near-terminator lunar
strips over a full Moon. Terminator regions show the longest and most
prominent shadows -- shadows which, by their contrast and length, allow
a flat photograph to appear three-dimensional. The overlay images were
taken over two weeks in early April. Many of the Moon's craters stand
out because of the shadows they all cast to the right. The image shows
in graphic detail that the darker regions known as maria are not just
darker than the rest of the Moon -- they are also flatter.

Dial-A-Moon: Find the Moon phase on your birthday this year
Tomorrow's picture: almost everything
__________________________________________________________________

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

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

Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

2025 April 23
A skyscape is shown over a rocky landscape. In the starry sky are the
central band of our Milky Way Galaxy on the left, a meteor trail on the
right, the dim band of zodiacal light in the center, and the
photographer holding a light just below the center. The path of the
light is shown as a bright streak in the bottom part of the frame.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

An Almost Everything Sky
Image Credit & Copyright: Koen van Barneveld

Explanation: This surprising sky has almost everything. First, slanting
down from the upper left and far in the distance is the central band of
our Milky Way Galaxy. More modestly, slanting down from the upper right
and high in Earth's atmosphere is a bright meteor. The dim band of
light across the central diagonal is zodiacal light: sunlight reflected
from dust in the inner Solar System. The green glow on the far right is
aurora high in Earth's atmosphere. The bright zigzagging bright line
near the bottom is just a light that was held by the scene-planning
astrophotographer. This "almost everything" sky was captured over rocks
on Castle Hill, New Zealand late last month. The featured finished
frame is a combination of 10 exposures all taken with the same camera
and from the same location. But what about the astrophotographer
himself? He's pictured too -- can you find him?

Jigsaw Fun: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day
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 April 24

NGC 6164: A Dragon's Egg
Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Stern

Explanation: Beautiful emission nebula NGC 6164 was created by a rare,
hot, luminous O-type star, some 40 times as massive as the Sun. Seen at
the center of the cosmic cloud, the star is a mere 3 to 4 million years
old. In another three to four million years the massive star will end
its life in a supernova explosion. Spanning around 4 light-years, the
nebula itself has a bipolar symmetry. That makes it similar in
appearance to more common and familiar planetary nebulae - the gaseous
shrouds surrounding dying sun-like stars. Also like many planetary
nebulae, NGC 6164 has been found to have an extensive, faint halo,
revealed in this deep image of the region. Expanding into the
surrounding interstellar medium, the material in the halo is likely
from an earlier active phase of the O star. This gorgeous telescopic
view is a composite of extensive narrow-band image data, highlighting
glowing atomic hydrogen gas in red and oxygen in greenish hues, with
broad-band data for the surrounding starfield. Also known as the
Dragon's Egg nebula, NGC 6164 is 4,200 light-years away in the
right-angled southern constellation of Norma.

Tomorrow's picture: Lucy in the sky
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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 April 25

Asteroid Donaldjohanson
Image Credit: Lucy/NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL/NOIRLab

Explanation: Main belt asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson is about 8
kilometers long and 3.5 kilometers across. On April 20, this sharp
close-up of the asteroid was captured at a distance of about 1100
kilometers by the Lucy spacecraft's long range camera during its second
asteroid encounter. Named after American paleoanthropologist Donald
Johanson, discoverer of the Lucy hominid fossil, the elongated asteroid
was likely formed about 150 million years ago from a gentle collision
of two smaller bodies creating its characteristic contact binary shape.
Launched in October of 2021, the Lucy spacecraft will continue its
travels through the main asteroid belt in 2025, but is on its way to
explore Jupiter's swarm of Trojan asteroids. Lucy is expected to
encounter its first Trojan asteroid target, 3548 Eurybates, in August
2027.

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 April 26

Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 5335
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI

Explanation: This stunning portrait of NGC 5335 was captured by the
Hubble Space Telescope. Some 170,000 light-years across and over 200
million light-years away toward the constellation Virgo, the
magnificent spiral galaxy is seen face-on in Hubble's view. Within the
galactic disk, loose streamers of star forming regions lie along the
galaxy's flocculent spiral arms. But the most striking feature of NGC
5335 is its prominent central bar. Seen in about 30 percent of
galaxies, including our Milky Way, bar structures are understood to
channel material inward toward the galactic center, fueling star
formation. Of course, distant background galaxies are easy to spot,
scattered around the sharp Hubble image. Launched in 1990, Hubble is
now celebrating its 35th year exploring the cosmos from orbit around
planet Earth.

Tomorrow's picture: spirographs in space
__________________________________________________________________

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

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Astronomy Picture of the Day

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 April 27
A complex orange and purple nebula with a complex texture is shown in
front of a dark starfield. Please see the explanation for more detailed
information.

IC 418: The Spirograph Nebula
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA);
Acknowledgement: R. Sahai (JPL) et al.

Explanation: What is creating the strange texture of IC 418? Dubbed the
Spirograph Nebula for its resemblance to drawings from a cyclical
drawing tool, planetary nebula IC 418 shows patterns that are not well
understood. Perhaps they are related to chaotic winds from the variable
central star, which changes brightness unpredictably in just a few
hours. By contrast, evidence indicates that only a few million years
ago, IC 418 was probably a well-understood star similar to our Sun.
Only a few thousand years ago, IC 418 was probably a common red giant
star. Since running out of nuclear fuel, though, the outer envelope has
begun expanding outward leaving a hot remnant core destined to become a
white-dwarf star, visible in the image center. The light from the
central core excites surrounding atoms in the nebula causing them to
glow. IC 418 lies about 2000 light-years away and spans 0.3 light-years
across. This false-color image taken from the Hubble Space Telescope
reveals the unusual details.

Tomorrow's picture: interstellar tadpoles
__________________________________________________________________

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

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