Astronomy Picture of the Day

The sky is filled with breathtaking pictures, many of which are available on the World Wide Web. Each day we feature a different picture of some part of our fascinating universe, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.


Today's Picture: June 21, 1995
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download 
 the highest resolution version available.
The Aftermath of the Great Supernova in 1987
Picture Credit: Hubble Space Telescope

Explanation: In 1987 a star in one of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies exploded. In 1994 the Hubble Space Telescope, in orbit around the earth, took a very detailed picture of the remnants of this explosion. This picture, above, showed unusual and unexpected rings, and astronomers are not sure how they formed.

For more information see HST press release.


We keep an archive of previous Astronomy Pictures of the Day.
Astronomy Picture of the Day is brought to you by Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell . Original material on this page is copyrighted to Robert J. Nemiroff and Jerry T. Bonnell.