NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

Recent Episodes

2021 August 14 - Island Universe, Cosmic Sand

Posted August 14, 2021 • 00:03:43

In today's image, we see a number of objects at widely varying distances from us. The meteor is a small grain of material from comet Swift-Tuttle burning...

2021 August 13 - A Perfect Spiral

Posted August 13, 2021 • 00:04:11

In today's image, we see a spiral galaxy as seen almost directly from above (or below!) The galaxy shows the distinct dust lanes, red hydrogen regions,...

2021 August 12 - A Beautiful Trifid

Posted August 12, 2021 • 00:03:37

In today's image, we see the Trifid Nebula (M 20). This contains three different types of nebulae in the image - the red emission nebula, the blue reflection...

2021 August 11 - Mammatus Clouds over Saskatchewan

Posted August 11, 2021 • 00:03:29

In today's image, we see an unusual type of cloud known as mammals clouds. These have unusually puffy bottoms as compared to typical clouds which are...

2021 August 10 - Fire in Space

Posted August 10, 2021 • 00:03:50

In today's image, we see what is is like when fire burns in space. Note that it is a more spherical shape as compared to the teardrop shape of flames...