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Are these trees growing on Mars? No. Groups of dark brown streaks have been photographed by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on melting pinkish sand dunes covered with light frost. The featured image was taken in 2008 April near the North Pole of Mars. At that time, dark sand on the interior of Martian sand dunes became more and more visible as the spring Sun melted the lighter carbon dioxide ice . When occurring near the top of a dune, dark sand may cascade down the dune leaving dark surface streaks -- streaks that might appear at first to be tree s standing in front of the lighter regions but cast no shadows. Objects about 25 centimeters across are resolved on this image spanning about one kilometer. Close ups of some parts of this image show billowing plume s indicating that the sand slides were occurring even while the image was being taken. from NASA https://ift.tt/DoZs0Ru

Tidally locked in synchronous rotation , the Moon always presents its familiar nearside to denizens of planet Earth . From lunar orbit, the Moon's farside can become familiar, though. In fact this sharp picture , a mosaic from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's wide angle camera, is centered on the lunar farside. Part of a global mosaic of over 15,000 images acquired between November 2009 and February 2011, the highest resolution version shows features at a scale of 100 meters per pixel. Surprisingly, the rough and battered surface of the farside looks very different from the nearside covered with smooth dark lunar maria. A likely explanation is that the farside crust is thicker , making it harder for molten material from the interior to flow to the surface and form dark, smooth maria . from NASA https://ift.tt/xqcs1P6

Big beautiful barred spiral galaxy Messier 109 is the 109th entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog of bright Nebulae and Star Clusters . You can find it just below the Big Dipper's bowl in the northern constellation Ursa Major. In fact, bright dipper star Phecda, Gamma Ursa Majoris, produces the glare at the upper right corner of this telescopic frame. M109's prominent central bar gives the galaxy the appearance of the Greek letter "theta", θ, a common mathematical symbol representing an angle. M109 spans a very small angle in planet Earth's sky though, about 7 arcminutes or 0.12 degrees. But that small angle corresponds to an enormous 120,000 light-year diameter at the galaxy's estimated 60 million light-year distance. The brightest member of the now recognized Ursa Major galaxy cluster, M109 (aka NGC 3992) is joined by spiky foreground stars. Three small, fuzzy bluish galaxies also on the scene, identified (top to bottom) as UGC 6969, UGC 6940...

An interstellar expanse of glowing gas and obscuring dust presents a bird-like visage to astronomers from planet Earth, suggesting its popular moniker, the Seagull Nebula . This broadband portrait of the cosmic bird covers a 3.5-degree wide swath across the plane of the Milky Way, in the direction of Sirius , alpha star of the constellation of the Big Dog ( Canis Major ). The bright head of the Seagull Nebula is cataloged as IC 2177, a compact, dusty emission and reflection nebula with embedded massive star HD 53367. The larger emission region , encompassing objects with other catalog designations, is Likely part of an extensive shell structure swept up by successive supernova explosions. The notable bluish arc below and right of center is a bow shock from runaway star FN Canis Majoris . Dominated by the reddish glow of atomic hydrogen, this complex of interstellar gas and dust clouds with other stars of the Canis Majoris OB1 association spans over 200 light-years at the Seagull Ne...

This interstellar skyscape spans over 4 degrees across crowded starfields toward the constellation Sagittarius and the central Milky Way. A First Look image captured at the new NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the bright nebulae and star clusters featured include famous stops on telescopic tours of the cosmos: Messier 8 and Messier 20 . An expansive star-forming region over a hundred light-years across, Messier 8 is also known as the Lagoon Nebula. About 4,000 light-years away the Lagoon Nebula harbors a remarkable cluster of young, massive stars. Their intense radiation and stellar winds energize and agitate this cosmic lagoon's turbulent depths . Messier 20's popular moniker is the Trifid. Divided into three parts by dark interstellar dust lanes, the Trifid Nebula's glowing hydrogen gas creates its dominant red color. But contrasting blue hues in the colorful Trifid are due to dust reflected starlight . The Rubin Observatory visited the Trifid-Lagoon field to acqu...

Is there a spiral galaxy in the center of this spiral galaxy? Sort of. Image data from the Hubble Space Telescope , the European Southern Observatory , and smaller telescopes on planet Earth are combined in this detailed portrait of face-on spiral galaxy Messier 61 (M61) and its bright center. A mere 55 million light-years away in the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies , M61 is also known as NGC 4303. It's considered to be an example of a barred spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way . Like other spiral galaxies, M61 also features sweeping spiral arms, cosmic dust lanes, pinkish star forming regions, and young blue star clusters. Its core houses an active supermassive black hole surrounded by a bright nuclear spiral -- infalling star-forming gas that itself looks like a separate spiral galaxy. from NASA https://ift.tt/umKQfFr

How do stars form? Images of the star forming region W5 like those in the infrared by NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer ( WISE , later NEOWISE ) satellite provide clear clues with indications that massive stars near the center of empty cavities are older than stars near the edges. A likely reason for this is that the older stars in the center are actually triggering the formation of the younger edge stars. The triggered star formation occurs when hot outflowing gas compresses cooler gas into knots dense enough to gravitationally contract into stars. In the featured scientifically colored infrared image, spectacular pillars left slowly evaporating from the hot outflowing gas provide further visual clues . W5 is also known as Westerhout 5 (W5) and IC 1848. Together with IC 1805 , the nebulas form a complex region of star formation popularly dubbed the Heart and Soul Nebulas. The featured image highlights a part of W5 spanning about 2,000 light years that is ric...

How were these unusual Martian spherules created? Thousands of unusual gray spherules made of iron and rock and dubbed blueberries were found embedded in and surrounding rocks near the landing site of the robot Opportunity rover on Mars in 2004. To help investigate their origin, Opportunity found a surface dubbed the Berry Bowl with an indentation that was rich in the Martian orbs . The Berry Bowl is pictured here , imaged during rover's 48th Martian day . The average size of a Martian blueberry rock is only about 4 millimeters across. By analyzing a circular patch in the rock surface to the left of the densest patch of spherules , Opportunity obtained data showing that the underlying rock has a much different composition than the hematite rich blueberries . This information contributes to the growing consensus that these small, strange, gray orbs were slowly deposited from a bath of dirty water . from NASA https://ift.tt/xNobB4L

Sure, that figure-8 shaped curve you get when you mark the position of the Sun in Earth's sky at the same time each day over one year is called an analemma. On the left , Earth's figure-8 analemma was traced by combining wide-angle digital images recorded during the year from December 2011 through December 2012. But the shape of an analemma depends on the eccentricity of a planet's orbit and the tilt of its axis of rotation, so analemma curves can look different for different worlds. Take Mars for example . The Red Planet's axial tilt is similar to Earth's, but its orbit around the same sun is more eccentric (less circular) than Earth's orbit. As seen from the Martian surface, the analemma traced in the right hand panel is shaped more like a tear drop. The Mars rover Opportunity captured the images used over the Martian year corresponding to Earth dates July 2006 to June 2008. Of course, each world's solstice dates still lie at the top and bottom of th...

Edmonton , Alberta, Canada, planet Earth lies on the horizon. in this stack of panoramic composite images. In a monthly time series arranged vertically top to bottom the ambitious photographic project follows the annual north-south swing of sunrise points, from June solstice to December solstice and back again. It also follows the corresponding, but definitely harder to track, Full Moon rise. Of course, the north-south swing of moonrise runs opposite sunrise along the horizon. But these rising Full Moons also span a wider range on the horizon than the sunrises. That's because the well-planned project ( as shown in this video ) covers the period June 2024 to June 2025 , centered on a major lunar standstill. Major lunar standstills represent extremes in the north-south range of moonrise driven by the 18.6 year precession period of the lunar orbit. from NASA https://ift.tt/1F83HaT

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 . It's hard to overlook in this colorful cosmic portrait though. Spanning some 50,000 light-years the galaxy sports characteristic patchy, irregular spiral arms laced with dust, pink star forming regions, and clusters of young, blue stars. The deep image also finds NGC 3521 embedded in fainter, gigantic, bubble-like shells. The shells are likely tidal debris, streams of stars torn from satellite galaxies that have undergone mergers with NGC 3521 in the distant past. from NASA https://ift.tt/J1BVDr4

What's that unusual spot on the Moon? It's the International Space Station . Using precise timing, the Earth-orbiting space platform was photographed in front of a partially lit gibbous Moon in 2019. The featured image was taken from Palo Alto , California , USA with an exposure time of only 1/667 of a second . In contrast, the duration of the transit of the ISS across the entire Moon was about half a second. A close inspection of this unusually crisp ISS silhouette will reveal the outlines of numerous solar panels and trusses. The bright crater Tycho is visible on the lower left, as well as comparatively rough, light colored terrain known as highlands and relatively smooth, dark colored areas known as maria . Downloadable apps can tell you when the International Space Station will be visible from your area. from NASA https://ift.tt/oIFnZH6

Can you find the Rosette Nebula? The red flowery-looking nebula just above the image center may seem a good choice, but that's not it. The famous Rosette Nebula is really located on the lower right, here colored blue and white , and connected to the other nebulas by gold-colored filaments. Because the featured image of Rosette's field is so wide , and because of its deep red exposure, it seems to contain other flowers. Designated NGC 2237 , the center of the Rosette Nebula is populated by the bright blue stars of open cluster NGC 2244 , whose winds and energetic light are evacuating the nebula's center. The Rosette Nebula is about 5,000 light years distant and, just by itself, spans about three times the diameter of a full moon . This flowery field can be found toward the constellation of the Unicorn ( Monoceros ). from NASA https://ift.tt/dngW4D6

APOD is 30 years old today. In celebration, today's picture uses past APODs as tiles arranged to create a single pixelated image that might remind you of one of the most well-known and evocative depictions of planet Earth's night sky. In fact, this Starry Night consists of 1,836 individual images contributed to APOD over the last 5 years in a mosaic of 32,232 tiles. Today, APOD would like to offer a sincere thank you to our contributors, volunteers, and readers . Over the last 30 years your continuing efforts have allowed us to enjoy, inspire, and share a discovery of the cosmos. from NASA https://ift.tt/2TIwLBo

How different does sunset appear from Mars than from Earth? For comparison, two images of our common star were taken at sunset , one from Earth and one from Mars. These images were scaled to have the same angular width and are featured here side-by-side. A quick inspection will reveal that the Sun appears slightly smaller from Mars than from Earth . This makes sense since Mars is 50% further from the Sun than Earth . More striking, perhaps, is that the Martian sunset is noticeably bluer near the Sun than the typically orange colors near the setting Sun from Earth. The reason for the blue hues from Mars is not fully understood , but thought to be related to forward scattering properties of Martian dust . The terrestrial sunset was taken in 2012 March from Marseille , France , while the Martian sunset was captured in 2015 by NASA 's robotic Curiosity rover from Gale crater on Mars . from NASA https://ift.tt/h3oRlma

What are all those streaks in the sky? A galaxy, many satellite trails, and a few meteors. First, far in the distance, the majestic band of our Milky Way Galaxy runs down the left. Mirroring it on the right are several parallel trails of Earth-orbiting Starlink satellites . Many fainter satellite trails also crisscross the image . The two short and bright streaks are meteors — likely members of the annual Eta Aquariids meteor shower. The planet Venus shines on the lower right. Venus and the satellites shine by reflected sunlight. The featured picture is a composite of exposures all taken in a few hours on May 4 over the Limay River in Argentina . from NASA https://ift.tt/kigVsT7

In this Hubble Space Telescope image the bright, spiky stars lie in the foreground toward the heroic northern constellation Perseus and well within our own Milky Way galaxy. In sharp focus beyond is UGC 2885 , a giant spiral galaxy about 232 million light-years distant. Some 800,000 light-years across compared to the Milky Way's diameter of 100,000 light-years or so, it has around 1 trillion stars. That's about 10 times as many stars as the Milky Way. Part of an investigation to understand how galaxies can grow to such enormous sizes, UGC 2885 was also part of An Interesting Voyage and American astronomer Vera Rubin's pioneering study of the rotation of spiral galaxies. Her work was the first to convincingly demonstrate the dominating presence of dark matter in our universe . A new U.S. coin has been issured to honor Vera Rubin, while the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is scheduled to unveil images from its first look at the cosmos on June 23 . from NASA https://ift.tt/L...

On April 20, 2023 the shadow of a New Moon raced across planet Earth's southern hemisphere. When viewed along a narrow path that mostly avoided landfall, the Moon in silhouette created a hybrid solar eclipse . Hybrid eclipses are rare and can be seen as a total eclipse or an annular " ring of fire " eclipse depending on the observer's position. Viewers of this much anticipated hybrid event were able to witness a total solar eclipse while anchored in the Indian Ocean near the centerline of the eclipse track off the coast of western Australia. This ship-borne image from renowned eclipse chaser Fred Espenak captured the active Sun's magnificent outer atmosphere, or solar corona, streaming into space . The composite of 11 exposures ranging from 1/2000 to 1/2 second, taken during the 62 seconds of totality, records an extended range of brightness to follow alluring details of the corona not quite visible to the eye. from NASA https://ift.tt/R5nhSzL

Do you know the names of some of the brightest stars? It's likely that you do, even though some bright star s have names so old they date back to near the beginning of written language . Many world cultures have their own names for the brightest stars , and it is culturally and historically important to remember them. In the interest of clear global communication, however, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has begun to designate standardized star names . Featured here in true color are the 25 brightest stars in the night sky, currently as seen by humans , coupled with their IAU-recognized names . Some star names have interesting meanings , including Sirius ("the scorcher" in Latin ), Vega ("falling" in Arabic ), and Antares ("rival to Mars" in Greek ). You are likely even familiar with the name of at least one star too dim to make this list: Polaris . from NASA https://ift.tt/cI0gvbm

Do oceans under the ice of Saturn's moon Enceladus contain life? A reason to think so involves long features -- some dubbed tiger stripes -- that are known to be spewing ice from the moon's icy interior into space. These surface cracks create clouds of fine ice particles over the moon's South Pole and create Saturn 's mysterious E-ring . Evidence for this has come from the robot Cassini spacecraft that orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017. Pictured here , a high resolution image of Enceladus is shown in true color from a close flyby. The deep crevasses are partly shadowed. Why Enceladus is active remains a mystery, as the neighboring moon Mimas , approximately the same size, appears quite dead. A analysis of ejected ice grains has yielded evidence that complex organic molecules. These large carbon-rich molecules bolster -- but do not prove -- that oceans under Enceladus' surface could contain life . from NASA https://ift.tt/RSTUs7x

Can you identify this celestial object? Likely not — because this is a discovery image . Massive stars forge heavy elements in their cores and, after a few million years, end their lives in powerful supernova explosions . These remnants cool relatively quickly and fade, making them difficult to detect. To uncover such faint, previously unknown supernova remnants, a dedicated group of amateur astrophotographers searched through sky surveys for possible supernova remnant candidates. The result: the first-ever image of supernova remnant G115.5+9.1 — named Scylla by its discoverers—glowing faintly in the constellation of the mythological King of Aethiopia: Cepheus . Emission from hydrogen atoms in the remnant is shown in red, and faint emission from oxygen is shown in hues of blue. Surprisingly, another discovery lurked to the upper right: a faint, previously unknown planetary nebula candidate. In keeping with mythological tradition, it was named Charybdis (Sai 2) — a nod to the anci...

From our vantage point in the Milky Way Galaxy , we see NGC 3344 face-on. Nearly 40,000 light-year s across, the big, beautiful spiral galaxy is located just 20 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo Minor. This multi-color Hubble Space Telescope close-up of NGC 3344 includes remarkable details from near infrared to ultraviolet wavelengths. The frame extends some 15,000 light-years across the spiral's central regions. From the core outward, the galaxy's colors change from the yellowish light of old stars in the center to young blue star clusters and reddish star forming region s along the loose, fragmented spiral arms. Of course, the bright stars with a spiky appearance are in front of NGC 3344 and lie well within our own Milky Way. from NASA https://ift.tt/Ames7OG

On the Mars rover's mission Sol 46 or Earth date April 6, 2021, Perseverance held out a robotic arm to take its first selfie on Mars . The WATSON camera at the end of the arm was designed to take close-ups of Martian rocks and surface details though, and not a quick snap shot of friends and smiling faces. In the end, teamwork and weeks of planning on Mars time was required to program a complex series of exposures and camera motions to include Perseverance and its surroundings. The resulting 62 frames were composed into a detailed mosaic, one of the most complicated Mars rover selfies ever taken. In this version of the selfie, the rover's Mastcam-Z and SuperCam instruments are looking toward WATSON and the end of the rover's outstretched arm. About 4 meters (13 feet) from Perseverance is a robotic companion, the Mars Ingenuity helicopter . Perseverance has now spent over 1,500 sols exploring the surface of the Red Planet. On Earth date January 18, 2024, Ingenuity made it...

The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often given the names of flowers or insects , and its whopping 3 light-year wingspan, NGC 6302 is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C , the central star of the planetary nebula is transforming into a white dwarf star, becoming exceptionally hot, and shining brightly in ultraviolet light. The central star is hidden from direct view by a torus of dust, but its energetic ultraviolet light ionizes atoms in the nebula. In this sharp, telescopic view composed with narrowband image data, the ionized hydrogen and doubly ionized oxygen atoms are shown in their characteristic red and blue-green hues to reveal a stunning complex of knots and filaments within the nebula's wing-like bipolar outflows. NGC 6302 lies about 4,000 light-years away in the arachnologically correct constellation of the Scorpion ( Scorpius ). from NASA https://ift.tt/YGb0hBT

Savudrija lighthouse shines along the coast near the northern end of the Istrian peninsula in this well-composed night skyscape . A navigational aid for sailors on the Adriatic Sea, the historic lighthouse was constructed in the early 19th century. But an even older aid to navigation shines in the sky above, Polaris , alpha star of the constellation Ursa Minor and also known as the North Star. In this scene Polaris forms the shortest bright arc near the North Celestial Pole, the extension of Earth's axis of rotation into space. Of course, the North Celestial Pole lies exactly at the center of all the concentric startrails. The composite image is a digital stack of 400 exposures, each 30 seconds long, taken with camera and tripod fixed to a rotating planet. from NASA https://ift.tt/72DjQqB

Is the sky the same every night? No -- the night sky changes every night in many ways. To better explore how the night sky changes, the USA 's NSF and DOE commissioned the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Cerro Pachón , Chile . In final testing before routine operations, Rubin will begin to explore these nightly changes -- slight differences that can tell us much about our amazing universe and its surprising zoo of objects. With a mirror over 8 meters across, Rubin will continually reimage the entire visible sky every few nights to discover new supernovas , potentially dangerous asteroids , faint comets, and variable stars -- as well as mapping out the visible universe's large-scale structure . Pictured, the distant central band of our Milky Way Galaxy appears to flow out from the newly operational observatory. Taken last month, the featured picture is a composite of 21 images across the night sky, capturing airglow on the horizon and the Small Magellanic Cloud gal...

Why would the sky glow like a giant repeating rainbow? Airglow . Now, air glows all of the time, but it is usually hard to see. A disturbance however -- like an approaching storm -- may cause noticeable rippling in the Earth's atmosphere . These gravity waves are oscillations in air analogous to those created when a rock is thrown in calm water . The long-duration exposure nearly along the vertical walls of airglow likely made the undulating structure particularly visible. OK, but where do the colors originate? The deep red glow likely originates from OH molecules about 87 kilometers high, excited by ultraviolet light from the Sun. The orange and green airglow is likely caused by sodium and oxygen atoms slightly higher up. The featured image was captured during a climb up Mount Pico in the Azores of Portugal . Ground lights originate from the island of Faial in the Atlantic Ocean . A spectacular sky is visible through this banded airglow, with the central band of our ...

Wisps like this are all that remain visible of a Milky Way star. About 7,000 years ago that star exploded in a supernova , leaving the Veil Nebula . At the time, the expanding cloud was likely as bright as a crescent Moon , remaining visible for weeks to people living at the dawn of recorded history . Today, the resulting supernova remnant , also known as the Cygnus Loop , has faded and is now visible only through a small telescope directed toward the constellation of the Swan ( Cygnus ). The remaining Veil Nebula is physically huge, however, and even though it lies about 1,400 light-year s distant, it covers over five times the size of the full Moon . The featured picture was taken in Kuwait in mid-2024 and features light emitted by hydrogen in red and oxygen in blue. In deep images of the complete Veil Nebula like this, even studious readers might not be able to identify the iconic filaments . from NASA https://ift.tt/B7T3jFu

What's happening to this spiral galaxy? Although details remain uncertain, it surely has to do with an ongoing battle with its smaller galactic neighbor. The featured galaxy is labelled UGC 1810 by itself, but together with its collisional partner is known as Arp 273 . The overall shape of UGC 1810 -- in particular its blue outer ring -- is likely a result of wild and violent gravitational interactions . This ring's blue color is caused by massive stars that are blue hot and have formed only in the past few million years. The inner galaxy appears older, redder, and threaded with cool filamentary dust . A few bright stars appear well in the foreground, unrelated to UGC 1810, while several galaxies are visible well in the background. Arp 273 lies about 300 million light year s away toward the constellation of Andromeda. Quite likely, UGC 1810 will devour its galactic sidekick over the next billion years and settle into a classic spiral form . from NASA https://ift....

On May 7, the Sun setting behind a church bell tower was captured in this filtered and manipulated digital skyscape from Ragusa, Sicily, planet Earth. In this version of the image the colors look bizarre. Still, an intriguing optical illusion known as an afterimage can help you experience the same scene with a more natural looking appearance. To try it, find the sunspots of active region AR4079 grouped near the bottom of the blue solar disk. Relax and stare at the dark sunspot group for about 30 seconds, then close your eyes or shift your gaze to a plain white surface. In a moment an afterimage of the sunset should faintly appear. But the afterimage sunset will have this image's complementary colors and a more normal yellow Sun against a familiar blue sky. from NASA https://ift.tt/iMb64w0

This composite of images spaced a weather-permitting 5 to 9 days apart, from 2024 September 19 (top right) through 2025 May 18 (bottom left), faithfully traces ruddy-colored Mars as it makes a clockwise loop through the constellations Gemini and Cancer in planet Earth's night sky. You can connect the dots and dates with your cursor over the image, but be sure to check out this animation of the Red Planet's 2024/25 retrograde motion . Of course Mars didn't actually reverse the direction of its orbit. Instead, the apparent backwards motion with respect to the background stars is a reflection of the orbital motion of Earth itself. Retrograde motion can be seen each time Earth overtakes and laps planets orbiting farther from the Sun, the Earth moving more rapidly through its own relatively close-in orbit. In this case Mars' apparent eastward motion began to reverse around December 8, when it seemed to linger near open star cluster M44 in Cancer. After wandering back to ...

Grand spiral galaxies often seem to get all the attention, flaunting young, bright, blue star clusters and pinkish star forming regions along graceful, symmetric spiral arms. But small galaxies form stars too, like irregular dwarf galaxy Sextans A . Its young star clusters and star forming regions are gathered into a gumdrop-shaped region a mere 5,000 light-years across. Seen toward the navigational constellation Sextans, the small galaxy lies some 4.5 million light-years distant. That puts it near the outskirts of the local group of galaxies, that includes the large, massive spirals Andromeda and our own Milky Way . Brighter Milky Way foreground stars appear spiky and yellowish in this colorful telescopic view of Sextans A . from NASA https://ift.tt/FDqMbw2

This might look like a double-bladed lightsaber, but these two cosmic jets actually beam outward from a newborn star in a galaxy near you . Constructed from Hubble Space Telescope image data, the stunning scene spans about half a light-year across Herbig-Haro 24 (HH 24), some 1,300 light-years or 400 parsecs away in the stellar nurseries of the Orion B molecular cloud complex. Hidden from direct view, HH 24's central protostar is surrounded by cold dust and gas flattened into a rotating accretion disk. As material from the disk falls toward the young stellar object , it heats up. Opposing jets are blasted out along the system's rotation axis. Cutting through the region's interstellar matter, the narrow, energetic jets produce a series of glowing shock fronts along their path. from NASA https://ift.tt/Gb0X1Hd

Behold one of the most photogenic regions of the night sky, captured impressively. Featured , the band of our Milky Way Galaxy runs diagonally along the bottom-left corner, while the colorful Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is visible just right of center and the large red circular Zeta Ophiuchi Nebula appears near the top. In general, red emanates from nebulas glowing in the light of excited hydrogen gas , while blue marks interstellar dust preferentially reflecting the light of bright young stars. Thick dust usually appears dark brown . Many iconic objects of the night sky appear , including (can you find them?) the bright star Antares , the globular star cluster M4 , and the Blue Horsehead nebula. This wide field composite , taken over 17 hours, was captured from South Africa last June. from NASA https://ift.tt/HWQ0Tfj

What’s happening in the center of spiral galaxy NGC 2566? First, the eight rays that appear to be coming out of the center in the featured infrared image are not real — they are diffraction spikes caused by the mechanical structure of the Webb space telescope itself. The center of NGC 2566 is bright but not considered unusual, which means that it likely contains a supermassive black hole, although currently not very active . At only 76 million light years away, the light we see from NGC 2566 today left when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. The picturesque galaxy is close enough so that Earthly telescopes , including Webb and Hubble , can resolve the turbulent clouds of gas and dust where stars can form and so allows study of stellar evolution . NGC 2566, similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy , is notable for its bright central bar and its prominent outer spiral arms. from NASA https://ift.tt/0kZmGzn

Jupiter is stranger than we knew. NASA's Juno spacecraft has now completed over 70 swoops past Jupiter as it moves around its highly elliptical orbit. Pictured from 2017, Jupiter is seen from below where, surprisingly, the horizontal bands that cover most of the planet disappear into swirls and complex patterns. A line of white oval clouds is visible nearer to the equator. Impressive results from Juno show that Jupiter 's weather phenomena can extend deep below its cloud tops, that Jupiter's center has a core that is unexpectedly large and soft , and that Jupiter's magnetic field varies greatly with location. Although Juno is scheduled to keep orbiting Jupiter further into 2025 , at some time the robotic spacecraft will be maneuvered to plunge into the giant planet. from NASA https://ift.tt/tiGyQ4q

Deimos takes 30 hours and 18 minutes to complete one orbit around the Red Planet. That's a little more than one Martian day or sol which is about 24 hours and 40 minutes long, so Deimos drifts westward across the Martian sky. About 15 kilometers across at its widest, the smallest of Mars' two moons is bright though. In fact Deimos is the brightest celestial object in this Martian skyscape captured before sunrise by Perseverance on March 1, the 1,433rd sol of the Mars rover's mission. The image is a composed of 16 exposures recorded by one of the rover's navigation cameras. The individual exposures were combined into a single image for an enhanced low light view. Regulus and Algeiba, bright stars in the constellation Leo, are also visible in the dark Martian predawn sky . from NASA https://ift.tt/QpIywra

Most globular star clusters roam the halo of our Milky Way galaxy, but globular cluster NGC 6366 lies close to the galactic plane . About 12,000 light-years away toward the constellation Ophiuchus, the cluster's starlight is dimmed and reddened by the Milky Way's interstellar dust when viewed from planet Earth. As a result, the stars of NGC 6366 look almost golden in this telescopic scene , especially when seen next to relatively bright, bluish, and nearby star 47 Ophiuchi. Compared to the hundred thousand stars or so gravitationally bound in distant NGC 6366, 47 Oph itself is a binary star system a mere 100 light-years away. Still, the co-orbiting stars of 47 Oph are too close together to be individually distinguished in the image. from NASA https://ift.tt/TyxbBGf

A bright spiral galaxy of the northern sky, Messier 63 is nearby, about 30 million light-years distant toward the loyal constellation Canes Venatici. Also cataloged as NGC 5055, the majestic island universe is nearly 100,000 light-years across, about the size of our own Milky Way. Its bright core and majestic spiral arms lend the galaxy its popular name, The Sunflower Galaxy. This exceptionally deep exposure also follows faint loops and curling star streams far into the galaxy's halo. Extending nearly 180,000 light-years from the galactic center, the star streams are likely remnants of tidally disrupted satellites of M63. Other satellite galaxies of M63 can be spotted in the remarkable wide-field image , including dwarf galaxies , which could contribute to M63's star streams in the next few billion years. from NASA https://ift.tt/CjoUw7J

Typically, the International Space Station is visible only at night. Slowly drifting across the night sky as it orbits the Earth, the International Space Station (ISS) can be seen as a bright spot about once a month from many locations. The ISS is then visible only just after sunset or just before sunrise because it shines by reflected sunlight -- once the ISS enters the Earth's shadow , it will drop out of sight . The only occasion when the ISS is visible during the day is when it passes right in front of the Sun . Then, it passes so quickly that only cameras taking short exposures can visually freeze the ISS's silhouette onto the background Sun . The featured picture did exactly that -- it is actually a series of images taken a month ago from Sant Feliu de Buixalleu , Spain with perfect timing. This image series was later combined with a separate image highlighting the texture of the active Sun which included several Sun's prominences around the edge. from NA...

Have you ever seen the band of our Milky Way Galaxy? In a clear sky from a dark location at the right time, a faint band of light becomes visible across the sky . Soon after your eyes become dark adapted , you might spot the band for the first time. It may then become obvious. Then spectacular . One reason for your growing astonishment might be the realization that this fuzzy swath, the Milky Way , contains billions of stars. Visible in the featured image , high above in the night sky, the band of the Milky Way Galaxy arcs. Also visible are the colorful clouds of Rho Ophiuchi on the right, and the red and circular Zeta Ophiuchi nebula near the top center. Taken in late February from Maunakea , Hawaii , USA , the foreground telescope is the University of Hawaii's 2.2-Meter Telescope . Fortunately, you don’t need to be near the top of a Hawaiian volcano to see the Milky Way. from NASA https://ift.tt/MtLQpXS

This close-up from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's HiRISE camera shows weathered craters and windblown deposits in southern Acidalia Planitia . A striking shade of blue in standard HiRISE image colors, to the human eye the area would probably look grey or a little reddish. But human eyes have not gazed across this terrain, unless you count the eyes of NASA astronauts in the sci-fi novel, " The Martian ," by Andy Weir. The novel chronicles the adventures of Mark Watney, an astronaut stranded at the fictional Mars mission Ares 3 landing site, corresponding to the coordinates of this cropped HiRISE frame. For scale, Watney's 6-meter-diameter habitat at the site would be about 1/10th the diameter of the large crater. Of course , the Ares 3 landing coordinates are only about 800 kilometers north of the (real life) Carl Sagan Memorial Station , the 1997 Pathfinder landing site . from NASA https://ift.tt/QyXK2js

Big, beautiful spiral galaxy M101 is one of the last entries in Charles Messier's famous catalog, but definitely not one of the least. About 170,000 light-years across, this galaxy is enormous, almost twice the size of our own Milky Way. M101 was also one of the original spiral nebulae observed by Lord Rosse's large 19th century telescope, the Leviathan of Parsontown. Assembled from 51 exposures recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope in the 20th and 21st centuries, with additional data from ground based telescopes, this mosaic spans about 40,000 light-years across the central region of M101 in one of the highest definition spiral galaxy portraits ever released from Hubble. The sharp image shows stunning features of the galaxy's face-on disk of stars and dust along with background galaxies, some visible right through M101 itself. Also known as the Pinwheel Galaxy, M101 lies within the boundaries of the northern constellation Ursa Major , about 25 million light-years ...

This shadowy landscape of majestic mountains and icy plains stretches toward the horizon on a small, distant world. It was captured from a range of about 18,000 kilometers when New Horizons looked back toward Pluto , 15 minutes after the spacecraft's closest approach on July 14, 2015. The dramatic, low-angle, near-twilight scene follows rugged mountains formally known as Norgay Montes from foreground left, and Hillary Montes along the horizon, giving way to smooth Sputnik Planum at right. Layers of Pluto's tenuous atmosphere are also revealed in the backlit view. With a strangely familiar appearance, the frigid terrain likely includes ices of nitrogen and carbon monoxide with water-ice mountains rising up to 3,500 meters (11,000 feet). That's comparable in height to the majestic mountains of planet Earth. The Plutonian landscape is 380 kilometers (230 miles) across. from NASA https://ift.tt/1Bc2uHt

This pretty nebula lies some 1,500 light-years away, its shape and color in this telescopic view reminiscent of a robin's egg . The cosmic cloud spans about 3 light-year s, nestled securely within the boundaries of the southern constellation of the Furnace ( Fornax ). Recognized as a planetary nebula , egg-shaped NGC 1360 doesn't represent a beginning, though . Instead, it corresponds to a brief and final phase in the evolution of an aging star . In fact , visible at the center of the nebula, the central star of NGC 1360 is known to be a binary star system likely consisting of two evolved white dwarf stars , less massive but much hotter than the Sun . Their intense and otherwise invisible ultraviolet radiation has stripped away electron s from the atoms in their mutually surrounding gaseous shroud. The blue-green hue inside of NGC 1360 seen here is the strong emission produced as electrons recombine with doubly ionized oxygen atoms . from NASA https://ift.tt/FdWf0pY

What does our Milky Way Galaxy look like from the top? Because we are on the inside , humanity can’t get an actual picture. Recently, however, just such a map has been made using location data for over a billion stars from ESA’s Gaia mission. The resulting featured illustration shows that just like many other spiral galaxies , our Milky Way has distinct spiral arms. Our Sun and most of the bright stars we see at night are in just one arm: Orion . Gaia data bolsters previous indications that our Milky Way has more than two spiral arms . Our Galaxy's center sports a prominent bar . The colors of our Galaxy's thin disk derive mostly from dark dust , bright blue stars , and red emission nebula . Although data analysis is ongoing, Gaia was deactivated in March after a succession mission. from NASA https://ift.tt/AtqCBaG

What does our Milky Way Galaxy look like from the side? Because we are on the inside, humanity can’t get an actual picture. Recently, however, just such a map has been made using location data for over a billion stars from ESA’s Gaia mission. The resulting featured illustration shows that just like many other spiral galaxies , our Milky Way has a very thin central disk. Our Sun and all the stars we see at night are in this disk. Although hypothesized before , perhaps more surprising is that the disk appears curved at the outer edges. The colors of our Galaxy's warped central band derive mostly from dark dust , bright blue stars , and red emission nebulas . Although data analysis is ongoing, Gaia was deactivated in March after a successful mission. from NASA https://ift.tt/5vmyfEc

If you could stand on Venus -- what would you see? Pictured is the view from Venera 14, a robotic Soviet lander which parachuted and air-brake d down through the thick Venusian atmosphere in March of 1982. The desolate landscape it saw included flat rocks, vast empty terrain, and a featureless sky above Phoebe Regio near Venus' equator . On the lower left is the spacecraft's penetrometer used to make scientific measurements, while the light piece on the right is part of an ejected lens-cap. Enduring temperatures near 450 degrees Celsius and pressure s 75 times that on Earth, the hardened Venera spacecraft lasted only about an hour. Although data from Venera 14 was beamed across the inner Solar System over 40 years ago, digital processing and merging of Venera's unusual images continues even today. Recent analyses of infrared measurements taken by ESA 's orbiting Venus Express spacecraft indicate that active volcanoes may currently exist on Venus. from NA...

This picture from July 1997 shows a ramp from the Pathfinder lander, the Sojourner robot rover, deflated landing airbags, a couch, Barnacle Bill and Yogi Rock appear together in this 3D stereo view of the surface of Mars. Barnacle Bill is the rock just left of the house cat-sized, solar-paneled Sojourner. Yogi is the big friendly-looking boulder at top right. The "couch" is the angular rock shape visible near center on the horizon . Look at the image with red/blue glasses (or just hold a piece of clear red plastic over your left eye and blue or green over your right) to get the dramatic 3D perspective. The stereo view was recorded by the remarkable Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) camera. The IMP had two optical paths for stereo imaging and ranging and was equipped with an array of color filters for spectral analysis. Operating as the first astronomical observatory on Mars , the IMP also recorded images of the Sun and Deimos, the smallest of Mars' two tiny moons . fr...