NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

In today's image, we see a reconstructed image of our Milky Way as viewed from the side. The image is created using data from the Gaia spacecraft which was recently retired in March of this year.

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In today's image, we see one of the rare images of the surface of Venus. Because Venus is covered in clouds, it cannot be imaged directly from space. The conditions on the surface are very hostile so…

In today's image, we see a 3D image from the surface of Mars showing the Sojourner rover on Mars as well as the Pathfinder lander and several rock features on Mars, including one names Yogi.

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In today's image, we see an artist's rendering of the jet of material being emitted from around a black hole. Recent observations have determine that the x-rays being produces are from energetic elec…

In today's image, we see two images of the Crab Nebula showing the expansion that has taken place in the time between these two images.

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In today's image, we see a pair of galaxies which are in the process of merging. Galactic mergers like this can take billions of years as the galaxies will make many approaches to one another before …

In today's image, we see a computer simulation of two supermassive black holes and their accretion disks in orbit around one another.

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In today's image, we see lines of reflected light from planets and our Moon as seen across the surface of the Mediterranean Sea.

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In today's image, we see an artist's conception of the accretion disk and jet of a supermassive black hole. Recent measurements have shown that black holes are spinning at close to a limit as measure…

In today's image, we see the large moon of Saturn known as Titan. This is the only moon in the solar system with a significant atmosphere and the only object (other than Earth!) that has a liquid pre…

In today's image, we see a young star cluster, NGC 346, located in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The energy from the hot stars in the cluster shapes the material around the cluster.

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In today's image, we see an image from the MESSENGER spacecraft. The center of this region is the expect place on Mercury where MESSENGER crashes into the surface at the end of its mission ten years …

In today's image, we see three solar system objects in the sky which form a smiley face in the sky. These include the thin, waning crescent Moon, the planet Venus, and the planet Saturn.

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In today's image, we see six images of Saturn taken from 2020-2025. Over this time, the rings system tilt changes which leads us to be unable to see the rings of Saturn this year.

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In today's image, we see the Gum 37 nebula which is part of a molecular cloud in which stars are forming. The tadpoles are regions of higher density which remain as lower density gas is washed away.

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In today's image, we see a planetary nebula known as the Spirograph Nebula. A planetary nebula is the end state of a star much like our own Sun. The core compacts down to a white dwarf star while the…

In today's image, we see an example of a barred spiral galaxy with a distinct bar running through its central regions. These are a relatively common type of spiral galaxy and many other galaxies are …

In today's image, we see the asteroid Donaldjohanson which was recently visited by the Lucy spacecraft. This craft will fly by several asteroids and will eventually student the Trojan asteroids, whic…

In today's image, we see the nebula around a hot, young O-type star. This is the type os star what will eventually (in a few mission years) end its life in a supernova explosion.

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In today's image, we see a number of things in the sky including our own Milky Way galaxy, the zodiacal light, the aurora, and even a meteor.

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