Titan: Moon over Saturn
26.05.2018

Like Earth's moon, Saturn's largest moon Titan is locked in synchronous rotation. This mosiac of images recorded by the Cassini spacecraft in May of 2012 show's its anti-Saturn side, the side always facing away from the ringed gas giant.

Glowing Elements in the Soul Nebula
21.08.2018

Stars are forming in the Soul of the Queen of Aethopia. More specifically, a large star forming region called the Soul Nebula (IC 1898) can be found in the direction of the constellation Cassiopeia, who Greek mythology credits as the vain wife of a King who long ago ruled lands surrounding the upper Nile river.

The Cave Nebula in Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Sulfur
14.11.2018

What's inside this cosmic cave? A stellar nursery 10 light-years deep. The featured skyscape is dominated by dusty Sh2-155, the Cave Nebula. In the telescopic image, data taken through a narrowband filters tracks the nebular glow of hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur, colors that together form the Hubble Palette.

Wisps Surrounding the Horsehead Nebula
3.04.2019

The famous Horsehead Nebula in Orion is not alone. A deep exposure shows that the dark familiar shaped indentation, visible just below center, is part of a vast complex of absorbing dust and glowing gas.

Horsehead and Orion Nebulas
9.05.2021

The dark Horsehead Nebula and the glowing Orion Nebula are contrasting cosmic vistas. Adrift 1,500 light-years away in one of the night sky's most recognizable constellations, they appear in opposite corners of the above stunning mosaic.

Exploring the Antennae
31.03.2022

Some 60 million light-years away in the southerly constellation Corvus, two large galaxies are colliding. Stars in the two galaxies, cataloged as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, very rarely collide in the course of the ponderous cataclysm that lasts for hundreds of millions of years.

The Light, the Dark, and the Dusty
30.11.2022

This colorful skyscape spans about four full moons across nebula rich starfields along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy in the royal northern constellation Cepheus. Near the edge of the region's massive...

APOD: 2025 July 8 Б The Pleiades in Red and Blue
8.07.2025

If you have looked at the sky and seen a group of stars about the size of the full Moon, that's the Pleiades (M45). Perhaps the most famous star cluster in the sky, its brightest stars can be seen even from the light-polluted cities.

Centaurus A: The Galaxy Deep Inside
2.02.2002

Deep inside Centaurus A, the closest active galaxy to Earth, lies ... another galaxy! Cen A is a giant elliptical galaxy a mere 10 million light-years distant with a central jumble of stars, dust, and gas that probably hides a massive black hole.

Arp 81: 100 Million Years Later
11.12.2003

From planet Earth, we view this strongly interacting pair of galaxies, cataloged as Arp 81, as they were only about 100 million years after their mutual closest approach. The havoc wreaked by gravity during...