a collection of things

Gorinchem, Nederland - 2026

(by Zoshua Colah)

(by Zoshua Colah)

ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAY December 16, 2025 What’s happening over that tree? Two very different things. On the left is the Andromeda galaxy, an object that is older than humanity and will last billions of years into the future. Andromeda (M31) is similar in size and shape to our own Milky Way Galaxy. On the right is a red sprite, a type of lightning that lasts a fraction of a second and occurs above violent thunderstorms. Red sprites were verified as real atmospheric phenomena only about 35 years ago. The tree in the center is a boab, which may live for as long as a thousand years. Boab trees grow naturally in Australia and Africa and are known for being able to store large amounts of water: up to 100,000 liters. The featured image was captured last month near Derby in Western Australia. Image: https://ift.tt/I7vibpf via NASA https://ift.tt/8F32eRP APOD --> https://ift.tt/iZ4DJrL

NGC 6188, Dragons of Ara

ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAY November 17, 2025 What has happened to Comet Lemmon's tail? The answer is blowing in the wind — the wind from the Sun in this case. This continuous outflow of charged particles from the Sun has been quite variable of late, as the Sun emits bursts of energy, CMEs, that push out and deflect charged particles emitted by the comet itself. The result is a blue hued ion tail for Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) that is not only impressively intricate but takes some unusual turns. This long-duration composite image taken from Alfacar, Spain last month captured this inner Solar System ionic tumult. Comet Lemmon is now fading as it heads out away from the Earth and Sun and back into the outer Solar System. Image: https://ift.tt/KAB1kVJ via NASA https://ift.tt/GFZwf1A APOD --> https://ift.tt/J38mntE

NGC 6188, Dragons of Ara