NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

In today's image, we see HH 211 - this is an example of what is called a Herbig-Haro object. These objects are associated with newly forming stars and are formed when jets of material expelled by the…

In today's image, we see an example of red sprite lightning in the sky. This lightning is associated with storm clouds but occurs much higher in the atmosphere with the tendrils that can speed down a…

In today's image, we see an image of an annular eclipse of the Sun from 2020. This type of eclipse occurs when the Moon is a bit farther away and does not appear quite large enough to block out the e…

In today's image, we see a fireball visible in the sky over Iceland, near the Arctic Circle. A fireball is a meteor formed by a larger piece of material being vaporized in Earth's upper atmosphere. I…

In today's image, we see an image taken from an airplane on a flight to Mexico City. We see the active volcano off in the distance. And, up in the sky, we see the thin crescent moon as well as the pl…

In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy known as NGC 7331. this galaxy is about 50 million light years from Earth. Beyond it we see several other galaxies in the distance - since these galaxies ap…

In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy known as NGC 4632. The galaxy has a recently discovered polar ring - the ring of material is essentially perpendicular to the plane of the galaxy itself. Fu…

In today's image, we see the galaxy cluster known as Abell 370. The arcs in the photo are distorted images of distant galaxies beyond the cluster that have be affected by gravitational lensing. When …

In today's image, we see both Comet Nishimura and the planet Venus in the morning sky just before sunrise. Comet Nishimura will make its closest approach to Earth tomorrow and then closest to our Sun…

In today's image, we see an annular solar eclipse from 2012 in New Mexico. Another such Eclipse will occur for parts of North and South America on October 14 of this year. An annular eclipse occurs w…

In today's image, we see the recently discovered Comet Nishimura. The comet will make its closest approach to Earth this coming week and the following week will make its closest approach to the Sun. …

In today's image, we see the nebula known as Messier 17. This is an example of a star forming region where stars are still forming in the dark, dense, dusty pockets. The stars that have formed emit u…

In today's image, we see the Large Magellanic Cloud - A satellite galaxy of our larger Milky Way Galaxy. This galaxy contains SN 1987A - The closest supernova to have been seen since the advent of th…

In today's image, we see a video clip showing the telescopes of the High Energy Stereoscopic System in Namibia. These telescopes allow us to study high energy gamma rays from the surface of Earth.

My…

In today's image, we see the blue supermoon which occurred at the end of August this year. The blue moon is sometimes considered to the the second full moon which occurs in one month - something that…

In today's image, we see two nebulae in the constellation of Cygnus. The Bubble Nebula, which is a planetary nebula showing us the future of our own Sun when it reaches the end of its life. The Cresc…

In today's image, we see an image from 2006 showing the disruption and fragmentation of a comet as it passed close to our Sun. This can happen when a fragile comet passes too close to the Sun or even…

In today's image, we see what is known as the Iris Nebula. This is an example of a reflection nebula where light is scattered off of dust grains around a newly formed star. Since the shorter waveleng…

In today's image, we see the great globular star cluster known as M13 which is visual in the constellation of Hercules. Globular star clusters are among the oldest parts of our galaxy, dating back to…

In today's image, we see a nebula, not out in space, but in our own atmosphere on Earth. This is the result of the exhaust of a rocket taking a crew up to the International Space Station. Two bright …