NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

In today's image, we see a recently discovered comet as it made its way toward perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on July 1. In mid-August, it will make its closest approach to Earth but will still be 50 million kilometers away and in no danged of colliding with our planet!

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This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select the photo corresponding to the date of this podcast.

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In today's image, we see the nearby star forming region and molecular cloud known as the Rho Ophiuchi region. This is only about 400 light years away, much closer than the often studied Orion Molecular Cloud. The image from the James Webb Space Telescope show the central light year of the cloud which contains about 50 newly formed stars.

My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel.

This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select the photo corresponding to the date of this podcast.

I welcome comments and suggestions about these podcasts. I can be reached here: [email protected]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy NGC 1398. This is an example of a ring galaxy which also has a bar across its center. The ring may have been caused by gravitational interaction with another galaxy in the past.

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This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select the photo corresponding to the date of this podcast.

I welcome comments and suggestions about these podcasts. I can be reached here: [email protected]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

In today's image, we see the sunspots that have been visible on the face of the Sun for the first six months of this year. You will see multiple images of each sunspot as they are tracked from right to left across the face of the Sun. More sunspots will be visible over the next year or two as we approach a maximum of solar activity in 2025.

My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel.

This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select the photo corresponding to the date of this podcast.

I welcome comments and suggestions about these podcasts. I can be reached here: [email protected]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

In today's image, we see the star forming region NGC 6559. Here we see the three types of nebulae associated with star formation - Dark, dusty nebulae, reed emission nebulae, and blue reflection nebulae.

My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel.

This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select the photo corresponding to the date of this podcast.

I welcome comments and suggestions about these podcasts. I can be reached here: [email protected]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

In today's image, we see the star known as Eta Carinae. This is called a doomed star because it is the type of star the will end its life in a supernova explosion. When this will happen is a good question - it could be later this year or more than a millennium from now!

My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel.

This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select the photo corresponding to the date of this podcast.

I welcome comments and suggestions about these podcasts. I can be reached here: [email protected]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

In today's image, we see Stickney crater on Phobos, one of the two small moons of Mars. The crater itself is nearly half the size of the moon, meaning that it nearly shattered the moon when this impact occurred.

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This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select the photo corresponding to the date of this podcast.

I welcome comments and suggestions about these podcasts. I can be reached here: [email protected]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

In today's image, we see the double open star cluster in the constellation of Perseus known as h & χ Persei. This is a young open cluster only about 13 million years old - far younger then the five billion year age of our Sun.

My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel.

This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select the photo corresponding to the date of this podcast.

I welcome comments and suggestions about these podcasts. I can be reached here: [email protected]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

In today's image, we see the Moon behind a fireworks display from July 4 of this year. The Moon is the first supermoon of the year. A supermoon will occur when the full moon occurs when the Moon is at perigee. Perigee is the point in the Moon's orbit when it is closest to Earth and will therefore appear at its largest and brightest.

My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel.

This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select the photo corresponding to the date of this podcast.

I welcome comments and suggestions about these podcasts. I can be reached here: [email protected]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

In today's image, we see a view of a slice of the universe from data collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey over the past two decades. The inner portion are galaxies while the outer (more distant) portion are quasars. We can see in this image, how structures developed in the universe over many billons of years.

My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel.

This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select the photo corresponding to the date of this podcast.

I welcome comments and suggestions about these podcasts. I can be reached here: [email protected]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.