NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

In today's image, we see the full moon rising on Aug 1 of this year. Tonight, we will have the second full moon of the month, sometimes called a blue moon. It is also a supermoon since it occurs when…

In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy known as M66. We note that the spiral structure of this galaxy appears distorted. This is likely due to the gravitational interactions with other nearby gal…

In today's image, we see the star forming region known as the Pacman Nebula. within this region, we see recently formed stars and well as globules containing stars still in the process of formation. …

In today's image, we see three galaxies - our Milky Way as well as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. In addition, we see a beautiful image of comet McNaught - the great comet visible in 2007.

My…

In today's image, we see seven images of Venus taken over the past few months showing how it changed from a quarter phase in May to a very thin crescent earlier this month. It recently passed between…

In today's image, we see six images of the planet Saturn, one taken each year from 2018-2023. This demonstrates how the orientation of the rings will change over the course of a season on Saturn - A …

In today's image, we see a number of meteors from the recent Perseid meteor shower from earlier this month. The meteors will all appear to radiate from a spot in the constellation of Perseus off the …

In today's image, we see an image of the Andromeda Galaxy. We also see the trail of a motor that happened to pass through the field of view when the image was being captured.

My podcasts are available…

In today's image, we see the recently discovered Pistachio Nebula. It is suspected that this is a planetary nebula with an apparent size in the sky similar to the full moon. Further studies will help…

In today's image, we see the recently discovered comet named Nishimura. The comet will be brightening over the next month or so and has the potential to become visible to the unaided eye.

My podcasts…

In today's image, we see a type of cloud known as a roll cloud which is associated with an oncoming storm front.

My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel.

This Podcast is an…

In today's image, we see the planet Neptune as imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope. It appears faint because there is a good amount go methane in its atmosphere which is very good at absorbing t…

In today's image, we see an image from the New Horizons spacecraft from July of 2015 when it flew by the Dwarf Planet Pluto. The part of Pluto that we are looking at is called Lowell Regio after Perc…

In today's image, we see a part of the star forming region in the constellation of Cepheus. Within this are a number of gas and dust nebulae which bear a resemblance to difference animals here on Ear…

In today's image, we see the peculiar pair of galaxies known as Arp 93. These are two galaxies that are in the process of colliding and likely will form a large galaxy as they merge together over the…

In today's image, we see the night sky over Iceland glowing because of several different phenomena. We see the aurora off to the left, a volcano in the center, and emission from a geothermal power pl…

In today's image, we see the planetary nebula known as the Ring Nebula as imaged in the infrared by the James Webb Space Telescope. This is a planetary nebula and gives us a glimpse in to what the fu…

In today's image, we see The Sombrero Galaxy also known as M104. This is an example of a spiral galaxy that we see from an edge-on point of view which emphasizes the dust lanes. This is also enhanced…

In today's image, we see what are called ghirigori or star scribbles. These are created by tapping the telescope lightly during the exposure to create different patterns. We can also see the colors a…

In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy known as Messier 51 in a very deep exposure consisting of 255 hours (more than 10 days!) worth of imaging. This allows us to see far more detail than would …