Episodes

In today's image, we see the Dolphin Head Nebula which is the nebula around a young Wolf-Rayet star. These are some of the most massive stars and the type that are expected to become a supernova at the end of their lives. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select the photo...

In today's image, we see an image of NGC 4565 which is a spiral galaxy like our own Milky Way. This galaxy is seen in an edge-on orientation giving it a very narrow appearance which is why its common name is the Needle Galaxy. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select the ...

In today's image, we see an image of the surface of Mars taken by the Perseverance Rover which has been exploring Mars since 2021. We can note the similarities to many desert areas on Earth with the exception that there is no sign of life. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image t...

In today's image, we see an image of comet Pons-Brooks which made its closest approach to Earth a couple of days ago and is heading back into the outer solar system We can see the two distinct tails - the ion tail pointing downward to the left and the dust tail toward the upper left, less distinct and more spread out. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly ...

In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy known as NGC 2403. This is a galaxy much like our own Milky Way in many ways and shows the distinct blue in the spiral arms from bright stars that have recently formed. We also see the pink color if ionized hydrogen (H II) regions. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use...

In today's image, we see the Moon in a short video put together from images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). This shows the near side of the Moon which always faces Earth, but also the far side which cannot be seen from the surface of Earth and has only been studied since the late 1950s. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy P...

In today's image, we see one of the moons of Saturn, Helene in a 3D image which can be viewed with the red-blue 3D glasses. This moon orbits in a Lagrange point formed by the gravitation of Saturn and one of the other moons, Dione. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select...

In today's image, we see the region around the Wolf-Rayet star, WR 134. A Wolf-Rayet star is the type of star that is expected to become a supernova at the end of its short life. At that point, it will explode, sending heavier elements out into the universe to enrich the material from which future stars will form. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: ...

In today's image, we see the Eiffel Tower in the foreground and the Moon above in the sky. Around the Moon, we see a lunar corona - this is a quantum mechanical effect caused by many rain drops which all have a similar size and each color of light by a different amount. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the...

In today's image, we see a stairway leading up a mountain and apparently to the Milky Way in the sky! Of course, the Milky Way is far beyond anything here on Earth, but this does give us a striking view. In the sky, we see the stars Vega and Altair as well as the airglow near the horizon. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the D...

In today's image, we see an image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory showing the rotation of our Sun over the course of a day. Here were see the active region, AS 3446 as it returns around the limb of the Sun and gives off a powerful X-class flare. Over the coming days, it will move into better view and further eruptions will have the possibility of impacting Earth causing communication disruptions and more strong aurorae. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. ...

In today's image, we see the Chameleon I Molecular Cloud which is a region of star formation visible in the southern sky. Here we see a number of dark nebulae as well as a couple of reflection nebulae which are both associated with regions of newly forming stars. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archiv...

In today's image, we see a solar filament which erupted into a coronal mass ejection on the Sun back in 2012. The Sun has a cycle of activity that lasts about 11 years and is near the peak of that activity cycle again right now. So, we are seeing more events like this which cause aurora here on Earth like those we saw a couple of weeks ago. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the imag...

In today's image, we see the Manicouagan impact crater as seen from the International Space Station. The crater, about 100km across has worn down over the past 200 million years so that we just see the remnants of the crater in the form of a circular lake. Because of weathering and erosion, craters last a much shorter time on Earth than on our Moon. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access...

In today's image, we see the star forming region known as M78 as imaged in visible and infrared light from the Euclid Space Telescope. This telescope was launched last year and will be used to study the effects of dark matter and dark energy on our universe. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive lin...

In today's image, we see two galaxies in the process of colliding together. When galaxies collide, their gravitational fields interact so that material is pulled out in streams as we see around the galaxy on the left. The process also takes a very long time - hundred of millions of years - so we only see a single snapshot of the collision. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image...

In today's image, we see an aurora from 2016 as seen over Sweden. The green color of the aurora is caused when charged particles from the Sun strike Earth's magnetic field and are funneled to the atmosphere near the north and south magnetic poles. They then excite oxygen atoms in Earth's upper atmosphere, causing the green glow. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and websit...

In today's image, we see what is known as a cemetery globule in the foreground. This is a region of star formation which is unrelated to comets in out solar system except for the rough appearance. We also see a distant galaxy, well beyond the globule in space, but by a chance superposition, close to it in the sky. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: ...

In today's image, we see an image of the aurora taken back on May 10 after the emission of a coronal mass ejection from the Sun by a large sunspot group crossing its face. That sunspot group has now moved around to the back side of the Sun as seen from Earth, but may last long enough to still be visible as the Sun continues to rotate. The sunspot would be back on our side of the Sun in another week or so. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an ...

In today's image, we see an animation created using data collected from the Juno spacecraft to simulate what it would be like to plunge into the upper atmosphere of Jupiter in the area around the Great Red Spot. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select the photo correspon...

In today's image, we see an image of the sky looking toward the North. We see how the stars make circular paths around the North Celestial Pole which is very close to the start Polaris in the sky. We also see an aurora caused by the increased solar activity for the past week or so. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You...

In today's image, we see the Aurora Australis which is the aurora when seen in the southern hemisphere. That cause is exactly the same as the aurora seen in the Northern Hemisphere. The aurora have been prominent this past week because of the large sunspot group AR 3664 which has recently moved around the limb of the Sun due to the Sun's rotation. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access t...

In today's image, we see some of the auroral displays as seen over Georgia in the United States just about a week ago. The strong auroral displays were caused by the large sunspot group on the Sun which had emitted large numbers of charged particles which excite oxygen atoms in Earth's atmosphere, causing them to glow. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly...

In today's image, we see the large sunspot region known as AR 3664 as it moves around the limb of the Sun. The large prominence is larger than Earth and is now easily visible when seen against the darkness of space. One of the largest solar flares was also recently explode by this sunspot group although this is not seen in the image. My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube Channel. This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and w...