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Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD)
APOD: 2026 April 18 Б PanSTARRS and Planets
17.04.2026
Near the eastern horizon before sunrise, Comet C/2025 R3 PanSTARRS is getting brighter. Readily visible in binoculars and small telescopes, the comet may be just on the verge of naked-eye visibility from dark sky sites.
APOD: 2026 April 17 Б M82: Starburst Galaxy with a Superwind
16.04.2026
Messier 82 is a starburst galaxy with a superwind. In fact, through supernova explosions and powerful winds from massive stars, the burst of star formation in M82 is driving a prodigious outflow. Evidence for the superwind from the galaxy's central regions is clear in the sharp telescopic portrait.
APOD: 2026 April 16 Б South Celestial Tree
15.04.2026
If you live in the northern hemisphere, you may have learned how to locate the North Star, Polaris, in the night sky. It can be used to find north, and it approximately marks the northern celestial pole.
APOD: 2026 April 15 Б The ISS Transits the Moon
14.04.2026
Nope, that is not an alien spaceship landing on the Moon! This is an image of the International Space Station (ISS) as it begins to transit in front of the Moon. The ISS is in low-Earth orbit (LEO) where it wizzes around the Earth every 90 minutes.
APOD: 2026 April 14 Б The Long Wispy Tail of Comet R3 (PanSTARRS)
13.04.2026
Why does Comet R3 (PanSTARRS) have a wispy tail? The newest bright member of the inner Solar System, Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) is already extending an impressive stream of glowing gas. This tail starts from an unseen central nucleus of dirty ice that is likely a few kilometers across.
APOD: 2026 April 13 Б NGC 602 and Beyond
12.04.2026
The clouds may look like an oyster, and the stars like pearls, but look beyond. Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years distant, lies 5 million year young star cluster NGC 602.
APOD: 2026 April 12 Б Comet R3 PanSTARRS Brightens
11.04.2026
Comet R3 is brightening rapidly -- will it survive? C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) has been slowly brightening and extending an ion tail since its discovery last year. This shedding mountain of dirty ice puts...
APOD: 2026 April 11 Б Artemis II: Flight Day 6
10.04.2026
On flight day 6 (April 6) the Artemis II mission achieved a historic lunar flyby. Rounding the lunar far side, the deep space maneuver marked humanity's first venture to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.
APOD: 2026 April 10 Б Exploring the Antennae
9.04.2026
Some 60 million light-years away in the southerly constellation Corvus, two large galaxies are colliding. Stars in the two galaxies, cataloged as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, very rarely collide in the course of the ponderous cataclysm that lasts for hundreds of millions of years.
APOD: 2026 April 7 Б IC 4592: The Blue Horsehead Reflection Nebula
6.04.2026
Do you see the horse's head? What you are seeing is not the famous Horsehead nebula toward Orion, but rather a fainter nebula that only takes on a familiar form with deeper imaging. The main part of the here-imaged molecular cloud complex is reflection nebula IC 4592.
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