NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

In today's image, we see a very deep image of the Ring Nebula as observed by multiple large telescopes. This allows for the imaging of fainter rings around the traditional Ring Nebula we normally obs…

In today's image, we see an all sky image of the eclipse of April 8. The outer portion shows the horizon while the central circular region shows the entire sky visible from this location. In the sky,…

In today's image, we see the bright star Regulus which is the brightest star in the constellation of Leo. We see almost all stars as points of light because of their relatively small sizes compared t…

In today's image, we see a large star forming region in the galaxy M33: The Triangulum Galaxy. This is one of the spiral galaxies in our own Local Group of galaxies. The star forming region is one of…

In today's image, we see an example of an emission nebula around a hot massive star. The ultraviolet light from the star excites the gases around it and causes them to glow. Patterns in the gas can b…

In today's image, we see two contrails from airplanes that cross in the sky. Because of the positioning of the Sun and upper clouds, we also see the shadows cast by these contrails which form an X on…

In today's image, we see a thin waning crescent moon in the sky over Mt. Etna. We also see smoke rings from the volcano - this is a rare effect that occurs only when conditions in both the volcano an…

In today's image, we see a time-lapse video clip from the Juno spacecraft as it made its 16 close approach to the planet Jupiter. Juno has a highly elliptical orbit which allows it to come in briefly…

In today's image, we see several images of the total solar eclipse which occurred on April 8. The central page showing details of the solar corona only visible during an eclipse. The other two images…

In today's image, we see the Great Carina Nebula which is a large star forming region about 7500 light years from Earth - it is much larger than the closer Orion Nebula. The bright star Eta Carinae i…

In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy NGC 1232. We see this in a face-on position which gives us a great view of its spiral arms. We can see the pink color of hydrogen gas excited by the ultravi…

In today's image, we see the total solar eclipse of April 8. Also visible in the sky and shown in this image were two planets - Venus and Mercury. Two comets can also be seen including comet Pons-Bro…

In today's image, we see a portion of the Vela Supernova Remnant. This is the remnant of a star that would have been seen to explode here on Earth over ten thousand years ago. The expanding filaments…

In today's image, we see two images of M82 also known as the Cigar Galaxy. This is a starburst galaxy which is undergoing a burst of star formation due to an interaction with another nearby galaxy. R…

In today's image, we see a video clip showing the end of the total solar eclipse of April 8 of this year. As the video starts, we can see a couple of prominences around the edge of the Sun. As the Su…

In today's image, we see multiple images of the eclipse of April 8. These are projected through the leaves of a palm tree which acts as a bunch of pinhole cameras each of which projects its own image…

In today's image, we see multiple images of the solar eclipse from April 8. Around the limb of the Moon, we see a number of pink solar prominences as well as glimpses of the solar surface through wha…

In today's image, we see seven images from the solar eclipse of April 8. Starting from the upper left shortly after the Moon first started to cover the Sun, through totality where the solar corona is…

In today's image, we see two planets - one on either side of the eclipsed Sun. To the right is the planet Venus, currently visible in the morning sky just before sunrise. To the left is the planet Ju…

In today's image, we see the total solar eclipse which occurred yesterday over parts of North America. The solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes in front of our Sun temporarily blocking out its l…