Vaporizing Meteor Photobombs the...

2026-08-03 Tom Burnett

What's happening to this meteor? This bright meteor streak appeared and disappeared quickly during a long exposure of the Great Lacerta Nebula, seen faintly in red toward the center of the image. The meteoroid, likely a small pebble, creates ...

A Fire Rainbow over West Virginia

2026-08-02 Christa Harbig

What's happening to this cloud? Ice crystals in a distant cirrus cloud are acting like little floating prisms. Known informally as a fire rainbow for its flame-like appearance, a circumhorizon arc appears parallel to the horizon. For a ...

Buck Moon and Belt of Venus

2026-08-01 Branko Nadj

The Buck Moon is a traditional name for the full moon of July. In this colorful Adriatic sea and skyscape captured on July 28 from Krk Island along the coast of Croatia, a full Buck Moon is just rising over distant mountains. Since a full moon ...

NGC 4372 and the Dark Doodad

2026-07-31 Alessandro Cipolat Bares

The Dark Doodad Nebula drifts through southern skies, a tantalizing target for binoculars toward the small constellation Musca, The Fly. A dusty interstellar cloud, it's seen against rich starfields just south of the Coalsack Nebula and the ...

Red Sun through Wildfire Smoke

2026-07-30 Debra Ceravolo Text: Cecilia Chirenti (NASA GSFC, UMCP, CRESST II)

This could be the view from an exoplanet orbiting around a red dwarf star, but it is our own Sun. This image was taken on July 22, 2026, in the Okanagan region in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Wildfire smoke from the Pacific ...

Psyche Receives Gravity Assist from Mars

2026-07-29

Solar System bodies make deep space exploration more fuel efficient! Today’s video shows the Psyche spacecraft gaining speed and changing its trajectory with minimal fuel spent due to a gravity assist from Mars in May 2026. Mars has an average ...

Barnards Loop over Twin Volcanoes

2026-07-28 Gonzalo Laserna Vargas

What's connecting these two volcanoes? In ancient folklore, the two volcanoes, Parinacota (left) and Pomerape (right), are connected by representing a mythical prince and princess who engaged in a forbidden romance. Beneath the ground, the ...

NGC 7635: The Bubble Nebula

2026-07-27 Paweł Piechnik

What created this huge space bubble? Blown by the wind from a star, this tantalizing, head-like apparition is cataloged as NGC 7635, but known simply as the Bubble Nebula. Taken from Krakow, Poland, the featured view utilizes a long exposure to ...

Simulation TNG50: A Galaxy Cluster Forms

2026-07-26

How do clusters of galaxies form? Since our universe moves too slowly to watch, faster-moving computer simulations are created to help find out. One famous effort is TNG50 from IllustrisTNG, an upgrade of the famous Illustris Simulation. The ...

Tranquility and Serenity

2026-07-25 Tranquility

The Seas of Tranquility and Serenity are calm today. They're calm most every day though, since they are actually lunar maria, ancient lava flows filling in large impact basins on the Moon. Also known by Latin names Mare Tranquillitatis ...