APOD: 2025 February 17 Б SpaceX Rocket Launch Plume over California
16.02.2025

What's happened to the sky? Last Monday, the photogenic launch plume from a SpaceX rocket launch created quite a spectacle over parts of southern California and Arizona. Looking at times like a giant...

Moon, Planets, and Rocket Trails
14.07.1999

Are you an early riser? Over the last month or so, the bright planets Jupiter and Saturn have come to adorn eastern skies before sunrise. In fact, astrophotographer Joe Orman anticipated that an early...

Himalayan Skyscape
4.12.2009

Capella, alpha star of the constellation Auriga, rises over Mt. Everest in this panoramic view of the top of the world at night. The scene was recorded in late November near Namche Bazar, Nepal, gateway to the Himalayan mountain range.

Curiosity Drops In
8.08.2012

Just as it captured the Phoenix lander parachuting to Mars in 2008, the HiRise camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) snapped this picture of the Curiosity rover's spectacular descent toward its landing site on August 5 (PDT).

InSight Lander Takes Selfie on Mars
20.01.2019

This is what NASA's Insight lander looks like on Mars. With its solar panels, InSight is about the size of a small bus. Insight successfully landed on Mars in November with a main objective to detect seismic activity.

A Message from Earth
17.07.1997

What are these Earthlings trying to tell us? The above message was broadcast from Earth towards the globular star cluster M13 in 1974. During the dedication of the Arecibo Observatory - still the largest radio telescope in the world - a string of 1's and 0's representing the above diagram was sent.

APOD: 2025 December 2 Б M77: Spiral Galaxy with an Active Center
1.12.2025

What's happening in the center of nearby spiral galaxy M77? The face-on galaxy lies a mere 47 million light-years away toward the constellation of the Sea Monster (Cetus). At that estimated distance, this gorgeous island universe is about 100 thousand light-years across.

APOD: 2025 December 7 Б The Sun and Its Missing Colors
6.12.2025

It is still not known why the Sun's light is missing some colors. Here are all the visible colors of the Sun, produced by passing the Sun's light through a prism-like device.

A Message From Earth
22.01.2000

What are these Earthlings trying to tell us? The above message was broadcast from Earth towards the globular star cluster M13 in 1974. During the dedication of the Arecibo Observatory - still the largest radio telescope in the world - a string of 1's and 0's representing the

The Bipolar Jets of KX Andromedae
4.12.2025

Blasting outward from variable star KX Andromedae, these stunning bipolar jets are 19 light-years long. Recently discovered, they are revealed in unprecedented detail in this deep telescopic image centered on KX And and composed from over 692 hours of combined image data.