APOD

Explanation: What does this image look like to you?

Explanation: Why are Saturn’s poles geometric?

Explanation: The Pelican Nebula is slowly being transformed.

Explanation: Pluto is more colorful than we can see.

Explanation: Chasing the shadow of a New Moon, NASA’s WB-57F high altitude research aircraft took to the skies off the coast of Iceland on August 12 to observe a total solar eclipse.

Explanation: Nā ʻUhane Māhoe Huki Pū i ke Ola, is the Hawaiian name given to this image of a pair of spiral galaxies locked in a mutual gravitational embrace.

Explanation: How do animals react to a total solar eclipse?

Explanation: Pretend you have never heard of a solar eclipse.

Explanation: Did you need to be on the right side of this airplane to see this eclipse?

Explanation: If not the most grand, then this spiral galaxy is at least one of the most photogenic.

Explanation: Eclipses tend to come in pairs.

Explanation: At the latitude of ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile, about 25 degrees south, Earth's rotation moves the planet's surface eastward at over 1,500 kilometers per hour.

Explanation: What a sight to behold, when a night sky became filled with colors that appeared to rain over the Skógafoss waterfall in Iceland.

Explanation: Are we looking at the future of our Sun?

Explanation: What’s creating this giant hole in space?

Explanation: Comet 220P is unexpectedly bright.

Explanation: What would it look like to approach the grand planet Saturn?

Explanation: Recorded the night of August 12-13, images from four dedicated meteor-monitoring cameras at an astronomical observatory in Czechia were aligned and combined to create this all-night, all-sky view.

Explanation: Like an illustration in a galactic Just So Story, the Elephant's Trunk Nebula winds through the emission region and young star cluster complex IC 1396, in the high and far off constellation of Cepheus.

Explanation: This was a good year for the Perseids meteor shower.

Explanation: This total solar eclipse appeared not only poetically beautiful but scientifically interesting.

Explanation: The Milky Way was not created by an evaporating lake.

Explanation: Known for its bright and fast meteors, the annual Perseid Meteor Shower comes to planet Earth's skies from a radiant in the heroic constellation Perseus.

Explanation: On August 12, the Moon's shadow reached out to touch our fair planet.

Explanation: On August 12th, 2026, the Moon totally eclipsed the Sun and cast its shadow across Siberia, Greenland, Iceland, Spain, and Portugal.

Explanation: It looks like a view from the Little Prince's planet.

Explanation: How many moons does Saturn have?

Explanation: Each of these pairs of galaxies is different.

Explanation: Have you contemplated your home star recently?

Explanation: Which of these is not a comet?

Explanation: There are more than half a million galaxies in the central panel of this image from the NSF-DOE Vera C.

Explanation: What does the new sharpest image of our Sun show?

Explanation: Don’t get spooked by Saturn’s ghostly spokes!

Explanation: What causes unusual knots of gas and dust in planetary nebulas?

Explanation: What's happening to this meteor?

Explanation: What's happening to this cloud?

Explanation: The Buck Moon is a traditional name for the full moon of July.

Explanation: The Dark Doodad Nebula drifts through southern skies, a tantalizing target for binoculars toward the small constellation Musca, The Fly.

Explanation: This could be the view from an exoplanet orbiting around a red dwarf star, but it is our own Sun.

Explanation: Solar System bodies make deep space exploration more fuel efficient!

Explanation: What's connecting these two volcanoes?

Explanation: What created this huge space bubble?

Explanation: The Seas of Tranquility and Serenity are calm today.

Explanation: In 185 AD, Chinese astronomers recorded the appearance of a new star in the Nanmen asterism.

Explanation: Have you ever seen another galaxy with your own eyes?

Explanation: The Southern Crown (Corona Australis) dazzles with young and ancient celestial jewels.

Explanation: Is this a fossilized turtle on Mars?

Explanation: What's happening in the Statue of Liberty nebula?

Explanation: A flying saucer from outer space crash-landed in the Utah desert after being tracked by radar and chased by helicopters.

Explanation: At sunset, an alignment of rainbow and mountain shadow was captured in this remarkable snapshot.