astronomy picture of the day

Our solar system, with the Sun at the center and 8 other planets besides Earth, reside in an obscure part of a galaxy known as the Milky Way Galaxy. It is a barred spiral galaxy that spans about 100,000 light-years across and was formed approximately 14 billion years ago. According to NASA, the Milky Way Galaxy has over 100 billion stars and all of them orbit a supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center, which is estimated to be four million times as massive as our Sun.NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a…

Do asteroids have moons? Certainly! Asteroids with their own moon are not exactly common in the solar system, but they are very much there. NASA reveals that more than 150 asteroids are known to have a small companion moon and even some have two moons. Last year, astronomers discovered a third moon orbiting the asteroid 130 Elektra.NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day has featured an asteroid that has a tiny moon! The robotic spacecraft Galileo had a notable encounter with two asteroids during its extensive interplanetary…

Among Neptune's 14 moons, Triton stands out as the largest. What makes it truly remarkable is its unconventional behaviour – it is the only moon in our solar system that orbits in a direction opposite to its planet's rotation. According to scientists, Triton is believed to be a celestial body that originally belonged to the Kuiper Belt — a region of space beyond Neptune. NASA says that there is a possibility that it may have been captured by Neptune's gravitational pull millions of years ago. Interestingly, Triton shares…

Galaxies which exist in the vastness of space, consist of various celestial objects such as stars, clouds of dust, and gas, all of which are bound together by gravity. Most galaxies exist in groups or clusters with dozens or hundreds of members, and these cluster galaxies are all in constant motion, pulled and twisted by their neighbour's gravity. Galaxy clusters are the largest objects in the Universe bound by gravity and astronomers can use them to measure important cosmological properties, according to NASA.Today's…

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day is published on a daily basis and the US space agency showcases photographs of celestial objects captured by astrophotographers from all over the world. NASA also snaps objects in space using its advanced technology such as the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope and other observational assets. In fact, the newly launched James Webb Telescope has enabled NASA to observe and study objects located millions of light-years away in space, much…

Over the past few months, we have seen several stunning snapshots of celestial objects as part of NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day, which is published on a daily basis. Snapshots of celestial objects like galaxies, black holes, nebulae, and more, were captured by astrophotographers from all over the world and have been shared by NASA. However, today's picture is a different one as it is not a snapshot of one particular object, but rather an occultation. For the unaware, occultation occurs when an object like a moon…

Jupiter is the fifth planet in the solar system, and it is by far the biggest one. In fact, it is twice as big as all the other planets in our solar system combined. Jupiter is also known as the Gas Giant due to a dense atmosphere of hydrogen and helium with windy clouds of ammonia. It also has the most moons in the solar system, with 92 confirmed moons with orbits, according to International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center.Today's NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day is a snapshot of Jupiter's swirls, formed due…

The universe contains an astonishing number of stars, estimated to be around 200 billion trillion. There are at least 100 billion stars within our own Milky Way Galaxy, while the entire universe harbours over 100 billion galaxies. When a star explodes, the subsequent explosion which takes place, known as a Supernova, is the largest explosion to occur in space. According to NASA, a supernova happens when there is a change in the core, or center, of a star. A change can occur in two different ways, with both resulting in a…

The idea of the presence of aliens has always fascinated humans! From sci-fi movie plots revolving around aliens to scientific studies to find life beyond Earth have always kept the excitement alive. The existence of aliens is a captivating question that has intrigued NASA scientists too for a long time. Although, scientists haven't found life on other planets or obtained scientific evidence supporting the existence of extraterrestrial life, NASA is still actively looking for evidence.Meanwhile, NASA Astronomy Picture of…

Jupiter is the second planet in our solar system with the most number of moons at 95! Among these, the smallest of Jupiter's four Galilean moons is Europa which is the sixth closest to the planet. Europa is said to be about 90 percent the size of Earth's Moon! If we were to replace our Moon with Europa, it would have a similar apparent size in the sky, but it would be significantly brighter, NASA explains. This is because Europa's surface is composed of water ice that reflects approximately 5.5 times more sunlight than…