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 July 08 - Exoplanet Zoo: Other Stars
In today's image, we see some of the over 5500 exoplanets that have been confirmed to exist. We find all sorts of planets, including planets of intermediate…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 July 07 - Iridescent Clouds over Sweden
In today's image, we see iridescent clouds in Earth's atmosphere. These occur when sunlight is diffracted off of similar sized water drops in thin clouds in…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 July 06 - Caroline's Rose
In today's image, we see the star cluster known as Caroline's Rose. The cluster is named for its discoverer, Caroline Herschel who found this cluster back in…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 July 05 - Mount Etna Milky Way
In today's image, we see Mount Etna here on Earth and our Milky Way up in the sky. The Milky Way is our own spiral galaxy as we see it from within.My podcasts…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 July 04 - A Beautiful Trifid
In today's image, we see the Trifid Nebula, also known as M20. This is a part of a stat forming region and shows the different types of nebulae that can be…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 July 03 - M83: Star Streams and a Thousand Rubies
In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy known as M83. This is an example of a spiral galaxy and shows the signs of extensive star formation, including the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 July 02 - NGC 602: Oyster Star Cluster
In today's image, we see the Oyster Star Cluster also known as NGC 602. This is a young star cluster and parts of it are still forming. We will see two images…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 July 01 - Time Spiral
In today's image, we see a spiral which shows the history of the entire universe in one spiral. It starts with the Big Bang at the center and then highlights…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 30 - Earthrise: A Video Reconstruction
In today's image, we see a video put together from the famous Earthrise photo taken by the Apollo 8 astronauts. This is what would have been seen by the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 29 - A Solstice Moon
In today's image, we see the path of the full moon across the sky from about one week ago. This is the summer solstice moon which is very low in the sky as it…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 28 - Comet 13P/Olbers
In today's image, we see a comet. In many ways, this is much like Halley's Comet. Olber's Comet orbits the Sun just a little faster than Halley's completing an…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 27 - Protostellar Outflows in Serpens
In today's image, we see outflows from young, forming stars. This has been imaged with the James Webb Space Telescope looking at a small region around the very…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 26 - Timelapse: Aurora, SAR, and the Milky Way
In today's image, we see time-lapse video showing several different phenomena on our sky. We see the aurora, the SAR (Stable Auroral Red arcs), and our own…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 25 - The Dark Doodad Nebula
In today's image, we see the nebula known as the Dark Doodad. This is an example of a dark nebula, a concentration of dust that is dense enough to become…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 24 - JADES-GS-z14-0: A New Farthest Object
In today's image, we see the galaxy known as JADES-GS-z14-0. This galaxy, recent imaged by the James Webb Space telescope is now known to be the most distant…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 23 - The Colors of Saturn from Cassini
In today's image, we see the planet Saturn as imaged by the Cassini spacecraft back in 2005. We can see the shadows of the rings against the upper part of…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 22 - Lynd's Dark Nebula 1251
In today's image, we see LDN 1251 one of the objects in the catalog of dark nebulae. This is a start forming region in the early stages where stars are just…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 21 - Hubble's NGC 1546
In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy known as NGC 1546 as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope just a week ago. Hubble is using a new pointing system to…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 20 - Sandy and the Moon Halo
In today's image, we see the dog, Sandy by the gate off to the right. Up in the sky, we see the full moon from April. Ice crystals in the atmosphere form the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 19 - Dragons of Ara
In today's image, we see the Dragons of Ara. These are, in fact, bpetterns of gas and dust seen in the constellation of Ara, the altar. The patterns are…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 18 - Gigantic Jets over Himalayan Mountains
In today's image, we see large jets of lightning reaching upward from the storm clouds in the distance into Earth's ionosphere. The tops of these bear a…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 17 - Ou4: The Giant Squid Nebula
In today's image, we see what is known as the Giant Squid nebula. This is an emission region that we see in the blue. With the blue color from the specific…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 16 - Animation: Black Hole Destroys Star
In today's image, we will watch a video animation showing a black hole ripping apart a star which passes too close to it. We see it form an accretion disk…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 15 - Prominences and Filaments on the Active Sun
In today's image, we seethe active Sun in an image taken a month ago. Here we see the Sun in the light of hydrogen. There are many filaments across the surface…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 14 - RCW 85
In today's image, we see the star formation region known as RCW 85. Here we see the dark, dusty nebulae where stars are currently forming surrounded by the red…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 13 - Messier 66 Close Up
In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy, M66 in a close up view as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope.My podcasts are available in video form through this…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 12 - Aurora over Karkonosze Mountains
In today's image, we see an image of the aurora taken this past month when material from a large solar coronal mass ejection struck Earth and caused powerful…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 11 - Colorful Stars and Clouds Near Rho Ophiuchi
In today's image, we see the region around the stars Rho Ophiuchi and Antares which contains bright stars of different colors. We all see different…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 10 - Sh2-132: The Lion Nebula
In today's image, we see the Lion Nebula which is a star forming region and shows the emission from various gases caused when they are excited by ultraviolet…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 09 - How to Identify that Light in the Sky
In today's image, we see a flow chart which can, in a humorous way, help you to identify a light in the sky. By following the flowchart, you can differentiate…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 08 - Pandora's Cluster of Galaxies
In today's image, we see a cluster of galaxies. Nearly every object in this image is a distant galaxy. When we measure the mass of galaxy cluster like this…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 07 - SH2-308: The Dolphin Head Nebula
In today's image, we see the Dolphin Head Nebula which is the nebula around a young Wolf-Rayet star. These are some of the most massive stars and the type that…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 06 - NGC 4565: Galaxy on Edge
In today's image, we see an image of NGC 4565 which is a spiral galaxy like our own Milky Way. This galaxy is seen in an edge-on orientation giving it a very…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 05 - Shadow of a Martian Robot
In today's image, we see an image of the surface of Mars taken by the Perseverance Rover which has been exploring Mars since 2021. We can note the similarities…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 04 - Comet Pons-Brooks Develops Opposing Tails
In today's image, we see an image of comet Pons-Brooks which made its closest approach to Earth a couple of days ago and is heading back into the outer solar…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 03 - NGC 2403 in Camelopardalis
In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy known as NGC 2403. This is a galaxy much like our own Milky Way in many ways and shows the distinct blue in the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 02 - Rotating Moon from LRO
In today's image, we see the Moon in a short video put together from images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). This shows the near side of the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 June 01 - Stereo Helene
In today's image, we see one of the moons of Saturn, Helene in a 3D image which can be viewed with the red-blue 3D glasses. This moon orbits in a Lagrange…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 31 - The Nebulous Realm of WR 134
In today's image, we see the region around the Wolf-Rayet star, WR 134. A Wolf-Rayet star is the type of star that is expected to become a supernova at the end…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 30 - A Lunar Corona over Paris
In today's image, we see the Eiffel Tower in the foreground and the Moon above in the sky. Around the Moon, we see a lunar corona - this is a quantum…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 29 - Stairway to the Milky Way
In today's image, we see a stairway leading up a mountain and apparently to the Milky Way in the sky! Of course, the Milky Way is far beyond anything here on…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 28 - Solar X Flare as Famous Active Region Returns
In today's image, we see an image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory showing the rotation of our Sun over the course of a day. Here were see the active…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 27 - Chameleon I Molecular Cloud
In today's image, we see the Chameleon I Molecular Cloud which is a region of star formation visible in the southern sky. Here we see a number of dark nebulae…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 26 - A Solar Filament Erupts
In today's image, we see a solar filament which erupted into a coronal mass ejection on the Sun back in 2012. The Sun has a cycle of activity that lasts about…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 25 - Manicouagan Impact Crater from Space
In today's image, we see the Manicouagan impact crater as seen from the International Space Station. The crater, about 100km across has worn down over the past…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 24 - M78 from the Euclid Space Telescope
In today's image, we see the star forming region known as M78 as imaged in visible and infrared light from the Euclid Space Telescope. This telescope was…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 23 - Unraveling NGC 3169
In today's image, we see two galaxies in the process of colliding together. When galaxies collide, their gravitational fields interact so that material is…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 22 - Green Aurora over Sweden
In today's image, we see an aurora from 2016 as seen over Sweden. The green color of the aurora is caused when charged particles from the Sun strike Earth's…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 21 - CG4: The Globule and the Galaxy
In today's image, we see what is known as a cemetery globule in the foreground. This is a region of star formation which is unrelated to comets in out solar…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 20 - Aurora Dome Sky
In today's image, we see an image of the aurora taken back on May 10 after the emission of a coronal mass ejection from the Sun by a large sunspot group…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 19 - Jupiter Diving
In today's image, we see an animation created using data collected from the Juno spacecraft to simulate what it would be like to plunge into the upper…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 18 - North Celestial Aurora
In today's image, we see an image of the sky looking toward the North. We see how the stars make circular paths around the North Celestial Pole which is very…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 17 - Aurora Banks Peninsula
In today's image, we see the Aurora Australis which is the aurora when seen in the southern hemisphere. That cause is exactly the same as the aurora seen in…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 16 - Aurora Georgia
In today's image, we see some of the auroral displays as seen over Georgia in the United States just about a week ago. The strong auroral displays were caused…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 15 - AR 3664 at the Sun's Edge
In today's image, we see the large sunspot region known as AR 3664 as it moves around the limb of the Sun. The large prominence is larger than Earth and is now…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 14 - The 37 Cluster
In today's image, we see a small open cluster of stars. Some of the brighter stars seem to form the number 37 in the sky. While 42 may have been more…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 13 - AR 3664 on a Setting Sun
In today's image, we see the large sunspot group known as AR 3664 which has been very active recently, sending solar flares and coronal mass ejection in the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 12 - Red Aurora over Poland
In today's image, we see the red aurora as observed over Poland. The aurora have been especially strong the past couple of days because of the numerous coronal…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 11 - AR 3664: Giant Sunspot Group
In today's image, we see the giant sunspot group AR 3664 which is currently crossing the face of the Sun. Sunspots are active regions on the Sun, slightly…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2024 May 10 - Simulation: Two Black Holes Merge
In today's image, we see a simulation showing the merger of two black holes. This simulation depicts what would have been happening during the first detection…