Mercury Meets Crescent Venus
29.05.2020

That's not a bright star and crescent Moon caught between branches of a eucalyptus tree. It's Venus in a crescent phase and Mercury. Near the western horizon after sunset, the two inner planets closely shared this telescopic field of view on May 22, seen from a balcony in Civitavecchia, Italy.

Comet Hale Bopp in the Outer Solar System
26.03.2001

Whatever became of Comet Hale-Bopp? The brightest comet in recent years has continued into the outer Solar System and is now further from the Sun than Saturn. To the surprise of many, Comet Hale-Bopp is still active, continuing to spew gas, ice and dust particles out into space.

Colorful Light Pillars
2.09.2002

How can an aurora appear so near the ground? Pictured above are not aurora but nearby light pillars, a local phenomenon that can appear as a distant one. In most places on Earth...

Colorful Light Pillars
5.03.2006

How can an aurora appear so near the ground? Pictured above are not aurora but nearby light pillars, a local phenomenon that can appear as a distant one. In most places on Earth...

Noctilucent Cloud Storm Panorama
11.07.2009

Noctilucent or night-shining clouds lie near the edge of space. From about 80 kilometers above Earth's surface, the icy clouds can still reflect sunlight even though the Sun itself is below the horizon as seen from the ground.

A Venus Transit Over the Baltic Sea
13.06.2012

Waiting years and traveling kilometers -- all to get a shot like this. And even with all of this planning, a good bit of luck was helpful. As the Sun rose over the Baltic...

APOD: 2015 July 11 Geology on Pluto
11.07.2015

Pluto is coming into focus. As the robotic New Horizons spacecraft bears down on this unexplored world of the distant Solar System, new features on its surface are becoming evident. In the displayed image...

APOD: 2023 April 23 Б A Waterspout in Florida
23.04.2023

What's happening over the water? Pictured here is one of the better images yet recorded of a waterspout, a type of tornado that occurs over water. Waterspouts are spinning columns of rising moist air that typically form over warm water.

M83: The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy from VLT
6.12.1999

M83 is one of the closest and brightest spiral galaxies on the sky. Visible with binoculars in the constellation of Hydra, majestic spiral arms have prompted its nickname as the Southern Pinwheel. Although discovered...

The Doomed Dust Disk of NGC 7052
22.06.1998

What created the dust disk in the center of NGC 7052, and what keeps it spinning? Although the disk might appear as a relatively tame "hubcap in space", the unusual center of elliptical galaxy NGC 7052 is probably the remnant of a titanic collision between galaxies.