NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
These podcasts are my discussion of NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day. These are brief (3-5 minute) audio summaries of the picture posted on NASA's Picture of the Day website: APOD. Video versions of these are available on YouTube. I use these as the introduction to each of my introductory astronomy classes. Students will be able to access them here to review what was discussed in class. I appreciate any comments or suggestions which can be sent to: [email protected].
- Update frequency
- every day
- Average duration
- 3 minutes
- Episodes
- 1075
- Years Active
- 2022 - 2025
2025 February 21 - Hubble's Andromeda Galaxy Mosaic
In today's image, we see a number of images of the Andromeda Galaxy taken by the Hubble Space Telescope over more than a decade. These have been stitched together in a mosaic of the entire galaxy, on…
2025 February 20 - Messier 87
In today's image, we see the giant elliptical galaxy known as Messier 87. This is the dominant spiral galaxy in the Virgo cluster of galaxies. We can also see the jet being emitted from its nucleus p…
2025 February 19 - HH 30: A Star System with Planets Now Forming
In today's image, we see the Herbig-Haro object which is a young star, just forming. We can see evidence of a planetary system forming around it as well.
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2025 February 18 - Thor's Helmet versus the Seagull
In today's image, we see a couple of emission nebulae located in the constellation of Canis Major.
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2025 February 17 - SpaceX Rocket Launch over California
In today's image, we see the trail from a SpaceX rocket as it carries a group of Starling satellites into low Earth orbit. We can also see the planet Venus at the top of the image.
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2025 February 16 - Perijove 11: Passing Jupiter
In today's image, we see a video clip showing observations of the planet Jupiter as the Juno spacecraft passes in close to the clouds back in 2018.
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2025 February 15 - Parhelia at Abisko
In today's image, we see the Sun off over the horizon, with the sun dogs on either side. These sun dogs, or parhelia, are caused by the presence of hexagonal ice crystals in Earth's atmosphere.
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2025 February 14 - A Cosmic Rose: NGC 2237 in Monoceros
In today's image, we see a cosmic rose in space. A young cluster of stars forming at the center of the nebula and their energy causing the rest of the material to glow in the red color of a rose.
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2025 February 13 - Reflections on VdB 31
In today's image, we see the reflection nebula known as VdB 31. The reflection nebula is caused by the scattering of light off of dust grains around a hot star. We can also see some of the dark dust …
2025 February 12 - Asteroid Bennu Holds the Building Blocks of Life
In today's image, we see a video showing the asteroid Bennu as it rotates out in space. A sample of this was returned to Earth and has been found to contain amino acids which are the building blocks …
2025 February 11 - The Spider and the Fly
In today's image, we see two nebulae in a star forming region which are whimsically known as the Spider Nebula and the Fly Nebula.
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…
2025 February 10 - An Auroral Hummingbird over Norway
In today's image, we see a pattern of lights in the sky known as an aurora. These are caused by particles from solar storms interacting with atoms in Earth's atmosphere.
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2025 February 09 - Milky Way over Australian Pinnacles
In today's image, we see the pinnacles in Australia in the foreground and the Milky Way and Zodiacal Light in the sky above. You can also note the crescent moon above one of the pinnacles near the ce…
2025 February 08 - A Conjunction of Crescents
In today's image, we see two crescents in the evening sky. We see our Moon, just a few days after the new moon phase and we see the planet Venus which can also be seen as a crescent.
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2025 February 07 - LEDA 1313424: The Bullseye Galaxy
In today's image, we see the galaxy known as the bullseye galaxy. The ripples in the galaxy, likely formed when another galaxy passed through this galaxy close to its center.
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2025 February 06 - IC 2574: Coddington's Nebula
In today's image, we see the dwarf galaxy known as Coddington's Nebula. This is a small galaxy, about half the size of our Milky Way. It has similarities in that it is a site of active star formation…
2025 February 05 - Comet G3 ATLAS Setting over a Chilean Hill
In today's image, we see the come known as G3 ATLAS in a timelapse video as it sets behind a hill in Chile.
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2025 February 04 - Anticrepuscular Rays: A Rainbow Fan over Spain
In today's image, we see a rainbow as well as anticrepuscular rays which are rays from the Sun that appear to converge at the point on the sky opposite to the Sun.
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2025 February 03 - Wolf-Rayet star 124: Stellar Wind Machine
In today's image, we see the Wolf-Rayet star numbered 124. This is a very massive star, expelling material outward in massive stellar winds. The process continues and eventually he star will likely d…
2025 February 02 - Comet G3 ATLAS Disintegrates
In today's image, we see the comet known as G3 ATLAS as seen last month. We see multiple images which show the disintegration of the nucleus of the comet.
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