Asteroid 2014 JO25
20.04.2017

A day before its closest approach, asteroid 2014 JO25 was imaged by radar with the 70-meter antenna of NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California. This grid of 30 radar images, top left to lower right, reveals the two-lobed shape of the asteroid that rotates about once every five hours.

Milky Way and Exploding Meteor
6.08.2017

Next weekend the Perseid Meteor Shower reaches its maximum. Grains of icy rock will streak across the sky as they evaporate during entry into Earth's atmosphere. These grains were shed from Comet Swift-Tuttle.

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: 2023 January 17 Б Unexpected Clouds Toward the Andromeda Galaxy
17.01.2023

Why are there oxygen-emitting arcs near the direction of the Andromeda galaxy? No one is sure. The gas arcs, shown in blue, were discovered and first confirmed by amateur astronomers just last year.

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.

ISS: Sunlight to Shadow
28.02.2008

Orbiting 400,000 kilometers above the Earth, the Moon slid into Earth's shadow to begin last week's total lunar eclipse. Of course the International Space Station (ISS) slides into Earth's shadow every 90 minutes, the time it takes it to complete one orbit at an altitude of about 400 kilometers.

IRAS 05437 2502: An Enigmatic Star Cloud from Hubble
9.08.2010

What's lighting up nebula IRAS 05437+2502? No one is sure. Particularly enigmatic is the bright upside-down V that defines the upper edge of this floating mountain of interstellar dust, visible near the image center.

Apollo 17 Site: A Sharper View
8.09.2011

This view of the Apollo 17 landing site in the Taurus-Littrow valley was captured last month by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), the sharpest ever recorded from space. The high resolution image data...

Comet Lovejoy through Morby Castle Ruins
4.12.2013

This new comet is quite photogenic. Comet Lovejoy, discovered only three months ago, was imaged through ruins of ancient MЖrby Castle in Sweden last week sporting a green-glowing coma and tails trailing several degrees.

The Cosmic Web of the Tarantula Nebula
17.02.2014

It is the largest and most complex star forming region in the entire galactic neighborhood. Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy orbiting our Milky Way galaxy, the region's spidery appearance is responsible for its popular name, the Tarantula nebula. This tarantula, however, is about 1,000 light-years across.