Milky Way Auroral Flower
17.10.2022

Could the stem of our Milky Way bloom into an auroral flower? No, not really, even though it may appear that way in todayБs featured all-sky image. On the left, the central plane of our home galaxy extends from the horizon past the middle of the sky.

A December Summer Night
22.12.2023

Colours of a serene evening sky are captured in this 8 minute exposure, made near this December's solstice from New Zealand, southern hemisphere, planet Earth. Looking south, star trails form the short concentric arcs around the rotating planet's south celestial pole positioned just off the top of the frame.

Jupiter from the Webb Space Telescope
29.08.2022

This new view of Jupiter is illuminating. High-resolution infrared images of Jupiter from the new James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) reveal, for example, previously unknown differences between high-floating bright clouds -- including the Great Red Spot -- and low-lying dark clouds.

APOD: 2024 May 26 Б A Solar Filament Erupts
25.05.2024

What's happened to our Sun? Nothing very unusual -- it just threw a filament. Toward the middle of 2012, a long standing solar filament suddenly erupted into space, producing an energetic coronal mass ejection (CME).

APOD: 2025 December 8 Б Flying Over the Earth at Night
7.12.2025

Many wonders are visible when flying over the Earth at night. Such visual spectacles occur every day for astronauts in low Earth orbit, but the featured video captured several from the International Space Station (ISS) in 2011 and set them to rousing music.

APOD: 2024 May 13 Б AR 3664 on a Setting Sun
12.05.2024

It was larger than the Earth. It was so big you could actually see it on the Sun's surface without magnification. It contained powerful and tangled magnetic fields as well as numerous dark sunspots.

A Proton Arc Over Lake Superior
2.08.2015

The setting had been picked out -- all that was needed was an aurora. And late last August, forecasts predicted that an otherwise beautiful night sky would be lit up with auroral green. Jumping into...

Mount Megantic Magnetic Storm
17.08.2000

Plasma from the Sun and debris from a comet both collided with planet Earth last Saturday morning triggering magnetic storms and a meteor shower in a dazzling atmospheric spectacle. The debris stream from comet...

APOD: 2024 May 28 Б Solar X Flare as Famous Active Region Returns
27.05.2024

It's back. The famous active region on the Sun that created auroras visible around the Earth earlier this month has survived its rotation around the far side of the Sun -- and returned. Yesterday...

A Powerful Solar Flare
1.09.2018

It was one of the most powerful solar flares in recorded history. Occurring in 2003 and seen across the electromagnetic spectrum, the Sun briefly became over 100 times brighter in X-rays than normal.