Astronomy Picture of the Day

LD stands for Lunar Distance – the average distance between Earth and the Moon (~384 000 km). An asteroid at “0.8 LD” will pass 20 % closer than the Moon.

Scroll to the ISS card (coming soon). If you allow location access, it shows the next time (local) the ISS rises > 10° above the horizon. Go outside a few minutes early and look in the direction shown – the ISS looks like a fast, bright star.

Mars is windy! Dust can stick to the camera lens cover. Engineers periodically clean it or use image processing to enhance clarity.

APOD is hand‑picked daily by astrophysicists. Click on the caption to open the full NASA page and learn the science behind the image.

CME = Coronal Mass Ejection (huge plasma blob from the Sun). SEP = Solar Energetic Particles (high‑speed proton storm). FLR = solar FLaRe. These are the main space‑weather alerts you’ll see in the Live Feed.

The numbers get huge in kilometres! Using lunar‑distance (LD) makes it easier to imagine: 1 LD ≈ 384 000 km (Earth → Moon). An asteroid at 0.5 LD passes halfway between Earth and the Moon.

No. APOD is a single hand‑picked image (or video) chosen daily by astronomers. The Gallery section pulls the latest uploads from NASA’s public image & video library – it changes every few minutes.

If a thumbnail opens a .mp4 or YouTube link, your browser will play it. For bigger files you might see a folder view – click the file that ends with “~orig.mp4” to stream or download.

The DSCOVR/EPIC camera takes a full‑disk image of Earth about every two hours when the spacecraft has daylight. The site shows the latest daylight capture; it can lag during orbital night or calibration periods.