NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

In today's image, we see the planet Uranus as imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope. Uranus is interesting as it orbit the Sun on its side, but also because of the naming of its moons for characte…

In today's image, we see Jupiter, the largest of the planets in the solar system off to the right side of the image. In addition, we see one of the Geminid meteors, a tiny bit of material from an ast…

In today's image, we see a multicolored aurora in the sky over a waterfall in Iceland. Above this is the Milky Way - our own galaxy as we see it from within. In addition, we can see the Andromeda gal…

In today's image, we see the supernova remnant known as the Jellyfish Nebula. This is an example of a remnant of a Type II supernova which occurs at the end of the life of a very massive star.

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In today's image, we see an alignment of three objects - The Cathedral in front of the distant mountain here on Earth - timed so that the Moon was rising directly behind the mountain (and cathedral!)…

In today's image, we see a young planetary nebula which is the end state of a star much like our own Sun. The core has collapsed down to an extremely dense white dwarf star while the outer layers hav…

In today's image, we see an image from a nice summer night in December in New Zealand. Since seasons on Earth are opposite, winter is currently starting in the Northern Hemisphere while Summer is sta…

In today's image, we see a 183 day exposure of the Sun using a pinhole camera. This shows the position of the Sun over the course of the 6 month period from June to December of 2022.

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In today's image, we see three galaxies which are relatively close together in the sky along with a comet passing that same general direction in space. While the comet is close to us - within our own…

In today's image, we see a number of different ice halos and other features around the setting Sun. The features are caused by ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere and are formed by the reflectio…

In today's image, we see the California Nebula also known by the catalog designation of NGC 1499. This is an example of an emission nebula where light from a hot star ionizes the gas nearby and cause…

In today's image, we see what is known as the Same Color Illusion. Squares A & B are exactly the same color although it may not look like they are at first glance. When a bar of the same color is lai…

In today's image, we see many of the Geminid meteors which appear to converge off in the distance toward the constellation of Gemini. These meteors are unusual as they are associated with an asteroid…

In today's image, we see a crescent view of the moon of Saturn, Enceladus as images by the Cassini spacecraft. This moon is surprisingly active for such a small object, having volcanic activity that …

In today's image, we see two images of the constellation Orion side by side. In the left image, we see the red supergiant star, Betelgeuse at its regular brightness. In the right image, we see Betelg…

In today's image, we see the supernova remnant known as Cassiopeia A. This would have been seen to explode here on Earth about 350 years ago. However, it was not clearly seen, possibly because of exc…

In today's image, we see the emission nebula known as the Heart Nebula to the left and below and to the right is the Fish Head nebula. This Heart Nebula is an example of an emission nebula which cont…

In today's image, we see a view of the sky from Norway which includes a prominent aurora, our Milky Way galaxy, the Pleiades star cluster, the Andromeda Galaxy, and the planet Mars.

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In today's image, we see a video clip comparing solar activity at minimum (left) and maximum (right). The Sun goes through an 11 year cycle of solar activity with a peak of activity every 11 years. T…

In today's image, we see the Big Dipper which is an asterism or grouping of bright stars located in the constellation of Ursa Major. The middle five stars in the dipper all move roughly together in s…