NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

In today's image, we see the Barred Spiral Galaxy known as NGC 1365 as imaged recently by the James Webb Space telescope. This is images in the mid-infrared, giving us a different view of the telesco…

In today's image, we see a nebula surrounding a Wolf-Rayet star. This is a young, massive star of the type expected to eventually undergo a supernova explosion.

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In today's image, we see Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS and its long tail stretching back behind it. This was the great comet of 2024 which was visible for a few weeks in early October.

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In today's image, we see Valles Marineris, a great canyon stretching across the face of Mars. It is much longer than our own Grand Canyon on Earth, by a factor of four and was not formed by running w…

In today's image, we see the outermost planet in the solar system as see from behind by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989. Voyager 2 is the only craft to visit the two outermost planets in our solar s…

In today's image, we see dust clouds in the constellation of Cassiopeia, learning to new start formation. In addition, the dust will dim and redden the light bring distant stars, making them appear f…

In today's image, we see galaxies with shells of material around them which are likely caused by interactions with smaller galaxies which have been torn apart by the tidal forces of the larger galaxy…

In today's image, we see comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in this image from last month when it was prominently visible in the sky. The comet has since faded as it heads back to the outer solar system. Anothe…

In today's image, we see the stone statues of Easter Island in the foreground and the Milky Way up above. The Milky Way is our own spiral galaxy as we see it from within.

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In today's image, we see the nearby star forming region known as the Orion Nebula. This contain a young open cluster of stars known as the Trapezium. Wishing this nebula and much of the Orion region,…

In today's image, we see a dark spot on Jupiter known as the abyss. The darker could on Jupiter are generally lower in the atmosphere than the lighter colored clouds, but a complete understanding of …

In today's image, we see an image of the night side of Saturn as taken out seven years ago by the Cassini spacecraft, just a couple of days before the end of its mission at which time, it plunged int…

In today's image, we see NGC 6744, a spiral galaxy. We can se the distinct spiral structure as well as the blue star clusters and pink hydrogen regions which dominate the spiral arms.

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In today's image, we see the bright star Rigel in the constellation of Orion as well as the reflection nebula known as the Witch Head Nebula. The scattering of light from a massive, blue star will gi…

In today's image, we see the Bubble Nebula. This is the region of gas and dust being pushed out by the string stellar winds and radiation pressure from a newly formed massive star.

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In today's image, we see two images of the star cluster NGC 602 and the surrounding region as imaged by both the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, highlighting the difference…

In today's image, we see an example of a Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement or STEVE. This phenomenon has only been recently studied and scientists still try to understand what causes this …

In today's image, we see LDN 43, a dark dusty nebula which has the appearance go a bat flying through space. This is part of a start formation region and some of the bright areas near the head of the…

In today's image, we see a region of gas and dust in the constellation of Cassiopeia. This may give the appearance of phantoms in space.

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In today's image, we see a globular star cluster. These clusters are about 10 billion years old and some of the remnants of the earliest times of our galaxy.

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