The California Nebula
12.01.2016

What's California doing in space? Drifting through the Orion Arm of the spiral Milky Way Galaxy, this cosmic cloud by chance echoes the outline of California on the west coast of the United States.

A Year of Full Moons
5.11.2017

Do all full moons look the same? No. To see the slight differences, consider this grid of twelve full moons. From upper left to lower right, the images represent every lunation from 2016 November through 2017 October, as imaged from Pakistan.

A Sunset Night Sky over the Grand Canyon
4.02.2020

Seeing mountain peaks glow red from inside the Grand Canyon was one of the most incredible sunset experiences of this amateur photographer's life. They appeared even more incredible later, when digitally combined with an exposure of the night sky -- taken by the same camera and from the same location -- an hour later.

UGC 12591: The Fastest Rotating Galaxy Known
19.02.2020

Why does this galaxy spin so fast? To start, even identifying which type of galaxy UGC 12591 is difficult -- featured on the lower left, it has dark dust lanes like a spiral galaxy but a large diffuse bulge of stars like a lenticular.

APOD: 2024 November 17 Б LDN 1471: A Windblown Star Cavity
17.11.2024

What is the cause of this unusual parabolic structure? This illuminated cavity, known as LDN 1471, was created by a newly forming star, seen as the bright source at the peak of the parabola.

APOD: 2025 May 13 Б Gaia Reconstructs a Top View of our Galaxy
13.05.2025

What does our Milky Way Galaxy look like from the top? Because we are on the inside, humanity canБt get an actual picture. Recently, however, just such a map has been made using location data for over a billion stars from ESAБs Gaia mission.

APOD: 2025 July 30 Б Coronal Loops on the Sun
30.07.2025

Our Sun frequently erupts in loops. Hot solar plasma jumps off the Sun's surface into prominences, with the most common type of prominence being a simple loop. The loop shape originates from the Sun's magnetic field, which is traced by spiraling electrons and protons.

Star Forming Region S106
20.02.2001

Massive star IRS4 is beginning to spread its wings. Born only about 100,000 years ago, material streaming out from this newborn star has formed the nebula dubbed Sharpless 106 Nebula (S106), pictured above.

The Secret of the Black Aurora
1.01.2002

What causes black aurora? These gaps in normal bright aurora are frequently recorded but rarely questioned. Recent research using data from four Cluster spacecraft orbiting the Earth has now likely found the secret: black auroras are actually anti-auroras.

Pwyll: Icy Crater of Europa
13.04.2002

The impact crater Pwyll (a name from Celtic Mythology) is thought to represent one of the youngest features on the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa. A combination of color and high resolution black...