Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya (APOD)

APOD: 2025 November 5 B Spiral Galaxy NGC 3370 from Hubble
4.11.2025 | Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya

Is this what our own Milky Way Galaxy looks like from far away? Similar in size and grand design to our home Galaxy (although without the central bar), spiral galaxy NGC 3370 lies about 100 million light-years away toward the constellation of the Lion (Leo).

APOD: 2025 November 4 B Comet Lemmon Beyond Lomnickc Peak
3.11.2025 | Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya

Comet Lemmon has been putting on a show for cameras around the globe. Passing nearest to Earth in late October, the photogenic comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) sprouted two long and picturesque tails: a blue ion tail and a white dust tail.

APOD: 2025 November 3 B A Double Helix Lunar Eclipse
2.11.2025 | Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya

The image was timed to capture a total lunar eclipse -- but it came with quite a twist. First, the eclipse: the fully Earth-shadowed Moon is visible as the orange orb near the top.

APOD: 2025 November 2 B A Horseshoe Einstein Ring from Hubble
1.11.2025 | Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya

What's large and blue and can wrap itself around an entire galaxy? A gravitational lens mirage. Pictured here, the gravity of a massive elliptical galaxy (luminous red galaxy: LRG) has gravitationally distorted the light from a much more distant blue galaxy.

Pleiades from Planet Earth
31.10.2025 | Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya

The lovely Pleiades star cluster shines in Earth's night sky, a compact group of stars some 400 light-years distant toward the constellation Taurus and the Orion Arm of our Milky Way galaxy. Recognized since ancient times, the remarkable celestial gathering is visible to the unaided eye.

Ghosts in Cassiopeia
30.10.2025 | Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya

Halloween is an astronomy holiday and spooky shapes always seem to lurk in planet Earth's night skies. In fact, near the center of this telescopic view toward the constellation Cassiopeia these swept-back interstellar clouds IC 59 (left) and IC 63 look ghostly on a cosmic scale.

Lynds Dark Nebula 43
29.10.2025 | Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya

Sure, Halloween is an astronomy holiday. But astronomers always enjoy scanning the heavens for spook-tacular galaxies, stars, and nebulae. This favorite is item number 43 from the Beverly Lynds 1962 Catalog of Dark Nebulae, fondly known as the Cosmic Bat nebula.

APOD: 2025 October 29 B Dust Shapes of the Ghost Nebula
28.10.2025 | Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya

Do any shapes seem to jump out at you from this interstellar field of stars and dust? The jeweled expanse, filled with faint, starlight-reflecting clouds, drifts through the night in the royal constellation of Cepheus.

APOD: 2025 October 28 B NGC 6995: The Bat Nebula
27.10.2025 | Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya

Can you see the bat? It haunts this cosmic close-up of the eastern Veil Nebula. The Veil Nebula itself is a large supernova remnant, the expanding debris cloud from the death explosion of a massive star.

APOD: 2025 October 27 B Two Tails of Comet Lemmon
26.10.2025 | Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya

How many bright tails does Comet Lemmon have? Two. In the featured image it appears to have three, but why? The reason is that the zigzagging brown filament is a persistent meteor train that by luck appeared in front of the distant comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon).