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.

2021 September 19

Rings and Seasons of Saturn
Image Credit & Copyright: Damian Peach/SEN

Explanation: On Saturn, the rings tell you the season. On Earth,
Wednesday marks an equinox, the time when the Earth's equator tilts
directly toward the Sun. Since Saturn's grand rings orbit along the
planet's equator, these rings appear most prominent -- from the
direction of the Sun -- when the spin axis of Saturn points toward the
Sun. Conversely, when Saturn's spin axis points to the side, an equinox
occurs and the edge-on rings are hard to see from not only the Sun --
but Earth. In the featured montage, images of Saturn between the years
of 2004 and 2015 have been superposed to show the giant planet passing
from southern summer toward northern summer. Saturn was as close as it
can get to planet Earth last month, and this month the ringed giant is
still bright and visible throughout much of the night

Tomorrow's picture: dark nebula 1251
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-5
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.3)

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.

2021 September 20

Lynds Dark Nebula 1251
Image Credit & Copyright: Cristiano Gualco

Explanation: Stars are forming in Lynds Dark Nebula (LDN) 1251. About
1,000 light-years away and drifting above the plane of our Milky Way
galaxy, the dusty molecular cloud is part of a complex of dark nebulae
mapped toward the Cepheus flare region. Across the spectrum,
astronomical explorations of the obscuring interstellar clouds reveal
energetic shocks and outflows associated with newborn stars, including
the telltale reddish glow from scattered Herbig-Haro objects hiding in
the image. Distant background galaxies also lurk on the scene, almost
buried behind the dusty expanse. This alluring view spans over two full
moons on the sky, or 17 light-years at the estimated distance of LDN
1251.

Tomorrow's picture: sun spot hill
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-5
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.3)

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.

2021 September 21

Sun Spot Hill
Image Credit & Copyright: Jordi Coy

Explanation: Is this giant orange ball about to roll down that
tree-lined hill? No, because the giant orange ball is actually the Sun.
Our Solar System's central star was captured rising beyond a hill on
Earth twelve days ago complete with a delightfully detailed foreground.
The Sun's disk showed five sunspots, quite a lot considering that
during the solar minimum in solar activity of the past few years, most
days showed no spots. A close look at the hill -- Sierra del Cid in
Perter, Spain -- reveals not only silhouetted pine trees, but
silhouetted people -- by coincidence three brothers of the
photographer. The trees and brothers were about 3.5-kilometers away
during the morning of the well-planned, single-exposure image. A dark
filter muted the usually brilliant Sun and brought up great detail on
the lower sunspots. Within a few minutes, the Sun rose far above the
hill, while within a week, the sunspots rotated around the Sun, out of
view. The captured scene, however, is now frozen in time for all to
enjoy.

Tomorrow's picture: half day
__________________________________________________________________

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-5
* Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757.3)