NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

In today's image, we see what are known as cometary globules. While these have nothing to do with comets, they do bear a resemblance to the comets we find in our solar system. They are actually compa…

In today's image, we see the galaxy known as the Tadpole Galaxy for the long tail stretching away from it. The tail is caused by a previous interaction with another galaxy which has caused material t…

In today's image, we see the Triangulum Galaxy, also known as M33 which is one of the three large spiral galaxies in our local group. We also see a meteor that happened by chance to appear in the fra…

In today's image, we see a portrait of the solar system showing 6 of the 8 plates in our solar system with Mercury and Mars not being visible because of their position relative to the glare of the Su…

In today's image, we see a planetary nebula which is the end state of a star much like our own Sun. At the end of the life of the star, the core compacts down to a white dwarf star while the outer la…

In today's image, we see the globular star cluster known as Omega Centauri. This may actually be the remnant core of a galaxy whose outer laters were stripped off during an encounter with the Milky W…

In today's image, we see several nebulae in the constellation of Sagittarius. These include the Triffid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula. This is a region of star formation which includes a number of emi…

In today's image, we see noctilucent or night shining clouds. These are clouds that are high enough in Earth's atmosphere that they can be seen illuminated by the Sun at times just before sunrise or …

In today's image, we see some of the over 5500 exoplanets that have been confirmed to exist. We find all sorts of planets, including planets of intermediate size which do nor exist in our solar syste…

In today's image, we see iridescent clouds in Earth's atmosphere. These occur when sunlight is diffracted off of similar sized water drops in thin clouds in Earth's upper atmosphere.

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In today's image, we see the star cluster known as Caroline's Rose. The cluster is named for its discoverer, Caroline Herschel who found this cluster back in the late 1700s.

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In today's image, we see Mount Etna here on Earth and our Milky Way up in the sky. 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 Trifid Nebula, also known as M20. This is a part of a stat forming region and shows the different types of nebulae that can be present here, including Dark Nebulae, Refle…

In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy known as M83. This is an example of a spiral galaxy and shows the signs of extensive star formation, including the blue color of the spiral arms from the ho…

In today's image, we see the Oyster Star Cluster also known as NGC 602. This is a young star cluster and parts of it are still forming. We will see two images, one from Hubble and the other which add…

In today's image, we see a spiral which shows the history of the entire universe in one spiral. It starts with the Big Bang at the center and then highlights 13.8 billion years of histories you track…

In today's image, we see a video put together from the famous Earthrise photo taken by the Apollo 8 astronauts. This is what would have been seen by the astronauts as they circled the Moon for the fi…

In today's image, we see the path of the full moon across the sky from about one week ago. This is the summer solstice moon which is very low in the sky as it is opposite to the Sun which is highest …

In today's image, we see a comet. In many ways, this is much like Halley's Comet. Olber's Comet orbits the Sun just a little faster than Halley's completing an orbit once every 68 years. In two days,…

In today's image, we see outflows from young, forming stars. This has been imaged with the James Webb Space Telescope looking at a small region around the very center of the nebula - a region only ab…