Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya (APOD)

APOD: 2025 October 26 B Halloween and the Ghost Head Nebula
26.10.2025 | Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya

Halloween's origin is ancient and astronomical. Since the fifth century BC, Halloween has been celebrated as a cross-quarter day, a day halfway between an equinox (equal day / equal night) and a solstice (minimum day / maximum night in the northern hemisphere).

Webb's Rho Ophiuchi
25.10.2025 | Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya

A mere 390 light-years away, Sun-like stars and future planetary systems are forming in the Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to our fair planet. The James Webb Space Telescope's NIRCam peered into the nearby natal chaos to capture this infrared image at an inspiring scale.

Saturn at Night
24.10.2025 | Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya

Saturn is bright in Earth's night skies. Telescopic views of the outer gas giant planet and its beautiful rings often make it a star at star parties. But this stunning view of Saturn's rings and night side just isn't possible from telescopes in the vicinity of planet Earth.

SWAN, Swan, Eagle
23.10.2025 | Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya

Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN) sports a greenish coma and fainter tail, seen against congeries of stars and dusty interstellar clouds in this 7 degree wide telescopic field of view from October 17. On that...

APOD: 2025 October 22 B Comet Lemmon over the High Tatras
22.10.2025 | Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya

Comet Lemmon putting on a show for cameras around the globe. Passing nearest to the Earth this week, the photogenic comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) is now extending two long tails : a blue ion tail and a white dust tail.

APOD: 2025 October 21 B IC 1805: The Heart Nebula
21.10.2025 | Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya

What electrifies the Heart Nebula? First, the large emission nebula on the left, catalogued as IC 1805, looks somewhat like a human heart. The nebula glows brightly in red light emitted by its most prominent element, hydrogen, but this long-exposure image was also blended with light emitted by sulfur (yellow) and oxygen (blue).

APOD: 2025 October 20 B Finding Comet Lemmon
20.10.2025 | Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya

Tonight, if you can see the stars of the Big Dipper, then you can find comet Lemmon in your evening sky. After sunset, look for the faint but extended comet above your northwestern horizon -- but below the handle of the famous celestial kitchen utensil of the north.

APOD: 2025 October 19 B Comet Churyumov Gerasimenko Creates Its Tails
19.10.2025 | Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya

Where do comet tails come from? There are usually no obvious places on the nuclei of comets from which the jets that create comet tails emanate. One of the best images of emerging jets...

3D Bennu
18.10.2025 | Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya

Put on your red/blue glasses and float next to asteroid 101955 Bennu. Shaped like a spinning toy top with boulders littering its rough surface, the tiny Solar System world is about one Empire State Building (less than 500 meters) across.

Ida and Dactyl: Asteroid and Moon
17.10.2025 | Astronomicheskaya kartinka dnya

This asteroid has a moon. The robot spacecraft Galileo enroute to explore the Jovian system in 1993, encountered and photographed two asteroids during its long interplanetary voyage. The second minor planet it photographed, 243 Ida, was discovered to have a moon.