Wednesday, April 30, 2025

APOD - A Happy Sky over Bufa Hill in Mexico

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2025 April 30

The featured image shows a night sky over a distant hill.  The night sky has three bright objects: a crescent moon, the planet  Venus (highest), and the planet Saturn. Taken together, the moon  and planets make a happy face icon.   Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

A Happy Sky over Bufa Hill in Mexico
Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Korona

Explanation: Sometimes, the sky itself seems to smile. A few days ago, visible over much of the world, an unusual superposition of our Moon with the planets Venus and Saturn created just such an iconic facial expression. Specifically, a crescent Moon appeared to make a happy face on the night sky when paired with seemingly nearby planets. Pictured is the scene as it appeared over Zacatecas, México, with distinctive Bufa Hill in the foreground. On the far right and farthest in the distance is the planet Saturn. Significantly closer and visible to Saturn's upper left is Venus, the brightest planet on the sky. Just above the central horizon is Earth's Moon in a waning crescent phase. To create this gigantic icon, the crescent moon phase must be smiling in the correct direction.

Dial-A-Moon: Find the Moon phase on your birthday this year
Tomorrow's picture: Mercury's messenger


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Tuesday, April 29, 2025

APOD - Saturn's Rings Appear to Disappear

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2025 April 29
The planet Saturn is shown many times down the composite  image. The top image was taken in 2020 and shows Saturn's rings  very clearly, whereas the bottom image was taken in 2025 and the  rings are only visible as a dark line across the planet. The  six images show the progression year by year.  Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Saturn's Rings Appear to Disappear
Image Credit & Copyright: Natan Fontes

Explanation: Where are Saturn's ears? Galileo is credited, in 1610, as the first person to see Saturn's rings. Testing out Lipperhey's recently co-invented telescope, Galileo did not know what they were and so called them "ears". The mystery deepened in 1612, when Saturn's ears mysteriously disappeared. Today we know exactly what happened: from the perspective of the Earth, Saturn's rings had become too thin to see. The same drama plays out every 15 years because Saturn, like Earth, undergoes tilt-driven seasons. This means that as Saturn goes around the Sun, its equator and rings can tilt noticeably toward the Sun and inner Solar System, making them easily visible, but from other orbital locations will appear almost not at all. The featured picture from Brasilia, Brazil shows a modern version of this sequence: the top ring-dominated image was taken in 2020, while the bottom ring-obscure image taken earlier in 2025.

Make Saturn's Rings Musical: Play them like a harp!
Tomorrow's picture: smiling sky


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Monday, April 28, 2025

APOD - Gum 37 and the Southern Tadpoles

Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 April 28
A starfield is shown dominated by a purple and red nebula.  Several dark dust pillars are visible that appear not unlike  tadpoles.   Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Gum 37 and the Southern Tadpoles
Image Credit & Copyright: Francis Bozon & Cecil Navick (AstroA. R. O.)

Explanation: This cosmic skyscape features glowing gas and dark dust clouds alongside the young stars of NGC 3572. A beautiful emission nebula and star cluster, it sails far southern skies within the nautical constellation Carina. Stars from NGC 3572 are toward top center in the telescopic frame that would measure about 100 light-years across at the cluster's estimated distance of 9,000 light-years. The visible interstellar gas and dust, shown in colors of the Hubble palette, is part of the star cluster's natal molecular cloud, itself cataloged as Gum 37. Dense streamers of material within the nebula, eroded by stellar winds and radiation, clearly trail away from the energetic young stars. They are likely sites of ongoing star formation with shapes reminiscent of the Tadpoles of IC 410 -- better known to northern skygazers. In the coming tens to hundreds of millions of years, gas and stars in the cluster will be dispersed though, by gravitational tides and by violent supernova explosions that end the short lives of the massive cluster stars.

Tomorrow's picture: disappearing rings


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Sunday, April 27, 2025

APOD - IC 418: The Spirograph Nebula

Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 April 27
A complex orange and purple nebula with a complex  texture is shown in front of a dark starfield.  Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

IC 418: The Spirograph Nebula
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgement: R. Sahai (JPL) et al.

Explanation: What is creating the strange texture of IC 418? Dubbed the Spirograph Nebula for its resemblance to drawings from a cyclical drawing tool, planetary nebula IC 418 shows patterns that are not well understood. Perhaps they are related to chaotic winds from the variable central star, which changes brightness unpredictably in just a few hours. By contrast, evidence indicates that only a few million years ago, IC 418 was probably a well-understood star similar to our Sun. Only a few thousand years ago, IC 418 was probably a common red giant star. Since running out of nuclear fuel, though, the outer envelope has begun expanding outward leaving a hot remnant core destined to become a white-dwarf star, visible in the image center. The light from the central core excites surrounding atoms in the nebula causing them to glow. IC 418 lies about 2000 light-years away and spans 0.3 light-years across. This false-color image taken from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals the unusual details.

Tomorrow's picture: interstellar tadpoles


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Saturday, April 26, 2025

APOD - Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 5335

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2025 April 26
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download  the highest resolution version available.

Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 5335
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI

Explanation: This stunning portrait of NGC 5335 was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. Some 170,000 light-years across and over 200 million light-years away toward the constellation Virgo, the magnificent spiral galaxy is seen face-on in Hubble's view. Within the galactic disk, loose streamers of star forming regions lie along the galaxy's flocculent spiral arms. But the most striking feature of NGC 5335 is its prominent central bar. Seen in about 30 percent of galaxies, including our Milky Way, bar structures are understood to channel material inward toward the galactic center, fueling star formation. Of course, distant background galaxies are easy to spot, scattered around the sharp Hubble image. Launched in 1990, Hubble is now celebrating its 35th year exploring the cosmos from orbit around planet Earth.

Tomorrow's picture: spirographs in space


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Friday, April 25, 2025

APOD - Asteroid Donaldjohanson

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2025 April 25
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download  the highest resolution version available.

Asteroid Donaldjohanson
Image Credit: Lucy/NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL/NOIRLab

Explanation: Main belt asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson is about 8 kilometers long and 3.5 kilometers across. On April 20, this sharp close-up of the asteroid was captured at a distance of about 1100 kilometers by the Lucy spacecraft's long range camera during its second asteroid encounter. Named after American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson, discoverer of the Lucy hominid fossil, the elongated asteroid was likely formed about 150 million years ago from a gentle collision of two smaller bodies creating its characteristic contact binary shape. Launched in October of 2021, the Lucy spacecraft will continue its travels through the main asteroid belt in 2025, but is on its way to explore Jupiter's swarm of Trojan asteroids. Lucy is expected to encounter its first Trojan asteroid target, 3548 Eurybates, in August 2027.

Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend


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Thursday, April 24, 2025

APOD - NGC 6164: A Dragon's Egg

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2025 April 24
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download  the highest resolution version available.

NGC 6164: A Dragon's Egg
Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Stern

Explanation: Beautiful emission nebula NGC 6164 was created by a rare, hot, luminous O-type star, some 40 times as massive as the Sun. Seen at the center of the cosmic cloud, the star is a mere 3 to 4 million years old. In another three to four million years the massive star will end its life in a supernova explosion. Spanning around 4 light-years, the nebula itself has a bipolar symmetry. That makes it similar in appearance to more common and familiar planetary nebulae - the gaseous shrouds surrounding dying sun-like stars. Also like many planetary nebulae, NGC 6164 has been found to have an extensive, faint halo, revealed in this deep image of the region. Expanding into the surrounding interstellar medium, the material in the halo is likely from an earlier active phase of the O star. This gorgeous telescopic view is a composite of extensive narrow-band image data, highlighting glowing atomic hydrogen gas in red and oxygen in greenish hues, with broad-band data for the surrounding starfield. Also known as the Dragon's Egg nebula, NGC 6164 is 4,200 light-years away in the right-angled southern constellation of Norma.

Tomorrow's picture: Lucy in the sky


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Wednesday, April 23, 2025

APOD - An Almost Everything Sky

Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 April 23
A skyscape is shown over a rocky landscape. In the starry sky  are the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy on the left, a   meteor trail on the right, the dim band of zodiacal light   in the center, and the photographer holding a light just below  the center. The path of the light is shown as a bright streak  in the bottom part of the frame.   Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

An Almost Everything Sky
Image Credit & Copyright: Koen van Barneveld

Explanation: This surprising sky has almost everything. First, slanting down from the upper left and far in the distance is the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. More modestly, slanting down from the upper right and high in Earth's atmosphere is a bright meteor. The dim band of light across the central diagonal is zodiacal light: sunlight reflected from dust in the inner Solar System. The green glow on the far right is aurora high in Earth's atmosphere. The bright zigzagging bright line near the bottom is just a light that was held by the scene-planning astrophotographer. This "almost everything" sky was captured over rocks on Castle Hill, New Zealand late last month. The featured finished frame is a combination of 10 exposures all taken with the same camera and from the same location. But what about the astrophotographer himself? He's pictured too -- can you find him?

Jigsaw Fun: Astronomy Puzzle of the Day
Tomorrow's picture: open space


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Tuesday, April 22, 2025

APOD - Terminator Moon: A Moonscape of Shadows

Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 April 22
A full Moon is shown but with a much more detailed surface than   is usually visible. Many craters, dark lunar mare, and light lunar   highlands are discernable.   Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Terminator Moon: A Moonscape of Shadows
Image Credit & Copyright: Rich Addis

Explanation: What's different about this Moon? It's the terminators. In the featured image, you can't directly see any terminator -- the line that divides the light of day from the dark of night. That's because the featured image is a digital composite of many near-terminator lunar strips over a full Moon. Terminator regions show the longest and most prominent shadows -- shadows which, by their contrast and length, allow a flat photograph to appear three-dimensional. The overlay images were taken over two weeks in early April. Many of the Moon's craters stand out because of the shadows they all cast to the right. The image shows in graphic detail that the darker regions known as maria are not just darker than the rest of the Moon -- they are also flatter.

Dial-A-Moon: Find the Moon phase on your birthday this year
Tomorrow's picture: almost everything


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Monday, April 21, 2025

APOD - Galaxy Lenses Galaxy from Webb

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2025 April 21
What looks like a single spiral galaxy is shown with a   white center surrounded by inner blue arms and outer   red arms.   Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Galaxy Lenses Galaxy from Webb
Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, G. Mahler

Explanation: Is this one galaxy or two? Although it looks like one, the answer is two. One path to this happening is when a small galaxy collides with a larger galaxy and ends up in the center. But in the featured image, something more rare is going on. Here, the central light-colored elliptical galaxy is much closer than the blue and red-colored spiral galaxy that surrounds it. This can happen when near and far galaxies are exactly aligned, causing the gravity of the near galaxy to pull the light from the far galaxy around it in an effect called gravitational lensing. The featured galaxy double was taken by the Webb Space Telescope and shows a complete Einstein ring, with great detail visible for both galaxies. Galaxy lenses like this can reveal new information about the mass distribution of the foreground lens and the light distribution of the background source.

Tomorrow's picture: terminator moon


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Sunday, April 20, 2025

APOD - The Orion Nebula in Visible and Infrared

Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 April 20
A complex nebula fills the frame that is brightly colored,  with red being prominent in the image center and blue being   most prominent elsewhere. Stars also dot the image.   Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

The Orion Nebula in Visible and Infrared
Image Credit & Copyright: Infrared: NASA, Spitzer Space Telescope; Visible: Oliver Czernetz, Siding Spring Obs.

Explanation: The Great Nebula in Orion is a colorful place. Visible to the unaided eye, it appears as a small fuzzy patch in the constellation of Orion. Long exposure, multi-wavelength images like this, however, show the Orion Nebula to be a busy neighborhood of young stars, hot gas, and dark dust. This digital composite features not only three colors of visible light but four colors of infrared light taken by NASA's orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope as well. The power behind much of the Orion Nebula (M42) is the Trapezium - four of the brightest stars in the nebula. Many of the filamentary structures visible are actually shock waves - fronts where fast moving material encounters slow moving gas. The Orion Nebula spans about 40 light years and is located about 1500 light years away in the same spiral arm of our Galaxy as the Sun.

Tomorrow's picture: galaxy-sized telescope


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Saturday, April 19, 2025

APOD - Painting with Jupiter

Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 April 19
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download  the highest resolution version available.

Painting with Jupiter
Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, SwRI, MSSS; Processing: Rick Lundh

Explanation: In digital brush strokes, Jupiter's signature atmospheric bands and vortices were used to form this interplanetary post-impressionist work of art. The creative image from citizen scientist Rick Lundh uses data from the Juno spacecraft's JunoCam. To paint on the digital canvas, a JunoCam image with contrasting light and dark tones was chosen for processing and an oil-painting software filter applied. The image data was captured during perijove 10. That was Juno's December 16, 2017 close encounter with the solar system's ruling gas giant. At the time the spacecraft was cruising about 13,000 kilometers above northern Jovian cloud tops. Now in an extended mission, Juno has explored Jupiter and its moons since entering orbit around Jupiter in July of 2016.

Tomorrow's picture: sky hunter


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Friday, April 18, 2025

APOD - Comet C/2025 F2 SWAN

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2025 April 18
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download  the highest resolution version available.

Comet C/2025 F2 SWAN
Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett

Explanation: In late March, the comet now designated C/2025 F2 SWAN was found independently by citizen scientists Vladimir Bezugly, Michael Mattiazzo, and Rob Matson while examining publicly available image data from the Solar Wind ANisotropies (SWAN) camera on the sun-staring SOHO spacecraft. Comet SWAN's coma, its greenish color a signature of diatomic carbon molecules fluorescing in sunlight, is at lower left in this telescopic image. SWAN's faint ion tail extends nearly two degrees toward the upper right across the field of view. The interplanetary scene was captured in clear but moonlit skies from June Lake, California on April 14. Seen against background of stars toward the constellation Andromeda, the comet was then some 10 light-minutes from our fair planet. Now a target for binoculars and small telescopes in northern hemisphere morning skies this comet SWAN is headed for a perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun, on May 1. That will bring this visitor from the distant Oort cloud almost as close to the Sun as the orbit of inner planet Mercury.

Tomorrow's picture: interplanetary post-modernism


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Thursday, April 17, 2025

APOD - Virgo Cluster Galaxies

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2025 April 17
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download  the highest resolution version available.

Virgo Cluster Galaxies
Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Adibi

Explanation: Galaxies of the Virgo Cluster are scattered across this nearly 4 degree wide telescopic field of view. About 50 million light-years distant, the Virgo Cluster is the closest large galaxy cluster to our own local galaxy group. Prominent here are Virgo's bright elliptical galaxies from the Messier catalog, M87 at bottom left, and M86 and M84 near center right. M86 and M84 are recognized as part of Markarian's Chain, the visually striking line-up of galaxies on the that runs through the upper portion of this frame. Near the middle of the chain lies an intriguing interacting pair of galaxies, NGC 4438 and NGC 4435, known to some as Markarian's Eyes. Still, giant elliptical galaxy M87 dominates the Virgo cluster. It's the home of a super massive black hole, the first black hole ever imaged by planet Earth's Event Horizon Telescope.

Tomorrow's picture: comet in northern spring


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Wednesday, April 16, 2025

APOD - Halo of the Cat's Eye

Astronomy Picture of the Day

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2025 April 16
A dark starfield is dominated by a green nebula  with intricate filaments all around. At the center is  a bright glow surrounding a central star.  Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Halo of the Cat's Eye
Image Credit & Copyright: Taavi Niittee (Tõrva Astronomy Club)

Explanation: What created the unusual halo around the Cat's Eye Nebula? No one is sure. What is sure is that the Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae on the sky. Although haunting symmetries are seen in the bright central region, this image was taken to feature its intricately structured outer halo, which spans over three light-years across. Planetary nebulae have long been appreciated as a final phase in the life of a Sun-like star. Only recently however, have some planetaries been found to have expansive halos, likely formed from material shrugged off during earlier puzzling episodes in the star's evolution. While the planetary nebula phase is thought to last for around 10,000 years, astronomers estimate the age of the outer filamentary portions of the Cat's Eye Nebula's halo to be 50,000 to 90,000 years.

Tomorrow's picture: star cylinder


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Tuesday, April 15, 2025

APOD - Planetary Nebula NGC 1514 from Webb

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2025 April 15
A starfield is dominated by a multi-colored figure  8 in the middle, titled on a diagonal. The outsides   of the nebula appear light colored, while the inside shows  complex structure tinted red and purple.   Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

Planetary Nebula NGC 1514 from Webb
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, M. E. Ressler (JPL) et al.; Processing: Judy Schmidt

Explanation: What happens when a star runs out of nuclear fuel? For stars like our Sun, the center condenses into a white dwarf while the outer atmosphere is expelled into space to appear as a planetary nebula. The expelled outer atmosphere of planetary nebula NGC 1514 appears to be a jumble of bubbles -- when seen in visible light. But the view from the James Webb Space Telescope in infrared, as featured here, confirms a different story: in this light the nebula shows a distinct hourglass shape, which is interpreted as a cylinder seen along a diagonal. If you look closely at the center of the nebula, you can also see a bright central star that is part of a binary system. More observations might better reveal how this nebula is evolving and how the central stars are working together to produce the interesting cylinder and bubbles observed.

Jump Around the Universe: Random APOD Generator
Tomorrow's picture: in a cat's eye


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Monday, April 14, 2025

APOD - The Galactic Center in Radio from MeerKAT

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2025 April 14
The featured image shows the very center of our Milky Way  Galaxy as resolved by the MeerKAT array in radio light. Many supernova  remnants and unusual filaments are visible. At the upper right is  an inset image of a small region taken in infrared by JWST.  Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

The Galactic Center in Radio from MeerKAT
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, SARAO, S. Crowe (UVA), J. Bally (CU), R. Fedriani (IAA-CSIC), I. Heywood (Oxford)

Explanation: What's happening at the center of our galaxy? It's hard to tell with optical telescopes since visible light is blocked by intervening interstellar dust. In other bands of light, though, such as radio, the galactic center can be imaged and shows itself to be quite an interesting and active place. The featured picture shows an image of our Milky Way's center by the MeerKAT array of 64 radio dishes in South Africa. Spanning four times the angular size of the Moon (2 degrees), the image is impressively vast, deep, and detailed. Many known sources are shown in clear detail, including many with a prefix of Sgr, since the galactic center is in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. In our galaxy's center lies Sgr A, found here in the image center, which houses the Milky Way's central supermassive black hole. Other sources in the image are not as well understood, including the Arc, just to the left of Sgr A, and numerous filamentary threads. The inset image shows a small patch recently imaged in infrared light with the James Webb Space Telescope to investigate the effects of magnetic fields on star formation.

Open Science: Browse 3,600+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library
Tomorrow's picture: star cylinder


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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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Sunday, April 13, 2025

APOD - An Unusual Hole in Mars

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2025 April 13
A brown background is shown covered with a gray topping  that has many holes. On the upper right, there is a deep hole  in the brown background. In this hole is more gray topping.   Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

An Unusual Hole in Mars
Image Credit: NASA, MRO, HiRISE, JPL, U. Arizona

Explanation: What created this unusual hole in Mars? Actually, there are numerous holes pictured in this Swiss cheese-like landscape, with all-but-one of them showing a dusty, dark, Martian terrain beneath evaporating, light, carbon dioxide ice. The most unusual hole is on the upper right, spans about 100 meters, and seems to punch through to a lower level. Why this hole exists and why it is surrounded by a circular crater remains a topic of speculation, although a leading hypothesis is that it was created by a meteor impact. Holes such as this are of particular interest because they might be portals to lower levels that extend into expansive underground caves. If so, these naturally occurring tunnels are relatively protected from the harsh surface of Mars, making them relatively good candidates to contain Martian life. These pits are therefore also prime targets for possible future spacecraft, robots, and even human interplanetary explorers.

Tomorrow's picture: radio center


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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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NASA Web Privacy, Accessibility, Notices;
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Saturday, April 12, 2025

APOD - Moon Near the Edge

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2025 April 12
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download  the highest resolution version available.

Moon Near the Edge
Image Credit & Copyright: Jordi Coy

Explanation: Most of us watch the Moon at night. But the Moon spends nearly as many daylight hours above our horizon, though in bright daytime skies the lunar disk looks pale and can be a little harder to see. Of course in daytime skies the Moon also appears to cycle through its phases, shining by reflected sunlight as it orbits our fair planet. For daytime moonwatchers, the Moon is probably easier to spot when the visible sunlit portion of the lunar disk is large and waxing following first quarter or waning approaching its third quarter phase. And though it might look unusual, a daytime moon is often seen even in urban skies. Captured here in a telephoto snapshot taken on March 12, a waxing daytime Moon is aligned near the edge of a popular observation deck that overlooks New York City's borough of Manahattan.

Tomorrow's picture: a hole in Mars


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