Barnard 93 (B93) is a dark nebula that blocks background starlight. Far from empty, its dense gas and dust, born from dead stars, will eventually condense to form brilliant new stars. Credit: Christian Bertincourt; Text: Keighley Rockcliffe (NASA GSFC, UMBC CSST, CRESST II)

Dwarf irregular galaxy IC 2574 (Coddington's Nebula), 12 million light-years away, shows intense star formation. Turbulent regions of glowing hydrogen gas are churned by stellar winds and supernovae, triggering new stellar births. Credit: Dane Vetter

Orion's vast stellar nurseries, 1,500 light-years away, are actively forming new stars. This wide view captures the Great Orion, Flame, and Horsehead nebulae, with deep filters revealing pervasive, faint hydrogen gas and Barnard's Loop. Credit: Piotr Czerski

Comet C/2024 E1 Wierzchoś is a one-time visitor, its hyperbolic orbit destining it to become an interstellar traveler. Photographed near closest approach to Earth, it displays a striking 5-degree ion tail. Credit: José J. Chambó; Text: Cecilia Chirenti (NASA GSFC, UMCP, CRESST II)

White dwarf RXJ0528+2838, 730 light-years distant, exhibits unexplained bow shocks. Similar to a ship's bow wave, astronomers are puzzled by what powers these cosmic phenomena, which have persisted for at least 1,000 years. Credit: NASA/ APOD

In 1984, Bruce McCandless II performed the first untethered spacewalk. Using a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) propelled by nitrogen jets, he floated free, farther from a spacecraft than any astronaut before. Credit: NASA/ APOD

The Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237) features bright young stars, some burning millions of times brighter than the Sun. Their powerful stellar winds sculpt its iconic rose shape, illuminating glowing hydrogen gas red and ionized oxygen blue. Credit: Keighley Rockcliffe

Andromeda's dwarf satellite galaxies NGC 147 & NGC 185 form a binary system. Faint dwarf Cassiopeia II recently appeared to join them, forming a gravitationally bound trio. Credit: Chuck Ayoub

The Moon's Sinus Iridum (Bay of Rainbows) is a 250 km wide lava-flooded impact basin. Ringed by the Jura Mountains, these smooth, dark regions are ancient lava plains on our dry, airless Moon. Credit: Olaf Filzinger

This image shows a year of sunspots from 2025, a solar maximum. This period marks the peak of the Sun's 11-year magnetic activity cycle, producing numerous magnetically cooled regions on its surface. Credit: NASA/ APOD

This stunning aurora over Norway from 2014 reminds us: the Sun is currently at solar maximum, the peak of its 11-year activity cycle. This drives more frequent and spectacular auroral displays worldwide. Credit: Max Rive

Remastered Voyager 2 images show Uranus's moon Miranda. Its fractured surface suggests a past liquid water ocean may be slowly freezing beneath the ice. This makes Miranda a significant target in the search for water and potential life. Credit: NASA/ APOD

Sunspot Region AR 4366, larger than Earth, produced powerful flares, making it a candidate for the most active region this solar cycle. Linked to aurorae, it's now rotating away; its reappearance is uncertain. Credit: Daniel Korona

Cassini captured crescent Enceladus, Saturn's highly reflective moon. Beneath its icy crust lies a global ocean, from which geysers erupt water vapor and ice grains. Credit: NASA/ APOD

JWST imaged Cassiopeia A, a 20-light-year wide supernova remnant. Light from this massive star's explosion, 11,000 light-years distant, reached Earth ~350 years ago. Its hot filaments enrich interstellar space for new stars. Credit: NASA/ APOD

NGC 1275 in the Perseus Cluster, an active galaxy, displays gas filaments up to 20,000 light-years long. Pushed out by its supermassive black hole, these structures defy collisions, held together by magnetic fields. Credit: Michal Wierzbinski

Spiral Galaxy NGC 1512 uniquely displays three distinct rings. These intricate structures form due to the galaxy's internal gravitational dynamics via secular evolution. Credit: Daniel Stern

The JWST imaged Red Spider Nebula (NGC 6537), a complex planetary nebula shaped by extreme winds over 1,000 km/s from its dying central star. It harbors one of the hottest white dwarfs ever observed. Credit: NASA/ APOD

The Running Man Nebula (Sh2-279), north of the Orion Nebula, is a blue reflection nebula. Its dust, forming a "running legs" appearance, is slowly being destroyed by embedded stars, expected to dissipate in ~10 million years. Located 1,500 light-years away. Credit: Robert G. Lyons (Robservatory)

During Artemis I Flight Day 13, Orion reached its max distance (>430,000 km from Earth). From this extreme range, our home world and its Moon appeared nearly the same apparent size to the spacecraft. Artemis II will launch with crew. Credit: NASA/ APOD

NGC 1333: A reflection nebula in Perseus, 1,000 light-years away. This stellar nursery harbors hundreds of stars less than a million years old, many still hidden by dust. Its chaotic environment may mirror our Sun's formation. Credit: Robert Eder

NGC 2442, a hook-shaped galaxy 50 million light-years away in Volans, has distorted spiral arms. Its unique structure is likely due to an ancient close encounter with a smaller galaxy. Credit: Mike Selby

M78 is a blue reflection nebula 1,500 light-years away in the Orion Molecular Cloud. Its dust glows by reflecting light from embedded stars. Diffuse hydrogen creates the overall red hue of this star-forming complex, home to the Orion and Horsehead Nebulas. Credit: Daniel McCauley

Orion glows above Poland's snowy Tatra Mountains. This nightscape reveals the Great Orion Nebula, a vast stellar nursery visible to the unaided eye, surrounded by Barnard's Loop and other nebulous structures. Credit: Włodzimierz Bubak; Text: Ogetay Kayali (MTU)

NGC 55 reveals bright nebulas by isolating their light. This 50-hour exposure highlights glowing hydrogen (red) and oxygen (blue) within the galaxy, offering a detailed look at distant star-forming regions. NGC 55 lies 6.5 million light-years a… Credit: Wolfgang Promper; Text: Ogetay Kayali (MTU)

Phobos, the larger moon of Mars, orbits so close that tidal forces are dragging it down. In ~50 million years, this asteroid-like moon will disintegrate, forming a debris ring around the Red Planet. Credit: NASA/ APOD

“Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still.” — Carl Sagan

This Earthset was seen from Orion during Artemis I. On Nov 28, 2022, Orion broke Apollo 13's record, reaching over 400,000 km from Earth—the most distant spacecraft designed for human exploration. Credit: NASA/ APOD

Abell 7, a planetary nebula 1,800 light-years away, illustrates the brief final phase of a Sun-like star. Our Sun will shed its outer layers in 5 billion years, forming its own nebula. Credit: Martin Pugh

LDN 1622, the "Boogeyman Nebula," is a dark nebula in Orion, ~1,500 light-years away. Its foreboding silhouette conceals hidden young stars, revealed by infrared observations. Credit: Chris Fellows

Webb captures NGC 1365, a barred spiral galaxy 2x the Milky Way's size. Its central bar funnels gas and dust, fueling intense star formation and feeding its supermassive black hole. Credit: NASA/ APOD

Jupiter's moon Io, bright yellow from sulfur and silicate rock, is the Solar System's most volcanically active body. Intense tidal forces cause its interior to heat and erupt, effectively turning the moon inside out. Credit: NASA/ APOD

The Medulla Nebula (CTB 1) is a 10,000-year-old supernova remnant. A pulsar, expelled at over 1000 km/s by the explosion, is thought to power its X-ray glow. This faint object took 84 hours to image. Credit: NASA/ APOD

Webb's infrared view of Jupiter reveals high-floating bright clouds, polar auroras, and the unique magnetic footprint of volcanic moon Io visible in the southern aurora. With its 6m mirror, Webb provides unprecedented detail of the gas giant. Credit: NASA/ APOD

Feb 5, 1971: Apollo 14's LM Antares landed. Ed Mitchell's mosaic shows the lunar surface where Alan Shepard famously hit two golf balls. One is visible near Mitchell's thrown sampling tool. Credit: NASA/ APOD

The Iris Nebula (NGC 7023), 1,300 light-years away in Cepheus, spans 6 light-years. Its blue hue comes from reflected starlight, while faint red glows are dust converting UV light. Infrared also detects complex carbon molecules (PAHs). Credit: Justus Falk

The Moon's crater Plato & Alps: Unlike Earth's mountains formed by plate tectonics, the lunar Alps were created by the colossal impact that formed the Mare Imbrium basin. Credit: Luigi Morrone

M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, is a classic spiral 30 million light-years distant. Its distinct spiral structure is primarily due to gravitational interaction with a smaller companion galaxy, making it a picturesque target for binoculars. Credit: Michael Sleeman

"Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." – Carl Sagan

NASA's NanoSail-D2, launched 2011, was the first solar sail in low Earth orbit. Its 10-sq-meter sail used the continuous pressure of sunlight for thrust, demonstrating a concept Kepler envisioned centuries ago. It was periodically visible to the unaided eye. Credit: Ralf Vandebergh

An auroral corona, seen over Iceland, occurs when energetic light curtains stream directly overhead during strong geomagnetic storms. Solar Cycle 25's peak in 2025-2026 brings more such spectacular displays. Credit: Roi Levi

HH-222, the Waterfall Nebula, isn't flowing gas but a 10-light-year-long bow shock. This colossal wave, caused by a jet from the V380 Orionis system, moves through space, appearing like a terrestrial waterfall 1,500 light-years away in Orion. Credit: Mike Selby

This isn't a comet tail! It's a time-lapse of Starlink satellites reflecting sunlight over Inner Mongolia. Long camera exposures blur these over 9000 low Earth orbit satellites into streaks, creating an "artificial comet" effect. Credit: Wang Chao

The Crab Nebula, a 1054 AD supernova remnant, hosts a central pulsar. This neutron star, as massive as the Sun yet the size of a town, spins 30 times per second. Credit: Alan Chen

Hubble images NGC 1898, a globular cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud. This stellar ball, 160,000 light-years away, shows signs its stars formed in stages. This formation may have been triggered by ancient encounters with the Small Magellanic Cloud and the Milky Way. Credit: NASA/ APOD

Apollo 17's Lunar Module Challenger ascent stage in lunar orbit. Designed for vacuum, it returned astronauts to orbit, then was intentionally crashed nearby. Its descent stage remains at the Apollo 17 landing site. Credit: NASA/ APOD

On this day, a child was born who left an indelible mark on human history, transforming our understanding of the world. Famous for his long hair, he unraveled the mysteries of the heavens and brought light to the world. Happy Birthday, Sir Isaac Newton. (Born Dec 25, 1642, Julian Calendar)

NGC 2264, 2,700 light-years away in Monoceros, is a star-forming region known as the Christmas Tree Cluster, Fox Fur, and Unicorn Nebula. Spanning 80 light-years, it features vibrant emission and reflection nebulae shaped by energetic newborn stars. Credit: Michael Kalika

Pristine samples from asteroid Bennu, collected by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, contain six types of sugar essential to life, including ribose and glucose.

JWST captured a stunning mid-infrared view of Wolf-Rayet Apep, showing four spiraling dust shells around a chaotic triple-star system. Two massive stars forge carbon dust in colliding winds while a third star carves holes through each layer. Credit: NASA/ ESA/ CSA/ STScI