Around the World in 90 Minutes
21.11.2011

What is it like to circle the Earth? Every 90 minutes, astronauts aboard the International Space Station experience just that. Recently, crew members took a series of light-sensitive videos looking down at night that have been digitally fused to produce the above time-lapse video.

The Cygnus Wall of Star Formation
10.10.2016

Sometimes, stars form in walls -- bright walls of interstellar gas. In this vivid skyscape, stars are forming in the W-shaped ridge of emission known as the Cygnus Wall. Part of a larger emission nebula with a distinctive outline popularly called The North America Nebula, the cosmic ridge spans about 20 light-years.

Dark Nebula LDN 1622 and Barnards Loop
5.04.2017

The silhouette of an intriguing dark nebula inhabits this cosmic scene. Lynds' Dark Nebula (LDN) 1622 appears below center against a faint background of glowing hydrogen gas only easily seen in long telescopic exposures of the region.

Star Cluster Omega Centauri in HDR
10.07.2017

Behold the largest ball of stars in our galaxy. Omega Centauri is packed with about 10 million stars, many older than our Sun and packed within a volume of only about 150 light-years in diameter.

NGC 3521: Galaxy in a Bubble
4.05.2022

Gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is a mere 35 million light-years away, toward the northern springtime constellation Leo. Relatively bright in planet Earth's sky, NGC 3521 is easily visible in small telescopes but often overlooked by amateur imagers in favor of other Leo spiral galaxies, like M66 and M65.

The Medusa Nebula
16.03.2023

Braided and serpentine filaments of glowing gas suggest this nebula's popular name, The Medusa Nebula. Also known as Abell 21, this Medusa is an old planetary nebula some 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Gemini. Like its mythological namesake, the nebula is associated with a dramatic transformation.

APOD: 2024 September 8 Б M31: The Andromeda Galaxy
7.09.2024

The most distant object easily visible to the unaided eye is M31, the great Andromeda Galaxy. Even at some two and a half million light-years distant, this immense spiral galaxy -- spanning over 200,000 light years -- is visible, although as a faint, nebulous cloud in the constellation Andromeda.

Young Star Cluster NGC 1333
11.09.2024

This spectacular mosaic of images from the James Webb Space Telescope peers into the heart of young star cluster NGC 1333. A mere 1,000 light-years distant toward the heroic constellation Perseus, the nearby star cluster lies at the edge of the large Perseus molecular cloud.

APOD: 2024 December 3 Б Ice Clouds over a Red Planet
2.12.2024

If you could stand on Mars -- what might you see? You might look out over a vast orange landscape covered with rocks under a dusty orange sky, with a blue-tinted Sun setting over the horizon, and odd-shaped water clouds hovering high overhead.

APOD: 2026 June 10 Б The Eagle Nebula and Friends
9.06.2026

What looks as if it is going to swallow the great Pillars of Creation? The Eagle Nebula (M16) is not a bird, a plane, or Superman. M16 is actually a combination of several celestial objects. NGC 6611 is the young star cluster that appears to peak out beneath the EagleБs БwingsБ.