APOD: 2026 January 20 Б Io in True Color
20.01.2026

The strangest moon in the Solar System is bright yellow. The featured picture, an attempt to show how Io would appear in the "true colors" perceptible to the average human eye, was taken in 1999 July by the Galileo spacecraft that orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003.

Time Lapse: A Total Solar Eclipse
10.12.2012

Have you ever experienced a total eclipse of the Sun? The above time-lapse movie depicts such an eclipse in dramatic detail as visible from Australia last month. As the video begins, a slight dimming of the Sun and the surrounding Earth is barely perceptible.

Apollo 11: Onto a New World
19.05.1998

A human first set foot on another world on July 20, 1969. This world was Earth's own Moon. Pictured above is Neil Armstrong preparing to take the historic first step. On the way down the Lunar Module ladder, Armstrong released equipment which included the television camera that recorded this fuzzy image.

A Lunar Rille
29.10.2002

What could cause a long indentation on the Moon? First discovered over 200 years ago with a small telescope, rilles (rhymes with pills) appear all over the Moon. Three types of rilles...

Planets Above The Clouds
4.05.2000

Clouds scatter the faint orange rays of the setting sun in the foreground of this breathtaking photograph from the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Taken on April 7th, this skyscape features a dramatic lunar and planetary alignment.

All the Water on Planet Earth
15.05.2012

How much of planet Earth is made of water? Very little, actually. Although oceans of water cover about 70 percent of Earth's surface, these oceans are shallow compared to the Earth's radius.

Phobos 360
25.12.2013

What does the Martian moon Phobos look like? To better visualize this unusual object, images from ESA's Mars Express orbiter have been combined into a virtual rotation movie. The rotation is actually a digital illusion -- tidally-locked Phobos always keeps the same face toward its home planet, as does Earth's moon.

All the Water on Planet Earth
11.09.2016

How much of planet Earth is made of water? Very little, actually. Although oceans of water cover about 70 percent of Earth's surface, these oceans are shallow compared to the Earth's radius.

Annular Eclipse: The Ring of Fire
10.06.2002

Today, a few lucky people will see a "ring of fire." That's a name for the central view of an annular eclipse of the Sun by the Moon. At the peak of this...

Behind Saturn
1.08.2016

What's behind Saturn? The first answer is the camera itself, perched on the Cassini spacecraft currently orbiting behind the planet with the most grand ring system in our Solar System. The unusual perspective...