StellarSnap
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StellarSnap
@stellarsnap.bsky.social
31 followers 13 following 82 posts
Exploring the universe through science, images, and timeless curiosity.
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A glowing green meteor flashes across the sky — right in front of the Andromeda Galaxy. 💫
Captured in 2016 near the Perseids peak, it may actually be from the Delta Aquariids.

📷 Fritz Helmut Hemmerich

#Meteor #Andromeda #DeltaAquariids #StellarSnap
A vivid green meteor streaks diagonally across the night sky in front of the Andromeda Galaxy. The meteor appears bright and flared, with a glowing trail, while the soft, spiral structure of Andromeda looms in the background. Countless stars fill the scene.
August 6, 2025 at 7:42 PM
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A star like our Sun died—but it didn’t go quietly. 🌌
NGC 6072, a complex planetary nebula, formed through multiple violent outbursts in a multi-star system. Webb's infrared eyes reveal its chaotic beauty in detail.

📷 NASA / ESA / CSA / JWST

#NGC6072 #JWST #PlanetaryNebula #StellarSnap
A richly detailed infrared image of planetary nebula NGC 6072, taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. Glowing red gas forms an intricate, layered structure with arcs, filaments, and overlapping loops. The central region appears brighter, with complex textures and hints of symmetry distorted by past stellar outflows. The reddish hue indicates cool hydrogen gas, while subtle variations in brightness reveal the nebula’s depth and density.
August 5, 2025 at 10:12 PM
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A ghostly nebula stretches toward the Andromeda Galaxy.

Discovered in 2022, these faint blue arcs aren’t distant, they’re part of our Milky Way. Called SDSO 1, they mark a new class of fading planetary nebulas.

📷 Patrick Ogle et al.

#SDSO1 #GhostNebula #Andromeda #StellarSnap
A widefield astrophotograph showing the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) on the left and faint blue arcs stretching toward the right. The arcs, part of a structure called SDSO 1, are ghostly and curved, resembling wispy loops or filaments. A red hydrogen trail subtly frames the scene. Countless stars fill the background, creating a rich galactic field.
August 4, 2025 at 6:39 PM
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Near a black hole like Sagittarius A*, time literally bends.

Two clocks — one on Earth, one near the event horizon.

Watch time dilation in action.

Try it here: stellarsnap.space

#TimeDilation #BlackHole #Relativity #SpaceTime #StellarSnap
August 2, 2025 at 4:00 PM
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A dark shape drifts in a sea of stars.

This tiny wedge of gas and dust, called a Bok globule, floats inside the Eagle Nebula. One day, it may collapse to form a star.
📷 Peter Bresseler
#Nebula #BokGlobule #EagleNebula #Astrophotography #SpacePhotography #Cosmos #StellarSnap
A small, dark, wedge-shaped cloud stands out against the glowing background of the Eagle Nebula. The nebula is filled with reddish and orange gas, scattered stars, and diffuse light. The dark cloud, known as a Bok globule, appears dense and opaque, obscuring the stars behind it.
August 1, 2025 at 2:50 PM
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A star exploded 50 million years ago. We just saw it. 💥
Supernova 2025rbs, a Type Ia in galaxy NGC 7331, was detected on July 14 and is now the brightest supernova in Earth's sky. It likely came from a white dwarf’s thermonuclear blast.

📷 Ben Godson

#Supernova2025rbs #NGC7331 #StellarSnap
A bright, star-filled image showing the spiral galaxy NGC 7331, tilted slightly and glowing with soft blue light. Near its dusty lanes and spiral arms, a bright white dot marks the supernova 2025rbs. The foreground is dotted with faint stars from our own Milky Way.
July 31, 2025 at 6:40 PM
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Coronal loops rise from the Sun like arcs of fire. ☀️
Shaped by magnetic fields, these plasma structures can last for days — and some are large enough to surround Earth.

Captured in hydrogen-alpha light from Italy, this panel shows four loops from 2024–2025.

📷 Andrea Vanoni

#Sun #CoronalLoops
A composite panel showing four close-up images of the Sun’s edge, each featuring bright, arching loops of solar plasma extending above the solar surface. The loops appear in deep red due to hydrogen-alpha imaging. Each prominence arcs gracefully, anchored at both ends on the Sun’s limb. The background is black, which emphasizes the glowing red structures and fine details of solar activity.
July 30, 2025 at 8:37 PM
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The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) looks like a cosmic eye. 👁️
It's a planetary nebula — glowing gas from a dying star. Captured over 12 hours from Greece, this image reveals hydrogen-rich filaments and dense gas knots near the core.

📷 George Chatzifrantzis

#HelixNebula #NGC7293 #StellarSnap
A highly detailed image of the Helix Nebula, appearing as a glowing, circular structure with layers of red, pink, and blue gas. The nebula resembles a giant eye set against a dark background filled with faint stars. Its inner region shows knots of dense gas and dust, while faint outer loops extend outward. The colors highlight hydrogen emission captured over a 12-hour exposure using a personal telescope in Greece.
July 29, 2025 at 8:02 PM
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A lightning bolt erupts from antennas atop Volcán de Agua in Guatemala. ⚡
Formed by charge build-up in storm clouds, lightning can heat air to over 30,000°C — hotter than the Sun’s surface.

📷 Sergio Montúfar

#Lightning #VolcanoOfWater #Guatemala #StormPhotography #StellarSnap
A dramatic night scene showing a jagged bolt of lightning striking from storm clouds down to the peak of Volcán de Agua in Guatemala. The bolt appears to originate from antennas on the volcano’s summit. The sky is dark and filled with heavy clouds, briefly illuminated by the intense white flash. The silhouette of the volcano is visible beneath the storm, creating a powerful contrast between Earth and sky.
July 27, 2025 at 5:18 PM
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Ten million stars. One massive cluster. ✨
Omega Centauri is the largest globular cluster in the Milky Way, 15,000 light-years away. Its stars vary in age and chemistry — a clue that it may be the core of a swallowed dwarf galaxy.

📷 SkyFlux Team
🛠️ Processing: Leo Shatz

#OmegaCentauri #NGC5139
A dense, spherical cluster of stars fills the center of the image, glowing with a golden hue. Countless individual stars are packed tightly together, especially toward the core, creating a bright, concentrated center that gradually fades outward. Some red giant stars with warmer colors stand out among the cooler, bluish ones. The black background of space is scattered with additional faint stars. The image captures the vast population and structure of Omega Centauri in sharp detail.
July 26, 2025 at 7:25 PM
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Most people chase the Perseids. But this?
Twelve years of patient captures from the faint Kappa Cygnid meteor shower — just a few meteors per hour — stacked into one stunning sky above Crete.

📷 Horálek, Kujal, Slovinský
🙏 Mahdi Zamani

#KappaCygnids #MeteorShower #Astrophotography #StellarSnap
A breathtaking composite night sky image showing dozens of bright meteors streaking across the Milky Way above a calm sea. The meteors appear to radiate from the area near the star Kappa Cygni. The foreground shows the dark silhouette of Elafonisi Beach in Crete, Greece, while the Milky Way arches overhead with vibrant detail. The image combines exposures from 51 August nights across 12 years, highlighting the long-term beauty of the Kappa Cygnid meteor shower.
July 25, 2025 at 5:14 PM
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Every 15 years, Saturn’s rings appear edge-on from Earth — a rare chance to see its moons transit the planet.

In this view from July 18, Titan crosses Saturn’s face, casting a dark shadow on its cloud tops.

📷 Volodymyr Andrienko

#Titan #Saturn #Astronomy #StellarSnap #Astrophotography
A telescopic image of Saturn with its rings nearly edge-on, creating a thin horizontal line across the planet. Saturn's banded atmosphere is clearly visible. At the upper left, Saturn’s largest moon Titan appears as a small pale dot, while a round, dark shadow from Titan is cast onto the gas giant’s cloud tops, just above the rings. The contrast between the planet, rings, moon, and shadow makes the scene striking and dynamic.
July 24, 2025 at 5:19 PM
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Ever seen a meteor brighter than the Moon? ☄️
This fireball lit up the sky over Cape San Blas, Florida.
Fireballs are rare meteors that leave smoky trails as they burn through Earth’s atmosphere — unforgettable if you spot one.

📷 Jason Rice
#Fireball #Meteor #Astronomy #StellarSnap
A dramatic night sky scene with a bright fireball streaking diagonally across the sky, leaving a glowing trail behind. The meteor’s light reflects slightly on the beach below, where driftwood lies scattered on the sand. Tall trees frame the sides of the image, and stars fill the background above Cape San Blas, Florida.
July 23, 2025 at 7:51 PM
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Can a supernova explode twice? 💥
In SNR 0509-67.5, a white dwarf's surface ignites first, then triggers a second explosion deeper inside.

This remnant, captured by the Very Large Telescope, shows two shells that support the theory.

📷 ESO / NASA / Hubble
#Supernova #SNR0509 #Astronomy #StellarSnap
A bright, circular supernova remnant set against a dark background filled with stars. The structure has a glowing, irregular shell with wisps and filaments in shades of red and orange, indicating expanding gas. The remnant is nearly symmetric, suggesting a powerful explosion at its center. Faint background stars from a Hubble image are visible beyond the nebula, adding depth to the cosmic scene.
July 22, 2025 at 9:02 PM
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A nebula shaped like a cosmic paw print. 🐾✨
NGC 6334, the Cat’s Paw Nebula, lies 5,700 light-years away in Scorpius. Captured in infrared by the James Webb Space Telescope, it reveals newborn stars forming inside dense clouds of gas and dust.

📷 NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI
#JWST #NASA #Astrophotography
An intricate infrared image of the Cat’s Paw Nebula (NGC 6334), glowing with vibrant shades of red, orange, and gold. The nebula’s structure resembles a paw print, with rounded, glowing pads of gas and dust surrounded by dark filaments. Dozens of bright stars are scattered throughout the scene. The colors highlight complex regions of star formation and turbulent gas within this stellar nursery, located in the constellation Scorpius.
July 21, 2025 at 8:55 PM
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Why do we always see the same side of the Moon? 🌕
Because the Moon rotates and orbits Earth at the same rate, keeping one side locked toward us.

This detailed mosaic was made from 1,300 images taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

📷 NASA / GSFC / ASU / LRO
#LunarNearside #Moon #NASA
A high-resolution grayscale image of the Moon's nearside, showing detailed surface features. Large, smooth dark areas known as lunar maria contrast with the rough, lighter highlands. The Moon appears fully illuminated, and fine textures reveal craters and basins. The same detailed image of the Moon’s nearside, but overlaid with white labels marking major features. Names of craters, maria, and basins are scattered across the surface. Labels like “Mare Tranquillitatis” identify familiar lunar landmarks.
July 20, 2025 at 2:09 PM
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A butterfly, made of stars. 🦋
Messier 6 is an open cluster in Scorpius, glowing with 100 young stars and one bright orange giant—BM Scorpii.
This cosmic butterfly stretches 25 light-years across the Milky Way.

📷 Xinran Li / NASA APOD
#Messier6 #ButterflyCluster #Astrophotography
A rich star field showing Messier 6, the Butterfly Cluster. At the center, dozens of brilliant blue stars form a loose, wing-like shape against a background of reddish hydrogen gas. Near the top right of the cluster, a cooler orange star stands out—this is BM Scorpii. The stars sparkle sharply, and the reddish nebula glows around the edges of the frame, adding color and contrast.
July 19, 2025 at 7:34 PM
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📸 ISS Meets Saturn
📅 July 18, 2025
📷 Credit: A.J. Smadi

#ISS #Saturn #ISSSaturn #InternationalSpaceStation #RingedPlanet #GasGiant #NASA #APOD #AstronomyPictureOfTheDay #Skywatching #Astrophotography #NightSky #StellarSnap
A stacked telescopic image showing the International Space Station as a bright streak passing close to Saturn in the night sky. Saturn appears small but clear, with its rings nearly edge-on. The ISS looks larger and brighter due to its proximity to Earth. Both objects are framed against a dark background. The image captures their brief alignment as seen from Federal Way, Washington, on July 6, 2025.
July 18, 2025 at 8:42 PM
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📸 3I/ATLAS
📅 July 17, 2025
📷 Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / K. Meech (IfA, U. Hawaii)
Processing: Jen Miller, Mahdi Zamani

#3IATLAS #Comet #InterstellarObject #APOD #Astronomy #NASA #GeminiNorth #Astrophotography #StellarSnap #Space #CosmicVisitor #OuterSpace #ATLAS #Maunakea
Side-by-side images of comet 3I/ATLAS. The left panel shows the comet moving against a backdrop of fixed stars in red, green, and blue tones. In the right panel, those exposures are combined into a single, detailed image of the comet with a glowing, diffuse coma. The comet appears as a bright, hazy object with a faint tail extending outward, surrounded by scattered background stars. Observations were made with the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii.
July 18, 2025 at 2:44 AM
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📸 The Rosette Nebula from DECam

📅 APOD – July 16, 2025
📷 Credit: CTIO, NOIRLab, DOE, NSF, AURA

#APOD #NASA #RosetteNebula #NGC2237 #DECam #Astrophotography #Nebula #EmissionNebula #SpaceArt #Astronomy #Stars #Monoceros #Telescope #StellarNursery #OpenCluster #CosmicBloom #Cosmos #StellarSnap
A vibrant wide-field astrophotograph of the Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237), appearing like a cosmic flower. The nebula glows with deep reds and pinks, surrounded by filaments of dust and gas. In its center lies a star cluster, NGC 2244, whose young blue-white stars illuminate the nebula. The entire structure is framed by the dark backdrop of space, with scattered stars dotting the field.
July 16, 2025 at 8:01 PM
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📸 Collapse in Hebes Chasma on Mars

📅 APOD – July 15, 2025
📷 Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

#APOD #Mars #HebesChasma #HebesMensa #VallesMarineris #MarsExpress #ESA #DLR #Space #Astronomy #RedPlanet #PlanetaryScience #MartianGeology #Exploration #StellarSnap
A high-resolution image of Hebes Chasma on Mars shows a deep, isolated depression with steep walls. At the center is Hebes Mensa, a tall mesa with a distinct horseshoe-shaped collapse on one side. Light and dark layers of Martian terrain surround the collapsed area, with some material visibly spread across the chasm floor. The terrain features ridges, cliffs, and a variety of colors indicating different rock and sediment types.
July 15, 2025 at 7:28 PM
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📸 NGC 2685: The Helix Galaxy

📅 APOD – July 14, 2025
📷 Credit: Stefan Thrun

#APOD #NASA #NGC2685 #PolarRingGalaxy #HelixGalaxy #UrsaMajor #Astronomy #Space #Galaxy #Hubble #Cosmos #Astrophotography #Universe #Stars #StellarSnap
A spiral galaxy with a tilted ring of stars and gas wraps around it like a twisted ribbon. The main disk of the galaxy is flat and dark, while the ring appears lighter and loops around it at an odd angle. Faint star clouds and dust lanes extend outward, set against the blackness of space.
July 14, 2025 at 2:18 PM
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📸 Planetary Nebula Mz3: The Ant Nebula

📅 APOD – July 13, 2025
📷 NASA, ESA, R. Sahai (JPL) et al., Hubble Heritage Team

#APOD #NASA #Space #Astronomy #Nebula #PlanetaryNebula #AntNebula #StellarDeath #Hubble #GasClouds #Stargazing #Astrophotography #DeepSky #CelestialObjects #Cosmos #StellarSnap
A symmetrical, glowing nebula shaped like an ant stretches out in opposite directions from a bright central star. The twin lobes of the nebula are narrow, curving outward and then tapering off, creating the appearance of pincers or insect legs. The structure is reddish-orange with fine details of gas and dust, surrounded by dark space. The central region is bright and compact, highlighting the star system driving the outflow.
July 13, 2025 at 12:31 PM
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📸 Clouds and the Golden Moon

📅 APOD – July 12, 2025
📷 Credit: Alexsandro Mota

#APOD #NASA #Moon #FullMoon #GoldenMoon #Astronomy #NightSky #Skywatching #LunarPhotography #Astrophotography #SpaceArt #Science #Celestial #Stargazing #LunarBeauty #SouthernSkies #Bahia #Brazil #ThunderMoon #StellarSnap
A golden Full Moon rises behind layers of drifting clouds, casting warm light across the sky. The image, taken from Bahia, Brazil, combines two exposures to reveal both fine details on the Moon's surface and subtle rainbow-like iridescence in the cloud edges. The sky is darkening, creating a dramatic contrast between the Moon and the silhouetted clouds.
July 12, 2025 at 10:04 AM
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📸 The Veins of Heaven

📅 APOD – July 11, 2025
📷 Credit: P-M Hedén (Clear Skies, TWAN)

#APOD #NASA #NoctilucentClouds #NightShiningClouds #Atmosphere #PolarMesosphericClouds #UpperAtmosphere #Skywatching #Twilight #ClearSkies #Stargazing #Stockholm #EarthScience #Astrophotography #StellarSnap
A vivid display of noctilucent clouds stretches across the twilight sky, glowing with silvery-blue hues. Below, the still waters of Vallentuna Lake in Sweden reflect the shimmering clouds, doubling the ethereal scene. The horizon is dark, with hints of orange from the setting sun, while wispy, high-altitude ice clouds appear illuminated against the deepening sky. Trees frame the edges of the lake, adding a sense of scale and calm to this atmospheric spectacle.
July 11, 2025 at 9:11 AM