[{"id":"e144501555986459","title":"The Conjunction of Comet R3 PanSTARRS and the Orion Nebula","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260512.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-05-12T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"The
Explanation: \n\nToday’s composite image \nfeatures \nsomething old, \nsomething new, something borrowed, and something blue! \nComet R3 PanSTARRS, \nstreaking across the right of the image, likely originated from \nthe Oort Cloud, \nmeaning it is an old Solar System relic from billions of years ago. It’s bright extended \nion tail \nglows blue as the gas escaping the comet’s core is ionized by sunlight. Astronomers are fascinated by \ncomets \nfor all sorts of reasons: comet compositions are untouched time capsules containing the building blocks of Solar System planets; comets may have \ndelivered water \nto the young Earth; the behavior of cometary tails shed light on solar wind and radiation interactions. The background mosaic, featuring \nthe Orion Nebula \n(M42), \nwas taken over two nights of observation with the comet captured on the third night. \nThe Orion Nebula \nis our nearest stellar nursery and, at \nabout 2 million years old, \nis our something (relatively) new! Now at around \n127.5 million kilometers from Earth, \nwe wave goodbye to the borrowed Comet R3 PanSTARRS as it leaves the Solar System.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"631966513cf512af","title":"Moon Setting Behind Teide Volcano","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260511.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-05-11T11:00:00+00:00","content":"
Explanation: \nThese people are not in danger.\n\nWhat is coming down from the left is just the Moon, far in the distance.\n\nLuna appears so large here because she is being \nphotographed through a telescopic lens. \n\nWhat is moving is mostly \nthe Earth, whose spin causes \nthe Moon to slowly disappear behind \nMount Teide, a volcano in the \nCanary Islands \nof \nSpain \noff the northwest coast of \nAfrica.\n\nThe people pictured are \n16 kilometers away and \nmany are facing the camera because they are watching \nthe Sun \nrise behind the photographer.\n\nIt is not a coincidence that a \nfull moon sets just when the \nSun rises because the Sun is always on the \nopposite side of the sky from a full moon.\n\nThe featured video \nwas made in 2018 during a full \nMilk Moon. \n\nThe video is not time-lapse -- \nthis was really how fast the Moon was setting.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"a8363ead3dc9aa9c","title":"Comet R3 PanSTARRS and Orion","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260510.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-05-10T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \nOrion never had a sword like this.\n\nAs Comet \nC/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) heads out of the inner Solar System, \nit is putting on quite a \nshow for long exposure cameras. \n\nCurrently \nseen toward the \nconstellation of \nOrion the Hunter, the distant \nOrion Nebula \nis visible on the upper right.\n\nComet R3 PanSTARRS \nis now showing \ntwo distinct tails: a short \ndust tail pointing toward the top of the image \nand a long and \nwavy ion tail \ntrailing off toward the upper left. \n\nThe ion tail points away from the \nSun and \nglows blue from excited \ncarbon monoxide. \n\nLarge particles in the dust tail somewhat \nresist the radiation pressure that push them away from the Sun and so retain a bit of the comet's orbit. \n\nThe dust tail shines by \nreflected sunlight.\n\nThe featured image was taken a few days ago from \nFrance's \nReunion Island \nin the southern \nIndian Ocean.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"cbb5bc735d44dd48","title":"Messier Craters in Stereo","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260509.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-05-09T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"See
Explanation: \n\nMany bright nebulae and star clusters in planet Earth's sky\nare associated with the name of\nastronomer Charles Messier\nfrom his famous 18th century catalog.\n\nHis name is also given to these two large and remarkable craters\non the Moon.\n\nStandouts in the dark,\nsmooth lunar Sea of Fertility or Mare\nFecunditatis, Messier (left) and Messier A have dimensions of 15 by 8\nand 16 by 11 kilometers respectively.\n\nTheir elongated shapes are explained by the\nextremely shallow-angle trajectory followed by\nan impactor, moving left to right, that gouged out the craters.\n\nThe shallow impact also resulted in two\nbright rays of material\nextending along the surface to the right, beyond the picture.\n\nIntended to be viewed with\nred/blue glasses\n(red for the left eye), this striking stereo picture\nof the crater pair was recently created\nfrom high resolution scans of two images\n(AS11-42-6304,\nAS11-42-6305)\ntaken during the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"e107693851f789fc","title":"Comet R3 PanSTARRS Before Rigel","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260508.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-05-08T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \nWhich way is \nComet R3 PanSTARRS going?\n\nNot towards the star at the top of the image, because that is \nRigel, which, being far in the background, \nis \nunrelated to the comet.\n\nNot through the nebula in the image middle, because that is the \nWitch Head Nebula \nand it, too, is far in the distance -- but \nnot far from Rigel. \n\nNot into northern skies because over the past week Comet \nC/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) has moved into \nsouthern skies and is now best visible in \nEarth's \nSouthern Hemisphere toward the west after sunset. \n\nAngularly, \nComet R3 PanSTARRS \nis slowly moving toward the upper right, night by night, \nand will soon be in the constellation Orion.\n\nSpatially, the comet is now headed out of our \nSolar System but should remain \nvisible to cameras \nin southern skies for about a week. \n\nThe \nfeatured image was captured last week near \nCerro Paranal in \nChile.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"c22fc625c2c72d4e","title":"The Retrograde Dance of Saturn and Neptune","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260506.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-05-06T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"The
Explanation: \n\nWhat does it mean for \nSaturn and \nNeptune to be in retrograde? \nFeatured is a composite of images taken over 34 nights from May 2025 to February \n2026 tracing Saturn (brighter, foreground) and Neptune (dimmer, background). Over \nthat time, the two planets exhibited \nretrograde motion, \nmeaning they appeared to move backward in the sky. This \napparent backwards motion \noccurs when Earth overtakes the slower outer planets as they orbit the Sun. Imagine the Solar System \nis a running track. Earth \"runs\" faster along the inside of the track compared to the outer planets. \nAs Earth approaches, aligns, and then \"laps\" the outer planets, they change position from ahead to behind from \nthe Earth's perspective. This perspective shift is what causes the outer planets to change position in the \nnight sky.\nAn animation \ncorresponding to today’s image shows Saturn and Neptune’s months-long dance across \nthe northern night sky. Saturn stepped from \nthe Pisces constellation \ninto Aquarius \nand back again while Neptune remained in Pisces. This is the closest Saturn and Neptune have been \nin the sky since their last conjunction in 1989.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"bad54ab57e73660e","title":"Orion over Mount Teide","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260505.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-05-05T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \nOrion is rarely seen like this. \n\nTo achieve this \nmajestic vista, \nyou need a camera capable of taking such \nlong duration exposures that \nfaint features \nin the night sky become revealed. \n\nIconic nebulas that appear include the \nOrion Nebula, the \nFlame Nebula, and \nBarnard's Loop.\n\nFor contrast, it also helps to have a \nvolcano on the foreground, in this case the \nTeide volcano on \nTenerife on the \nCanary Islands \nof Spain. \n\nBut if you want your \nTeide volcano snow-covered, \nyou also need good timing -- because that only happens, \ntypically, for a few days each year. \n\nGood timing also includes \nwaiting for \nOrion to appear just \nbehind Teide, \nwhich occurred late last year after sunset. \n\nThe \nfeatured image is the result of a \nseries of images taken consecutively with the \nsame camera from the same location.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"8f5846d35ab2f4b0","title":"Trifid Pillars and Jets","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260503.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-05-03T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \nDust pillars are like \ninterstellar mountains. \n\nThey survive because they are more dense than their \nsurroundings, but they are slowly being \neroded away \nby a hostile environment. \n\nVisible in the\nfeatured picture by the \nHubble Space Telescope \nis the end of a huge gas and dust pillar in the\nTrifid Nebula (M20),\npunctuated by a smaller pillar pointing up and an unusual\njet pointing to the upper left. \n\nMany of the bright dots are \nnewly formed stars.\n\nA star near the small pillar's end is slowly being stripped of its \naccreting gas \nby radiation from a tremendously brighter \nstar situated off the \ntop of the image. \n\nThe jet extends nearly a \nlight-year and would \nnot be visible without external illumination. \n\nAs gas and dust \nevaporate from the pillars, the \nhidden stellar source of this \njet will likely be uncovered, \npossibly over the next 20,000 years.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"333394241e045f98","title":"Seeing Titan","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260502.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-05-02T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"See
Explanation: \n\nShrouded in a thick atmosphere, the surface of\nSaturn's largest moon, Titan,\nis really hard to see.\n\nSmall particles suspended in Titan's upper atmosphere cause an almost\nimpenetrable haze, strongly scattering light at visible wavelengths\nand hiding surface features from prying eyes.\n\nStill, Titan's\nsurface is better imaged at\ninfrared wavelengths, where\nscattering is weaker and atmospheric absorption is reduced.\n\nArrayed around this visible light image (center) of Titan are\nsome of the clearest global infrared views of the\ntantalizing moon so far.\n\nIn false color,\nthe six\npanels present a consistent processing of 13 years of\ninfrared image data from the\nVisual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on board\nthe\nCassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn from 2004 to 2017.\n\nThey offer a stunning comparison with Cassini's visible light view.\n\nNASA's revolutionary\nrotorcraft\nmission to Titan's surface is due to launch no earlier than July, 2028.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"ac547667deedb926","title":"Markarian's Chain","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260501.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-05-01T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"See
Explanation: \n\nNear the heart of the\nVirgo Galaxy\nCluster,\na string of galaxies known as \nMarkarian's\nChain stretches across this\ntelescopic field of view.\n\nAnchored in the frame at bottom right by prominent lenticular galaxies,\nM84 (bottom)\nand M86,\nyou can follow the chain's gentle arc up and toward the left.\n\nNear center you'll spot the pair of interacting galaxies\nNGC 4438 and NGC 4435, known to some as\nMarkarian's Eyes.\n\nAn estimated 50 million light-years distant,\nthe Virgo Cluster itself is the nearest\ngalaxy\ncluster.\n\nWith up to about 2,000 member galaxies, it has a\nnoticeable gravitational influence on our own\nLocal Group of\nGalaxies.\n\nWithin the Virgo Cluster at least seven galaxies in Markarian's Chain \nappear to move coherently,\nwhile others may appear to be part of the chain by chance.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"a1c0c81f5b583fb3","title":"The Moon, Venus, and the Pleiades","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260429.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-29T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"The
Explanation: \n\nNo, Earth did not recently acquire six more moons! \n\nToday’s APOD \nis a combination of images following the Moon, Venus, and \nthe Pleiades \nacross a southern Sicilian sky \nas twilight turned to evening on April 19.\n\nFrom 2023 to 2029, the Pleiades' and the Moon \n“visit\" \neach other once per month due to the Pleiades' location in \nthe ecliptic plane. \nApril 2026 saw the celestial alignment of their visit with \nVenus. \n\nAbout six stars in the Pleiades cluster \n(Messier 45) \nare typically visible with the unaided eye. Due to the cluster’s visibility across the world, there are many myths and legends across cultures associated with the Pleiades. \nThe Haudenosaunee people \nof North America, \nfor example, \nsay that seven boys danced so enthusiastically that they lifted off into the sky. \nAstronomers recently found thousands more Pleiades members, \nshowing that after thousands of years of gazing upon this cluster, there is yet more to learn about the Pleiades.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"2536c3fa7b08d72d","title":"CG 30: Cometary Globules","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260428.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-28T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \nThey're like mountain peaks, but they are forming stars.\n\nBright-rimmed, flowing shapes gather near the center of\nthis rich starfield toward the borders of the nautical southern\nconstellations Puppis and Vela.\n\nComposed of interstellar gas and \n\ndust, the grouping of\nlight-year sized cometary globules is about 1300 \nlight-years distant.\n\nEnergetic ultraviolet light from nearby hot stars\nhas molded the globules\nand ionized their bright rims.\n\nThe globules also\nstream away from the\nVela supernova remnant which\nmay have influenced their swept-back shapes.\n\nWithin them, cores of cold gas and \ndust are likely \ncollapsing to form\nlow mass stars whose formation will ultimately cause the\nglobules to disperse.\n\nIn fact, cometary globule CG 30 (upper right in the group) sports a\nsmall reddish glow inside its head,\na telltale sign of energetic jets from a \nstar \nin the early stages\nof formation.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"2729c828cf915e6b","title":"Comet R3 PanSTARRS Behind Satellite Trails","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260427.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-27T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \nCan you find the comet?\n\nSomewhere through this web of satellite trails is Comet \nC/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS), a bright visitor passing \nthrough the inner \nSolar System.\n\nNow, the\norbiting satellites themselves only \nappear as streaks \nbecause of the long camera exposure, \nover 10 minutes in this case.\n\nOn the contrary, \nto the eye, satellites appear as points that \ndrift slowly across the night sky and shine by \nreflecting sunlight -- \nprimarily just after sunset and before sunrise. \n\nThe featured image was taken just before sunrise two weeks ago from \nBavaria, \nGermany. \n\nPresently, \nComet R3 PanSTARRS is hard to see for even another reason -- \nbecause it is so (angularly) close to the \nSun.\n\nAs the comet rounds the Sun, it will be \nbest seen in coming weeks from \nsouthern hemispheree skies, although then it will be \nheading out to interstellar space and fading.\n\nIf you haven't yet found the comet, \ndon't despair; please take a \ncloser look just above the image center.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"15887b947d78c5eb","title":"Mystic Mountain Monster being Destroyed","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260426.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-26T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"The
Explanation: \nInside the head of this interstellar monster is a star that is slowly destroying it. \n\nThe huge monster, actually an \ninanimate series of pillars of gas and dust, measures \nlight years in length. \n\nThe in-head star is not itself visible through the \nopaque \ninterstellar dust \nbut is bursting out partly by ejecting opposing beams of energetic particles called \nHerbig-Haro jets. \n\nLocated about 7,500 light years away in the \nCarina Nebula and known informally as \nMystic Mountain, the appearance of these pillars \nis dominated by dark dust even though they are composed mostly of clear \nhydrogen gas. \n\nThe featured image was taken with the \nHubble Space Telescope.\n\nAll over these pillars, the \nenergetic light and \nwinds from massive newly formed stars are \nevaporating and dispersing the dusty stellar nurseries in which they formed. \n\nWithin a few million years, the head of this giant, \nas well as most of its body, will have been \ncompletely evaporated by internal and surrounding stars.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"1753ee42f5c2c1f4","title":"The Persistence of Sunlight","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260425.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-25T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"See
Explanation: \n\nThis seaside\nsunset offered\na surreal experience, captured\nin a sea and skyscape from the west coast of\nSardinia, Italy, planet Earth.\n\nThe Daliesque scene\nis a composition\nof sequential exposures made with a camera and long telephoto lens.\n\nThe Sun is\nnot\nmelting, though.\n\nIts shifting and fluid appearance as it nears the\nhorizon is caused as refraction along the line of sight\nchanges and creates distorted images or\nmirages of the\nreddened solar disk.\n\nThe changes in atmospheric refraction correspond to\natmospheric layers\nwith sharply different temperatures and\ndensities.\n\nAnother famous but fleeting effect of atmospheric refraction produced\nby a long sight-line to the setting (or rising) Sun is\noften called the green flash.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"8a56fc705cd874ff","title":"Young Moon and Sister Stars","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260424.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-24T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"See
Explanation: \n\nSunlit arms of a\ncrescent moon\nseem to embrace the faint lunar\nnight side in this dramatic celestial view from planet Earth.\n\nThe single telephoto exposure tracking the sky was captured on\nthe night of April 19,\nwhen a two day old Moon was near perigee in its elliptical orbit.\n\nOn that date, the young Moon was also close on the sky to the lovely\nPleiades Star Cluster.\n\nWith the moonlight dimmed by clouds the Pleiades\nsister stars gather\nbelow the Moon's bright crescent, seen through a faint but colorful\nlunar corona.\n\nThe lunar night side is illuminated\nby earthshine,\nsunlight reflected from the Earth itself.\n\nThe Moon's ashen glow,\nalso known as the \"old moon in the young moon's arms,\"\ntends to be bright in the northern hemisphere spring.\n\nAnd for now, the Moon's orbit takes it near the\nPleiades\nstars each month in planet Earth's sky,\nthough their close conjunctions are easiest to\nsee when the Moon\nis near a crescent phase.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"c4c4d208d518749f","title":"Large Scale Structure of the Universe","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260423.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-23T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"The
Explanation: \n\nThis is a map of the universe.\n\nThe Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) at Kitt Peak National Observatory, Arizona, has finished its five-year survey.\n\nIt observed more than 47 million galaxies and quasars and created a 3D map centered on the Earth.\n\nToday's featured image shows a thin slice of these data: the black gaps indicate where our Galaxy obscures distant objects.\n\nThe feathery web in the inset shows the large scale structure of the universe.\n\nLight of the most distant galaxies shown here travelled for 11 billion years to reach the Earth.\n\nGalaxies cluster throughout cosmic history under the competing influences of gravity and dark energy, responsible for the accelerated expansion of the universe.\n\nAnalysis of early DESI results hinted at the possibility that dark energy, described as a cosmological constant by Albert Einstein, may not be constant after all.\n\nBut we still have to wait for the analysis of the now complete dataset.\n\nThe nature of dark energy is the biggest mystery of cosmology.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"2100c1efb2d14985","title":"Earthset with an iPhone","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260422.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-22T11:00:00+00:00","content":"
Explanation: \n\nWhat does it mean for \nthe Earth \nto set? Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman gave us \nanother spectacular view of Earth\nfrom their historic flyby of the Moon. \nCommander Wiseman's video, \ntaken with an iPhone at 8x zoom, shows our entire planet gradually blocked from view by the Moon. On the Earth, the 24-hour planetary rotation causes the Sun to set below your horizon every night. However, on Artemis II \nthe Earthset \nwas caused not by \nthe Moon’s rotation \nbut by the spacecraft moving behind the Moon (at about 55 seconds in \nthis video). \nOnce rare, views of Earth are now taken many times a day from many spacecraft, including NASA’s \nSWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) satellite \ntracking freshwater resources and \nUSGS Landsat 8 and 9 satellites \nsupporting water management for farmers, \nfor example. Space agencies around our home planet now work together to provide unique and ever-improving \nviews of our Earth.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"5613bc27b6133e50","title":"Three Sky Arches over Snowy Alps","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260421.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-21T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \nWhy are there three arches across the sky instead of two?\n\nLast month, after being \ndropped off by a helicopter at a \nhigh mountain peak in the \nAlps near the \nSwiss \nItalian border, \nan adventurous astrophotographer expected two arches of \nour Milky Way galaxy to be \nvisible during the night.\n\nThese were the inner arch looking in \ntoward the center of our galaxy on the left, \nvisible just before sunrise, and the \nouter arch on the \nright visible just after sunset. \n\nBut there were three arches.\n\nThe surprised \nastrophotographer soon realized that the sky was \nso dark that an \nentire arc of faint \nzodiacal light was also noticeable -- \nsunlight scattered by inner \nSolar System dust. \n\nAnd it artfully connected the two Milky Way arches! \n\nThe next morning a helicopter picked the astrophotographer back up, \nand after 40 hours of processing and combining that night's images, the \nfeatured triple-arch 360-degree panorama resulted.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"c54b6c3aaec66e8d","title":"Comet R3 PanSTARRS over a Himalayan Valley","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260420.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-20T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \nThe best way to see comet R3 PanSTARRS’s long tail is with a camera.\n\nThis week, the \nrecently brightened comet \nappears in northern skies to the east just before dawn, \nbut is only barely visible to the unaided eye.\n\nThe many-degree \nion tail captured on long duration camera exposures \nis not unusual for a comet - \nit is primarily due to the \nEarth's nearly sideways \nview of the tail as it points away from the Sun. \n\nIn the \nfeatured image taken last week, Comet \nC/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) showed off its flowing tail \nthrough a valley between two peaks in the \nHimalayan mountains of \nIndia.  \n\nThe comet passed its closest to \nthe Sun yesterday.\n\nAs it nears its closest approach to Earth next week, a \nbushy \ndust tail may become visible. \n\nThe comet is slowly moving out of northern skies \nand by the end of the month \nwill be visible after sunset \nin southern skies as it fades and \nleaves our \nSolar System. ","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"e49bd3d8d6533fbf","title":"Eye on the Milky Way","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260419.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-19T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"The
Explanation: \nHave you ever had \nstars in your eyes?\n\nIt appears that the eye on the left does, and moreover, it appears to be gazing at even more stars.\n\nThe \nfeatured 27-frame mosaic was taken in 2019 from \nOjas de Salar in the \nAtacama Desert of \nChile. \n\nThe eye is actually a small \nlagoon captured reflecting the \ndark night sky \nas the Milky Way Galaxy arched overhead.\n\nThe seemingly smooth band of the \nMilky Way is really composed of billions of stars, \nbut decorated with filaments of light-absorbing dust and \nred-glowing nebulas.\n\nAdditionally, both \nJupiter \n(slightly left the galactic arch) and \nSaturn \n(slightly to the right) are visible. \n\nThe lights of small towns dot the \nunusual vertical horizon. \n\nThe rocky terrain around the \nlagoon appears to some more like the surface of \nMars than our \nEarth.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"e86397c5764ca8b5","title":"PanSTARRS and Planets","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260418.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-18T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"See
Explanation: \n\nNear the eastern horizon before sunrise, Comet C/2025 R3\nPanSTARRS is getting brighter.\n\nReadily visible in binoculars and small telescopes,\nthe comet may be just on the verge of naked-eye visibility \nfrom dark sky sites.\n\nThough it was not quite apparent to the eye,\nPanSTARRS\nis still easy to spot in this camera image taken on April 16.\n\nIn the view\nfrom a volcanic peak overlooking France's Reunion Island, planet Earth,\nthe comet shares eastern predawn skies with\nnaked-eye planets Mars and Mercury\nand fainter Neptune.\n\nSaturn is hiding behind the low cloudbank that doesn't quite hide\nan old crescent Moon.\n\nThis is a good weekend\nfor northern hemisphere comet watchers to try to\ncatch PanSTARRS\nan hour or so before sunrise,\nas the comet grows brighter approaching its perihelion on\nApril 19.\n\nOn April 26 the comet makes its closest approach to our fair planet\nbut by then will be difficult to see in the solar glare.\n\nGood views\nof this comet PanSTARRS in late April and early May will be from\nthe southern hemisphere.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"2c8dc9e7adf3c646","title":"M82: Starburst Galaxy with a Superwind","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260417.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-17T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"See
Explanation: \n\nMessier 82 is a starburst galaxy\nwith a superwind.\n\nIn fact, through supernova explosions and\npowerful winds from massive stars,\nthe burst of star formation in M82\nis driving a prodigious outflow.\n\nEvidence for the\nsuperwind\nfrom the galaxy's central regions is clear in the\nsharp telescopic portrait.\n\nThe composite image includes 33 hours of narrowband data,\nhighlighting emission from\nlong outflow filaments of atomic hydrogen gas in reddish hues.\n\nSome of the gas in the superwind,\nenriched in heavy elements\nforged in the massive stars,\nwill eventually escape into\nintergalactic space.\n\nTriggered by a\nclose encounter with\nnearby large galaxy M81,\nthe furious burst of star formation in M82 should last about\n100 million years or so.\n\nAlso known as the Cigar Galaxy for its elongated visual appearance,\nM82 is about 30,000 light-years across.\n\nIt lies 12 million light-years away near the northern boundary of\nUrsa Major.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"bbf65d2ba181bfd8","title":"South Celestial Tree","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260416.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-16T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \n\nIf you live in the northern hemisphere, you may have learned how to locate the North Star, Polaris, in the night sky.\n\nIt can be used to find north, and it approximately marks the northern celestial pole.\n\nIf you live in the southern hemisphere, there is no bright star marking the southern celestial pole, but the Southern Cross can be used to find south.\n\nThe featured image was taken in Padre Bernardo (GO), Brazil.\n\nIt shows the apparent motion of the stars around the apparently empty southern celestial pole over 2 hours, on August 20, 2018.\n\nEach star takes about 24 hours to make a complete turn around the pole in the sky.\n\nPadre Bernardo is located in the Cerrado region, a tropical savanna that occupies most of central Brazil and supports rich biodiversity.\n\nThe barren branch that apparently supports this sky wheel of rotating stars is a common sight there in the dry season during the southern winter.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"90aa08c198192124","title":"The ISS Transits the Moon","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260415.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-15T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"The
Explanation: \nNope, that is not an alien spaceship landing on the Moon! This is an image of \nthe International Space Station \n(ISS) as it begins to transit in front of \nthe Moon. \nThe ISS is in \nlow-Earth orbit \n(LEO) where it wizzes around the Earth every 90 minutes. \nOrbiting the Earth 16 times per day\t\nfor 25 years, the ISS has photobombed many familiar celestial objects including \nVenus, \nMars, \nSaturn, and \nthe Sun. \nThousands of experiments \nled by researchers from over one hundred countries have been conducted on the ISS. \nGrowing protein crystals in low gravity was \none of the first \nexperiments onboard the ISS and continues to contribute to new medical treatments. ISS astronauts study plant growth, water recycling, human health, and more to \nsupport the Artemis missions \nwhich will take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before. Next time you are out and about at night, try to \nspot the ISS \nzooming across the sky!","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"cdfdb95de8d2fa6e","title":"The Long Wispy Tail of Comet R3 (PanSTARRS)","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260414.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-14T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \nWhy does Comet R3 (PanSTARRS) have a wispy tail? \n\nThe newest bright member of the inner Solar System, \nComet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) is already extending an \nimpressive stream of glowing gas.\n\nThis tail starts from an unseen \ncentral nucleus of dirty ice that is likely a few kilometers across.\n\nThe nucleus is warmed by the Sun and \nemits a cloud of neutral gas into a \ncoma that \nglows light green.\n\nNuclear gas ionized by \nenergetic sunlight is pushed away from the \nSun by the \nsolar wind into an ion tail that \nglows light blue. \n\nThe wispy nature of the \nion tail is caused by the \nconstantly changing structure of the solar wind. \n\nPictured from \nRhode Island, \nUSA two days ago, \nComet R3 (PanSTARRS) \nshows off a many-degree ion tail. \n\nComet R3 (PanSTARRS) is best seen before dawn from \nnorthern skies for another 10 days, after which it \nwill be best visible from southern skies.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"f7365c60bdd426cf","title":"NGC 602 and Beyond","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260413.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-13T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \nThe clouds may look like an oyster, and the stars like pearls, but look beyond.\n\nNear the outskirts of the\nSmall Magellanic Cloud,\na satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years distant,\nlies 5 million year young star cluster \nNGC 602.\n\nSurrounded by natal gas and dust,\nNGC 602 is featured in this\nstunning Hubble image of the region.\n\nFantastic ridges and swept\nback shapes strongly suggest that\nenergetic radiation and shock waves from \nNGC 602's \nmassive young stars have eroded the \ndusty material \nand triggered a progression of \nstar formation moving away from the cluster's center.\n\nAt the estimated distance of the \nSmall Magellanic Cloud, \nthe featured picture spans about 200 light-years, but\na tantalizing assortment of background galaxies are also visible in \nthis sharp \nmulti-colored view.\n\nThe background galaxies are hundreds of\nmillions of \nlight-years or more \nbeyond NGC 602.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"cf1017dee0d30a6b","title":"Comet R3 (PanSTARRS) Brightens","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260412.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-12T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \nComet R3 is brightening rapidly -- will it survive? \n\nC/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) has been slowly brightening and \nextending an \nion tail since its discovery last year. \n\nThis shedding mountain \nof dirty ice puts on its best sky show this month, \nthough, because it passes its closest to both the \nSun (April 19) and the \nEarth (April 25). \n\nThe \nfeatured image, showing R3 already sporting a \ntail extending over 10 degrees, \nwas taken two nights ago from \nSion, \nSwitzerland \nwith the big mountain \nBietschhorn on the left. \n\nComet R3 \nwill be visible during mid-April before sunrise.\n\nAlthough the future brightness of any comet is hard to predict, \nthe brightness of \nR3 makes it already a good \ncamera comet and it may become visible to the \nunaided eye in the next week. \n\nComet R3's physical future is also \nunknown because, like \nComet A1 (MAPS) earlier this month, it may \ndisintegrate when it passes its closest to the Sun. \n\nOr it may live to \nleave the Solar System.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"fc8b333739099af5","title":"Artemis II: Flight Day 6","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260411.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-11T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"See
Explanation: \n\nOn flight day 6\n(April 6) the Artemis II mission achieved a\nhistoric lunar flyby.\n\nRounding the lunar far side, the deep space maneuver marked\nhumanity's first venture to the Moon\nsince Apollo 17 in 1972.\n\nThe Orion spacecraft Integrity reached a maximum distance of nearly\n407,000 kilometers, and the\nArtemis II crew,\nReid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen,\nset the record for the farthest distance from Earth\ntraveled by any human since the\nApollo 13 crew in 1970.\n\nFrom behind the Moon on flight day 6, a solar array wing camera\nrecorded this space age selfie,\nframing the spacecraft and lunar far side.\n\nPlanet Earth, home to the Artemis II crew,\nis the small, bright crescent beyond the lunar limb.\n\nThe crew safely returned home on Artemis II mission\nflight day 10.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"4b624ca0d37963e9","title":"Exploring the Antennae","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260410.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-10T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"See
Explanation: \n\nSome 60 million light-years away in the southerly\nconstellation\nCorvus, two large galaxies are colliding.\n\nStars in the two galaxies, cataloged as\nNGC 4038 and\nNGC 4039,\nvery rarely collide in the course of the\nponderous cataclysm that lasts for hundreds of millions of years.\n\nBut the galaxies' large\nclouds of molecular gas and dust\noften do, triggering\nfurious episodes of star formation\nnear the center of the\ncosmic wreckage.\n\nSpanning over 50 thousand light-years, this\nstunning telescopic frame also reveals new star clusters and\nmatter flung far from the scene of the accident by\ngravitational tidal\nforces.\n\nThe remarkably\nsharp ground-based image \nfollows the faint tidal tails and distant background galaxies in the\nfield of view.\n\nThe suggestive overall visual appearance of the extended arcing\nstructures gives the galaxy pair, also known as Arp 244,\nits popular name -\nThe Antennae.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"d500fc8c97718062","title":"IC 4592: The Blue Horsehead Reflection Nebula","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260407.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-07T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \nDo you see the horse's head? \n\nWhat you are seeing is not the famous \nHorsehead nebula toward \nOrion, but \nrather a fainter nebula that only takes on a \nfamiliar form with deeper imaging. \n\nThe main part of the \nhere-imaged \nmolecular cloud complex is \nreflection nebula \nIC 4592. \n\nReflection nebulas are made up of very fine \ndust that normally appears dark but can \nlook quite blue when reflecting the \nvisible light \nof energetic nearby stars. \n\nIn this case, the source of much of the reflected light is a star \nat the eye of the \nhorse. \n\nThat star is part of \nNu Scorpii, \none of the brighter star systems toward the constellation of the Scorpion \n(Scorpius). \n\nA second \nreflection nebula dubbed \nIC 4601 is visible surrounding \ntwo stars just below the image center.\n \n The featured picture was taken from \n Sawda Natheel in \n Qatar.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"d69402d4a3a6b204","title":"NGC 3310: A Starburst Spiral Galaxy","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260405.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-05T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \nThe party is still going on in spiral galaxy NGC 3310. \n\nRoughly 100 million years ago, \nNGC 3310 likely \ncollided with a smaller galaxy \ncausing the large \nspiral galaxy \nto light up with a tremendous burst of \nstar formation. \n\nThe changing gravity during the collision created \ndensity waves that compressed existing \nclouds of gas and triggered the \nstar-forming party. \n\nThe featured image from the \nGemini North Telescope shows the galaxy in great detail, \ncolor-coded so that pink highlights gas \nwhile white and blue highlight stars. \n\nSome of the \nstar clusters \nin the galaxy are quite young, indicating that \nstarburst galaxies may remain in \nstar-burst mode for quite some time. \n\nNGC 3310 spans about 50,000 light years, lies about 50 million light years away, \nand is visible with a small telescope towards the constellation of Great Bear \nUrsa Major.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"1118267986b99c79","title":"Hello World","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260404.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-04T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"See
Explanation: \n\nFrom pole to pole\nour fair planet is captured in this snapshot from space,\nan evocative image from a window of the Orion spacecraft Integrity.\n\nFrom\nthe\nspacecraft's perspective\nthe Sun is moving behind Earth's bright limb along the lower right.\n\nAfrica and the Iberian peninsula are in view on the\npale blue planet's surface, while aurorae crown Earth's\nsouth and\nnorth\npoles at top right and bottom left.\n\nCommander Reid Wiseman took the\nhistoric picture on Artemis II\nmission flight day 2\n(April 2), after the completion of the\nplanned translunar injection burn.\n\nThat burn boosted the spacecraft\nout of Earth orbit, sending\nIntegrity and crew on a trajectory that will take them\naround the Moon and back again.\n\nThat's a journey\nhumans last made over\n50 years ago.\n\n(Editor's note: Venus is photobombing Wiseman's historic pic. Currently\nappearing in our western skies after sunset, the inner planet is\nin the frame below and right of Earth's bright limb,\nimmersed in a faint band of zodiacal light.)","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"7869a6adf9e33b15","title":"Caught in the Web: Visualization of a Black Hole Merger in the Tarantula Nebula","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260403.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-03T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"Illustration
Explanation: \n\nHow can we see what is invisible?\n\nBlack holes are not easy to see in the dark cosmic night, but astronomers can find them by analyzing their gravitational effects on matter, light and spacetime.\n\nThe featured image shows an illustration that combines a simulation of a black hole binary system in its final \"death-dance\" with an astrophotography image of the Tarantula Nebula in the background.\n\nEven though black holes don't emit light, they distort the path of light rays, acting like a gravitational lens.\n\nAs a result, the nebula appears extremely distorted, forming Einstein rings and multiple images. \n\nTarantula Nebula lies in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is one of the satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, 160,000 light-years away.\n\nThat is more than 1,000 times closer than any of the binary black hole mergers detected so far.\n\nWe'll probably never detect a merger so close to home!","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"8548b2fbef055a2a","title":"Liftoff! Returning to the Moon","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260402.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-02T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \n\n\nWe are one small step closer to returning to the Moon. A new chapter in human exploration began yesterday when NASA's Artemis II launched aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) from Kennedy Space Center. Carrying four astronauts, the Orion spacecraft's planned lunar flyby will be the first in\nover half a century. This historic test flight, echoing the legacy of Apollo while pushing beyond it, will carry its crew farther from Earth than any humans since 1972, looping around the Moon before returning home. During the approximately ten-day journey, Orion's systems--from life support to navigation--will be tested in deep space, while astronauts observe the lunar surface, including shadowed regions of the far side rarely seen with such perspective. After looping around the Moon, the astronauts will return to Earth, ending their journey with a Pacific Ocean splashdown.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"67b2822c5a978c63","title":"The Claw and Bubble Nebulae","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260401.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-04-01T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"Large
Explanation: \nWhat unexpected things do you see when you look up at the night sky? Today’s image resembles an \nabstract painting, \nwith large swaths of color strewn across a cosmic canvas seemingly without design. Despite the image's abstract nature, the \nhuman mind finds patterns, \nidentifying a large claw reaching up towards a floating bubble. Embedded within these seemingly random structures are the physical laws that govern \nhow light and matter interact. \nThe \nClaw \n(Sh2-157) and \nBubble \n(NGC 7635) \nNebulae glow \ncolors that are mapped \nto the yellow and blue shown, indicating the presence of hydrogen and oxygen \nionized by the intense light emitted from stars \nseveral times the mass of the Sun. This image depicts both the chaos and structure of astronomical processes, showing that a common thread between art and science is \nto look for the unexpected.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"f7668960747d75c3","title":"Uranus's Largest Moon: Titania","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260331.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-03-31T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \nTitania's tortured terrain is a mix of canyons, cliffs, and craters. \n\nNASA's interplanetary robot spacecraft \nVoyager 2 passed the largest moon of \nUranus in 1986 and took the \nfeature picture.\n\nThat the\ntrenches of Titania \nresemble those on another moon of Uranus, \nAriel, \nindicate that Titania underwent some violent surface \nevent possibly related to water \nfreezing and expanding in its distant past. \n\nAlthough Titania is Uranus's largest moon, \nit is only about half the radius of \nTriton - \nthe largest moon of Uranus's sister planet \nNeptune, \nwhich itself is \nslightly smaller than \nEarth's Moon. \n\nTitania, \ndiscovered by \nWilliam Herschel \nin 1787, is essentially a large dirty iceball \nthat is composed of about half water-ice and half rock. \n\nThere is recent \nspeculation that \nradioactive heating \nmelts some underground ice into oceans.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"e3f6ef7b596ff207","title":"Peculiar Elliptical Galaxy Centaurus A","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260330.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-03-30T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \nWhat's happened to the center of this galaxy? \n\nDramatic dust lanes run across the center of unusual elliptical galaxy \nCentaurus A.\n\nThese dust lanes are so thick they almost completely obscure the \ngalaxy's center in \nvisible light. \n\nThis is particularly unusual as \nCen A's \nolder stars and oval shape are characteristic of a giant \nelliptical galaxy, a galaxy type typically low in dark dust. \n\nPictured in \nthis deep image \nis a complex network of foreground gas and dust, as well as \nshells of dim stars and a \njet projecting to the upper right. \n\nAlso known as NGC 5128, \nCen A is surely the result of a \ngalactic collision where many young dust-creating stars were formed. \n\nHowever, details of the creation of Cen A's unusually \nactive center and iconic central dust lanes are still \nbeing researched. \n\nCen A lies only 13 million \nlight years away, making it the \nclosest active galaxy.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"4983bdcbb1b6840d","title":"A Message from Earth","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260329.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-03-29T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \nWhat are these Earthlings trying to tell us? \n\nThe featured message was broadcast from \nEarth \ntowards the globular star cluster \nM13 in 1974. \n\nDuring the dedication of an upgrade to the \nArecibo \nObservatory - \nthen the largest single radio telescope in the world - \na string of 1's and 0's representing the diagram was sent. \n\nThis attempt at \nextraterrestrial communication \nwas mostly ceremonial - humanity regularly \nbroadcasts radio and television signals out into space accidentally. \n\nEven were \nthis message \nreceived, M13 is so far away we would \nhave to wait almost 50,000 years to hear an answer. \n\nThe featured message gives a few simple facts about humanity and its knowledge: \nfrom left to right are numbers from one to ten, atoms including \nhydrogen and \ncarbon, \nsome interesting molecules, \nDNA, a human with description, basics of our \nSolar System, \nand basics of the sending telescope. \n\nSeveral \nsearches for extraterrestrial intelligence are currently underway.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"bd570b1fb09c13bd","title":"Robert Goddard and Nell","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260328.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-03-28T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"See
Explanation: \n\nRobert H. Goddard,\nconsidered the father of modern rocketry, was born in\nWorcester Massachusetts in 1882.\n\nAs a 16 year old, Goddard read H.G. Wells' science fiction classic\n\"War Of The Worlds\"\nand dreamed of space flight.\n\nBy 1926\nhe had designed, built, and flown the world's first liquid fuel rocket.\n\nLaunched 100 years ago\non March 16, 1926 from his aunt Effie's\nfarm in Auburn Massachusetts,\nthe rocket, dubbed \"Nell,\" rose to an\naltitude of 41 feet in a flight that lasted about 2 1/2 seconds.\n\nIn\nthis posed photo,\nGoddard stands next to the 10 foot tall rocket, holding\nthe launch stand frame.\n\nTo achieve a stable flight without the need for fins, the rocket's heavy\nmotor was located at the top, fed by lines from\nliquid oxygen and gasoline fuel tanks at the bottom.\n\nWidely recognized as a\ngifted experimenter\nand\nengineering genius,\nhis\nrockets were many years ahead\nof their time.\n\nGoddard was awarded over 200 patents in rocket technology,\nmost of them after his death in 1945.\n\nA liquid fuel rocket constructed on principles\ndeveloped by Goddard landed humans on\nthe Moon in 1969.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"259eada8bb067e56","title":"Hickson 44 in Leo","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260327.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-03-27T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"See
Explanation: \n\nScanning the skies for galaxies, Canadian astronomer\nPaul Hickson and colleagues identified some 100 compact\ngroups of galaxies,\nnow appropriately called\nHickson Compact Groups.\n\nThe four prominent galaxies seen in this intriguing\ntelescopic skyscape\nare one such group, Hickson 44.\n\nThe Hickson 44 galaxy group is about 100 million light-years distant,\nfar beyond the foreground Milky Way stars,\ntoward the northern springtime constellation Leo.\n\nThe two spiral galaxies\nin the center of the image are edge-on NGC 3190 with distinctive,\nwarped dust lanes, and S-shaped NGC 3187.\n\nAlong with the bright elliptical, NGC 3193 (left)\nthey are also known as Arp 316.\n\nThe spiral toward the lower right corner is NGC 3185,\nthe 4th member of the Hickson group.\n\nLike other galaxies in\nHickson groups,\nthese show signs of distortion and\nenhanced star formation,\nevidence of a gravitational tug of war that will eventually result in\ngalaxy mergers on a cosmic timescale.\n\nThe merger process is\nnow understood to be a normal part of the evolution of\ngalaxies, including our own Milky Way.\n\nFor scale, NGC 3190\nis about 75,000 light-years across at the estimated\ndistance of Hickson 44.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"4ac4b2d44ec62816","title":"Black Holes and Neutron Stars: 218 Mergers and Counting","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260326.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-03-26T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"218
Explanation: \nWhat is the sound of two black holes merging in deep space?\n\nSound waves don't propagate in vacuum, but gravitational waves do.\n\nIn 2015 we were able to \"hear\" them for the first time and confirm one of Albert Einstein's theoretical predictions.\n\nEach square on the grid of the featured image represents one of the gravitational wave detections announced so far by the LIGO-VIRGO-KAGRA Collaboration.\n\nThese plots show how the binary pair accelerates in their orbit around each other towards merger: the rising frequency effect is called a \"chirp\".\n\nAlthough there are significantly more neutron stars than black holes, most of the detections are binary black hole mergers.\n\nThat happens because black holes are heavier and their signals are louder and can be seen farther away, resulting in more detections.\n\nThese events are rare, and we don't expect to see one close by in our Galaxy any time soon.\n\nBut they are happening continuously throughout the cosmos.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"4f1fc551bc0cc901","title":"The Guardians of Rapa Nui beneath the Milky Way","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260325.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-03-25T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"The
Explanation: \nIn the words of today's astrophotographer, Rositsa Dimitrova, \"What have these silent sentinels watched\npass across the sky?\" The volcanic \nmo'ai \n(meaning statue) of \nAhu Tongariki \nstand guard over \nRapa Nui \n(Isla de Pascua, Easter Island), \na Polynesian island \n(annexed by Chile in 1888) located thousands of kilometers off the coast of South America in the Pacific Ocean. Due to the island's remoteness, \nthe mo'ai, \nwith their backs to the dark ocean, are able to gaze upon a clear and vibrant night sky. \nPictured, \nthese \nlarger-than-life statues \nstare at the bright band of \nthe Milky Way, \npartly obscured by \ninterstellar dust \nand blurred by Earth's clouds. Under such clear night skies, the Rapa Nui created observatories and used astronomical observations for \nnavigation, calendar calibration, celebrations, and more. \nImages like this one remind us of \nthe importance of dark skies, \nprotecting the land underneath them, and \npreserving the culture \nthat they inspire.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"7ec2ff810fee87a5","title":"Light Pillars and Orion over Mohe","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260323.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-03-23T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \nWhat's happening at the end of that street? \n\nPictured here are not \nauroras but \nlight pillars, a phenomenon typically much closer. \n\nIn most places on \nEarth, a lucky viewer can see a \nSun pillar, \na column of light appearing to extend up from the \nSun \ncaused by flat fluttering \nice-crystals reflecting sunlight from the \nupper atmosphere. \n\nUsually, these ice \ncrystals \nevaporate before reaching the ground. \n\nDuring freezing temperatures, however, \nflat \nfluttering \nice crystals may form near the ground and are sometimes known as a \ncrystal fog. \n\nThese small ice crystals may then reflect not the Sun but \nground lights. \n\nThe featured image captured not only \nnumerous light pillars but also the iconic \nconstellation of Orion, and was taken in \nMohe, the northernmost city in \nChina.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"753f80808329137c","title":"Galaxies in the River: NGC 1300 and NGC 1297","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260321.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-03-21T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"See
Explanation: \n\nSpiral NGC 1300 and elliptical NGC 1297 are galaxies that\nlie on the banks of the southern constellation\nEridanus (The River).\n\nAt 70 million light-years distant or more,\nboth are members of the\nEridanus Galaxy Cluster.\n\nAbout 100,000 light-years across, at lower left in this sharp,\ngalaxy group photo\nNGC 1300 is seen face-on\nwith a prominent central bar and grand, sweeping spiral arms.\n\nLike other\nspiral galaxies,\nincluding our own barred spiral Milky Way Galaxy, NGC 1300 is\nthought to have a supermassive central black hole.\n\nA contrast in appearance and slightly more distant, NGC 1297 is\nthe roughly spherical large\nelliptical galaxy near the top of the frame.\n\nWith little active star formation,\nelliptical galaxies\nare composed of older populations of stars and are likely \nhe result of multiple\ncollisions and mergers with spirals.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"e752fcfa36003742","title":"Spring Equinox at Teide Observatory","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260320.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-03-20T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"See
Explanation: \n\nThe defining astronomical moment\nof the equinox today is at 14:46 UTC (March 20).\n\nThat's when the Sun\ncrosses the celestial equator moving north\nin its yearly journey through planet Earth's sky, marking\nthe beginning of spring for our fair planet in the northern\nhemisphere and fall in the southern hemisphere. \n\nThen, day and night are nearly equal\naround the globe.\n\nIn fact, both day and nighttime exposures from a spring equinox at the\nObservatorio del Teide\nin Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, are used in this composited skyscape.\n\nOver 1,000 images were taken with a fisheye lens and merged\nin the ambitious equinox project.\n\nThe apparent motion of the Sun setting along the celestial equator on\nthe equinox date follows the bright linear, diagonal track from\nthe sequence of daytime exposures taken over 6 hours.\n\nAfter sunset, nighttime exposures recorded startrails,\nwith the\ncelestial equator as a linear track and concentric\narcs circling the north celestial pole near Polaris at upper\nright and the south celestial pole beyond the lower left edge\n(and below the Teide horizon).\n\nThe foreground includes the distant\nTeide volcano peak\nand the\nobservatory's pyramid-shaped solar laboratory building.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"170f2a5f3306af8f","title":"Launch Plume: SpaceX Jellyfish","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260319.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-03-19T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \nEven if you live with your head in the clouds, you won’t find a jellyfish like this one very often.\n\nThe featured image shows a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida on March 4.\n\nThe launch happened 52 minutes before sunrise, and the second stage rocket exhaust plume was high enough in the sky to catch the light of the rising sun, while the photographer was still in the dark.\n\nThis combination of light and shadow, possible at dawn or dusk, makes the exhaust, mostly water vapor and carbon dioxide, appear as a glowing cloud.\n\nIt only looks like it's going down, as the rocket follows the curvature of the Earth on its way to space.\n\nA related effect is the twilight phenomenon, which causes colorful contrails sometimes mistaken for UFOs.\n\nBut, in case you are wondering: real jellyfish were sent to space by NASA in the 1990s as part of a science experiment.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"19d2d1297f143b31","title":"Cygnus and the Solitary Tree","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260318.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-03-18T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"Clouds
Explanation: \n\nA lone tree stands in a quiet meadow in \nGuadalajara, Spain,\nsilhouetted against \nthe Cygnus region \nrising above like flames in the night sky. \n\nThis deep night skyscape is a composite of exposures that reveals a range of brightness and color human eyes can't quite see on their own.\n\nSpanning over a thousand times the \nangular size \nof the full moon, \nCygnus\nsets the sky afire with \nactive star formation\nwhere clouds of gas and dust collapse under gravity until \nnuclear fusion \nignites and new stars are born.\n\nThese stars \nionize \nthe surrounding hydrogen gas, causing it to\nglow crimson, \nwhile tendrils of \ninterstellar dust \nabsorb some of that light and cast dark shadows across the sky.\n\nCygnus is a trove of celestial treasures, notably the \nVeil, \nCrescent, and \nPelican nebulae, \nas well as \nCygnus X-1, \nthe first confirmed \nblack hole. \n\nCygnus continues to yield fresh science, including \na new three-dimensional model \nof the \nCygnus Loop \nmade possible by \nthe Chandra X-ray Observatory.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"59506b5fea236fcc","title":"The Tadpoles of IC 410","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260317.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-03-17T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"See
Explanation: \n\nThis telescopic close-up\nshows off the central regions of\notherwise faint emission nebula IC 410,\ncaptured under backyard skies.\n\nPresented\nin a Hubble color palette,\nthe image combines visible broadband and narrowband data\nwith data from the near-infrared.\n\nBelow and right of center\nare two remarkable inhabitants of the interstellar pond of gas and dust.\nthe Tadpoles of IC 410.\n\nPartly obscured by foreground dust, the nebula itself surrounds\nNGC 1893, a young\ngalactic cluster of stars.\n\nFormed in the interstellar cloud a mere 4 million years ago, the\nintensely hot, bright\ncluster stars energize the glowing gas.\n\nBut the cosmic tadpoles themselves are\ncomposed of denser cooler gas and dust.\n\nAround 10 light-years long they are likely sites of ongoing \nstar formation.\n\nSculpted by stellar winds and radiation their heads are outlined by\nbright ridges of ionized gas\nwhile their tails trail away from the cluster's central young stars.\n\nIC 410 lies some 10,000 light-years away,\ntoward the nebula-rich constellation Auriga.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}},{"id":"62f0b8f36e37796f","title":"NGC 1566: The Spanish Dancer Galaxy","link":"https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260316.html","author":"Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)","published_at":"2026-03-16T11:00:00+00:00","content":"\"A
Explanation: \nIf not perfect, then this\nspiral galaxy \nis at least one of the most photogenic.\n\nAn island universe containing billions of stars and \nsituated about 40 million light-years away toward the \nconstellation of the Dolphinfish \n(Dorado),\nNGC 1566 presents\na gorgeous face-on view.\n\nClassified as a \ngrand design spiral, \nNGC 1566 shows two prominent and graceful spiral\narms that are traced by bright blue\nstar clusters, \nred emission nebulas, \nand dark cosmic dust lanes.\n\nNumerous Hubble Space Telescope images of \nNGC 1566 \nhave been taken to study star formation, \nsupernovas, \nand the spiral's \nunusually active center.\n\nNGC 1566's flaring center makes the spiral one of the closest and brightest \nSeyfert galaxies, likely housing a central \nsupermassive black hole wreaking havoc on \nsurrounding stars and gas.","metadata":{"score":null,"source_feed_id":"nasa-apod","source_feed_type":"rss"}}]