Picture of the Day

A thin, bright crescent Moon curves along the lower left edge of a pale gray disk near the top of a tall, dark navy frame, wrapped in a soft brownish glow. Far below, near the bottom left, a small bright dot sits in a short diagonal line of tiny specks, three above it and one below.

A feathery spiral in Sagittarius

A rounded, richly textured cloud of orange and gold gas fills the left side of the frame, its lower edge tapering to a bright point like a torch flame. Blue-tinted dust and haze spread across the right side, with faint dark filaments threading through a dense star field on a black background.

The Hidden Nebula’s glowing edge

The aftermath of a solar flare

A cloud of green and gold gas fills most of the frame, with a bright blue oval structure stretching across the middle. Dark dust lanes thread through the brighter regions, and a small cluster of stars glows at the lower right.

$A large, glowing orange-tan disk — the Sun — fills most of the frame against a black sky. A thin, dark, needle-like silhouette crosses near its left edge, trailing a bright, feathery plume that distorts and refracts the image of the disk, extending below it. A faint dark smudge of clouds sits near the center of the disk, as well as small dark specks of sunspots.s$

Picture of the Day

Jove and Luna

Gegenschein over Shennongjia

On the Way

A wind-blown crescent

A bubble adrift

McNaught lights up Taurus

Diamond in the sky

A feathery spiral in Sagittarius

The Hidden Nebula’s glowing edge

The aftermath of a solar flare

Clawing through Cassiopeia

A new era dawns for astronomy