Dawn at Vesta

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is an animation (created from collected data) of the journey of the Dawn vehicle over main belt dwarf planet Vesta. Try a flight for yourself!

Ruby Pinwheel

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is an image combining data from several instruments of Messier 83, The Southern Pinwheel, studded by dust lanes, blue star clusters and red star-forming regions.

Paris by Night

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us the City of Light on the shortest night of the year, the summer solstice.

Koyaanisqatsi

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is an image of a solargraph, a picture taken by a pinhole camera in a fixed position over a period of six months.

Smoke on the Water

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows noctilucent clouds above and below, as the wispy strands in the sky are reflected in the waters of a lake in the Netherlands.

Degrees of Magnitude

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the twenty-five brightest (visible to the naked eye) stars of the sky in their true colors.

Anticrepuscular Convergence

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows rays opposite (anti) of the Sun converging to a point that mirrors the Sun's position.

Across the Universe

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a wide view from The Hubble Space Telescope of the rich regions of the Carina Nebula. "Mouseover" the image in the link for a guide.

Back to Acidalia Planitia

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter image of Acidalia Planitia, site of the fictional Ares 3 mission in The Martian. 

Solar Pattern

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is an analemma, a time lapse of the sun over the space of a year (the image in the link is marked with dates). A video version can be found here.

Messier Vista

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us the cosmic vistas around Messier 106 in the constellation of Canes Venatici.

Galactic Braids

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day combines data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the SOFIA aerial observatory to peer at the magnetic center of the Milky Way.

Full Strawberry

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a full "strawberry" Moon rising over the Temple of Poseidon in Greece.

The Serpent and the River

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the Temple of the Feathered Serpent under the arch of The Milky Way. "Mouseover" the image in the link to see what else is in the picture.

Wart on a Cosmic Slushy

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows us Ahuna Mons on the surface of main belt asteroid Ceres. What caused this unusual feature? Perhaps a (geologically "recent") bubble of mud from the interior of the dwarf planet?

Stereo Rock

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a anaglyph (red/blue three-dimensional image) of Saturn's tiny (well, relatively tiny!) moon Helene. I know I have a pair of red/blue glasses around here, somewhere...

Cosmic Metamorphosis

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is an image of NGC 4676, popularly known as The Mice. Will these galaxies metamorphosize into one larger galaxy?

Nice Grouping

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules (Messier 13) with an inset of the image data plotted into the Hertzsprung Russell diagram. I love it when a plan comes together.

Leo Spiral

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows Messier 96 in the constellation of Leo. Why is this spiral galaxy not quite a spiral?

Illuminated Cave

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us a Spitzer Space Telescope image of the Cave Nebula region in Cepheus. "Mouseover" the image in the link for a guide, which includes a runaway star.

Abstract Jove

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is an image from the Juno Orbiter around the king of the solar system.

Shadow of the Summit

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the shadow cast upon clouds from Mount Teide in Spain.

Mars Beach

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us bioluminescence in the ocean, the arch of the Milky Way and Mars all viewed be a beach-going dog walker.

Interloper

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us dark nebula LDN 1773 (or, The Pipe Nebula) overpowered by an overexposed Jupiter.

Active Center

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us Messier 63, more popularly known as The Sunflower Galaxy. Visible with "modest" backyard telescopes, Messier 63 appears to be undergoing a very active phase of star formation.

Treasures from the Attic

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us visual treats from the constellation of Orion. "Mouseover" the image in the link for a guide to what you are seeing.

I Can Feel Your Heartbeat

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows the SEIS instrument deployed by Mars Insight probe on the surface of the fourth rock from the Sun.

A Flock of Seagulls

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us Stephen's Quintet (NGC 7319, NGC 731A & B, and NGC 7317 plus NGC 7320) as viewed by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Over the Skies of Earth

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a "live" video from the International Space Station.

Traces

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day shows cosmic sources of X-rays detected by the Neutron (Star) Interior Composition Explorer on the International Space Station. Funnily, I recall first reading about using neutron stars as a cosmic lighthouse in the works of Carl Sagan.