NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

In today's image, we see the comet known as Tsuchinshan-ATLAS as it is visible in the sky just as the moon is barely rising over the horizon. The comet has been brightening and may be a nice sight in…

In today's image, we see a partial solar eclipse that occurred yesterday and was visible over parts of the South Pacific and South Atlantic oceans. Thursday annular eclipse was seen primarily over th…

In today's image, we see a nearby satellite galaxy of our Milky Way known as the Large Magellanic Cloud. The galaxy is prominently visible in the the night sky for those living in the southern hemisp…

In today's image, we see what is known as Porphyrion which is the longest known jet from a black hole, stretching 23 million light years from end to end. This is larger than the distances to many gal…

In today's image, we see the comet known as Tsuchinshan-ATLAS as seen from a drone hovering about the clouds in Mexico. While the comet it currently at the edge of naked-eye visibility, it may bright…

In today's image, we see the Pleiades Star Cluster as imaged in the infrared. We will note that in infrared light, the dust is highlighted which mostly hides the stars themselves.

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In today's image, we see a Falcon 9 rocket as it launches into space. In this case ,it happened to pass in front of the setting Sun and we can see the exhaust trail distorting the Sun by heating the …

In today's image, we see images of 20 different galaxies, each of these seen to have streams of stars around it. The streams are caused by the larger galaxy which is consuming a smaller galaxy and te…

In today's image, we see a globular cluster. Globular clusters are among the oldest known objects in the galaxy, often being dated to over 10 billion years old.

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In today's image, we see the comet know as A3 as it rises above the horizon over Australia. Over the coming month, the comet will brighten, but by what amount is uncertain so we do not know exactly h…

In today's image, we see part of a nearby molecular cloud sometimes called the Rampaging Baboon Nebula. This is part of a star forming region located about 500 light years from Earth.

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In today's image, we see comet Tsuchinsan-ATLAS which will make its closest approach to Sun later the week and its closest approach to Earth next month. It may brighten enough to be visible with the …

In today's image, we see an image of our Sun setting along the streets of Chicago. Because the image was taken on the equinox, the Sun will rise directly in the East and set directly in the west, lin…

In today's image, we see crepuscular rays in the sky which point back to the rising Sun. The clouds in the sky cast shadows upwards because of the position of the Sun low on the horizon, highlighting…

In today's image, we see the setting Harvest Moon, which is the full moon closest to the Autumnal Equinox. It was also a supermoon, a full moon that occurs when Moon is closest to Earth in its orbit …

In today's image, we see the dusty area in the sky in the constellation of Cepheus. You may recognize the shape, which somewhat resembles a seahorse. The dust, when it is dense enough can block out a…

In today's image, we see a part of a supernova remnant known as the Mermaid Nebula. This is a portion of a massive star that would have long ago been seen to explode in the sky.

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In today's image, we see the young star cluster., Melotte 15 which has formed in the last million or so years in the central trigons of the Heart Nebula.

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In today's image, we see an image of the Vivaldi crater on Mercury which was recently imaged by the BepiColumbo spacecraft. The craft recently flew by Mercury and is scheduled to begin orbiting Mercu…

In today's image, we see an image of the full moon. You can also see the "Man in the Moon" in the patterns of the maria on the near side of the moon.

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