Αστρονομική Εικόνα της Ημέρας από τη NASA

Προηγούμενες Αστρονομικές Εικόνες της Ημέρας από τη NASA

Total Solar Eclipse Over Spain

13/08/2026

On August 12th, 2026, the Moon totally eclipsed the Sun and cast its shadow across Siberia, Greenland, Iceland, Spain, and Portugal. Today’s image features two total solar eclipses viewed from Zaragoza, Spain, one over the Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar and the other reflecting in the Ebro River. For a few moments, Spain saw its first major total solar eclipse since 1905. Those witnessing totality may experience a chill in the air, the quieting of birds, the confused chirps of insects, and the shared awe of many. It’s the corona’s time to shine as the Sun’s bright disk is blocked by the Moon. Among other reasons to study eclipses, they help scientists understand why the corona is millions of degrees hotter than the Sun’s surface. Enthusiastic citizens can contribute to these studies by recording how wildlife responds, imaging the corona, and monitoring air temperature and clouds. More spectacular eclipse images: Solar Eclipse of 2026 August 12

Six Moons of Saturn

11/08/2026

How many moons does Saturn have? While the total will likely continue to grow, as of June 2026 the ringed gas giant had 293 confirmed moons. That's easily more than any other planet of the Solar System, including ruling gas giant Jupiter with a mere 115 confirmed moons. Most of Saturn's known moons are small, irregular satellites. Many are only few kilometers to a fraction of a kilometer across and grouped in tilted outer orbits. Six of its largest satellites can be seen here, though, in this sharp telescopic Saturnian family portrait taken on August 5. Larger than Earth's Moon and even slightly larger than inner planet Mercury, Titan, with a diameter of 5,150 kilometers, is at lower right. You can also spot icy major moons Mimas, Tethys, Enceladus, Dione, and Rhea in the frame. Saturn's first known natural satellite, Titan was discovered in 1655 by Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens. During the space age Voyager and Cassini discoveries have added to the swelling ranks of Saturnian moons. NASA Stream: August 12 Total Solar Eclipse.

Three Galaxy Pairs

10/08/2026

ch of these pairs of galaxies is different. The two galaxies at the top are likely not interacting, at least presently. However, the top galaxy with the blue stripe, NGC 4650A, is a polar ring galaxy and may be the result of a past galaxy collision. The two galaxies in the middle of the featured image appear like they could be interacting gravitationally -- but their relative speeds make this unlikely. Of these two, the larger galaxy, NGC 4650, is a spiral galaxy with a bright bar of stars across its center. The two galaxies at the bottom are actively interacting. Possibly in a billion years or so, NGC 4622A and NGC 4622B will merge and become one single galaxy. All of these galaxies are likely members of the larger Centaurus Galaxy Cluster. Explore the Universe: Random APOD Generator

Contemplating the Sun

09/08/2026

Have you contemplated your home star recently? Featured here, a Sun partially eclipsed on the top left by the Moon is also seen eclipsed by earthlings contemplating the eclipse below. This spectacular menagerie of silhouettes was taken in 2012 from the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area near Page, Arizona, USA, where park rangers and astronomers expounded on the unusual event to interested gatherers. Also, faintly visible on the Sun's disk, just to the lower right of the dark Moon's disk, is a group of sunspots. A new solar eclipse will occur this week and give many people in northern North America, Europe, and northwestern Africa a new chance to contemplate a partially eclipsed Sun. A thin swath of Earth from Greenland to Portugal will further experience a total solar eclipse. An open question is whether any meteors from the peaking Perseids will be visible during totality.

A Messier Moment for Tempel 2

08/08/2026

Which of these is not a comet? You guessed it - the one on the right is a globular star cluster. The diffuse greenish coma of periodic comet 10P/Tempel 2 is at left in the frame. In fact the globular star cluster is Messier 30, also known as M30, or the 30th entry in astronomer Charles Messier's catalog of things which are not comets. The well-known 18th century astronomer kept a list of objects he observed, now his famous Messier Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters, which did not move from night to night against the background stars and so were not the comets he was hunting for. So the famous comet hunter would get the correct answer too, even though his telescope would show both 10P/Tempel 2 and distant star cluster as similar looking faint and fuzzy objects in his field of view. Recorded on July 29, this modern telescopic image captures periodic comet Tempel 2 as it briefly swept close on the sky to M30. While the periodic comet's faint, narrow, orbital dust trail seems to pierce the globular star cluster, Tempel 2 was a mere 3.5 light-minutes away. Messier 30 is some 28,000 light-years distant.

Rubin's COSMOS field

07/08/2026

There are more than half a million galaxies in the central panel of this image from the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. This is the COSMOS field, a patch of sky several times larger than the full moon, first observed by Hubble. It has also been observed by Webb and other telescopes because it contains comparatively few bright stars from our own galaxy, offering a relatively unimpeded view of other galaxies outside the Milky Way. The outer panels, numbered 1-10, show zoomed-in views of the corresponding small regions highlighted in the central panel. The variety of galaxy shapes and sizes is astonishing. Some of them are so far away that their light has traveled for billions of years before reaching Earth. Rubin will come back every couple of days to the COSMOS field as part of its ten-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time. It will allow a dynamic view of the COSMOS field and how the sky changes over time.

New Sharpest Image of the Sun Uncovers Instability

06/08/2026

What does the new sharpest image of our Sun show? Instability. To be clear, a certain kind of interactive process called the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI). This instability can create waves and swirls when two streams flow past each other -- in this case variable streams of solar magnetic plasma. Long hypothesized to occur on the Sun's surface, KHI streaks and swirls were confirmed in just-released dramatic high-resolution images taken recently by the Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii, USA. The featured false-yellow image, actually taken in deep blue, is the highest resolution image yet of the Sun in visible light. It spans about the radius of the Earth, but its finest details are city sized. Visible are several smooth tops of changing solar granules, while the edges of the flower-like structures have been found to harbor multiple KHI swirls. Future research may investigate how the KHI helps move energy, magnetic fields, and may even heat the surrounding solar corona.

Spokes on Saturn's B Ring

05/08/2026

Don’t get spooked by Saturn’s ghostly spokes! Today we feature a nearly two-hour timelapse of Saturn and its rings looping forwards and backwards. A day on Saturn is only 10 hours long, so two hours of observation covers quite a bit of its rotation. If you look closely, a ghoulish shadow appears and disappears as Saturn’s B ring rotates. Decades of observation with Voyager 2, Cassini, and Hubble show the appearance of Saturn’s spokes varies with the planet’s seasons. Like Earth, Saturn’s spin axis is tilted compared to the plane of its orbit around the Sun. During Saturn’s equinox, the rings are less tilted away from the Sun and the planet receives more evenly distributed sunlight and solar wind. Although their origin is still uncertain, Saturn’s spokes may be shadows of and reflections off of dust and ice levitating above the rings caused by electromagnetic interactions between the solar wind and the planet’s magnetic field. Find dark skies and look up this August to witness the Perseid meteor shower uninhibited by the Moon!

Η Αστρονομική Εικόνα της Ημέρας από τη NASA

Apollo 11: Catching Some Sun

12/09/2026