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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 7d

🔭 NGC 6960: The Witch's Broom Nebula

Image Credit & Copyright: Brian Meyers

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25100...

A starfield is shown that has a multi-filament nebula flowing across it horizontally. The most prominent colors are red and blue. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

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Reposted by Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐

Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 8d

🔭 Comet Lemmon Brightens

Image Credit & Copyright: Victor Sabet & Julien De Winter

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25093...

A starfield is shown that has a bright comet. The comet shows a green head on the lower left and an ion tail with significant structure extending out to the upper right. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 9d

🔭 Two Camera Comets in One Sky

Image Credit & Copyright: Luc Perrot (TWAN)

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25092...

A starfield is shown that has two short streaks running diagonally. At closer inspection, they are two comets both with white-green heads and white tails. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 10d

🔭 Leopard Spots on Martian Rocks

Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS, Perseverance Rover

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25092...

Part of a large rock on Mars is shown being mostly orange. On the rock are several irregular light-colored areas surrounded by a dark border. The spots are only millimeters across but might be a remnant biosignature of ancient Martian life. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 7d

actually spans about 35 light-years. The bright star in the frame is 52 Cygni, visible with the unaided eye from a dark location but unrelated to the ancient supernova remnant.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 7d

with narrow band filters, the glowing filaments are like long ripples in a sheet seen almost edge on, remarkably well separated into atomic hydrogen (red) and oxygen (blue-green) gas. The complete supernova remnant lies about 1400 light-years away towards the constellation Cygnus. This Witch's Broom

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 7d

This sharp telescopic view is centered on a western segment of the Veil Nebula cataloged as NGC 6960 but less formally known as the Witch's Broom Nebula. Blasted out in the cataclysmic explosion, an interstellar shock wave plows through space sweeping up and exciting interstellar material. Imaged

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 7d

Ten thousand years ago, before the dawn of recorded human history, a new light would suddenly have appeared in the night sky and faded after a few weeks. Today we know this light was from a supernova, or exploding star, and record the expanding debris cloud as the Veil Nebula, a supernova remnant.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 7d

🔭 NGC 6960: The Witch's Broom Nebula

Image Credit & Copyright: Brian Meyers

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25100...

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Reposted by Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐

Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 11d

🔭 A Rocket in the Sun

Image Credit & Copyright: Pascal Fouquet

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25092...

On the morning of September 24 a rocket crosses the bright solar disk in this long range telescopic snapshot captured from Orlando, Florida. That's about 50 miles north of its Kennedy Space Center launch site. This rocket carried three new space weather missions to space. Signals have now been successfully acquired from all three - NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, NASA’s Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Follow-On Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) - as they begin their journey to L1, an Earth-Sun lagrange point. L1 is about 1.5 million kilometers in the sunward direction from planet Earth. Appropriately, major space weather influencers, aka dark sunspots in active regions across the Sun, are posing with the transiting rocket. In fact, large active region AR4225 is just right of the rocket's nose.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 8d

unaided eye. The comet should be best seen in predawn skies until mid-October, when it also becomes visible in evening skies. The featured image showing the comet's split and rapidly changing ion tail was taken in Texas, USA late last week.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 8d

Solar System. The comet will round the Sun on November 8, but first it will pass its nearest to the Earth -- at about half the Earth-Sun distance -- on October 21. Although the brightnesses of comets are notoriously hard to predict, optimistic estimates have Comet Lemmon then becoming visible to the

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 8d

Comet Lemmon is brightening and moving into morning northern skies. Besides Comet SWAN25B and Comet ATLAS, Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) is now the third comet currently visible with binoculars and on long camera exposures. Comet Lemmon was discovered early this year and is still headed into the inner

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 8d

🔭 Comet Lemmon Brightens

Image Credit & Copyright: Victor Sabet & Julien De Winter

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25093...

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 16d

🔭 Equinox at Saturn

Image Credit & Copyright: Imran Sultan

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25092...

The planet Saturn is pictured 6 times in a horizonal column, labelled by years with 2020 at the top and 2025 at the bottom. As the years progress, Saturn's ring appear less prominent. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 17d

🔭 Equinox Sunset

Image Credit: Luca Vanzella

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25092...

A city skyline is shown behind some hills and a river. The path of the Sun is shown for several times during a year. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 9d

when optimistic estimates have it becoming bright enough to see with the unaided eye. Each comet has a greenish coma of expelled gas and an ion tail pointing away from the Sun.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 9d

reach its closest approach in early October when it is also expected to be its brightest -- although still only likely visible with long exposures on a camera. The brighter comet, nicknamed SWAN25B, is now headed away from our Sun, although its closest approach to Earth is expected in mid-October,

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 9d

It may look like these comets are racing, but they are not. Comets C/2025 K1 ATLAS (left) and C/2025 R2 SWAN (right) appeared near each other by chance last week in the featured image taken from France's Reunion Island in the southern Indian Ocean. Fainter Comet ATLAS is approaching our Sun and will

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 9d

🔭 Two Camera Comets in One Sky

Image Credit & Copyright: Luc Perrot (TWAN)

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25092...

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 18d

🔭 Gibbous vs Crescent

Image Credit & Copyright: Luca Bartek

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25092...

Early risers around planet Earth have enjoyed a shining crescent Moon near brilliant Venus, close to the eastern horizon in recent morning twilight skies. And yesterday, on September 19, skygazers watching from some locations in Earth's northern hemisphere were also able to witness Venus, in the inner planet's waxing gibbous phase, pass behind the Moon's waning crescent. In fact, this telescopic snapshot was taken moments before that occultation of gibbous Venus by the crescent Moon began. The close-up view of the beautiful celestial alignment records Venus approaching part of the Moon's sunlit edge in clear daytime skies from the Swiss Alps. Tomorrow, the Sun will pass behind a New Moon. But to witness that partial solar eclipse on September 21, skygazers will need to watch from locations in planet Earth's southern hemisphere.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 10d

chemical reactions that turned rock from red to white while leaving a dark biosignature ring, like some similarly appearing spots on Earth rocks. Although other non-biological explanations have not been ruled out, speculation focusing on this potential biological origin is causing much intrigue.

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 10d

curious patterns are being studied with the possibility they were created by ancient Martian life. The pictured spots measure only millimeters across and were discovered on a larger rock named Cheyava Falls. The exciting but unproven speculation is that long ago, microbes generated energy with

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 10d

What is creating these unusual spots? Light-colored spots on Martian rocks, each surrounded by a dark border, were discovered last year by NASA's Perseverance Rover currently exploring Mars. Dubbed leopard spots because of their seemingly similarity to markings on famous Earth-bound predators, these

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Astronomy Picture of the Day 🪐 @apod.shinyakato.dev · 10d

🔭 Leopard Spots on Martian Rocks

Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS, Perseverance Rover

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25092...

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