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astropicdaily

@astropicdaily.bsky.social
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 46m
Jupiter and the Moons #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
In front of a dark background an image of Earth's Moon  appears with a lower crescent brightly lit. The rest of the Moon is also faintly visible. Above the Moon is a bright point of  light surrounded by four fainter points of light in row. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Ice Fishing for Cosmic Neutrinos #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
A dark cable descends into a deep carved hole of ice.  The hole is so deep that it disappears into darkness. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Lunar Farside #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
A mosaic image of the farside of the Moon.
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Stickney Crater #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
A color enhanced close-up image of Stickney Crater on Phobos.
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
The Saturn System Smörgåsbord #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
Saturn sits near the center of the image. The layers of different colored atmosphere are clear. Its large rings are tilted with respect to the image's horizontal axis. The gaps and spokes within the rings are clear. A few of Saturn's moons show up as faint dots surrounding the planet.
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Supernova Remnant Pa 30 #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
A red explosion extending radially like a firework over a dark field of stars.
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
A Complete Auroral Oval from SMILE #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
M104: The Sombrero Galaxy's Tidal Streams #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
A starfield has an bright blobby mess in middle. Running vertically through the very middle is a dark streak. A diagonal ring of brightness surrounds the central blob.
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Supernumerary Rainbows over New Jersey #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
The top of a house is shown beneath a dark and cloudy sky. Many rainbow stripes are seen above the house.
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
NASA Science #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
What does it take to image hundreds of nebulas? Today’s image contains the entire Sharpless Catalog of H II Regions, totaling 313 objects. Zoom in and explore! You may spot fan favorites like the Eagle (Sh2-49), Heart (Sh2-190), and Orion (Sh2-281) Nebulas. Despite its name, this catalog contains more than the glow of ionized hydrogen that makes up H II regions. There are planetary nebulas (the Medusa Nebula, Sh2-274) and supernova remnants (the Spaghetti Nebula, Sh2-240) as well. Astrophotographer Bing Xin traversed the dark skies of Eastern China and Inner Mongolia to catch them all. Narrowband filters that primarily capture light from ionized hydrogen and oxygen as well as red-green-blue filters were used. Each object took 2 to 6 hours to capture, with the entire catalog taking around 800 hours to complete! Which object is your favorite?APOD's email for image submissions has changed. Please see: APOD SubmissionsTomorrow's picture: just Curiosity
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
NASA Science #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
Have you ever seen the full moon rise? This colorful image was photographed last weekend in Sicily, just outside the town of Nicosia, in Italy. It is a composite photograph that shows the Moon rising as the sky turns darker. Lower clouds are reflecting the colors of antitwilight, while ash and gas from Mount Etna are seen higher in the background. The pink band lower in the sky is called the Belt of Venus. During a full moon, the Moon and the Sun are in opposition in the sky: the moon rises as the sun sets. The lunar phase cycle lasts approximately 29.5 days (but the Moon takes approximately 27 days to orbit the Earth). In some cultures of the Northern Hemisphere, the September full moon is called the Harvest Moon. Does your culture have a special name for it? (A full moon by any other name would shine as bright.)APOD's email for image submissions has changed. Please see: APOD SubmissionsAPOD's main NASA site has moved : From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apodTomorrow's picture: sharpless
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Sh2-188: The Shrimp Nebula #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
What causes the swirl in the Shrimp Nebula? Its high speed is likely.  What is sure is that Sh2-188 is one of the larger planetary nebulas on the night sky, by angular size, spanning about half the diameter of the Moon.  Moreover, the white-dwarf core -- leftover from the Sun-like star that shed its outer atmosphere -- is moving unusually fast through interstellar space, creating a bow shock most visible on the upper left that is similar to a boat plowing through water.  Although faint, the  Shrimp Nebula glows also by compressing and brightening gas on its leading edge.  The featured image was taken in the light of hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen by a backyard telescope in Krakow, Poland and then digitally adjusted to approximate the nebula's true colors.    APOD's email for image submissions has changed. Please see: APOD Submissions  APOD's main NASA site has moved: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Cosmic Latte: The Average Color of the Universe #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
What color is the universe?  More precisely, if the entire sky were smeared out, what color would the final mix be?  This whimsical question came up when trying to determine what stars are commonplace in nearby galaxies. The answer, depicted here, is a conditionally perceived shade of beige. In computer parlance: #FFF8E7.  To determine this, astronomers computationally averaged the light emitted by one of the larger samples of galaxies analyzed: the 200,000 galaxies of the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey.  The resulting cosmic spectrum has some emission in all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, but a single perceived composite color.  This color has become much less blue over the past 10 billion years, indicating that redder stars are becoming more prevalent.  In a contest to better name the color, notable entries included skyvory, univeige, and the winner: cosmic latte.   APOD's email for image submissions has changed. Please see: APOD Submissions  Tomorrow: APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Andromeda before Photoshop #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
What does the Andromeda galaxy really look like? The featured image shows how our Milky Way Galaxy's closest major galactic neighbor really appears in a long exposure through Earth's busy skies and with a digital camera that introduces normal imperfections.  The picture is a stack of 223 images, each a 300 second exposure, taken from a garden observatory in Portugal during 2019.  Obvious image deficiencies include bright parallel airplane trails, long and continuous satellite trails, short cosmic ray streaks, and bad pixels.  These imperfections were actually not removed with Photoshop specifically, but rather greatly reduced with a series of computer software packages that included Astro Pixel Processor, DeepSkyStacker, and PixInsight.  All of this work was done not to deceive you with a digital fantasy that has little to do with the real likeness of the Andromeda galaxy (M31), but to minimize Earthly artifacts that have nothing to do with the distant galaxy and so better recreate what M31 really does look like.   APOD's email for image submissions has changed. Please see: APOD Submissions APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Mirrored Meteor and Milky Way #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
On August 15, this perseid meteor streaked through night skies over the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos at La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain. The bright and colorful meteor trail was captured next to the central Milky Way, whose dark interstellar dust clouds and luminous starlight reach above the horizon. In the foreground of this tantalizing celestial scene is the 23 meter diameter mirror of the prototype Large-Sized Telescope (LST-1). LST-1 is the first telescope constructed at the northern hemisphere site of the innovative Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory. With 198 hexagonal mirror segments and a large, high-efficiency, pixelized camera, LST-1 is designed to detect extremely brief, atmospheric visible light flashes. Lasting about a billionth of a second, the visible light flashes are triggered by energetic gamma-rays from cosmic sources such as distant active galaxies and gamma-ray bursts. Of course, on that night some individual mirror segments of LST-1 also reflected the atmospheric flash of the bright perseid meteor.  APOD's email for image submissions has changed. Please see: APOD Submissions. APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Globular Cluster Omega Centauri #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
Globular star cluster Omega Centauri packs about 10 million stars much older than the Sun into a volume some 150 light-years in diameter. Also known as NGC 5139, at a distance of 15,000 light-years it's the largest and brightest of 200 or so known globular clusters that roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Though most star clusters consist of stars with the same age and composition, the enigmatic Omega Cen exhibits the presence of different stellar populations with a spread of ages and chemical abundances. In fact, Omega Cen may be the remnant core of a small galaxy merging with the Milky Way. With a yellowish hue, Omega Centauri's red giant stars are easy to pick out in this sharp telescopic view.  A two-decade-long exploration of the dense star cluster with the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed evidence for a massive black hole near the center of Omega Centauri.  APOD's email for image submissions has changed. Please see: APOD Submissions. APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The Ghosts of Five Supernovas #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
The ghosts of five supernovas haunt this extraordinary image.   It was acquired at Oukaïmeden Observatory in Morocco with approximately 200 hours of observations and shows a large patch of the sky, equivalent to the area of one thousand full moons tiled together, in the constellation of Auriga (the charioteer).   From left to right, the five supernova remnants visible across the field are G181.1+9.5, G182.4+4.3, G179.0+2.6, G180.0−1.7 (Sh2-240, the Spaghetti Nebula), and G178.2−4.2.   They are highlighted in the annotated image, together with open cluster M37 and the Tadpole Nebula.   As each explosion expanded into space, it created a growing shell of shocked gas and delicate filamentary structures shown in red (hydrogen) and blue (oxygen), respectively.    These ancient stellar explosions happened independently; they are at various distances up to about several thousands of light-years away from Earth and have estimated ages up to tens of thousands of years old.   Early humans may have witnessed them as bright new stars, fading over weeks or months.     APOD's email for image submissions has changed. Please see: APOD Submissions.    APOD's main NASA site is moving : From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
A New Lunar Crater: McGetchin #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
A once-in-a-lifetime crater has appeared on the Moon! A comet or asteroid roughly the size of a humpback whale (approximately 10-20 meters, 30-60 feet) crashed into the Moon sometime between April and May of 2024. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), with its monthly monitoring of the Moon, captured today’s images of the lunar surface before and after the event. The resulting crater, named after Apollo-era lunar scientist McGetchin, is two soccer fields across. Craters of this size are only expected once every 132 years! Follow up thermal imaging revealed a large cold spot that surrounds the warm crater. Surface impacts will puff up the loose lunar sediment, or regolith, making it less dense and harder to retain heat. This event affected an area much larger than the visible crater, which will inform humanity’s understanding of surface impacts and the evolution of the Moon’s surface. It also reminds us all to be thankful for Earth's atmosphere.   APOD's email for image submissions has changed. Please see: APOD Submissions.  APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Chance Triple Alignment: Plane, Space Station, Sun #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
This shot captured an unexpected silhouette. Which is it?  It isn't the sunspots, the small dark regions caused by concentrated magnetic fields visible around the Sun's bright disk. Sunspots typically last for weeks and were expected, since these spots were seen previously.  It isn’t the International Space Station (ISS), the small dark structure on the middle left.  This is because the featured picture was planned with sub-second timing to record the iconic structure passing before the Sun.  It is the airplane.  Just as this exposure was taking place in June, from Prasek in the Czech Republic, an airplane began its own miniature partial eclipse.  The result is this triply aligned image of our Sun.  The photographer estimates that the chance of any random Sun image containing silhouettes of both a space station and an airplane, from that location, is about 30 million to one.    APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Cocoon Nebula Wide Field #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
When does a nebula look like a comet?  In this crowded starfield covering over two degrees within the high-flying constellation of the Swan (Cygnus), the eye is drawn to the Cocoon Nebula.  A compact star forming region, the cosmic Cocoon punctuates a nebula bright in emission and reflection on the lower right, with a long trail of interstellar dust clouds to the left, making the entire complex appear a bit like a comet.  Cataloged as IC 5146, the central bright head of the nebula spans about 10 light years, while the dark dusty tail spans nearly 100 light years.  Both are located about 2,500 light years away.  A bright star near the colorful nebula's center likely supplies power and helps clear out a cavity.  The long dusty filaments of the tail, although dark in this visible light image, hide stars in the process of formation. The featured image was captured in July from Death Valley, California, USA.   APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Analemma over the Callanish Stones #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
If you went outside at the same time every day and took a picture that included the Sun, how would the Sun's position change?  A visual answer to that question is an analemma, a composite image taken from the same spot at the same time over the course of a year.  The featured analemma was composed from images taken every few days at noon near the village of Callanish in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland, UK.  In the foreground are the Callanish Stones, a stone circle built around 2700 BC during humanity's Bronze Age.  It is not known if the placement of the Callanish Stones has or had astronomical significance.  The ultimate causes for the figure-8 shape of this and all analemmas are the tilt of the Earth axis and the ellipticity of the Earth's orbit around the Sun.  At the solstices, the Sun will appear at the top or bottom of an analemma. The featured image was taken near the December solstice and so the Sun appears near the bottom.  Equinoxes, however, correspond to analemma middle points -- not the intersection point. In two days there will be an equinox ("equal night"), when day and night are equal over all of planet Earth. Many cultures celebrate a change of season at an equinox.   APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
A Zodiacal Night #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
Also known as the false dawn, a luminous band of zodiacal light is captured in this dark night skyscape. The serene view was recorded just before the beginning of astronomical twilight during September's star party at the remote Hanle Dark Sky Reserve, Ladakh, India, planet Earth. At about 4,500 meters altitude, the dark sky reserve presents a haven for hardy stargazing and astrophotography enthusiasts. While meteors streak through the night, bright planet Jupiter appears immersed in the faint zodiacal glow near the eastern horizon. Follow the zodiacal band toward the zenith to find open star cluster M44 and a yellowish tinged planet Mars near the center of the frame. In fact, serendipitous detections of interplanetary dust by NASA's Juno spacecraft suggest Mars itself is the source of dust that back scatters sunlight and creates zodiacal light in planet Earth's night.  APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
A Zodiacal Night #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
Also known as the false dawn, a luminous band of zodiacal light is captured in this dark night skyscape. The serene view was recorded just before the beginning of astronomical twilight during September's star party at the remote Hanle Dark Sky Reserve, Ladakh, India, planet Earth. At about 4,500 meters altitude, the dark sky reserve presents a haven for hardy stargazing and astrophotography enthusiasts. While meteors streak through the night, bright planet Jupiter appears immersed in the faint zodiacal glow near the eastern horizon. Follow the zodiacal band toward the zenith to find open star cluster M44 and a yellowish tinged planet Mars near the center of the frame. In fact, serendipitous detections of interplanetary dust by NASA's Juno spacecraft suggest Mars itself is the source of dust that back scatters sunlight and creates zodiacal light in planet Earth's night.  APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
LDN 1295: The Giraffe Nebula #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
What does this image look like to you?   Many see a giraffe facing right, with neck stretched high and long legs mid-stride (but some may see a squirrel instead).   The featured image shows LDN 1295, also called the Giraffe Nebula, in the constellation of the mythical queen of Aethiopia (Cassiopeia).   It is an object in the Lynds Catalogue of Dark Nebulas, compiled in 1962 by American astronomer Beverly Lynds, a pioneer for women in astronomy and astrophysics.   Dark nebulas are interstellar clouds of dust and gas that block the visible light of the stars behind them.   These nebulas are often faint and challenging targets for astrophotographers.   Why do we see animal shapes and faces in nebulas, clouds, and pretty much everywhere?   It is due to pareidolia, our tendency to look for familiar patterns.   Pareidolia may provide animals with an evolutionary advantage, for example in identifying (and avoiding) predators.     APOD's main NASA site is moving : From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Hubble: Decagon Around Saturn's South Pole #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
Why are Saturn’s poles geometric? Saturn’s North Pole has been known to be surrounded by a hexagonal (6 sides) cloud since discovery in 1987 in data taken by NASA’s Voyager spacecrafts, which quickly flew past the ringed world in the early 1980s.  Now, recent observations of Saturn by the Hubble Space Telescope reveal a slightly different geometric cloud pattern around the South Pole: a decagon (10 sides).  The geometric boundaries are possibly caused by waves when the fast-moving gas away from the poles interacts with slower-moving gas closer to the poles.  In the featured image composite by the Hubble taken last year, the South Pole of Saturn is marked by an X and surrounded by bands of circulating clouds.  The decagon appears most prominent in the dark inner regions.  The northern hexagon has proven stable for over 40 years, while the stability of the southern decagon will surely remain a topic of research.   APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The Pelican Nebula in Gas, Dust, and Stars #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
The Pelican Nebula is slowly being transformed.  IC 5070 (an official designation) is divided from the larger North America Nebula by a molecular cloud filled with dark dust.  The deep featured picture from Utah, USA incorporates 25 hours of exposure and brings out great details of this filamentary dust. The Pelican Nebula receives much study because it is a particularly active mix of star formation and evolving gas clouds.  The light from young energetic stars is slowly transforming the cold gas to hot gas, with the advancing boundary between the two, known as an ionization front, visible in bright orange on the upper right. Particularly dense tentacles of cold gas remain.  Millions of years from now, the Pelican Nebula, bounded by dark nebula LDN 935, might no longer be known as the Pelican, as the balance and placement of stars and gas will surely leave something that appears completely different.   APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Pluto in Enhanced Color #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
Pluto is more colorful than we can see. Color data and high-resolution images of our Solar System's most famous dwarf planet, taken by the robotic New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby in 2015 July, have been digitally combined to give an enhanced-color view of this ancient world sporting an unexpectedly young surface. The featured enhanced color image is not only esthetically pretty but scientifically useful, making surface regions of differing chemical composition visually distinct. For example, the light-colored heart-shaped Tombaugh Regio on the lower right is clearly shown here to be divisible into two regions that are geologically different, with the leftmost lobe, Sputnik Planitia, also appearing unusually smooth. After Pluto, New Horizons continued on, shooting  past asteroid Arrokoth in 2019 with enough speed to escape our Solar System completely.
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Chasing the Moon's Shadow #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
Chasing the shadow of a New Moon, NASA’s WB-57F high altitude research aircraft took to the skies off the coast of Iceland on August 12 to observe a total solar eclipse. At 50,000 feet the aircraft was piloted along the precisely determined path of totality to maximize its time in the Moon’s shadow. A suite of high-resolution cameras on board was able to record eclipse data from above the clouds, dust, and atmospheric water vapor that interfere with observations made closer to the ground. This view from the cockpit, taken from an inflight video, captures the solar corona emerging at the beginning of totality. The sky appears dark in the shadow of the Moon. Venus is shining left of center in the video frame, while Jupiter and Mercury are just visible to the right of the eclipsed Sun. But the sky is bright along the distant horizon below, beyond the reach of the Moon's shadow.  APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Nā ʻUhane Māhoe Huki Pū i ke Ola #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
Nā ʻUhane Māhoe Huki Pū i ke Ola, is the Hawaiian name given to this image of a pair of spiral galaxies locked in a mutual gravitational embrace. Some 200 million light-years distant toward the high flying constellation Pegasus their spectacular, galactic scale merger is captured in sharp detail in the image from the 8.1 meter Gemini North telescope on Maunakea, Hawai‘i. The galaxy pair, known as NGC 7253 and Arp 278, was chosen as a target, researched, and given a Hawaiian name by high school students in the joint Gemini Observatory and University of Hawaiʻi Project Hōkūlani internship program.  The name translates to "The Twin Spirits Pulling Together Creating Life". That's both culturally and astronomically appropriate for galaxy collisions that trigger a cosmic maelstrom of star formation from galactic reservoirs of elemental building blocks of life. These merging galaxies are found within a region of Pegasus identified as the Hawaiian navigational constellation Ka Lupe o Kawelo.  APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
The Eclipse and the Stork #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
How do animals react to a total solar eclipse?   The featured image shows a stork roosting on her nest in Poland at a partial phase of the recent total solar eclipse.   If you are lucky enough to experience a total eclipse somewhere quiet and close to nature, you may be able to notice unusual daytime animal behaviors.     During totality, you may hear nighttime sounds like crickets and frogs and see fireflies.   In the dark, most birds are quiet.   Thinking that it is time to go to bed, ducks and other waterfowl prepare to sleep on one leg, with their heads turned around and their beaks tucked into their back feathers (they don't really sleep with their heads tucked under one wing).   When sunlight returns at the end of totality, songbirds greet the new "morning" with their dawn songs.   The crickets and frogs go quiet again.   Animals and people resume their lifes, only briefly disturbed by the chance alignment of our Sun and Moon.     APOD's main NASA site is moving : From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Solar Eclipses and Culture #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
Pretend you have never heard of a solar eclipse. The Sun’s behavior has been predictable your whole life. One day, you witness the sky transform as it does in today’s spliced image spanning two hours of the August 12, 2026 solar eclipse. The Sun disappears, leaving behind a bright, empty ring. What would you think had happened? Humans have interpreted eclipses in countless ways throughout history, embedding beliefs about connection, rebirth, or danger into culture. “Eclipse” comes from the Greek word “ékleipsis” meaning “abandonment”. In ancient Greece, the solar eclipse marked the anger of the gods and the Sun abandoning humanity. To the Diné people, this celestial alignment is a time of renewal. Out of respect and to avoid the danger of sunlight, the Diné stay inside until the Sun and Moon separate. The Batammariba people of Benin and Togo believe that the Sun and Moon fight during an eclipse, so the community encourages peace among themselves. Eclipses are an example of the longstanding connection between astronomy and society.   Gallery: Solar Eclipse of 2026 August 12
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
A Plane Lunar Eclipse #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
Did you need to be on the right side of this airplane to see this eclipse? No.  Lunar eclipses are routinely seen from the half of the Earth facing the Moon when the eclipse occurs, making them some of the most commonly witnessed astronomical events. You don't even need any special equipment to see one -- just your unaided eyes.  Lunar eclipses are also some of the most photographed astronomical events because, unlike with a solar eclipse, your eyes and camera do not have to look toward the bright Sun. However, considering the featured image taken last week from Portugal, if you were on the left side of that airplane during takeoff, you might have trouble seeing it -- at first. But even then, after takeoff, since lunar eclipses typically last for hours, you might soon be able to safely cross the aisle(s) to see it.   Gallery: Lunar Eclipse of 2026 August APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
M74: A Grand Design Spiral #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
If not the most grand, then this spiral galaxy is at least one of the most photogenic.  An island universe of about 100 billion stars, 32 million light-years away toward the constellation Pisces, M74 presents a gorgeous face-on view.  Classified as an Sc galaxy, the grand design of M74's graceful spiral arms are traced by bright blue star clusters and dark cosmic dust lanes.  Constructed from archival images, this sharp composite is from the Hubble Space Telescope.  Spanning about 30,000 light-years across the face of M74, it includes exposures recording emission from hydrogen atoms, highlighting the reddish glow of the galaxy's large star-forming regions.   APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Eclipse Pair #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
clipses 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 new and full phases of the Moon, separated by just over 14 days, create a solar and a lunar eclipse. But only rarely is the alignment at both new moon and full moon during a single eclipse season close enough to produce a pair with both total solar and lunar eclipses. More often, partial eclipses are part of any eclipse season. But, the last eclipse season of 2026 did produce this fortnight-separated pairing of a total solar eclipse on August 12 (top) and an almost total lunar eclipse on the night of August 27/28. At New Moon, the solar eclipse was captured at Peñafiel, Spain near the begining of totality in this HDR composite image, revealing a flash of Bailey's beads and a golden solar corona. At the following Full Moon, the deep partial lunar eclipse was recorded from Sèvres, France. Also an HDR composite, the image shows this partial eclipse at closer to half its 93 percent maximum phase, so about half the visible lunar disk appears darkened and reddened within Earth's umbral shadow. The coming eclipse season will see an annular solar eclipse on 2027 February 6 paired with a penumbral lunar eclipse on February 20/21.   Growing Gallery: Lunar Eclipse of 2026 August 28 APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
The Sky Turns Above Paranal #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
At the latitude of ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile, about 25 degrees south, Earth's rotation moves the planet's surface eastward at over 1,500 kilometers per hour. And while that's faster than the speed of sound at sea level, the motion is imperceptible. Still, that motion can be revealed in the apparent rotation of the night sky by photographing star trails. This star trail image was composed from a digital stack of 300 consecutive 25-second exposures made with a camera fixed to a tripod to trace the star trail arcs. The graceful arcs are concentric and centered at the south celestial pole, the southern hemisphere extension of Earth's axis of rotation into space. One of the observatory's operating 1.8 meter auxiliary telescopes, AT 3, appears beneath the south celestial pole, faintly illuminated in the foreground of this well-planned scene from a rotating planet.  APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Colorful Aurora over Icelandic Waterfall #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
What a sight to behold, when a night sky became filled with colors that appeared to rain over the Skógafoss waterfall in Iceland.     This image was taken in a single 5 second exposure by the photographer in April 2025.   Seeing an aurora is on many people's bucket lists.   But it is not easy.   It requires high solar activity, dark and clear skies, and usually a viewing location at high latitude.   That makes the northern lights more easily seen than the corresponding southern lights, simply because there is less landmass in the Southern Hemisphere, especially around the Antarctic Circle.   Auroras are caused by charged particles from the solar wind that are captured by the Earth's magnetosphere and guided by the magnetic field to a region close to one of the poles, where they collide with gas particles in the atmosphere.   Different colors indicate interactions with different gases at different altitudes, like oxygen (red and green) and nitrogen (blue and pink).        APOD's main NASA site is moving : From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
JWST Images The Lion's Head Nebula #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
Are we looking at the future of our Sun? The James Webb Space Telescope captured today’s composite image of the Lion’s Head Nebula (NGC 2392) with its NIRCam and MIRI instruments. The Lion’s Head Nebula is the remnant of a Sun-like star. This star was unable to sustain the nuclear fusion in its core needed to remain stable. It began to shed layers of gas and dust into space, forming this planetary nebula. A hot stellar core, called a white dwarf, is left behind within the lion’s nose. Do not boop this nose! Intense radiation from the white dwarf is ionizing the gas as it expands, creating the irregular bubble that makes up the lion’s face. Dust clumps that have survived the white dwarf’s radiation and a cloud of ionized gas make up the lion’s mane. This new and more detailed view of the nebula will help humanity learn more about how the gas and dust interact with each other and the white dwarf radiation.
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Earth's Shadow Visualized with Lunar Eclipses #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
What’s creating this giant hole in space? This is not a black hole — it’s a shadow.  It’s Earth’s shadow.  Since at least the time of Aristotle, people have noted that Earth's dark shadow on the Moon during a partial lunar eclipse is circular -- although never a whole circle.  Using modern digital technology, though, the images of multiple lunar eclipses can be combined to show Earth's complete shadow.  The featured image compilation by a perseistent astrophotographer is constructed from 22 years of lunar eclipses.  The Moon is not eclipsed every month (moon-th) because the Moon's orbit is slightly tilted relative to Earth's orbit.  Close inspection of some lunar eclipse images shows a faint blue band where  Earth’s atmosphere filters out more red sunlight than blue.  Later this week, a new lunar eclipse will occur and will be best visible in parts of North and South America, Europe, and Africa.    APOD's main NASA site is moving : From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Comet 220P in Outburst #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
Comet 220P is unexpectedly bright. Normally, periodic Comet 220P/McNaught is so dim that to see it requires a telescope. Two surprising outbursts this year, however, have made it about 20,000 times brighter than usual, so that it is now visible with binoculars and long-duration camera exposures. As expected, Comet 220P continues to orbit the Sun between Mars and Jupiter with a period of over 5 years.  The featured long duration exposure, taken 10 days ago from South Africa, shows the comet's bright green head and short dust tail.  Reasons for Comet 220P's impressive outbursts are unknown but could be caused by the release of built-up subsurface gas or comet quakes.  Comet 220P will pass about one Earth-Sun distance from the Earth in October, after which it is expected to fade quickly  as it begins its return to the far part of its orbit.   APOD's main NASA site is moving : From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Mostly Perseids #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
Recorded the night of August 12-13, images from four dedicated meteor-monitoring cameras at an astronomical observatory in Czechia were aligned and combined to create this all-night, all-sky view. On that night, the total count came to 1,706 meteors. And since that coincided with the peak activity of the 2026 Perseid Meteor Shower, most are perseids. Their overwhelming numbers make them easy to spot. Quite convincingly, perseid trails all trace back to a single radiant on the sky at the upper right, a region in the annual shower's eponymous constellation Perseus. But meteors belonging to other much less active showers can also revealed by finding their radiants too. For example, seen crossing the perseid trails are meteors from a shower whose radiant lies in Cygnus, known as Kappa Cygnids. The antihelion complex, a general region near Aquarius and opposite the Sun in the sky, is also identifiable as a weak source for meteors.
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
The Elephant's Trunk in Cepheus #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
Like an illustration in a galactic Just So Story, the Elephant's Trunk Nebula winds through the emission region and young star cluster complex IC 1396, in the high and far off constellation of Cepheus. Also known as vdB 142, this cosmic elephant's trunk is over 20 light-years long. The detailed telescopic view features the bright swept-back ridges and pockets of cool interstellar dust and gas that abound in the region. But the dark, tendril-shaped clouds contain the raw material for star formation and hide protostars within. Nearly 3,000 light-years distant, the relatively faint IC 1396 complex covers a large region on the sky, spanning over 5 degrees. Top to bottom this proboscidean-like rendition reaches across an almost 1 degree wide field of view, though. That's a little less than the angular size of 2 full moons.
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Perseids from Perseus #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
This was a good year for the Perseids meteor shower.  A key reason was the Moon was absent from lighting up Earth's night sky so that more meteors were visible than usual.  Where was the Moon?  It was busy visiting the Sun.  Near the Perseids peak, the Moon moved directly in front of the Sun and created a total solar eclipse visible from Greenland and Spain. The Perseids occur when the Earth collides with a stream of Sun-orbiting debris cast off by Comet Swift-Tuttle. Perseid meteors, although typically only the size of a sand grain, tend to be fast and bright because Swift-Tuttle's debris orbits the Sun in a direction partly opposite Earth's orbital motion. In the featured image compilation, accumulated over several nights from Jizerka in the Czech Republic, the Perseids meteor streaks can be traced back to a single location on the sky -- its radiant in Perseus.    Gallery: Perseids Meteor Shower of 2026
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
A Golden Corona Eclipse #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
This total solar eclipse appeared not only poetically beautiful but scientifically interesting.  Usually the solar corona appears white, and to some observers the corona of last week's total solar eclipse did appear this pearly color.  But this time, totality observers in Spain saw a corona that appeared unusually golden.  For one reason, from Spain, the totality occurred when the setting Sun was near the horizon.  That low, sunlight travels through a large amount of air which scatters out blue light. An unusual amount of smoke in the air from nearby forest fires acted as a second filter, further scattering the remaining blue tones and deepening the already gold-dominated light. The HDR-processed, multiple-exposure featured image was captured from Benavente, Spain last week.  One thing that did not appear golden was a hydrogen-glowing prominence that hovered over the Sun's left edge -- its original bright pink color survived.   Gallery: Solar Eclipse of 2026 August 12
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Milky Way over Yellowstone #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
The Milky Way was not created by an evaporating lake.  The colorful pool of water, about 10 meters across, is known as Silex Spring and is located in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, USA.  Illuminated artificially, the colors are caused by layers of bacteria that grow in the hot spring.  Steam rises off the spring, heated by underground magma associated with the Yellowstone Hotspot.  Unrelated and far in the distance, the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy arches high overhead, a band lit by billions of stars.  The picture features a 16-image panorama taken in 2014.  If the Yellowstone Hotspot causes another supervolcanic eruption as it did about 640,000 years ago, a large part of North America would be affected.
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Bright Perseids from Sweden #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
Known for its bright and fast meteors, the annual Perseid Meteor Shower comes to planet Earth's skies from a radiant in the heroic constellation Perseus. The popular northern summer celestial spectacle is created as grains of dust cast off along the orbit of periodic comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle vaporize in Earth's dense atmosphere, tracing brief, but beautiful streaks through the night. Taken near the shower's peak of activity on August 12, this composite image recorded two bright perseid meteors and one meteor's watery reflection from a location near the coastal village of Grisslehamn, Sweden.  Almost as bright as Altair, brightest star on the scene, the meteors appear along with the faint, diffuse background of the Milky Way. This year, the shower's peak activity coincided with a New Moon, so perseid meteor flashes were undiminished by bright moonlight. And for many skywatchers, this night of bright perseid meteors followed their viewing of the silhouette of the New Moon in a much anticipated solar eclipse.  Growing Gallery: Solar Eclipse of 2026 August 12
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Total Solar Eclipse from Greenland #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
On August 12, the Moon's shadow reached out to touch our fair planet. Beginning in the Arctic Ocean, it swept along a narrow track that led the dark lunar umbra across parts of Greenland, Iceland, the Atlantic, Portugal, and northern Spain. And for a moment, denizens of Earth who found themselves with clear skies under the shadow of the Moon could witness a total solar eclipse. After dodging the weather by sea and making a landing along Rype Fjord on the Greenland east coast (at 71.07055N, 27.71252W), this hard-won snapshot was captured at 17:33:26 UTC. That's near the initial reach of clearing skies along the path of totality, so the image is likely one of the first unobstructed views of the totally eclipsed Sun. Through a break in the clouds, the stunning photo also records one of this eclipse's transient diamond rings and the magnificent solar corona emerging near the moment totality began.  More spectacular eclipse images: Solar Eclipse of 2026 August 12
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Total Solar Eclipse Over Spain #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
On August 12th, 2026, the Moon totally eclipsed the Sun and cast its shadow across Siberia, Greenland, Iceland, Spain, and Portugal. Today’s image features two total solar eclipses viewed from Zaragoza, Spain, one over the Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar and the other reflecting in the Ebro River. For a few moments, Spain saw its first major total solar eclipse since 1905. Those witnessing totality may experience a chill in the air, the quieting of birds, the confused chirps of insects, and the shared awe of many. It’s the corona’s time to shine as the Sun’s bright disk is blocked by the Moon. Among other reasons to study eclipses, they help scientists understand why the corona is millions of degrees hotter than the Sun’s surface. Enthusiastic citizens can contribute to these studies by recording how wildlife responds, imaging the corona, and monitoring air temperature and clouds.  More spectacular eclipse images: Solar Eclipse of 2026 August 12
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Six Moons of Saturn #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
How many moons does Saturn have? While the total will likely continue to grow, as of June 2026 the ringed gas giant had 293 confirmed moons. That's easily more than any other planet of the Solar System, including ruling gas giant Jupiter with a mere 115 confirmed moons. Most of Saturn's known moons are small, irregular satellites. Many are only few kilometers to a fraction of a kilometer across and grouped in tilted outer orbits. Six of its largest satellites can be seen here, though, in this sharp telescopic Saturnian family portrait taken on August 5. Larger than Earth's Moon and even slightly larger than inner planet Mercury, Titan, with a diameter of 5,150 kilometers, is at lower right. You can also spot icy major moons Mimas, Tethys, Enceladus, Dione, and Rhea in the frame. Saturn's first known natural satellite, Titan was discovered in 1655 by Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens. During the space age Voyager and Cassini discoveries have added to the swelling ranks of Saturnian moons.  NASA Stream: August 12 Total Solar Eclipse.
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Three Galaxy Pairs #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
ch of these pairs of galaxies is different.  The two galaxies at the top are likely not interacting, at least presently.  However, the top galaxy with the blue stripe, NGC 4650A, is a polar ring galaxy and may be the result of a past galaxy collision. The two galaxies in the middle of the featured image appear like they could be interacting gravitationally -- but their relative speeds make this unlikely.  Of these two, the larger galaxy, NGC 4650, is a spiral galaxy with a bright bar of stars across its center.  The two galaxies at the bottom are actively interacting.  Possibly in a billion years or so, NGC 4622A and NGC 4622B will merge and become one single galaxy. All of these galaxies are likely members of the larger Centaurus Galaxy Cluster.    Explore the Universe: Random APOD Generator
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astropicdaily @astropicdaily.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Contemplating the Sun #astronomy #astrophotography #apod
Have you contemplated your home star recently?  Featured here, a Sun partially eclipsed on the top left by the Moon is also seen eclipsed by earthlings contemplating the eclipse below.  This spectacular menagerie of silhouettes was taken in 2012 from the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area near Page, Arizona, USA, where park rangers and astronomers expounded on the unusual event to interested gatherers.  Also, faintly visible on the Sun's disk, just to the lower right of the dark Moon's disk, is a group of sunspots.  A new solar eclipse will occur this week and give many people in northern North America, Europe, and northwestern Africa a new chance to contemplate a partially eclipsed Sun. A thin swath of Earth from Greenland to Portugal will further experience a total solar eclipse. An open question is whether any meteors from the peaking Perseids will be visible during totality.
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