Star trails and the reddened Moon's trail grace the eclipse-darkened skies above Lake Toolondo during the March 3 total lunar eclipse. The deep totality allowed fainter stars to be visible, captured here in a composite of stacked exposures.
Credit: Jason Perry
Cometary Globule CG 4 in Puppis is a 1,300-light-year-distant star-forming cloud with an 8-light-year tail. For comparison, the Earth-Sun distance is 8 light-minutes. The galaxy pictured is safely 100+ million light-years beyond CG 4.
Credit: William Vrbasso
Lasers from telescopes create artificial guide stars to measure Earth's atmospheric blurring. Adaptive optics then rapidly flexes mirrors, removing distortion for high-resolution ground-based observations.
Credit: Julien Looten
Webb's Cranium Nebula (PMR 1) resembles a brain, but its origin is a mystery: a white dwarf's planetary nebula or a Wolf-Rayet star's turbulent winds? Its fate is also unknown – will it fade or explode as a supernova?
Credit: NASA/ APOD
This "Aurora Tree" is a visual coincidence of branches and a distant aurora. Aurora are formed when high-energy solar electrons impact Earth's atmosphere around 150 km up.
Credit: Alyn Wallace
Total lunar eclipses appear nearly identical across different years due to the Saros cycle. This ~18-year period predicts when the Sun, Earth, and Moon align similarly, causing recurring eclipses like those of Saros 133 shown here.
Credit: Tunc Tezel
Earth's shadow caused this week's total lunar eclipse. The Moon appeared red as sunlight passing through Earth's atmosphere scatters blue light more efficiently, letting red light illuminate the lunar surface.
Credit: Satoru Murata;
Text:
Keighley Rockcliffe
(NASA
GSFC,
UMCP,
CRESST II)
Shapley 1, the Fine Ring Nebula in Norma, is a planetary nebula formed by a Sun-like star. Its annular shape is due to our top-down view of a binary central system: a white dwarf and companion orbiting every 2…
Credit: Peter Bresseler;
Text:
Keighley Rockcliffe
(NASA
GSFC,
UMBC
CSST,
CRESST II)
A 16-hour deep exposure unveils an intricate web of normally faint dust & gas surrounding iconic regions like Orion & the Pleiades. It reveals the hidden complexity of our night sky.
Credit: Ignacio Fernández
Sharpless 249 and the Jellyfish Nebula: Normally faint and elusive, the Jellyfish Nebula is caught in this alluring telescopic field of view. Floating in the interstellar sea, the nebula is anchored right and left by two bright stars, Mu and Eta Geminorum, at the foot of t…
Credit: Katelyn Beecroft
Hubble (visible) and Webb (infrared) views of spiral galaxy IC 5332. Visible light shows dark dust lanes obscuring stars. Webb's infrared reveals this same dust glowing from emitted heat, offering new insight into galactic structure and evolution.
Credit: NASA/ APOD
Hubble's Egg Nebula shows a dying Sun-like star. Its core is hidden by dense dust, but light beams escape through holes made by high-speed polar jets—a brief, mysterious phase in stellar evolution.
Credit: ESA/Hubble &
NASA,
B. Balick
(U. Washington)
This week, spot Mercury, Venus, Saturn, & Jupiter in a global planet parade after sunset. They appear in a line because all planets orbit the Sun in nearly the same plane, the ecliptic. Look west.
Credit: Prasun Agrawal
The Pleiades (M45), or Seven Sisters, is a famous star cluster 400 light-years away in Taurus. Easily visible to the naked eye, its intricate dust clouds are dramatically revealed in long exposures.
Credit: Kamil Fiedosiuk
Opportunity rover's shadow in Mars' Endurance Crater (2004). This mission, planned for 92 days, explored for nearly 14 years, finding evidence of ancient water on the Red Planet.
Credit: NASA/ APOD
