APOD: August 4, 2026 – Curious Cometary Knots in the Helix Nebula

APOD Science APOD APOD: August 4, 2026 –… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss   APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Curious Cometary Knots […]

Louisiana Students Loft Payloads from NASA Balloon Facility in Texas

Every spring in Palestine, Texas, the wide-open fields around NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility fill with students and faculty from across Louisiana. They arrive carrying sensors, laptops, and carefully engineered payloads they have spent months preparing.  The goal is to send their experiments to the edge of space and return with meaningful data, while reflecting […]

Guinea-Bissau Tidal Waters

Twice each day, tides ebb and flow through a maze of sandy channels, mudflats, and mangrove forests that flank the 88 islands and islets of Guinea-Bissau’s Bijagós Archipelago (Arquipélago dos Bijagós in Portuguese). Seen from above in this image from Nov. 28, 2025, the process leads to stark changes to the landscape: around low tide, intertidal mudflats and sandflats […]