APOD: 2026 March 30 Б Peculiar Elliptical Galaxy Centaurus A
29.03.2026

What's happened to the center of this galaxy? Dramatic dust lanes run across the center of unusual elliptical galaxy Centaurus A. These dust lanes are so thick they almost completely obscure the galaxy's center in visible light.

APOD: 2026 June 4 Б A Planetary Nebula with Cosmic Buckyballs
3.06.2026

What is happening inside this unusual nebula? Planetary nebula Tc 1, captured here in exquisite detail by the James Webb Space Telescope, is the celestial site where buckyballs were first identified in 2010. Buckminsterfullerene...

APOD: 2026 July 15 Б Red Sprites in the Tatacoa Desert
14.07.2026

Is there an angry Sith using force lightning in the Tatacoa Desert? This is not science fiction, but a red sprite with multiple streamers! Ordinary lightning occurs when thundercloud particles collide, lose their electrons, and build up negative charge at the cloud bottom.

APOD: 2023 January 24 Б LHS 475 b: Earth Sized Exoplanet
23.01.2023

If you could stand on exoplanet LHS 475 b, what might you see? No one knows for sure but pictured here is an interesting guess made by an Earth-based artificial intelligence (AI) engine.

APOD: 2024 September 25 Б Comet A3 Through an Australian Sunrise
24.09.2024

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is now visible in the early morning sky. Diving into the inner Solar System at an odd angle, this large dirty iceberg will pass its closest to the Sun -- between the orbits of Mercury and Venus -- in just two days.

APOD: 2025 April 28 Б Gum 37 and the Southern Tadpoles
27.04.2025

This cosmic skyscape features glowing gas and dark dust clouds alongside the young stars of NGC 3572. A beautiful emission nebula and star cluster, it sails far southern skies within the nautical constellation Carina.

APOD: 2026 June 13 Б Interplanetary Earth
12.06.2026

In an interplanetary first, on July 19, 2013 Earth was photographed on the same day from two other worlds of the Solar System, innermost planet Mercury and ringed gas giant Saturn. Pictured...

APOD: 2026 July 12 Б Galaxy NGC 474: Shells and Star Streams
11.07.2026

What's happening to galaxy NGC 474? The multiple layers of emission appear strangely complex given the relatively featureless appearance of the elliptical galaxy in less deep images. The cause of the shells...

APOD: 2024 February 25 Б A Phoenix Aurora over Iceland
24.02.2024

All of the other aurora watchers had gone home. By 3:30 am in Iceland, on a quiet September night, much of that night's auroras had died down. Suddenly, unexpectedly, a new burst of particles streamed down from space, lighting up the Earth's atmosphere once again.

APOD: 2025 March 5 Б Seven Sisters versus California
4.03.2025

On the right, dressed in blue, is the Pleiades. Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades is one of the brightest and most easily visible open clusters on the sky. The Pleiades contains over 3,000 stars, is about 400 light years away, and only 13 light years across.