NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

In today's image, we see our Moon moving in front of the Sun during the recent partial eclipse. The Moon moves in front of the Sun and blocks out some of the Sun's light. We also see a solar prominen…

In today's image, we see the Lobster Nebula known for producing some of the most massive stars possible. The theoretical limit under current models is about 100 times the mass of our Sun. Stars large…

In today's image, we see the Cosmic Bat Nebula, an example of a dark nebula where the material within is dense enough to block out the light so that we cannot see stars beyond. Within the nebula, new…

In today's image, we see the spooky planet known as Earth. The clouds in the foreground are clouds of steam from vents in the ground in Iceland. The green glow in the sky is the aurora - the glow of …

In today's image, we see the dark nebula known by its catalog designation of LDN 673. This is an example of a dark nebula in which star formation is currently going on. We also see a Herbig-Haro obje…

In today's image, we see a number of meteors which in this case are pieces of Comet Halley which visits the inner solar system once every 75 years. While Comet Halley is currently in the outer portio…

In today's image, we see a partial solar eclipse in the sky over the Taj Mahal. The eclipse occurred just a couple of days ago. The next eclipse will be a total lunar eclipse on November 7/8 and will…

In today's image, we see the Cocoon Nebula which bears a vague resemblance to a comet with a head to the left side and the tail stretching out to the right. This is actually a star forming region whe…

In today's image, we see a video clip showing the rotation of the planet Jupiter as well as several of its moons orbiting around. Jupiter is currently near opposition meaning that it is opposite to t…

In today's image, we see the Andromeda Galaxy, the nearest large spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way. In the very deep exposure, we see the red emission of hydrogen gas. Some of these gas clouds are a…

In today's image, we see human sized pinnacles in Australia. While the origin is not known, they are made of ancient sea shells made in to rock. In the sky above, we see several things including out …

In today's image, we see the California Nebula also known by its catalog designation of NGC 1499. This is an example of an emission nebula and glows because of the hydrogen gas within the nebula exci…

In today's image, we see the Andromeda Galaxy as seen from New Zealand. Because of the far southerly latitude, the Andromeda never gets far above the horizon from this location.

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In today's image, we see the Pillars of Creation a part of the Eagle Nebula star forming region. The pillars are shaped by recently formed stars. The energy from these stars eats away at the less den…

In today's image, we see an image of a galaxy behind tendrils of dust from our own Milky Way. While the dust is within out galaxy, the distant galaxy is nearly 60 million light years beyond.

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In today's image, we see our Milky Way galaxy to the left as it appears to blossom into a bright green and red flower. What may appear to be a flower is actually an aurora - which occurs when charged…

In today's image, we see light echoes of x-rays from the gamma ray burst that was observed a week ago. The echoes were caused by reflection of x-rays off of dust in our Milky Way galaxy as they passe…

In today's image, we see and example of a barred spiral galaxy known by the catalog designation of NGC 1300. A barred spiral galaxy has a bar running through the center and the spiral arms appear to …

In today's image, we see the Gamma Ray Burst which occurred last Sunday identified as GRB 221009A. This is believed to be caused by the collapse of a star into a black hole, giving off immense amount…

In today's image, we see a Falcon 9 rocket as it rises from the surface of Earth passing in front of the full moon known as the Hunter's Moon. The distortion of the Moon seen near the bottom is cause…