NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

In today's image, we see one of the moons of Saturn, known as Enceladus. It is shining by saturnshine which means that light from the Sun travel to Saturn and is reflected off the planet and then to the moon and finally to the observer - in this case, the spacecraft Cassini. Enceladus has some parts which are old and heavily cratered and also new surface which has formed more recently from geological activity in a water ocean below its surface.

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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 a number of nebulae along the Vela Molecular Ridge. This includes the reflection nebula, NGC 2626 as well as dark nebulae and emission nebulae in the region. All of these are associate with the formation of new stars in this region.

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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 an image showing star trails. Toward the left we see the locations of the North Celestial Pole with the relatively bright star Polaris just a bit above it. Polaris is currently near to the pole, but not exactly at it. To the right, we see the trail of Comet ZTF. We note that it has a different path because of its location in the solar system and actually cuts across some of the star trails.

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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 three reflection nebulae in the Orion star forming region. These are all in the 1970s of the NGC catalog which would also include NGC 1976 which is the Orion Nebula (not pictured here). A reflections nebula occurs when dust reflects the light from a hot star and preferentially scatters the shorter wavelength blue light giving the nebulae their blue appearance.

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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 an artist's conception of the Trappist-1 system as viewed from the outermost (seventh) planet in the system. This is an interesting system in that it is composed of terrestrial planets, like out inner solar system. It is possible that this system could contain habitable planets. Hopefully, further studies will help reveal more details of this system.

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 comet ZTF in three views. The largest image is what would be seen with the naked-eye. The upper inset image is what would be seen through a pair of binoculars and the lower inset image is what would be seen through a small telescope. Comet ZTF makes its closest approach to Earth tomorrow and then will begin to fade as it heads back to the outer solar system.

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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 a globular star cluster known as NGC 6355. Globular star clusters are remnants of the early history of our galaxy. Having gone from thousands to just a couple of hundred as they are destroys by interactions with the Milky Way. Studying these gives us a look into the early history of our own galaxy.

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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 Barnard 68, a molecular cloud where the dust and molecular gas are dense enough to block out the light. Dust is very goo sat scattering and absorbing the shorter wavelengths, giving stars are the end of the cloud a redder appearance as that is the light able to penetrate the dust.

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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 Comet ZTF as it appeared on January 23 of this year. It is still visible without the aid of a telescope this weekend if you know where to look in the northern sky, near Polaris and the Big Dipper. However, it is a far more impressive sight through binoculars or a small telescope.

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 Comet ZTF with two tails, the dust and ion tails pointing to the upper right of the image. We also see an anti-tail toward the lower left. The presence of the anti-tail is caused by the perspective of the orbital plane crossing of the comet.

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.