APOD: 2023 April 19 Б Auroral Storm over Lapland
19.04.2023

On some nights the sky is the best show in town. On this night, auroras ruled the sky, and the geomagnetic storm that created this colorful sky show originated from an increasingly active Sun.

Colorful Arcs over Buenos Aires
15.12.2015

What are those colorful arcs in the sky? Like rainbows that are caused by rain, arcs of sunlight broken up into component colors can also result when ice crystals floating in Earth's atmosphere act together as a gigantic prism.

Double Asteroid 90 Antiope
1.11.2000

This eight-frame animation is based on the first ever images of a double asteroid! Formerly thought to be a single enormous chunk of rock, asteroid 90 Antiope resides in the solar system's main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Country Sky versus City Sky
8.04.2020

Dark skies are disappearing from the world. With modernization comes artificial lighting that brightens the night. While these lights allow modern humans to see, much light is wasted up into the sky. This light...

APOD: 2023 October 9 Б A Distorted Sunrise Eclipse
9.10.2023

Yes, but have you ever seen a sunrise like this? Here, after initial cloudiness, the Sun appeared to rise in two pieces and during a partial eclipse in 2019, causing the photographer to describe it as the most stunning sunrise of his life.

Northern Summer on Titan
20.06.2020

Today's solstice brings summer to planet Earth's northern hemisphere. But the northern summer solstice arrived for ringed planet Saturn over three years ago on May 24, 2017. Orbiting the gas giant, Saturn's moon Titan experiences the Saturnian seasons.

Meteor, Comet, and Seagull (Nebula)
21.10.2018

A meteor, a comet, and a photogenic nebula have all been captured in this single image. The closest and most fleeting is the streaking meteor on the upper right -- it was visible for less than a second.

The Flight Deck of Space Shuttle Endeavour
18.04.2012

What would it be like to fly a space shuttle? Although the last of NASA's space shuttles has now been retired, it is still fun to contemplate sitting at the controls of one of the humanity's most sophisticated machines.

Dark Clouds of the Carina Nebula
19.09.2010

What dark forms lurk in the mists of the Carina Nebula? These ominous figures are actually molecular clouds, knots of molecular gas and dust so thick they have become opaque. In comparison, however, these clouds are typically much less dense than Earth's atmosphere.

APOD: 2023 June 6 Б Star Eats Planet
6.06.2023

ItБs the end of a world as we know it. Specifically, the Sun-like star ZTF SLRN-2020 was seen eating one of its own planets. Although many a planet eventually dies by spiraling into their central star, the 2020 event, involving a Jupiter-like planet, was the first time it was seen directly.