Shows / NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
These podcasts are my discussion of NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day. These are brief (3-5 minute) audio summaries of the picture posted on NASA's Picture of the Day website: APOD. Video versions of these are available on YouTube. I use these as the introduction to each of my introductory astronomy classes. Students will be able to access them here to review what was discussed in class. I appreciate any comments or suggestions which can be sent to: wagnerastronomy@gmail.com.
Episodes
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 November 05 - Milky Way over Easter Island
In today's image, we see the stone statues of Easter Island in the foreground and the Milky Way up above. The Milky Way is our own spiral galaxy as we see it…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 November 04 - M42: The Great Nebula in Orion
In today's image, we see the nearby star forming region known as the Orion Nebula. This contain a young open cluster of stars known as the Trapezium. Wishing…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 November 03 - Jupiter Abyss
In today's image, we see a dark spot on Jupiter known as the abyss. The darker could on Jupiter are generally lower in the atmosphere than the lighter colored…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 November 02 - Saturn at Night
In today's image, we see an image of the night side of Saturn as taken out seven years ago by the Cassini spacecraft, just a couple of days before the end of…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 November 01 - Spiral Galaxy NGC 6744
In today's image, we see NGC 6744, a spiral galaxy. We can se the distinct spiral structure as well as the blue star clusters and pink hydrogen regions which…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 31 - Rigel and the Witch Head Nebula
In today's image, we see the bright star Rigel in the constellation of Orion as well as the reflection nebula known as the Witch Head Nebula. The scattering of…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 30 - NGC 7635: The Bubble Nebula
In today's image, we see the Bubble Nebula. This is the region of gas and dust being pushed out by the string stellar winds and radiation pressure from a newly…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 29 - NGC 602: Stars Versus Pillars from Webb
In today's image, we see two images of the star cluster NGC 602 and the surrounding region as imaged by both the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 28 - STEVE: A Glowing River over France
In today's image, we see an example of a Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement or STEVE. This phenomenon has only been recently studied and scientists…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 27 - LDN 43: The Cosmic Bat Nebula
In today's image, we see LDN 43, a dark dusty nebula which has the appearance go a bat flying through space. This is part of a start formation region and some…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 26 - Phantoms in Cassiopeia
In today's image, we see a region of gas and dust in the constellation of Cassiopeia. This may give the appearance of phantoms in space.My podcasts are…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 25 - Globular Star Cluster NGC 6752
In today's image, we see a globular star cluster. These clusters are about 10 billion years old and some of the remnants of the earliest times of our galaxy…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 24 - NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula
In today's image, we see the planetary nebula known as the Helix Nebula. This will be the eventual end state of our own Sun in billions of year when it has…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 23 - Caught
In today's image, we see the return of the lower stage of a SpaceX rocket to Earth. This was the first test of the craft returning directly to the rocket tower…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 22 - M16: Pillars of Star Creation
In today's image, we see part of the Eagle Nebula, a star forming region. Here we see what look like giant pillar pointing upward. These are the denser areas…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 21 - Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS over California
In today's image, we see comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS as seen over California recently. The comet was bright with a prominent tail pointing toward the upper left…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 20 - Dark Matter in a Simulated Universe
In today's image, we see a simulation of the universe showing the dark matter which is far more prevalent than the ordinary matter that we are used to. Studies…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 19 - Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Flys Away
In today's image, we see images of comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS as it moves away from Earth and Sun and slowly fades in brightness. It will be hard to see now…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 18 - Most of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS
In today's image, we see am image of comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. We can see the prominent tail stretching back to the upper left and an anti tail stretching down…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 17 - The Clipper and the Comet
In today's image, we see the rocket preparing to launch the Europa Clipper to Jupiter. The craft is scheduled to arrive at Jupiter in 2030. In the image, we…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 16 - Colorful Aurora over New Zealand
In today's image, we see a number of effects associated with the aroma as recently seen over New Zealand. These include the auroral activity itself as well as…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 15 - Animation: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Tails Prediction
In today's image, we see an animation showing the past and predicted future tails of comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. The comet is currently separating from the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 14 - Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Over the Lincoln Memorial
In today's image, we see comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS as recently viewed over the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. The comet is currently visible in the evening…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 13 - Aurora Timelapse over Italian Alps
In today's image, we see a timeless of the aurora. This compresses an hour in to just about 8 seconds. We can see the red glow due to oxygen atoms in Earth's…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 12 - Northern Lights, West Virginia
In today's image, we see the Northern Lights as seen from West Virginia recently. The aurora are seen at lower latitude like this when solar storms - coronal…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 11 - Ring of Fire over Easter Island
In today's image, we see an image from the annular eclipse of October 11. This type of eclipse occurs when our Moon is near apogee, its greatest distance from…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 10 - Five Bright Comets from SOHO
In today's image, we see images of five bright comets from the 21st century as images by the SOHO spacecraft.My podcasts are available in video form through…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 09 - M 106: A Spiral Galaxy with an Unusual Center
In today's image, we see the galaxy known as M 106. This is a specific type of spiral galaxy known as a Seyfert Galaxy. This is what is known as an active…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 08 - Annular Eclipse over Patagonia
In today's image, we see an image from the annular solar eclipse from this past week. Here, the Moon passes in front of the Sun, but the Moon appears slightly…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 07 - The Long Tails of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS
In today's image, we see comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in the sky. The comet is currently very close to the Sun, but will likely be bright enough to be seen with the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 06 - The Magnificent Tail of Comet McNaught
In today's image, we see the great comet of 2007, Comet McNaught. The comet was one of the brightest to have been seen in several decades. Now, we look for…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 05 - M27: Not a Comet
In today's image, we see an object which is not a comet, but is actually a planetary nebula. This type of nebula is what forms at the end of the life of a star…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 04 - Comet at Moonrise
In today's image, we see the comet known as Tsuchinshan-ATLAS as it is visible in the sky just as the moon is barely rising over the horizon. The comet has…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 03 - Eclipse at Sunrise
In today's image, we see a partial solar eclipse that occurred yesterday and was visible over parts of the South Pacific and South Atlantic oceans. Thursday…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 02 - The Large Magellanic Cloud Galaxy
In today's image, we see a nearby satellite galaxy of our Milky Way known as the Large Magellanic Cloud. The galaxy is prominently visible in the the night sky…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 October 01 - Porphyrion: The Longest Known Black Hole Jet
In today's image, we see what is known as Porphyrion which is the longest known jet from a black hole, stretching 23 million light years from end to end. This…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 30 - Comet Tsuchinshan over Mexico
In today's image, we see the comet known as Tsuchinshan-ATLAS as seen from a drone hovering about the clouds in Mexico. While the comet it currently at the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 29 - Seven Dusty Sisters
In today's image, we see the Pleiades Star Cluster as imaged in the infrared. We will note that in infrared light, the dust is highlighted which mostly hides…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 28 - Rocket Eclipse at Sunset
In today's image, we see a Falcon 9 rocket as it launches into space. In this case ,it happened to pass in front of the setting Sun and we can see the exhaust…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 27 - Stellar Streams in the Local Universe
In today's image, we see images of 20 different galaxies, each of these seen to have streams of stars around it. The streams are caused by the larger galaxy…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 26 - The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules
In today's image, we see a globular cluster. Globular clusters are among the oldest known objects in the galaxy, often being dated to over 10 billion years…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 25 - Comet A3 Through an Australian Sunrise
In today's image, we see the comet know as A3 as it rises above the horizon over Australia. Over the coming month, the comet will brighten, but by what amount…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 24 - NGC 6727: The Rampaging Baboon Nebula
In today's image, we see part of a nearby molecular cloud sometimes called the Rampaging Baboon Nebula. This is part of a star forming region located about 500…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 23 - Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Approaches
In today's image, we see comet Tsuchinsan-ATLAS which will make its closest approach to Sun later the week and its closest approach to Earth next month. It may…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 22 - Chicagohenge: Equinox in an Aligned City
In today's image, we see an image of our Sun setting along the streets of Chicago. Because the image was taken on the equinox, the Sun will rise directly in…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 21 - Sunrise Shadows in the Sky
In today's image, we see crepuscular rays in the sky which point back to the rising Sun. The clouds in the sky cast shadows upwards because of the position of…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 20 - A Hazy Harvest Moon
In today's image, we see the setting Harvest Moon, which is the full moon closest to the Autumnal Equinox. It was also a supermoon, a full moon that occurs…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 19 - The Dark Seahorse in Cepheus
In today's image, we see the dusty area in the sky in the constellation of Cepheus. You may recognize the shape, which somewhat resembles a seahorse. The dust…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 18 - The Mermaid Nebula Supernova Remnant
In today's image, we see a part of a supernova remnant known as the Mermaid Nebula. This is a portion of a massive star that would have long ago been seen to…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 17 - Melotte 15 in the Heart Nebula
In today's image, we see the young star cluster., Melotte 15 which has formed in the last million or so years in the central trigons of the Heart Nebula.My…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 16 - Mercury's Vivaldi Crater from BepiColumbo
In today's image, we see an image of the Vivaldi crater on Mercury which was recently imaged by the BepiColumbo spacecraft. The craft recently flew by Mercury…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 15 - Find the Man in the Moon
In today's image, we see an image of the full moon. You can also see the "Man in the Moon" in the patterns of the maria on the near side of the moon.My…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 14 - The Moona Lisa
In today's image, we see multiple images of our Moon in a frame. If you look from a greater distance, or look at the smaller images, you will see an image of…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 13 - Aurora Australis and the International Space Station
In today's image, we see the red and green aurora in Earth's upper atmosphere caused by charged particles from the Sun exciting oxygen atoms.My podcasts are…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 12 - Young Star Cluster NGC 1333
In today's image, we see a young star cluster as imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope. Here we can look for lower mass stars and brown dwarf stars which…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 11 - A Night Sky over the Tatra Mountains
In today's image, we see a number of different objects in the sky over the Tatra Mountains. This includes our Milky Way, including many stars and nebulae which…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 10 - Horsehead and Orion Nebulas
In today's image, we see the region around the constellation of Orion. This includes the Horsehead Nebula, which is close to the belt of Orion and the Orion…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 09 - Mars: Moon, Craters, and Volcanos
In today's image, we see an image of the planet Mars from space. Here we see one of the moon - Phobos as well as craters and volcanos on the surface of Mars.My…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 08 - M31: The Andromeda Galaxy
In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy known as M31 or more popularly known as the Andromeda Galaxy. This is the nearest large spiral galaxy to our own…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 September 07 - Small Moon Deimos
In today's image, we see the small moon of Mars, known as Deimos. This moon is likely a captured asteroid that happened to wander into the gravitational field…