APOD: 2021 July 6 - Saturn and Six Moons Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe isfeatured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 July 6 Saturn and Six Moons Image Credit & Copyright: Mohammad Ranjbaran; MR Thanks: Amir Ehteshami Explanation: How many moons does Saturn have?So far 82 have been confirmed, the smallest being only a fractionof a kilometer across.Six of its largest satellites can be seen here in a composite image with 13 short exposure of the bright planet, and13 long exposures of the brightest of its faint moons, taken over two weeks last month. Larger than Earth's Moon and even slightly larger than Mercury,Saturn's largest moonTitan has a diameter of 5,150 kilometers and was captured making nearly a complete orbit around its ringed parent planet. Saturn's first known natural satellite, Titan wasdiscovered in 1655 byDutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, in contrast with several newly discovered moons announced in 2019. The trail on the far right belongs to Iapetus, Saturn's third largest moon.The radius of painted Iapetus' orbit is so large that only a portion of it was captured here.Saturn leads Jupiter across the night sky this month, rising soon...

You go, Tuesday! You're so Fetch!  

Do you see the horse's head?

APOD: 2021 July 4 - The Face on Mars Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe isfeatured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 July 4 The Face on Mars Image Credit: NASA, Viking 1 Orbiter Explanation: Wouldn't it be fun if clouds were castles? Wouldn't it be fun if the laundry on the bedroom chair was a superhero? Wouldn't it be fun if rock mesas on Mars were interplanetary monuments to the human face? Clouds, though, are floating droplets of water and ice. Laundry is cotton, wool, or plastic, woven into garments. Famous Martian rock mesas known by names like the Face on Mars appear quite natural when seen more clearly on better images. Is reality boring?Nobody knows why some clouds make rain. Nobody knows if life ever developed on Mars. Nobody knows why the laundry on the bedroom chair smells like root beer. Scientific exploration can not only resolve mysteries, but uncover new knowledge, greater mysteries, and yet deeper questions. As humanity explores our universe, perhaps fun -- through discovery -- is just beginning. Tomorrow's picture: horse of blue <| Archive| Submissions | Index| Search| Calendar| RSS| Education| About...

APOD: 2021 July 3 - Along the Milky Way Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe isfeatured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 July 3 Along the Milky Way Image Credit &Copyright:Rolf Weisenfeld Explanation: You can'twalk along the Milky Way.Still, under a dark skyyou can explore it.To the eye the pale luminous trail of light arcingthrough the sky on a dark, moonless night does appear to bea path through the heavens.The glowing celestial band is the faint,collectivelight of distant starscut by swaths of obscuring interstellar dust clouds.It lies along the plane ofour home galaxy,so named because it looks like a milky way.Since Galileo's time, the Milky Way has been revealedto telescopic skygazers to be filled withcongeries of innumerable starsandcosmic wonders. Tomorrow's picture: Facing Mars<| Archive| Submissions | Index| Search| Calendar| RSS| Education| About APOD| Discuss| > Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff(MTU) &Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)NASA Official: Phillip NewmanSpecific rights apply.NASA WebPrivacy Policy and Important NoticesA service of:ASD atNASA /GSFC& Michigan Tech. U.

APOD: 2021 July 2 - AR2835: Islands in the Photosphere Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe isfeatured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 July 2 AR2835: Islands in the Photosphere Image Credit &Copyright:MichaelTeoh,Heng Ee Observatory, Penang, Malaysia Explanation: Awash in a sea ofincandescent plasmaand anchored in strongmagnetic fields,sunspots are planet-sized dark islands inthe solar photosphere,the bright surface of the Sun.Found in solar active regions, sunspots lookdarkonly because they are slightly cooler though,with temperatures of about 4,000kelvinscompared to 6,000 kelvins for the surrounding solar surface.These sunspots lie in active region AR2835.The largest active regionnow crossing the Sun,AR2835 is captured in this sharp telescopic close-up from July 1in a field of view that spans about 150,000 kilometersor over ten Earth diameters.With powerful magnetic fields,solar active regionsare often responsible for solar flares and coronal mass ejections, storms which affectspace weathernearplanet Earth. Tomorrow's picture: Got telescope?<| Archive| Submissions | Index| Search| Calendar| RSS| Education| About APOD| Discuss| > Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff(MTU) &Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)NASA Official: Phillip NewmanSpecific rights apply.NASA WebPrivacy Policy and Important NoticesA service of:ASD atNASA /GSFC& Michigan Tech. U.

APOD: 2021 July 1 - Perseverance Selfie with Ingenuity Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe isfeatured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 July 1 Perseverance Selfie with Ingenuity Image Credit: NASA,JPL-Caltech,MSSS Explanation: On sol 46 (April 6, 2021) the Perseverance rover held out arobotic arm to takeits first selfie on Mars.The WATSON camera at the end of the armwas designed to take close-ups of martian rocks andsurface details though, and not a quick snap shot of friends andsmiling faces.In the end,teamworkand weeks of planning on Mars timewas required to program a complex series ofexposures and camera motions to include Perseverance and itssurroundings.The resulting 62 frames were composed into a detailed mosiac,one of the most complicated Mars rover selfies ever taken.In this version of theselfie, the rover'sMastcam-Z and SuperCam instruments are lookingtoward 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. Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space<| Archive| Submissions | Index| Search| Calendar| RSS| Education| About APOD| Discuss| > Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff(MTU) &Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)NASA Official: Phillip NewmanSpecific rights apply.NASA WebPrivacy Policy and Important NoticesA service...

APOD: 2021 June 30 - Simulation: Formation of the First Stars Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe isfeatured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Simulation: Formation of the First Stars Video Credit: Harley Katz (U. Oxford) et al. Explanation: How did the first stars form?To help find out, the SPHINX computer simulation of star formation in the very early universe was created, some results of which are shown in the featured video.Time since the Big Bang is shown in millions of years on the upper left. Even 100 million years after the Big Bang, matter was spread too uniformly across the cosmos for stars to be born. Besides background radiation, the universe was dark.Soon, slight matter clumps rich in hydrogen gas begin to coalesce into the first stars.In the time-lapse video, purple denotes gas, white denotes light, and gold shows radiation so energetic that it ionizes hydrogen, breaking it up into charged electrons and protons. The gold-colored regions also track the most massive stars that die with powerful supernovas.The inset circle highlights a central region that is becoming a galaxy. The simulation continues until the universe was about 550 million...

And when I correct them, I'm the bad guy?!

APOD: 2021 June 29 - Orion Nebula: The Hubble View Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe isfeatured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 June 29 Orion Nebula: The Hubble View Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Legacy Archive; Processing: Francisco Javier Pobes Serrano Explanation: Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination likethe Orion Nebula.Also known asM42,the nebula's glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of animmense interstellarmolecular cloud only 1,500 light-years away.The Orion Nebula offers one of the best opportunities to study how stars are born partly because it is the nearest largestar-forming region,but also because the nebula'senergetic stars have blown away obscuring gas and dust clouds that would otherwise block our view - providing an intimate look at a range of ongoing stagesof starbirth and evolution.The featured image of theOrion Nebula is among the sharpest ever, constructed using data from theHubble Space Telescope. The entire Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as the Sun. Tomorrow's picture: first stars <| Archive| Submissions | Index| Search| Calendar| RSS| Education| About APOD| Discuss| > Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff(MTU)...

APOD: 2021 June 28 - A Paper Moon Solar Eclipse Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe isfeatured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 June 28 A Paper Moon Solar Eclipse Image Credit & Copyright: Wang Letian (Eyes at Night) Explanation: It may look like a paper Moon. Sailing past a canvas Sun. But those are not cardboard clouds. And it's not make believe. The featured picture of an orange colored sky is real -- a digital composite of two exposures of the solar eclipse that occurred earlier this month. The first exposure was taken with a regular telescope that captured an overexposed Sun and an underexposed Moon, while the second image was taken with a solar telescope that captured details of the chromosphere of the background Sun.The Sun's canvas-like texture was brought up by imaging in a very specific shade of red emitted by hydrogen. Several prominences can be seen around the Sun's edge. The image was captured just before sunset from Xilingol, Inner Mongolia, China.It's also not make-believe to imagine that the Moon is made of dense rock, the Sun is made of hot gas, and clouds are made...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe isfeatured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 June 28 A Paper Moon Solar Eclipse Image Credit & Copyright: Wang Letian (Eyes at Night) Explanation: It may look like a paper Moon. Sailing past a canvas Sun. But those are not cardboard clouds. And it's not make believe. The featured picture of an orange colored sky is real -- a digital composite of two exposures of the solar eclipse that occurred earlier this month. The first exposure was taken with a regular telescope that captured an overexposed Sun and an underexposed Moon, while the second image was taken with a solar telescope that captured details of the chromosphere of the background Sun.The Sun's canvas-like texture was brought up by imaging in a very specific shade of red emitted by hydrogen. Several prominences can be seen around the Sun's edge. The image was captured just before sunset from Xilingol, Inner Mongolia, China.It's also not make-believe to imagine that the Moon is made of dense rock, the Sun is made of hot gas, and clouds are made of floating droplets of water...

APOD: 2021 June 27 - The Dancing Auroras of Saturn Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe isfeatured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 June 27 The Dancing Auroras of Saturn Image Credit: NASA,Cassini,VIMS Team,U. Arizona, U. Leicester, JPL, ASI Explanation: What drives auroras on Saturn?To help find out, scientists have sorted through hundreds of infrared images of Saturn taken by the Cassini spacecraft for other purposes, trying to find enough aurora images to correlate changes and make movies.Once made, some movies clearly show that Saturnian auroras can change not only with the angle of the Sun, but also as the planet rotates.Furthermore, some auroral changes appear related to waves in Saturn's magnetosphere likely caused by Saturn's moons.Pictured here, a false-colored image taken in 2007 shows Saturn in three bands of infrared light. The rings reflect relatively blue sunlight, while the planet itself glows in comparatively low energy red. A band of southern aurora in visible in green.In has recently been found that auroras heat Saturn's upper atmosphere.Understanding Saturn's auroras is a path toward a better understanding of Earth's auroras. Tomorrow's picture: paper moon eclipse <| Archive| Submissions | Index|...

APOD: 2021 June 26 - Pixels in the Sun Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe isfeatured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 June 26 Pixels in the Sun Image Credit &Copyright:Wang Letian (Eyes at Night) Explanation: These two panels, composed of video frames madewith a safe solar telescope andhydrogen alpha filter,show remarkably sharp details onthe solar diskand giant prominences along the Sun's edge on June 6 (top) and June 18.Taken from Beijing, China, they also show a transit of theInternational Space Station and China's newTiangong Space Stationin silhouette against the bright Sun.TheInternational Space Stationis near center in the bottom panel,crossing the solar disk left of bright active region AR2833 and belowa large looping solar filament.China's space station is below solar active region AR2827 andright of center in the top panel,seen as a smaller, combined "+" and "-" shape.The pictures of thetransiting orbital outpostswere taken with the same equipment and at the same pixel scale,with the International Space Station some 492 kilometers away.China's space station was over 400 kilometersfrom the camera. Tomorrow's picture: ring around aurora<| Archive| Submissions | Index| Search| Calendar| RSS| Education| About APOD| Discuss| > Authors &...

APOD: 2021 June 25 - Andromeda in a Single Shot Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe isfeatured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 June 25 Andromeda in a Single Shot Image Credit &Copyright:Miguel Claro(TWAN,Dark Sky Alqueva) Explanation: How far can you see?TheAndromeda Galaxy, 2.5 million light years away, is the most distantobject easily seen by the unaided eye.Other denizens of the night sky, like stars, clusters, and nebulae,are typically hundreds to thousands of light-years distant.That's far beyond the Solar System but well withinour own Milky Way Galaxy.Also known as M31, the external galaxy posesdirectly above a chimney in this well-planneddeep night skyscapefrom an old mine in southern Portugal.The image was captured in a single exposure tracking the sky,so the foreground is slightly blurred by the camera's motion whileAndromeda itself looms large.The galaxy's brighter central region, normally all that'svisible to the naked-eye, can be seen extending to spiral armswith fainter outer reaches spanning over 4 full moons across the sky.Of course in only 5 billion years or so, the stars of Andromeda couldspan theentire night sky as the Andromeda Galaxymerges with the Milky Way. Tomorrow's picture: pixels in the Sun<|...

APOD: 2021 June 24 - Messier 99 Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe isfeatured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 June 24 Messier 99 Image Credit: NASA, ESA,Hubble, Janice Lee; Processing & Copyright: Leo Shatz Explanation: Grand designspiral galaxy Messier 99looks majestic on a truly cosmic scale.This recently processedfull galaxy portraitstretches over 70,000 light-years across M99.The sharp view is a combination of ultraviolet, visible,and infrared image data from the Hubble Space Telescope.About 50 million light-years distant toward the well-groomedconstellation Coma Bernices, the face-on spiral is amember of the nearbyVirgo Galaxy Cluster.Also cataloged as NGC 4254, aclose encounterwith another Virgo cluster member has likelyinfluenced the shape of its well-defined, blue spiral arms. Tomorrow's picture: single shot Andromeda<| Archive| Submissions | Index| Search| Calendar| RSS| Education| About APOD| Discuss| > Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff(MTU) &Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)NASA Official: Phillip NewmanSpecific rights apply.NASA WebPrivacy Policy and Important NoticesA service of:ASD atNASA /GSFC& Michigan Tech. U.

APOD: 2021 June 23 - STARFORGE: A Star Formation Simulation Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe isfeatured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. STARFORGE: A Star Formation Simulation Video & Text Credit: Michael Y. Grudić (Northwestern U.) et al., STARFORGE Collaboration; Music: Prelude, Op. 28, No. 4 in E Minor (Frédéric Chopin) Explanation: How do stars form? Most form in giant molecular clouds located in the central disk of a galaxy. The process is started, influenced, and limited by the stellar winds, jets, high energy starlight, and supernova explosions of previously existing stars.The featured video shows these complex interactions as computed by the STARFORGE simulation of a gas cloud 20,000 times the mass of our Sun.In the time-lapse visualization, lighter regions indicate denser gas, color encodes the gas speed (purple is slow, orange is fast), while dots indicate the positions of newly formed stars.As the video begins, a gas cloud spanning about 50 light years begins to condense under its own gravity. Within 2 million years, the first stars form, while newly formed massive stars are seen to expel impressive jets.The simulation is frozen after 4.3 million years, and the...

APOD: 2021 June 22 - HD 163296: Jet from a Star in Formation Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe isfeatured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 June 22 HD 163296: Jet from a Star in Formation Image Credit: Visible: VLT/MUSE (ESO); Radio: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) Explanation: How are jets created during star formation?No one is sure, although recent images of the young star system HD 163296 are quite illuminating.The central star in the featured image is still forming but seen already surrounded by arotating disk and anoutward moving jet.The disk is shown in radio waves taken by the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, and show gaps likely created by the gravity of very-young planets. The jet, shown in visible light taken by the Very Large Telescope (VLT, also in Chile), expels fast-moving gas -- mostly hydrogen -- from the disk center. The system spans hundreds of times the Earth-Sun distance (au). Details of these new observations are being interpreted to bolster conjectures that the jets are generated and shaped, at least in part, by magnetic fields in the rotating disk.Future observations of HD 163296 and other similar star-forming...

Bacon and eggs takes on a whole new meaning.

Let's hear about those summer plans! (And if you're in the other hemisphere... well... sorry :-))